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PlayStation Sony pauses production on PSVR2 due to excessive unsold stock

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www.eurogamer.net

PlayStation VR2 production paused as stock "piles up" - report

Production of the PlayStation VR2 headset has been halted, a new report claims, while Sony struggles to shift a growing…
www.eurogamer.net www.eurogamer.net

Production of the PlayStation VR2 headset has been halted, a new report claims, while Sony struggles to shift a growing pile of unsold units.


Bloomberg states that PSVR2 sales have continued to slow down, while stock of the unit begins to mount up.


Sony has now reportedly manufactured over 2m units of its PS5 VR headset, though the company has not disclosed sales figures since May 2023.
Sony itself has not yet commented on the report.
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Safe to say it hasn't been selling too well at this point
 
Their optimism was too high for sales. It's a niche/enthusiasts product that costs as much if not more than the console itself. That's a big investment that takes serious consideration.
 
I was so hyped for this thing, and now I’m glad I didn’t pull the trigger back at launch. It’s just sad.
 
It's an extremely niche product that had almost everything working against it. The price, the lack of backwards compatibility with PSVR1 content, the limited library... At least with PC support being tested this has a chance to get a second life.
 
I still can't belief this thing can't even play Astro Bot. Even if you bought it for RE8, it can't play RE7! Which is a PSVR exclusive!
 
I think Sony needs to accept that a) there just isn't a VR market that can justify a $550 headset (that also requires a $400+ console) and b) they cannot adequately support two different devices at once (even Nintendo has given up on that notion after decades of doing handhelds+consoles)
 
Sony should just focus on their mainline numbered home consoles and nothing else.

They're unwilling and/or unable to fully support any secondary device in the way it's needed.
 
shocked_pikachu.gif

This thing was DOA from the minute they announced the price and all the other issues that have already been brought up.

Bonejack said:
Sony should just focus on their mainline numbered home consoles and nothing else.

They're unwilling and/or unable to fully support any secondary device in the way it's needed.
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This really reminds me of the EyeToy peripheral but with a much bigger price tag
 
More than the cost of your expensive system needed to use it, no pc compatibility, no bc with psvr1 titles, and vr has lost most of whatever momentum it had.

Can't say I'm surprised at the result.
 
Mer.Saloon said:
Unless they were somehow to make a standalone VR device it's just not viable as a machine.
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Yeah I feel like if I ever wanna buy a VR device I'd want it to be standalone and not require a whole other, expensive console.

Cuz look if I have to buy a PS5, I'd just play the PS5.
 
PSVR2 always had huge Vita energy to me: something that was being made because either corporate told them to make it, or they felt like they simply needed to make it, not because they wanted to make it. Maybe they had to put their hardware teams on something? In any case, I’m not surprised.

I heard the hardware itself is good. Hopefully PC support helps move the units a bit better.
 
I was a huge PSVR fan, I played it a ton, bought tons of games - I should have been the easiest sale for PSVR 2 ever.

But when I learned it wasn't backwards compatible, and the best games (Astro Bot) weren't being ported, then seeing the price... they lost me to Meta Quest. And having become used to wireless VR, it's hard to imagine ever going back.

I figure Sony has two options - PSVR2 is the end of the road, or PSVR3 is a standalone device that simply leverages the playstation name and is easy to port games from both PSVR 2 and Meta Quest. But it feels like it's almost certainly the end of the road, and VR gaming will be left to Meta.
 
Sony in 2014: Let the Vita die. The handheld market is dead. Let's divert those resources and go all in on the VR market.

Sony in 2024: Let the PSVR2 die. The VR market is dead. Let's divert those resources and go all in on the handheld market.
 
Bonejack said:
Sony should just focus on their mainline numbered home consoles and nothing else.
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Not enough potential for innovation within that specific market segment will necessarily mean they're going to try to be on top of new emerging markets. VR has proven to not be that, at this point, though.
 
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not surprised at all, sony only pushed this thing out to recoup some of the r&d investment, they knew it was going to flop and had no intention to support it long term.

SpaceGodzilla said:
just a heads up this article is from the same guy that Sony constantly has proven wrong
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don't believe fanboy lies. mochizuki is a professional, credible journalist.


Guaraná said:
VR is only viable on PC
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the pcvr market is way way smaller than standalone vr.
 
At one point, I was so sure I’d get PS VR2 once I got a PS5. The technology is cool despite the high cost of entry. I have some extra futzing around money and nothing else going on so 🤷‍♀️.

Then, I zagged to trying to not get a second console entirely.

Derachi said:
PSVR2 always had huge Vita energy to me
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And unlike PS Vita, there’s no practical application for PS VR2 and the cost is so much higher anyway. Fans and the hacking community kept PS Vita alive well after Sony checked out. Without games and backwards compatibility with OG PS VR, there’s absolutely no point to PS VR2.
 
Never been a VR guy myself, but I don't have a hatred for the market like others on the internet have. VR was up and coming at the end of the last decade. Between Sony support and third parties like Bethesda, there was a lot of energy behind VR. Now pretty much all of the developers that we know as AAA creators have abandoned the medium. A lot of VR dedicated studios have shut down over the past couple of years as well.

PSVR2 was also pretty much DOA. $550 for a headset with no back library to start and needing a $500 console in order to use it was never going to make waves. The lack of first party support just confirmed it.

Lugia667 said:
ugh Meta being dominant is depressing
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Meta may be owning the market, but they have lost a TON of money to VR development.

fortune.com

Mark Zuckerberg's $46.5 billion loss on the metaverse is so huge it would be a Fortune 100 company—but his net worth is up even more than that

Metaverse losses since 2019 are greater than the annual revenue of companies such as Best Buy, but Zuckerberg is worth $59 billion more than he was in January.
fortune.com fortune.com

If that is any consolation.
 
