Sony slashes production of PS5 VR headset
Sony has reportedly halved its production of the $900 PlayStation 5 accessory after the company experienced lacklustre pre-orders for the product.
PlayStation has reportedly halved its production of PlayStation VR2 headsets in the wake of lacklustre pre-orders ahead of the $900 accessory’s launch.
The report comes courtesy of Bloomberg, who says that Sony told its manufacturers to slash production in half. The company reportedly planned to ship 2 million units in its first quarter on sale, but has now reduced that forecast to a million units.
Many have pointed to the accessory’s high price as the reason for the lukewarm response from fans. The PSVR2 costs $900, above even the priciest version of the PlayStation 5, which retails for $800 for the disc-compatible edition. The digital-only console sells for even less, at $650.
Pre-orders may have also been lacking for the PSVR2 due to the lack of availability of PS5 consoles, which have been difficult to get a hold of since the console’s launch in 2020. Sony recently said that the PS5 would no longer have stock issues going forward, with many Australian retailers now having stock for the console.
The PSVR2 headset requires players to have a PS5, bringing the total cost of the set up to over $1500, and will not be officially supported on other devices like gaming PCs. The PSVR2 is also not compatible with original PSVR games, due to a difference in the tracking technology used for the new headset.
The most popular VR headset on the market is the Meta Quest 2, developed by Facebook parent company Meta, and costs $630 for the basic model. The Quest 2 is an entirely stand-alone product, requiring no extra devices or cables to operate, though it can be used with other devices too.
The PSVR 2 does have some of the most advanced technical capabilities in any VR headset on the market, however, beating out headsets like the Valve Index, which costs almost twice as much. Like the VR2, the Index requires an extra device to play games, usually requiring a beefy PC to run games well.
Sony recently revealed the launch games for the $900 PlayStation 5 accessory, announcing 32 games that will be available at launch and a further five games set to release shortly afterwards. While fan-favourite games like Tetris Effect and Thumper are among the list of launch games, very few of the games are exclusive to the headset.
Written by Oliver Brandt on behalf of GLHF.
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