See PSVR 2 sales skyrocket (Image credit: The Shortcut)
📈 According to Sony data, PSVR 2 sales increased 2,350% yesterday.
💰 PSVR 2 price reduced from $550 to $350 (down $200)
🤷♂️ After 24 hours, the PSVR 2 was sold out on Amazon
📆 Originally launched on February 2, 2023. Sample data is from January 1 to present
🥽 Many PS5 gamers previously found it too expensive and had very few VR games available.
🔜 August 7: Sony plans to open up PSVR 2 to PC gaming with an adapter
Sony’s PSVR 2 price has always been too high, but in further proof of that widely held theory, sales of PS5 VR headsets suddenly skyrocketed yesterday.
The timing is no coincidence: Amazon is selling the PSVR 2 for $200 off, and according to data sampled exclusively by The Shortcut, PSVR 2 sales spiked 2,350% in the last 24 hours. In fact, more PSVR 2 units were sold yesterday than in the first seven months of 2024 combined. It’s currently sold out on Amazon.
Walmart and other US retailers followed suit with price cuts, resulting in similar sales spikes and current stock availability, meaning the PSVR 2 sales surge isn’t just limited to Amazon.
What happened with PSVR 2 (Image credit: The Shortcut)
The PSVR 2 was released on February 2, 2023 with high expectations. It had the potential to bring famous PlayStation game IPs to virtual reality at a time when other VR headset makers had barely established their own franchises. Sure enough, Sony released Horizon Call of the Mountain along with the headset and over 30 PSVR 2 launch titles.
But aside from the addition of a VR mode to Gran Turismo 7, there haven’t been many truly standout PSVR 2 games from Sony or third-party developers. Instead, we’ve seen a ton of ports from Meta Quest, and more recently VR games like Hitman 3 VR Reloaded completely skipping PSVR 2. The only hope is that PSVR 2 will get PC support on August 7, opening up the VR headset for more games.
Where are God of War, Uncharted and Spider-Man in VR? These should be the top games for PSVR 2.
I’m trapped… I can’t get out (Image credit: The Shortcut)
The biggest hindrance to PSVR 2 is the lack of first-party support. Where are God of War, Uncharted, and Spider-Man in VR? These should be the top games for PSVR 2.
Instead, most of Sony’s budget is being put towards the best PS5 games, which makes sense for a video game developer wanting to appeal to as wide an audience as possible. The PS5 has a much larger installed base, and Sony has sold nearly 60 million consoles, according to the company’s most recent earnings report.
In these cases, a common question developers ask is, “Why make a game for a limited audience?” In a chicken-and-egg situation, gamers aren’t going to invest in a VR headset without many games in the pipeline.
Meanwhile, one thing I hear a lot from gamers I interview is that they feel like they “spent $500 on a PS5.” Due to PS5 inventory shortages in 2020 and 2021, it was nearly impossible to buy a Sony console. Sony’s inventory issues are coming back to haunt them. Add to that the fact that the PS5 console was $50 (PS5 Disc) to $150 (PS5 Digital) cheaper than the PSVR 2 at launch. The PS5 Slim has an MSRP of $500 and is currently selling for $450, so another $550 seems unfathomable.
The new price of $350 for the PSVR 2 (Sony has not confirmed whether this price will remain) indicates that there is demand for VR games among PS5 console users, but they should not cost more than the PS5 console itself and require software to play.
Next up is the PS5 Pro, followed by Sony’s PSP 2
On a bright side, the company reported that the PlayStation Portal has been the best-selling gaming accessory of 2024 so far, despite a total lack of stock for the first six months due to restocking chaos.
Sony is expected to unveil its PS5 Pro console this fall (likely September) and its PSP 2 handheld in 2025, and gamers I spoke to are expecting its launch day pricing strategy to be more similar to PlayStation Portal than PSVR 2.
