Sony is reportedly putting the brakes on building new PSVR 2 units because its much-heralded virtual reality headset isn’t selling. The move only adds to mounting doubts about the viability of VR as a consumer product.
According to a new report from Bloomberg, Sony will pause production of any new PlayStation VR 2 headsets until it can shift a significant backlog of unsold stock. According to Bloomberg’s sources, Sony has produced over 2 million PSVR 2 units since its launch in February last year, and sales have slowed each fiscal quarter since. There are a number of ways to explain this.
Sony, like Meta, its main competitor in the VR space, has struggled to attract much attention to its headset outside of hardcore VR fandom. For one thing, it costs a lot of money to get one up and running — a bundle containing the PSVR 2 headset and a single game, Horizon: Call of the Mountain, weighs in at just under $960 AUD. And if you don’t have the PS5 console required to run it? There’s another $800 on top.
Sony has also failed to produce a supply of must-have PSVR 2 titles to please existing owners and drive interest in the hardware. Without much to get excited about, the PSVR 2 has languished as a platform. Owners describe the device variously as a paperweight or a dust magnet because units see so little use. Indeed, in my own experience, I think I can count on my hands the number of times I’ve used the PSVR 2 since launch. Gran Turismo 7 in VR was very cool, but a handful of late ports from other VR platforms has meant nothing else has caught my interest. Seems I’m not alone in that.
The news follows quite a bit of recent cost-cutting from Sony. The company recently culled over 900 jobs from its PlayStation division, shuttered its long-running London Studio, and cancelled several games in development. It also recently announced that it would begin the process of opening the PSVR 2 up to PC owners. The headset has, up to this point, been compatible only with the PlayStation 5 console.
Will this mean that Sony starts to discount the PlayStation VR 2 in an effort to get these fallow units out the door? My recommendation would be to keep an ear to the ground. You might be about to score one for a song.
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