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Sony going commercial with PlayStation VR after making slow progress with consumers

F

foolishoptimist

Member
Didn't House or someone basically say Sony were too timid to manufacture enough(for demand) of these?
Doesn't really make sense that they're now 'worried about low sales'.
 
R

renzolama

Member
I got my annual bonus along with a nice raise earlier this week, which is traditionally a time for me to think of stupidly unnecessary expensive game toys to buy in celebration. I already got a Switch with one game that I'll play the rest of the year, so the only obvious choice left to me was a VR device. I was considering the PSVR due to the fact that I could easily move it between my office and living room PS4s, but then I made the mistake of looking at the software available (for all 3 main VR devices) and realized there's still only about 10 hours worth of high quality content that I would enjoy out of any of them at this point. I got a new Pixel XL instead. I really hope there are some denser, more compelling experiences that show up in the VR gaming space in 2017.

Edit: I'll admit that Rez Infinite is pretty damn tempting though. If Rez Infinite and Superhot VR were on the same device I probably would have caved.
 
Pejo

Pejo

Gold Member
This kinda shit drives me nuts with Sony. They make a platform, don't support it at all with games and content, then abandon the system. I'm glad they're at least taking PSVR in a new direction, but fuck - c'mon guys, release some games for me to buy, and I'll buy them.

There are a bunch of great demos and concepts, but the only real "AAA" experience is RE7. You have to make some games if you want these things to sell.

They did this shit with PS Move, then again with Vita, and I sure as hell hope it's not the next step with PSVR because it's got real potential.
 
T

Tagyhag

Member
cakefoo said:
The tracking tech needs to improve if Sony wants one of the most popular VR genres (FPS) to be properly executed (with handtracking). The Aim controller could be a step in the right direction, but then I'm suspicious as to why the Aim's flagship game Farpoint is designed as a front-facing shooting gallery.
Click to expand...

It doesn't help that every single game also has to work with the Dualshock.

You're really limiting your games by doing that (But it's understandable considering they sell the headset by itself).

That said, the technology IS there, and Sony has made a great headset, their motion technology is a generation outdated but if they used new motion controls the bundles would be a lot more expensive.

Basically, I don't think Sony is going to abandon the light tracking until the alternate becomes much cheaper.
 
H

Harmen

Member
Pejo said:
This kinda shit drives me nuts with Sony. They make a platform, don't support it at all with games and content, then abandon the system. I'm glad they're at least taking PSVR in a new direction, but fuck - c'mon guys, release some games for me to buy, and I'll buy them.

There are a bunch of great demos and concepts, but the only real "AAA" experience is RE7. You have to make some games if you want these things to sell.

They did this shit with PS Move, then again with Vita, and I sure as hell hope it's not the next step with PSVR because it's got real potential.
Click to expand...

For a platform that sold really bad, Vita's support was great. Initially it got some major releases from Sony with high production values for handheld titles, but if it does not sell, it does not sell. After that, it still got a lot of smaller games and ports at a steady pace.

That said, the VR lineup is sorely lacking any actual full length games. Even in it's launch window there is barely anything beyond RE7. They said they would treat it as a platform and I am seeing little support beyond small experiences. It does not help that they closed their studio that made Rigs, the best game for the PSVR.
 
G

GoldenCrow

Member
Tagyhag said:
It doesn't help that every single game also has to work with the Dualshock.

You're really limiting your games by doing that (But it's understandable considering they sell the headset by itself).

That said, the technology IS there, and Sony has made a great headset, their motion technology is a generation outdated but if they used new motion controls the bundles would be a lot more expensive.

Basically, I don't think Sony is going to abandon the light tracking until the alternate becomes much cheaper.
Click to expand...

They don't. Job Simulator, Lethal VR, Holoball, Pixel Gear, Fruit Ninja all require move controllers.
 
