Sony to launch its PSVR 2 headset for $550
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PSVR 2. Image: Sony Interactive Entertainment
Sony's PlayStation VR 2 headset will cost more than the PlayStation 5 required to run it when it launches on Feb. 22, 2023, the company revealed today.
Why it matters: Despite mountains of hype and investment behind it for the past decade, VR tech has struggled to go mainstream, in part because of the cost of entry to use it.
Details: PSVR 2, which Sony priced at $550, is a high-end virtual reality system with better specs than the current market-leading headset, Meta's Quest 2 ($400-$500).
- Sony has promised at least 20 games for the PSVR's launch, including a spin-off to its popular robot-animal-hunting action adventure series Horizon.
- But the exact line-up hasn't been set and several games announced by Sony today are or will be available for other VR platforms.
- The PS5 costs $400-$500.
Between the lines: Sony's original PSVR for PlayStation 4 launched in 2016 for $400 (almost $500, if adjusted for inflation).
- In 2020, Sony said that headset had sold five million units, at a time when the PS4 itself had sold 106 million units.
- Today's PSVR 2 will enter a hot, but smaller PS5 market, as Sony struggles to produce enough of the newer console to keep up with demand. The company says it has shipped nearly 29 million PS5s through the end of September.
What they're saying: "By setting a price for the headset above that of the PS5, Sony is likely in for a rough start with PSVR 2 at the very least," Mathew Olsen, the author of the VR/AR newsletter Virtual Vector told Axios.
- "We know that pricing as aggressively low as Meta's was never going to be likely, but even considering how advanced the PSVR 2 hardware is, selling it for more than the cost of the console needed to use it will set an absurdly high bar for the VR experience it'll be expected to deliver."
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