Sony has reportedly halted production on new PSVR 2 units until the current backlog of headsets has sold through.
The news comes according to a new Bloomberg report, which suggests that PSVR 2 sales have declined each quarter since its launch in February of last year. Especially notable are the Q4 2023 sales figures, which show Sony selling roughly 325,000 units. That’s a fraction of the 1.3 million headset sales from Meta, though this is likely due to the launch of Meta Quest 3 on top of the consistently strong sales of the Meta Quest 2.
Yijia Zhai, analyst at financial group Macquarie, made a statement to Bloomberg addressing why PSVR 2 could be struggling as much as it is: “The high price of VR hardware acts as the main hurdle for its expansion,” says Zhai. “Currently, there are limited games that support VR devices, and that will also lead to lack of motivation for players to purchase VR hardware. This limited content also has a reason – the development cost for VR games is substantially higher than normal titles.”
The news comes shortly after PlayStation laid off roughly 8% of its global staff, which included the closure of London Studios and “reductions” at Horizon: Call of the Mountain developer Firesprite; both studios heavily involved with PSVR 2 development.
Additionally, plans have been announced to bring PC support to PSVR 2, though we’re yet to see this come to fruition. Ideally, this planned PC support will be coupled with a price drop for the expensive VR headset, which Sony has been stubborn to discount since launch.
Also likely, and much bleaker, is the idea that PC support could be Sony’s way of wrapping up support for PSVR 2; refocusing its efforts on PS5 and future hardware like a potential PS5 Pro and, of course, PlayStation 6. But in the meantime, if Sony wants to sell through its current batch of PSVR 2 units, a substantial price drop does seem like it’ll be on the cards.
Own a PSVR 2? Be sure to check out our guides to the best PSVR 2 games and best PSVR 2 accessories to ensure you’re getting the best experience possible before PC support comes to the device.
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