Guaraná said:
VR is only viable on PC
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I'm shocked there aren't more elaborate VR Arcades than there are. I mean, I know it's kinda gross having a headset a bunch of other people are wearing, but when bowling and skating shoes are a thing, is it that much worse?

And you get to have more elaborate environment around you than your house provides.

Josh5890 said:
Meta may be owning the market, but they have lost a TON of money to VR development.

fortune.com

Mark Zuckerberg's $46.5 billion loss on the metaverse is so huge it would be a Fortune 100 company—but his net worth is up even more than that

Metaverse losses since 2019 are greater than the annual revenue of companies such as Best Buy, but Zuckerberg is worth $59 billion more than he was in January.
fortune.com fortune.com

If that is any consolation.
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Well when your owner has the money to burn, it kinda makes sense that eventually they'd carve out their place there.
 
VR needs to be mainstream cheap, cordless and standalone to be successful.

I think MS once had the idea to support other headsets? That would be the best way to introduce VR to consoles. But i'd guess there would need to be a standard first for that to be realistic.
 
jirou said:
I still think VR is too goofy and distancing to be truly mainstream
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The videos I've seen of people wearing Vision Pros in public looks so stupid. It's like something out of a really corny sci-fi from the 50s.

(I'm also still waiting for someone to get mugged wearing these things. It feels like some ticking time bomb.)
 
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Sony is too much into their walled garden approach. Something tethered to the PS5 wasn't going to work. They should have made something wireless. Black and white video pass through is kinda trash too.

When Meta can basically take the Quest 3 but add 4K OLED displays and improve the pass through a bit, maybe throw in eye tracking, then I think VR will start to really cook. It's an impressive technology, well done VR games for sure evoke the same "wow" feeling Super Mario 64 and feel like a bigger jump than your average generation leap for sure, but you got to get the little details right.
 
The main problems I've seen so far with VR mostly come down to "there's only a few kinds of VR game" and "it's not worth it as an accessory".

For the "only a few kinds of VR game" one: all VR games I've ever played (at various friends who own headsets) end up feeling like they land in the same four categories: Dashboard fiddlers, puzzle games, "spectacle" games and rhythm games. Dashboard fiddlers are games that are simulations - think No Man's Sky, Elite Dangerous, VTOL VR, MS Flight Sim. Basically if there's some sort of dashboard or panels you control, the goal of a dashboard fiddler is to have that as the main gameplay loop (NMS is the only kinda exception here but it still fits this mold when you look at the main loop and how you interact with the mechanics). These games for obvious reasons trend towards simulations. Not bad, but obviously limited in the games you can make. Puzzle games are just physics engine showcases - do an action like lift an object, put it in correct hole, move on (biggest good case: Half-Life Alyx but volumes of trash exist on all gaming stores). This was cool in the mid-2000s but nowadays feels a bit trite. It's neat in VR, it being new and all, but it's wearing off the shine fast. "Spectacle" games are games where the visuals are the main appeal. The main weakness these games have are that they're a. a bit of a walking sim and don't have much gameplay and b. Most VR tech can't actually display it properly because of hardware budget limitations (in general VR graphics are a trashfire since you need a high end GPU for it to look good). Finally rhythm games is Beat Saber and assorted clones. Again, works fine, plays fine, but once you've seen Beat Saber you've kinda seen the peak of what's on offer here.

The second part mostly hurts PSVR in specific - Valve Index and HTC's headsets are both PC accessories and that gives them wider use in places like offices and non-gaming environments (not commenting on if they're actually present there - just noting this is a thing in it's favor). The Oculus/Meta headset is a standalone device with lower processing power. PSVR is an expensive optional attachment to an already expensive console with not much on offer in terms of value, nor can it easily be turned into a general use device. Unless they bundle it with the PS6, it'll always be a niche device.

The first problem seems to be the hard limit though - as it turns out, the actual human body has some pretty hard limitations (and that's including the fact that some stuff that works fine in a regular screen is nauseating in VR) on what it can stand and that severely limits the total amount of creativity possible with VR.
 
I'm very shocked at this. Not that it's dead, Sony killed it. I'm surprised that Sony, the murderer, seems to have not known that's what they did.

Why did they make so many? I assumed they got 2/3rds of the way into development, realized it was a boondoggle, and decided to let it die on the vine to save cash. But if that's what you're doing, don't make a shitton of the product you don't believe in?

Maybe Sony bean counters believed there was a PS5 accessory floor, a number of fans who would buy the product regardless, and trust that the games would show up, and that's how many they targeted to make, and got surprised when Expensive Product With No Games didn't sell.

Let that be a lesson to anyone who things the Switch 2 will do fine no matter what the launch titles are, with just fan support.
 
while sony didn't give the PSVR2 the best chances at success I'd say the device lack of success is hardly an outlier in the VR space, companies have been investing billions into it and it's still a niche market that isn't growing.

I'd have to assume it's in part because the mass market consumer that would have ever bought one of those headsets won't ever consider buying a better/newer version because most of the experiences/games you can play are rarely worth the hassle of the set up you need even with wireless/standalone headsets.
 
Certified enemy of ps Mochizuki strikes again! /s


Sony barely supporting something other than their main platform?

gasp


Absolutely unheard of
 
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The pricing of this thing outside US is even expensive. Was checking the usual game retailer here and it cost 15K MX! That is 830 US dollars and to put it in perspective you can buy a PS5 and a new TV for that price.

Forgot to mention that exchange rate has been very good for US/MX peso and both MS and Nintendo has lowered their price on HW/SW because of this, only Sony actually has made things more expensive
 
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