A

Alchemy

Member
I find the slow progress interesting seeing as I rarely see it in stores. Only one I've seen was at a Fred Myers that just reopened after being rebuilt for like a year, so the stock might have been a little strange for that store.
 
S

SeanR1221

Member
What are people talking about it being sold out?

You can easily buy it from target or bestbuy online right now. Using the in store tracker the headset is available at every store near me
 
yurinka

yurinka

Member
I don't have a very good English, but I think the thread title is a bit misleading and the Gamasutra article is misleading too because both sound as bad news when they should be good news:

Please, correct me if I'm wrong:

  • Sony expected to sell 1M in first 6 months (so until April 13th).
  • In February they already sold 915K+, so they are on track to meet expectations, even slightly above expectations.
  • So Sony is happy, it's performing as they expected.
  • Sony is expanding PSVR business to additional areas like theme parks and arcades (something positive because if they wouldn't happy they would just shut it down).
 
G

GoldenCrow

Member
yurinka said:
I don't have a very good English, but I think the thread title is a bit misleading and the Gamasutra article is misleading too because both sound as bad news when they should be good news:

Please, correct me if I'm wrong:

  • Sony expected to sell 1M in their first 6 months (March).
  • In February they already sold 915K+, so they are on track to meet expectations.
  • So Sony is happy, it's performing as they expected.
  • Sony is expanding PSVR business to additional areas like theme parks and arcades (something positive because if they wouldn't happy they would just shut it down).
Click to expand...

From everything that has been released so far this is correct.

Reading the Gamasutra article and the WSJ article you get too very different perspectives, the WSJ article which is the original is stating that Sony want to expand the market and widen the net making a larger audience aware the products exist by expanding into this different market. Gamesatru adds its own negative slant.
 
Megatron

Megatron

Member
Tagyhag said:
Aside from Tearaway, every single other game you listed was released in the first year of the Vita, back when Sony didn't know it was going to be a failure. Back then, they still had whole segments for the Vita at E3.

Sony started ignoring the Vita later, like in 2014.
Click to expand...


You are completely right. But psvr wasn't even supported at launch like the vita was. Sony has apparently decided they don't have to make any games for it.
 
yurinka

yurinka

Member
GoldenCrow said:
From everything that has been released so far this is correct.
Click to expand...
I just realized that "in six months", if counted from the release it ends April 13th instead of -as someone said before me- March.

If in February already sold 915K, PSVR is selling above Sony's expectations. So this means nobody should be concerned with PSVR sales and that also would explain why a few gaffers don't see stock in their local stores, maybe they can't produce or didn't schedule to produce now more units.

Tagyhag said:
Sony started ignoring the Vita later, like in 2014.
Click to expand...
According to Wikipedia Sony published 11 Vita games in 2015. They also secured Vita versions of a lot of great indie games that were released this year. I'd say they started to "ignore" it during 2016 even if in their E3 conference they announced several great games for Vita.
 
N

Ninja Scooter

Member
msdstc said:
But people don't really believe the stock issue do they? I mean anecdotal but there have been a handful around my area collecting dust for months now. They're holding back stock atm intentionally. Don't wanna flood the channels
Click to expand...

Or they were cautious and didn't produce a ton because it's sort of a niche, expensive product.
 
T

travisbickle

Member
SeanR1221 said:
What are people talking about it being sold out?

You can easily buy it from target or bestbuy online right now. Using the in store tracker the headset is available at every store near me
Click to expand...


Is this a meme?

If not, the internet isn't populated by just people who live near you.
 
T

Tagyhag

Member
GoldenCrow said:
They don't. Job Simulator, Lethal VR, Holoball, Pixel Gear, Fruit Ninja all require move controllers.
Click to expand...

Oh word? Nvm then, I read something about them all needing that on the months before its launch. Sorry about that!

Now it's just the Move controllers themselves that are limiting, but they're pretty much as limiting as the Oculus Touch in that regard since they don't assume all people will buy that third camera.

