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PlayStation (Games) Sony

Sony Reportedly Pauses PSVR 2 Production Due To Low Sales (roadtovr.com) 23

According to Bloomberg, Sony has paused production of its PlayStation VR 2 virtual reality headset, as sales have "slowed progressively" since its February 2023 launch. Road to VR reports: Citing people familiar with the company's plans, Sony has produced "well over 2 million units" since launch, noting that stocks of the $550 headset are building up. The report alleges the surplus is "throughout Sony's supply chain," indicating the issue isn't confined to a single location, but is spread across different stages of Sony's production and distribution network. This follows news that Sony Interactive Entertainment laid off eight percent of the company, which affected a number of its first-party game studios also involved in VR game production. Sony entirely shuttered its London Studio, which created VR action-adventure game Blood & Truth (2019), and reduced headcount at Firesprite, the studio behind PSVR 2 exclusive Horizon Call of the Mountain.

Meanwhile, Sony is making PSVR 2 officially compatible with PC VR games, as the company hopes to release some sort of PC support for the headset later this year. How and when Sony will do that is still unknown, although the move underlines just how little confidence the company has in its future lineup of exclusive content just one year after launch of PSVR 2.

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Sony Reportedly Pauses PSVR 2 Production Due To Low Sales

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  • Just desserts (Score:4, Insightful)

    by dsgrntlxmply ( 610492 ) on Monday March 18, 2024 @05:53PM (#64326299)
    Potential customers balk at having a rootkit installed on their retinas.
  • 3D television (Score:3, Interesting)

    by TJHook3r ( 4699685 ) on Monday March 18, 2024 @05:57PM (#64326309)
    Come on, you know it's just a fad Sony. You really expect people to part with $550 during a cost of living crisis? This is 3D television all over again - people just don't want it (or they will when Apple do it)
    • You really expect people to part with $550 during a cost of living crisis?

      People are happily parting with that money for non-Sony products. Ones that are actually useful, other than a $550 paperweight that can play 3 year old PSVR 1 games.

  • VR headsets need to weigh no more than 120 grams, like the Bigscreen Beyond.

    • VR headsets need to weigh no more than 120 grams, like the Bigscreen Beyond.

      The weight of the PSVR2 is completely irrelevant to its lack of appeal. No one in my familly even noticed it. Having bought the Quest 1, Quest 2, Quest 3, and PSVR2, the latter is, by far, the worst of the three on every metric except graphical fidelity. And graphic fidelity is the least important metric for VR.

      1) It ties the user to a specific location. This sucks. Badly. Being able to freely move playing location is a must-have. After playing the Quests, the PSVR2 felt like a huge step backward.

      2) It's ex

      • To me, visual fidelity is the most important metric. By far. Weight a strong second.

        • For how long? I can only look at pretty things for so long before I start noticing how uncomfortable or janky something is.

          Every current gen headset on the market is good enough in both weight and graphical fidelity. The key parts then are based on the design of the headset, how weight is distributed, how well interactions with the hardware works, etc.

          Oh and content. If you're going to release something that only works on a playstation you better have compelling games. They don't.

          • You just said it feels uncomfortable after some time .. you don't think that's because of the weight? Every current headset is around 500 grams .. for reference a pair of glasses is at highest 30 grams -- most are under 20 grams. However most glasses have crappy weight distribution because they put all the weight on a small part of the nose. With good weight distribution I believe 120 grams (the weight of the Bigscreen Beyond headset) will be tolerable.

  • PSVR2 would be a nice addition to the PS5 if it were priced at ~$300-$350. $550, more expensive than the PS5 itself, is really too much for an add-on.

    I have bought one, got about a dozen games for it, played a few of them for more than 20 hours each, and by now I still think it is too expensive for the fun it provided.

  • I don't know what Sony was thinking here. The PSVR 2 launch titles were abysmal, with most games being from the PSVR 1. I'm an absolute advocate for VR, a fanboi if you will, and I can not and will not recommend a PSVR 2 to anyone. If you want to set money on fire without the ability to do anything, buy the Apple headset, at least that gives you cool Apple street cred.

    If you want to actually have a fun VR experience, buy literally any PCVR compatible headset, or get a Quest since the standalone games librar

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