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[Henry Panic]

You must have missed CES 2023, thing was almost exclusively about new headsets from countless brands.

All nobodies and Chinese companies, some which aren't even releasing outside the country with no software.

Before you had a ton of headsets crowds of people were buying with wall to wall media coverage of big and small brands people knew. Not a muted event at CES were half the VR headsets weren't covered by the media unless you went to a niche enthusiast site.

There is no excitement in social circles like before.

 

[Henry Panic]

Alright go check the ot and tell me what tech demos and experiences people are playing.

Which has to do with output how? You also ignored I was talking current games for all headsets active now.

Nice people are playing GT7, but it doesn't make the other 89% of current VR games disappear that are the same experiences people gave up before.

 

[Crayon]

Which has to do with output how? You also ignored I was talking current games for all headsets active now.

Nice people are playing GT7, but it doesn't make the other 89% of current VR games disappear that are the same experiences people gave up before.

It's been a long time and those games aren't just going to disappear. Your criticism works for PC games in general.

Nobody cares about the worst games on a platform. They care about the best. Now deny that.

 

[systemr123]

All nobodies and Chinese companies, some which aren't even releasing outside the country with no software.

Before you had a ton of headsets crowds of people were buying with wall to wall media coverage of big and small brands people knew. Not a muted event at CES were half the VR headsets weren't covered by the media unless you went to a niche enthusiast site.

There is no excitement in social circles like before.

Maybe not in your circle and it doesn’t surprise me if so.

 

[gothmog]

Except Facebook has (for now) investment interest, the devs, and the numbers, though retention admissions are having some do double takes. If they can figure out a way to keep what they have and gain profit from somewhere they are going to be kings of VR for some time. Sony needed to be aggressive like PSVR1 if they wanted to lead the market as they aimed for before. If they have changed to just trying to sell a product to a select userbase and possibly break even, then it's also unlikely they are going to push hard into investing in the medium like people are hoping outside the occasional Call of the Wild and GT7 modes.

Facebook is hemorrhaging money. Sure they have a ton of it but lets not pretend the company is in a good place. There was just rumors of further layoff and budget cuts because of this metaverse/VR bet.

PSVR2 is a gaming platform. Meta is trying to recreate Ready Player One. Sony is not only more realistic but will probably show actual forward progress towards making VR at the very least a viable gaming platform.

 

[Ozriel]

they were already 5 million units sold in January 2020.

Does look like it didn’t get the general hardware sales uplift during the pandemic.

 

[Eddie-Griffin]

Facebook is losing billions on VR and their attrition numbers are awful

We have no idea how much Sony lost during 6-7 years of PSVR1 or their retention rates, we know their software isn't very good and Sony has avoided addressing that so they may not have made much from software to reduce whatever hardware they lost. Especially since late 2018 where it appears they kind of pulled back on support and PSVR1 has been coasting since then until now. Those units unsold on shelves, that didn't already stop ordering have to cost money after a time.

Facebook is moving stuff even if it's not bringing in profits or getting customers to stay in and spend long term. However, if they were to find a way to do so they are currently in the best position.

Will they? Probably not. I don't thin Zucker gets it and he's still throwing millions away on stuff like Horizon.

Are you sure? I'm not asking for you to go dig it up for me or anything. I just remember trying to get anyone to spit it out and hardly got anything back.

edit: was there ever a poll for it? I'm vaguely remembering that.

You and 12 other people were in those threads including Sawyer arguing that they would sell 10-15 million headsets.

Quest 1 could of been around 1 million, but I'm refering to Quest2. Basically psvr was out for a while and was in the 'lead'.

Looks like the moment the Quest2 released, PSVR sales seems fell down by this data.

Quest2 is essentially sold around 10:1 in the same time period. Guess is was due time for PSVR2

The reason why I said that is because Quest 2 was not out when PS4 sold 4 million. Quest 1 was the only device available.