Megatron said:
You are completely right. But psvr wasn't even supported at launch like the vita was. Sony has apparently decided they don't have to make any games for it.
Click to expand...

That's true, but I believe that's because this is not only a whole new market for them, it's pretty much a new medium for everybody.
 
yurinka

yurinka

Member
travisbickle said:
Is this a meme?
Click to expand...
According to the article Sony is selling the amount of units they expected. Even more, slightly above (1M units sold in 6 months / mid April, already sold 915K+ in February). So unless they overshipped it's normal that many stores run out of stock.
 
T

Tagyhag

Member
yurinka said:
According to Wikipedia Sony published 11 Vita games in 2015. They also secured Vita versions of a lot of great indie games that were released this year. I'd say they started to "ignore" it during 2016 even if in their E3 conference they announced several great games for Vita.
Click to expand...

Honestly that's more than I thought! I usually just consider Killzone the Vita's swansong when it comes to Sony's first party support.

Compsiox said:
That's not true at all on PC.
Click to expand...

Yeah that's a weird thing to say, since the start of the year there's been 385 games/software released on Steam alone (So that's not counting the Oculus exclusives), of course, not all are great, or hey, even good, but to say it's stalled on PC? False.
 
F

funkystudent

Member
Sonys big advantage was they could try rally developer support. They failed. Even their own first party studios have basically ignored it and the ones that did try (GG Cambridge, Evolution) got shut down.


Its another PS Move from them.
 
D

Deleted member 471617

Unconfirmed Member
Like I said and predicted a year ago, PSVR (and VR in general) is just another expensive gimmick that will bomb and die out within two years. Bye bye.
 
O

Onemic

Member
In the same article it says that Sony said it sold better than expected too. Weird that what's selling better than expected is still considered 'slow' for them
 
Polygonal_Sprite

Polygonal_Sprite

Gold Member
Pejo said:
This kinda shit drives me nuts with Sony. They make a platform, don't support it at all with games and content, then abandon the system. I'm glad they're at least taking PSVR in a new direction, but fuck - c'mon guys, release some games for me to buy, and I'll buy them.

There are a bunch of great demos and concepts, but the only real "AAA" experience is RE7. You have to make some games if you want these things to sell.

They did this shit with PS Move, then again with Vita, and I sure as hell hope it's not the next step with PSVR because it's got real potential.
Click to expand...

This is exactly the reason I never bought a PSVR. I looked past last Holiday and saw nothing software wise to get excited about. Almost all of their internal studios are making big name standard PS4 games. Same goes for third parties.

I doubt Sony would have bothered with PSVR had they seen PS4 Pro in their future.
 
B

bubumiao

Member
I've seen it in stock at Target and I think Walmart before. There's not enough software for it yet.

Wait til Fallout 4 gets support. Not sure if they'll patch in support or if you'll need to repurchase?

That would piss a lot of people off I'm sure, but would sell some additional headsets for sure.
 
T

Tagyhag

Member
Onemic said:
In the same article it says that Sony said it sold better than expected too. Weird that what's selling better than expected is still considered 'slow' for them
Click to expand...

It's just an extremely niche product.

VR will get there eventually, but with the technology right now? It's too big, it's too slow, it's too low res, and it's too expensive.

So I can see them thinking "Wow this sold way better than we thought, but we thought it was going to sell really bad, and it's still not selling gangbusters"

I think Sony's plan was to get a VR foothold in the console market, rather than sell millions of hardware by the first year.
 
K

Kysen

Member
Sony have another vita on their hands this time though it has a $300 price tag and no JP AA picking up the slack.
 
K

Kaako

Felium Defensor
Enough compelling software, price, and comfort are gonna sell console VR and VR in general to the mass consumer market. This most likely will come to fruition in generation 3-4 I believe. The kind of success some expected and still expect out of first iteration VR with this price barrier to entry & software infancy is downright hilarious.

