My 2 cents on the $549 PSVR 2 announcements

A few days ago, Sony Interactive Entertainment has announced that PSVR 2 will launch for $549. I am sure you have already read the news, but let me know what are my thoughts about it.

PSVR 2 launch

In case you missed the news about the announcement of the price and availability of the PSVR 2, let me write for you a short primer. PSVR 2 price will be $549 and it will officially launch on February 22nd, 2023. People in some selected markets will be able to preorder it starting from November 15th. Some bundles will be available, like one with the game Horizon: Call Of The Mountain for $599.

Sony has also announced 11 new VR games that will be compatible with it in 2023, including 4 we never heard about before: Hello Neighbor: Search and Rescue, The Light Brigade, Crossfire: Sierra Squad, and The Dark Pictures: Switchback VR.

The company has also announced a charging dock for its controllers.

If you want to discover more details about the announcements, I advise you have a look at the great coverage by Road To VR on the topic:

• https://www.roadtovr.com/psvr-2-release-date-price-pre-order/
• https://www.roadtovr.com/psvr-2-games-2023-launch/

Here follows my commentary on the news.

The launch date

It’s fun they chose a launch date so full of 2s for the Playstation 2: It is launching on 22/2/2023… this seems the best possible day for launching the v2 of a device. Asians usually love playing with numbers this way (think about the singles’ day on 11/11) and I love that too.

Unluckily, because of the chip shortage, Sony hasn’t managed to launch the device in time for the Christmas holidays: this is a great pity because the PSVR2 would have been a great gift… and we have seen last year with the Quest 2 how the Winter Holidays are able to drive sales high. Furthermore, in February, this device has the possibility of coming after the announcement of the Apple headset, which, while not focusing on games, may have the ability to steal the spotlight from all the other XR headsets on the market.

This is why I think it has been smart establishing a pre-order date in November, so before the holidays. Some people may still decide to preorder it and gift their children a small card with written “you’ll get a PSVR 2 next year”. This is better than nothing to increase sales.

The price

The price has been one of the most debated topics online. I’m in the group of people that thinks at $549, it is fair. Of course, I was hoping for a bit less (less is always better), but I think it’s a reasonable price for the technology it offers. This is a device with OLED screens, HDR, eye tracking, and advanced haptics. We couldn’t expect to launch for $199!

Anyway, I realize that in this initial moment of VR, price is a very important factor, so the fact it is above $499 will for sure impact its sales. We have seen that even the super-cheap Quest 2 going from $299 to $399 had an important reduction in sales (see the latest revenues from Reality Labs), notwithstanding the fact it is still very cheap. So something costing $549 for sure is not going to have stellar sales. Especially in a moment of quasi-recession where we are now.

Ben Lang also reminded us all that if we adjust the price of PSVR 1, a headset with well-known problems, to 2022 inflation, we obtain something around $600, so the PSVR 2 is actually cheaper than that while also being a great headset.

Some people are computing the full price of the device as a sum of the PSVR 2 ($549) and the PS5 ($499), for a total of around $1050. I’m against that because this is not how things work. First of all, this is a device meant for people that already have a PS5, and for them, the price is just $549. I don’t know how many people are going to buy a PS5 just to have the PSVR 2: there will be some, but I think that the majority of PSVR 2 purchasers will be PS5 owners. Then, this is not what we say for the other headsets: no one says that the Valve Index is $1000 + another $1000 for a VR-compatible PC. Also, if we sum the price of a good PC VR full setup, it is higher than the one of PS5+PSVR2. This is so an affordable tethered VR setup.

The expected sales

PSVR 1 came to the market as a “decent” headset competing with a low price to the very expensive but superior Rift CV1 and HTC Vive. It clearly won the market, with a total of 6M headsets sold in its lifetime. PSVR 2 comes to the market as a great tethered device, with a price very competitive with all the other tethered headsets. All in a moment in which there is more awareness of virtual reality.

But the market has now changed: tethered headsets are not the hot thing of the moment, and standalone devices have stolen the thunder. The Quest 2 is the king, Pico 4 is trying to become a credible competitor, and other pro headsets like Quest Pro or Apple Reality are coming. This means that if someone outside of our ecosystem wants to enter VR now, most probably will buy a standalone headset, and not a PC VR or a PSVR headset. And even some PS5 owners will find it cheaper to get a Quest 2 or Pico 4 instead of a PSVR 2 if they don’t care about graphics.

