This is such bullsh*t. PSVR is the biggest VR has ever been. It is an expensive peripheral for sure; makes sense that the attachrate isn't enormously high. Doesn't mean it "isn't worth it from an investment standpoint". I think MS is making a big mistake not chipping in, I don't think they will be able to catch up (especially on the VR exclusives front, with bangers like Astrobot and Blood & Truth from Sony) after PSVR2 comes out in a couple of years.
And PSVR hasn't "completely stagnated", it's doing very well. Lots of great games come out all the time, you just gotta pay attention.
Totally agree. I think PSVR had a key meaning for the VR market stability success on its first generation, which I think will be key to go mainstream on its second or third generation. Without Sony backing VR, many hardware companies wouldn't have invested on VR, and many devs or publishers wouldn't have bet on VR. All that work made by everyone will fluorish on maturing the technology behind the hardware and games for the next generation of VR.
I'm pretty sure PSVR2 (looking at patents, PS5 hardware architecture and DualSense design it's super clear they are working on a PSRVR2) will be a big step on solving most of the issues that PSVR had and to mature the technology.
In the same way that without the early Remote Play between PS3 and PSP or later between PS4, Vita and PC there wouldn't exist the next gen Remote Play on PS5 and everything, and the same with whatever name uses Xbox for it.
Same goes with streaming. Sony made the first big bet with PS Now, and without that now Stadia or Gamepass, Xcloud and the next gen PS Now (we know trough a shareholders meeting explaining their future vision that they plan to improve it on many ways) wouldn't exist.
Or well, same happened with camera tracking and waggle. PSVR and its Move controller exist thanks to the success of Eyetoy, in which its early prototypes from 2000 I think already had that stick with a big colored ball as controller.
Sure, the first iteration of new technologies isn't perfect, isn't mainstream and have a lot of room to improve. But this innovative technology is important, and keeps evolving every generation. For Sony it's also good to be the innovators because it gives them extra market share, knowledge, experience and a bigger catalog, that later will very likely pay off once that specific technology goes mainstream.
The role of PSVR wasn't to go mainstream on its first step. It was to set the foundations of the technology on consoles with an early adopter userbase and start researching on it to keep solving its issues for the upcoming generations, when it will go mainstream.
Regarding Microsoft and VR, I think that in the same way Stadia partnered with (obviously) YouTube to share and make interactions between the video streams and the game streams, I think MS decided to give Mixer to Facebook to do the same between xCloud and FB videos/FB gaming as a first step to collaborate with them to make Oculus the VR HMD for Xbox and MS PC games.