Also, exceeding internal expectations is not considered a "failure."
 
The Horror the horror

The Horror the horror

Banned
As usual it's the cart before the horse with this company. Fantastic machine deprived of sufficient software to accite it. Not even a coalition of third party partners accounted for beforehand to provide it genuine support, which is all the wise on their part considering Sony has yet to appeal to the device with a big game of their own.
 
C

ChouGoku

Member
Mathieran said:
Damn I thought it was selling faster than they could make it. I enjoy my psvr even though I haven't used it much the past month due to amazing games.
Click to expand...
I thought it was doing well in the sense that they didn't sell a lot number wise, but they sold a lot supply wise.
FZW said:
why or where would you even get this impression?
Click to expand...
PSVR was sold out in a lot of places at all times up until very recently, like I think the beginning of March
Symbiotx said:
The price isn't the problem. It's the most affordable VR heaset of the big contenders.

They need more top tier games. Once more stuff comes out like Resident Evil 7 (and hopefully Farpoint is great), people will be more eager to get it. They're just in early stages. It's been selling well, they just need something that people are hungry for.
Click to expand...

This as well, RE7 kind of ruined PSVR for me and I dont use it much anymore. RE7 was so amazing that everything else seems kind of meh in comparison. I don't mind meh games but if that's all I have outside of 1 amazing game, then I would rather stick to 2D because its getting flooded with gems at the moment. VR only gets play if I show it off to someone now.

I still do believe that VR and AR are the future and eventually all of us will be living in our own universes.
 
B

backbreaker65

Banned
I can't believe all of these people are falling for ArtHands bullshit, he is one of the biggest bullshitters when it comes to PSVR and you guys are eating that thread title up. Sony has met expectation, they are just expanding into a different market of which they stated they would do around launch time. If you see ArtHands and PSVR ignore any and everything he post.
 
Unknown?

Unknown?

Member
SeanR1221 said:
What are people talking about it being sold out?

You can easily buy it from target or bestbuy online right now. Using the in store tracker the headset is available at every store near me
Click to expand...
That's because House said stock issues wouldn't be resolved till April. Guess what month it is? Everyone was complaining November to February that they couldn't find any and Sony even admitted to the problem. Were you asleep?
 
ArtHands

ArtHands

Thinks buying more servers can fix a bad patch
NervousXtian said:
The problem is the lack of content. A lot of the stuff releasing these days is shit tier mobile VR quality.

Sony would do good to get at least some parity of releases with PC Vive and Oculus content.

There's no excuse they haven't gotten more support... the hardware is good.
Click to expand...

Playstation VR's April releases is its best month this year actually. There are 6 titles(3 more unconfirmed) including Starblood Arena.

backbreaker65 said:
I can't believe all of these people are falling for ArtHands bullshit, he is one of the biggest bullshitters when it comes to PSVR and you guys are eating that thread title up. Sony has met expectation, they are just expanding into a different market of which they stated they would do around launch time. If you see ArtHands and PSVR ignore any and everything he post.
Click to expand...

I am just a messenger. If there's any bullshit, target the article not me. Thread title is copy/pasted from gamasutra
 
R

RichyDevil

Member
The problem isn't lack of software (although that's an issue). The problem is that most consumers are not even close to willing to set up a device so complex - all the wires and controllers - then put a bucket on their head and 'disappear'.

Most consumers purchase things that are very easy to set up and enjoy.

Core game players are NOT these consumers but VR needs a lot more than core game players to be a viable business model.

VR will only be successful in a mass market when a very light set of light-reducing standalone "sunglasses" offers the compete experience.

The public has spoken. They don't want VR in the way it's being delivered. It's got to be much, much, MUCH friendlier to use.
 
CEJames

CEJames

Member
jaypah said:
I didn't know we had numbers on Vive/Rift. What are they?
Click to expand...

