PSVR2 production has been paused, according to a new report – WGB

Sony has allegedly halted production of the PSVR2 headset due to a backlog of unsold units, according to a new report from Takashi Mochizuki of Bloomberg.

Speaking to sources within Sony who cannot be named due to the provided information not being public, the headset has not been selling fast enough to clear the backlog. The same sources say Sony has manufactured 2 million headsets, and there’s now a surplus across Sony’s supply chain.

IDC, who tracks deliveries to retails and not actual units sold, say that shipments have declined every quarter thus far. In the graph Bloomberg posted, Sony shipped just under 800k in Q1 of 2023, and then 435k in Q2. It dropped again by roughly 90k for Q3, and another 18k for Q4, bringing it down to 325k.

Comparatively, shipments of Meta headsets stayed stable throughout the year, each month seeing around 800k of virtual reality machines being sent out until Q4 which saw a massive leap to 1.3m, probably driven by a mix of the Quest 3 launching and the Quest 2’s price dropping substantially in time for the holiday period.

It’s important to remember, those numbers are units produced and shipped to retailers, not actually sold-through to customers. Sony has remained quiet on sales numbers for the PSVR2, another indicator that it isn’t doing well.

Sony’s headset has really struggled to gain traction, much like the original PSVR. This could be due to a few reasons: first, Sony hasn’t supported the device with much in the way of first-party content. Only 2 first-party games have come to PSVR2 since it launched, leaving customers to rely heavily on the third-party market. That’s a problem because most of those games can be bought on the Quest, a much cheaper, standalone device.

I said cheaper, and that’s important. The PSVR2 sells on the likes of Amazon for £510, a full £100 more than the PlayStation 5 itself which is also needed to use the headset. That’s a massive ask of any customer.

Sony’s VR output doesn’t look like its going to be increasing, either. Just a few weeks ago, Sony announced that as part of their company-wide layoffs, London Studio will be shut down. While London Studio didn’t have a massive output, they did create 2 of Sony’s few VR games in PlayStation VR Worlds and Blood & Truth.

Firesprite, the team that produced one of the two first-party PSVR2 games, were also hit during the layoffs.

There is at least a silver-lining: Sony are currently looking at implementing some form of PC support for the PSVR2 which could make the headset more appealing. However, without proper first-party support, which Sony does not seem willing to provide, it’s difficult to imagine a future in which PSVR2 can flourish.