In short: Although Sony’s PSVR 2 is said to offer excellent virtual reality capabilities, it seems that asking $550 for a device was not the best idea, especially in times of economic uncertainty when people are tightening their belts. According to a new report, headset sales are starting slowly, and it may take a price cut to avoid a complete disaster.
Research firm IDC estimates (via Bloomberg) that by the end of March Sony will probably sell about 270,000 units of the PSVR2 released on February 22.
Francisco Geronimo, IDC vice president of data and analytics, cited the instability of the global economy as one of the main reasons for the disappointing start of PSVR 2. At a time when utility prices are rising, interest rates are high, and many companies are cutting jobs, $550 for a virtual reality headset is not a big priority for most people.
“I suspect it will take a price reduction on PSVR2 to avoid a complete failure of their new product,” Geronimo said.
Sony originally hoped to sell 2 million PSVR 2 headsets by March next year, but revised that figure to 1.5 million. PSVR 2 probably experienced the biggest surge in sales during the first month of release, and the number of purchases slowed down in the future. The Japanese gaming giant believes that the latest version of its console headset will be popular enough to surpass the 5 million sales of the original PSVR, which seems optimistic.
The PSVR 2 has received rave reviews for its impressive feature set, excellent controllers, and two 2000 x 2040 resolution OLED displays. But the price of the headset is higher than that of the PlayStation 5, has always scared off some people.
This news was another blow to the virtual reality industry and, accordingly, to the metaverse. Headset shipments are down 12% in 2022 compared to the same period last year, and Microsoft and Disney have laid off all of their metaverse teams as part of cost-cutting plans.
Meta, of course, still insists that the metaverse will be the future of computing, but until virtual reality becomes more accessible to the masses, it will probably remain Mark Zuckerberg’s unfulfilled dream.