Vive was close to 450k at the end of 2016 & Rift close to 400k so with PSVR's numbers, it sold more than both of them combined.

joesiv said:
No it wasn't a pro, though from my eyes, it wasn't the rendering resolution that was poor (it was too), but I could clearly see the displays pixels, which was distracting to me.

Aww well. It's a great first step to consumer VR.
Click to expand...

PSVR is pretty much definitive on the Pro. Allowed it to function with base PS4 so sales wouldn't be hurt but it was pretty much intended for the Pro. Big GPU boost. 4.2 teraflops vs 1.8 teraflops.
 
T

Teknoman

Member
Im still annoyed that the only title i've really gotten into with the headset is RE7, as far as brand new experiences go (i've played Rez before, so although its a great VR title, its not exactly brand new).
 
A

AllIsOneIsNone

Banned
RichyDevil said:
The problem isn't lack of software (although that's an issue). The problem is that most consumers are not even close to willing to set up a device so complex - all the wires and controllers - then put a bucket on their head and 'disappear'.

Most consumers purchase things that are very easy to set up and enjoy.

Core game players are NOT these consumers but VR needs a lot more than core game players to be a viable business model.

VR will only be successful in a mass market when a very light set of light-reducing standalone "sunglasses" offers the compete experience.

The public has spoken. They don't want VR in the way it's being delivered. It's got to be much, much, MUCH friendlier to use.
Click to expand...

The setup has very little to do with it. It's no harder than setting up a computer or surround sound stereo. I think the software is a huge part of it, along with price of entry and undeveloped hardware. PC is the place to be because it is stronger in two of those 3 categories of weakness (price is obviously not one of them). Yes yes, I know PSVR has sold more, but it's also falling faster. PC VR is slow but steady, tons of stuff on the horizon.
 
T

Tagyhag

Member
RichyDevil said:
The problem isn't lack of software (although that's an issue). The problem is that most consumers are not even close to willing to set up a device so complex - all the wires and controllers - then put a bucket on their head and 'disappear'.

Most consumers purchase things that are very easy to set up and enjoy.

Core game players are NOT these consumers but VR needs a lot more than core game players to be a viable business model.

VR will only be successful in a mass market when a very light set of light-reducing standalone "sunglasses" offers the compete experience.

The public has spoken. They don't want VR in the way it's being delivered. It's got to be much, much, MUCH friendlier to use.
Click to expand...

Yeah and like you said, we'll get there.

But for some reason people look at threads like these and say "Oh well, VR is dead forever!"

It probably didn't help how much some people were hyping VR before it came out, like it was going to revolutionize the way we play day one.

We'll get there, eventually. Keyword being eventually.
 
O

onanie

Member
yurinka said:
I don't have a very good English, but I think the thread title is a bit misleading and the Gamasutra article is misleading too because both sound as bad news when they should be good news:

Please, correct me if I'm wrong:

  • Sony expected to sell 1M in first 6 months (so until April 13th).
  • In February they already sold 915K+, so they are on track to meet expectations, even slightly above expectations.
  • So Sony is happy, it's performing as they expected.
  • Sony is expanding PSVR business to additional areas like theme parks and arcades (something positive because if they wouldn't happy they would just shut it down).
Click to expand...

There appears to be nothing wrong with your English, and your comprehension and critical reading surpasses some of those in here who are native English speakers.
 
T

tsundoku

Member
Guevara said:
Seems like the standard pivot at this point.

All the VR (and AR) companies start with consumer focus; fail to make significant enough progress, then transition to deep-pocketed business consumers.

Next step is: "Surgeons will use it to train for complex operations!" "The Army is looking at it to treat PST!" "Corporations will hold virtual retreats and save billions on travel expenses!"
Click to expand...

Medical Schools have had better tech long before odk1 ... odk wasnt remotely a novel concept.. it was a novel price point .. which facebook consequently doubled
 
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