So, personally, I don’t think that PSVR 2 sales will skyrocket. I envision a great launch and positive growth, but I think that the market of casual gamers that Pico and Meta are trying to chase is bigger than the one of VR gamers that Sony is going for. Let me remind you that PSVR 1 sold more than 6M units in its lifetime, which is less than what the Quest 2 has sold in a single year probably, and for sure less than what Quest 2 has sold in two years. Also, Quest 2 is targeting all people, while PSVR 2 only has the owners of PS5, which are around 25 million, so a good number, but not a huge one. So Sony has to convince 25M people that there is an accessory that costs more than the console itself and for which there are just a bunch of games that they may want, in a historical moment where VR still faces a lot of criticism among gamers. It’s a hard task.

I predict that PSVR2 will sell more than PSVR 1 in its lifetime, but will sell less than Quest 2. If I had to bet, probably I would go for 10-20M across its lifetime if it lives long like PSVR 1, and if PS5 will have more availability on the market.

Content

The launch content line for PSVR 2 is nice: games like Horizon or Resident Evil Village are something I would love to play myself. Sony made its content catalog one of the best features of PSVR 1, which made many people forget the technical problems of the device. Astrobot Rescue Mission has been the first game to be awarded a 10/10 on Road To VR and was a PSVR exclusive title.

BUT no game in the revealed launch line is a killer app. I see nothing so compelling that would make me jump and immediately going to buy the headset. Plus, 11 games is a very small launch lineup. I’m sure that before February we will have more announcements… but people already complain about the small library of games on Quest, which has hundreds of games, imagine what they can say of 20 games. I think Sony needs a “Mario title” for this PSVR 2 if it wants the headset to really take foot.

The real bummer is that PSVR 2 is not compatible with PSVR 1 titles. While I may understand the technical reasons behind this choice, this is very disappointing. It means that all the money you invested to buy PSVR 1 is totally wasted, and you can’t play those titles anymore, including amazing games like Astrobot. You start with a new console that has just a few games also for this reason: all the old games do not count anymore.

My opinion is that this device will become valuable over time when Sony will have published many more VR-compatible games. What worries me is that Sony pushed developers to have hybrid games for PS5, but I think that rarely hybrid games are super-appealing in VR. Half-Life: Alyx was so great because it had been thought with VR in mind since its design stage… a hybrid Alyx would have been just “a nice game” to play in VR. I’m curious to see how things will evolve on this side, also because the content catalog was one of the best features of PSVR 1, so I’m pretty sure that Sony is going to invest in it also for its v2.

Talking about Half-Life: Alyx… there were rumors about it coming to the PlayStation Store. That would be great!

The audio problem

I’m still shocked by the fact that Sony built a headset in 2022 without integrated speakers. But at least it has acknowledged the issue and is shipping a pair of headphones in the box of every PSVR 2. This is good news.

The tether problem

There are lots of people debating about the tether of the PSVR 2 and if this is a problem or not. Having played lots of tethered and tetherless VR sessions, I say that honestly speaking, if the game is designed well and the cable is long enough, the tether is not that big problem. Of course, tetherless is always better, but I don’t see a huge problem with the small cable of PSVR 2. And I still hope that if the device sells well, Sony can make a wireless aftermarket accessory for it (like the wireless kit for Vive Pro).

PSVR 2 and PC

I was browsing Reddit today. Do you know what was the most requested feature by the community for PSVR 2? Not the audio, not even the tether-less… it was that it could work with a PC for PCVR. Many PCVR enthusiasts are waiting for a great headset for a lot of time and would love to buy a device that offers such a great resolution, colors, and haptics for just $549, which is more or less half the price of a Valve Index. Of course, PSVR 2 is not meant to work for a PC and I don’t think Sony will ever release this feature, but the community hopes that someone finds a way to make it work connected to a PC. If this happens, PSVR 2 may have some additional sales from PC VR people.

PSVR 2 may bring another positive thing for the PCVR community, though: since Sony is pushing to have high-quality games for it, some of these games that are not exclusive to the Sony system may be ported for PC, giving the PC VR community some new high-quality-graphics game to play with. This is exactly what the PC VR community craves the most: new games that can exploit the performances of their expensive rigs. With all the developers focusing on Quest, this is becoming hard to find. If PSVR 2 sells well enough, some developers may decide to focus on that market, and then try to get some extra money by porting to PC VR too, making a lot of VR enthusiasts happy.

Final considerations

Personally, I’m happy that Sony is a big believer in VR and is committing to its PSVR project. Finally in 2023 also console gamers may have an update to their rig and enjoy some great VR games. It’s also good news for the VR developers that will have a new market where to sell their products.

Probably the PSVR 2 won’t become the most sold VR headset on the market, but as Jamie Feltham told before me on Upload, it doesn’t need to. It is important now that we have a powerful VR ecosystem that can satisfy the most people possible, and PSVR 2, which can please console gamers, fits exactly in this role. So welcome to the market, PSVR 2!

(Header image by Sony Interactive Entertainment)