Lifestyle

Is anyone buying the PSVR 2?

Luis Monzon

19th March 2024

Sony has stopped manufacturing its PSVR 2 headsets after it made too many.
The company is now focusing on finding ways to sell off its remaining stock of VR devices, including through testing PC support.
The device launched in South Africa at the beginning of last year.

No more new units of the PlayStation VR 2 are being manufactured by Sony after the company made too much for the current demand of the VR gaming headset. The company is now looking to sell its unsold devices before making any more.

According to a report from Bloomberg, Sony has made more than two million units of its latest headset, which retails for around R15 000 in South Africa. The PSVR 2 represents a vast improvement in graphical fidelity over its predecessor, but also a bigger price point. By comparison, the digital edition of the PlayStation 5 console (which you require to run the PSVR 2) is R11 499.

Sales of the device have slowed significantly since its launch last year in February and according to anonymous sources within Sony, stocks are building up. We noted in October that the company’s initial plans to make 2 million units of the PSVR 2 was a big bet. It seems one that did not pay off.

At the time Sony was still dealing with supply chain issues for the PS5, meaning less consoles are available for the demand. This year the company said that the PS5 is already in its ‘end of life’ and is already working on a version of the machine with superior performance hardware capabilities, the PS5 Pro.

In efforts to sell more of its VR headsets, Sony has invested considerable time and money into developers to make brand-new VR games for the system. It introduced a few new VR titles in its February State of Play, including Metro: Awakening and Legendary Tales.

But with recent layoffs, the company did close the PlayStation London Studios and Firespite Studio, both of which worked on PSVR games for Sony in the past, including Horizon Call of the Mountain. Around 900 Sony employees were set to be fired worldwide impacting even major exclusive developers like Naughty Dog and Guerilla.

Another way the company is hoping to increase the use cases of the PSVR 2, and its sales, is through testing PC support for the devices. As per The Verge, the company could soon be offering “the ability for PS VR2 players to access additional games on PC.” There is no timeline set for this as of yet.