ACCORDING to reports that surfaced this month, Sony has halted the production of the PlayStation VR2 (PSVR2). The virtual reality headset for the PlayStation 5 has allegedly not met the company’s sales target and there is an overflow of the initial stock of the units from its Feb 23 release last year.
Sales have been consistently dipping each quarter after the headsets’ launch, with Sony producing two million units since then. There are several possible reasons why the PSVR2 is not selling as well as the PS5, with the most obvious being its exorbitant price tag.
Based on the Sony Store Online Malaysia listing, before its discount at the time of writing, the retail price of the PSVR2 is RM2,799. That puts it RM300 to RM730 higher than the price of the new slim digital and disc versions of the PS5, respectively.
As it is, virtual reality gaming is an extremely niche market, and the ultra premium price does the headset no favours in enticing a bigger audience from the wider gaming market. Rubbing salt on the wound is how the headset does not have a lot of AAA-quality games that support it, and it does not have backwards compatibility with the first PSVR headset’s library of games.
As impressive as the tech behind the PSVR2 is, it has a lot going against it. On the upside, towards the end of February, the company has confirmed it is testing the PSVR2 on PC.
