PLAYSTATION is known as one of the main three players in the home console market, but the popularity of its hardware varies massively.
The PS5 and PlayStation Portal were so popular at launch that supply couldn’t keep up with demand, leaving consumers without their desired hardware.
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However, not all PlayStation hardware has done as well as the two mentioned above, and one disastrous launch has reportedly caused Sony to pause production.
According to a report by Bloomberg, Sony has paused production on the PS VR2 until the company can clear its unsold inventory.
Sony announced that it would be producing 2million units of the VR headset ahead of its launch in February 2023.
Despite the high number of headsets produced, it reportedly sold less than 300k units by the end of March.
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According to data on units that have been shipped to retailers, sales have fallen quarter on quarter.
Around 1.7million units have been shipped to date, which falls short of the units produced for launch.
If 2million units were produced for launch as Sony initially planned, then units way in excess of this would have been produced by this point.
The poor sales of the PS VR2 do not reflect the sales of the VR headset industry across the board.
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Meta Quest is one of the more popular brands of VR headset, and reportedly shipped around 4million units last year.
One of the downsides of the PS VR2 over headsets like the Meta Quest is that it requires a PS5 in order to use.
Another drawback is that PS VR2’s pristine visual quality comes at the tradeoff of requiring a cable to run from the headset to the console at all times.
Other less powerful untethered headsets are free from cables and can operate on their own or via a wireless connection to a PC.
The PS VR2 is also fairly expensive, selling for more than the console PS5 console it connects to, at £529.99 / $549.99.
PS VR2’s reportedly poor sales may have contributed to the recent closure of PlayStation’s London Studio, which was working on developing games for VR.
If you want to read more about PlayStation, check out our PS VR2 review.
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