Every company naturally expects that a new version of a product will be more commercially successful than previous ones. Which, of course, is the ideal scenario. But this doesn’t always happen. The latest “victim” of this unpleasant situation was the Japanese Sony. Her headset PlayStation VR2 sold significantly worse than the first generation, released almost 8 years ago.
According to Bloomberg, Sony had to significantly reduce supplies to warehouses a year ago and now. completely stop production. One source is IDC, which tracks shipments to retail stores.
The new generation itself is definitely a good product. Thus, a series of poor management decisions likely contributed much to the disappointing sales. Let’s start with the most important thing for many – the selected selling price. PS VR1 was sold in Europe at launch in 2016 for approximately CZK 10,000. The second generation launched last year at a price of about 15 thousand crowns. This is an increase of 50%.
Another very important factor is software support, which is also not exactly exemplary from Sony. For example, an action game was prepared for the premiere. Horizon: Call of the Mountain and VR updates for Gran Turismo 7. The rest were mostly games from other developers and publishers. Last year, only a first-person shooter came from Sony Firewall Ultra, which didn’t have very good reviews. If the production shutdown is true, we can assume that things won’t improve much in terms of games on offer.
The company produced until production ceased about two million pieces. This is a smaller amount than originally planned. Due to the fact that insufficient demand was obvious already at the time when the device was still being prepared. Selling out of stock will not be easy. Therefore, unless we expect significant changes in the sales model such as discounted packages, price reductions, etc.
Sony recently announced an attempt to allow the launch of the device VR games made for PC. This feature only applies to the second generation of the headset and should arrive later this year.
Do virtual reality games make sense to you? Do you have a headset?
Source :Indian TV
