It looks like Sony is planning to scale back its sales forecast for its PSVR2 virtual reality headset, as well as unit production, following disappointing pre-order results.
PSVR2 pre-order figures have not lived up to Sony’s expectations which, as reported by Bloomberg (opens in a new tab), originally expected 2 million units to be available worldwide in the launch quarter. Sony was therefore clearly betting on the success of its latest VR device.
Now, according to an as-yet-unnamed vendor partner, Sony expects to ship 1.5 million units in the next fiscal year (April 2023 – March 2024), which seems more realistic. FYI, Sony sold around 30 million PS5 consoles in December 2022, which suggests that Sony expected 1 in 15 PS5 owners to buy the VR headset.
Back to the digital drawing tablet
So why did consumers give PSVR2 such a lukewarm reception ahead of its release? For starters, just look at the price of the headset. At 599.99 euros, it is more expensive than the PS5 console itself. Whichever way you view it, it’s a bad image for anyone considering buying some of the PS5’s best accessories.
And although Sony has confirmed a wide range of games for the PSVR2 launch, with over 20 games available on day one, there is a distinct lack of attention-grabbing apps that would allow the VR headset to have a dominant position. At least among potential buyers who don’t have a lot of income.
This is a problem that virtual reality has struggled with for years. Yes, there are occasional exceptions like Half-Life: Alyx and Resident Evil 4 VR, but overall the high costs of the best VR headsets make them a niche in the gaming world. The lack of backwards compatibility further hurts PSVR2, with players unable to transfer their existing PSVR libraries to the new headset.
We believe this is also true for PSVR2. Most PS5 owners just aren’t going to be queuing up to drop such an amount on a device that, while very promising in terms of features, doesn’t offer as compelling a library of games as the best PS5 games.
It looks like Sony has vastly overestimated the appeal of PSVR2 (if the pre-launch sales forecast information is true). And this price of 599.99 euros is all the more difficult to bear as it occurs in a context of soaring prices which is not about to stop.
We’re all for the existence of PSVR2, if only to start expanding the number of VR headsets available on console. But Sony, as we saw with the DualSense Edge, certainly mispriced its new VR headset.