 

[Crayon]

We have no idea how much Sony lost during 6-7 years of PSVR1 or their retention rates, we know their software isn't very good and Sony has avoided addressing that so they may not have made much from software to reduce whatever hardware they lost. Especially since late 2018 where it appears they kind of pulled back on support and PSVR1 has been coasting since then until now. Those units unsold on shelves, that didn't already stop ordering have to cost money after a time.

Facebook is moving stuff even if it's not bringing in profits or getting customers to stay in and spend long term. However, if they were to find a way to do so they are currently in the best position.

Will they? Probably not. I don't thin Zucker gets it and he's still throwing millions away on stuff like Horizon.



You and 12 other people were in those threads including Sawyer arguing that they would sell 10-15 million headsets.



The reason why I said that is because Quest 2 was not out when PS4 sold 4 million. Quest 1 was the only device available.

Okay no. There's no fuckin way I said 10 to 15. I had to think about it for a while to land on 5 to 10 and I stuck with it.

 

[MrA]

they were already 5 million units sold in January 2020.

Does look like it didn’t get the general hardware sales uplift during the pandemic.

That could have been due to the same manufacturing issues sony had with the ps4, can't sell a product you don't build
I wonder if sony sells the headsets at a profit, if they do its a pretty easy niche to keep viable

 

[mckmas8808]

They should sell it in stores and online on Amazon/Walmart if they want to sell more. Many people don't even know it's out.

Feb. 22nd was a soft launch for a reason. I'm assuming it'll be in stores during the holiday later this year. Maybe October at the earliest.

 

[mckmas8808]

VR is niche. I'm glad you guys enjoy it, but it's not the future just like 3D TVs you had to wear glasses over your glasses was not the future.

VR is being used by more people than 3D TVs were being used for actual 3D purposes.

You and 12 other people were in those threads including Sawyer arguing that they would sell 10-15 million headsets.

You may be thinking about me. I said\believe that PSVR2 needs to sell over 10 million to be deemed a runaway success. I think it can do 10 - 15 million in 4 years if Sony keeps their foot on the gas. They'll need to lower the price by the end of the first year on sale though. It's gotta get down to $400 some way, somehow.

With the defacto PS5 costing $399 later this year when Sony (probably) moves to a digital-only console with an attachable disc drive for sale......this will only be a good thing for their VR device.

 

[Eddie-Griffin]

They'll need to lower the price by the end of the first year on sale though. It's gotta get down to $400 some way, somehow.

If Sony wanted to race Zucker to the bottom, they would have launched the SVR2 at $299, or $399 (the same price as the original PSVR and the price you mentioned) and probably would have had retail promos for new buyers and possibly a $800 bundle with the PS5 ($900 for reg PS5).

I have no doubt that Sony priced PSVR2 not only above PSVR1, but above the PS5 by $50, because those margins are near non-existent. A sudden drop by $150, more for the Horizon Bundle, to reach $400 can't possibly be making much money, if not losing it.

 

[yurinka]

Realistically, without killer app, I can see this selling a bit less than psvr1 (ps4 install base was almost 5x vs current ps5 install base), also we are expecting multiple pc enabled headsets to hit the market, so the competition is also bigger. Hitting PSVR1 would be a huge success for PSVR2.

This one is cheaper than PSVR1 and in a few months PS5 will have a larger installbase than PS4 launch aligned. It has killer apps like Gran Turismo or Resident Evil.

I have no doubt that Sony priced PSVR2 not only above PSVR1, but above the PS5 by $50, because those margins are near non-existent.

PSVR2 is cheaper than the full kit needed for PSVR1 was.

 

[Eddie-Griffin]

This one is cheaper than PSVR1 and in a few months PS5 will have a larger installbase than PS4 launch aligned. It has killer apps like Gran Turismo or Resident Evil.


PSVR2 is cheaper than the full kit needed for PSVR1 was.

Not for many people, but that's not what I was talking about.

As you quoted, I was talking about Sony's profit margins, and mentioning how it's $549 probably because they needed to sell it at that price, and having them drop the price to $400 by the "end of the year" would probably be Sony taking losses.

If Sony wanted to race to the bottom to get market share, then I doubt they would have launched it at $549, or higher with a bundle. They probably would have released it at $399 from the start.