Sony: PlayStation VR Sales Estimates Were Too Small

I'm guessing with all the hype around it, it could likely hit 3 mill or roughly 10% of ps4 owners.

Interesting to learn. I think it's a very good thing though to have the extra polish on the launch games as well as having a lot of games for people to buy in the first couple of months. Should tempt more people to get involved early on.

I believe it was also in PS I love you XOXO where they discussed PSVR's software line up and raised an issue I wholeheartedly agree with: 50 games is just too much!! If there will be 50 full fledged games/ experiences available in the launch window, there will be a lot of devs and publishers getting burned. The installbase for PSVR won't be high enough to accommodate 50 games in the launch window and I hope these will mostly small, bite sized experiences we can buy for a couple of dollars. What you don't want is to have big studios to come out guns blazing, look at their sales figures of the first few months and then call it quits, like what Ubisoft and many others did with the Wii U for instance.

@Boerewors It might also matter how many of those 50 games are PSVR only and how may have PSVR tacked on? No Mans Sky may be PSVR compatible but it will sell anyway. Gran Turismo sells but it could work w/ VR. Almost any FPS could conceivably work well w/ PSVR or w/o out. Just like some FPS games worked w/ Move as a light gun even if you didn't like motion games. Dreams looks like it could work w/ or w/o VR.

Likely just a few retail PSVR ONLY games, a few dozen download games $5-$20, and a dozen regular games w/ PSVR tacked on. That's 50.

Well, it never sold out on BestBuy or Gamestop, which leads me to believe their recent estimates were too high. They were warning everyone to preorder because it's going to sell out, but it only sold out at Amazon and Walmart (I think, unless it's sold out recently elsewhere which is very possible).

I and many others are taking a huge risk investing in this, so I hope they are willing to support it nomatter what happens. Which I doubt they will. So I'm pretty much banking my investment on this thing succeeding.

If nothing else, I'll have a $500 personal widescreen for my games and movies.

No surprise there, same reason why vita died, no faith in their own products, pathetic. Whilst it provides more time for devs and publishers it also delays their ability to sell their product and fund new projects. Well done.

@rjejr every game playable on PS4 is 'compatible' with PSVR in cinematic mode
@JaxonH is that because they're only selling the bundle and it's six months to launch?

@Bad-MuthaAdebisi "'compatible'"

Yes, but I think they know better than to market it that way otherwise they could just say EVERY PS4 games works with PSVR. And if they were to do that it would generate too much of a backlash.

I'd say at a minimum it would need to support head tracking and the 2 screens doing that faux 3D look in order to say it is a PS VR game. Any game that just uses the visor as a way-too-close-to-your-face screen should not at all be considered VR compatible. And I'd like to think Sony knows enough not to label them as such.

@JaxonH how many are waiting for just the headset though, you gotta wonder? I'd imagine a chunk of the Playstation install base has either the camera, waggle controllers or in cases like mine, both. Those consumers I'd wager would rather wait until the headset goes up and piecemeal the remaining accessories if they want.

@JaxonH but yea it looks like they overshot their estimates. Anecdotal evidence here, but my local gamestop still have almost the full allocation of preorders in store, though on the other hand, it's available for in store pick up on their website, so folks rather save that $100 they'd have to put down on a deposit otherwise.

@Sir_JBizzle @Bad-MuthaAdebisi

Perhaps, but surely Sony knew how many people only wanted the normal headset, and would have split allocation between the bundle and non-bundle, no?

Or maybe, they sell as many as they can sell as a bundle, then whatever's left they sell as a single unit. That's the more likely scenario imo

I personally ordered a bundle version, but plan to cancel it once I can order the stand alone headset. Just wanted to guarantee receiving a headset one way or another at launch.

I guess people enjoyed using their Move controllers on the PS3 more than they led on after all.

I really look forward to when the first VR device hits the shelves and users can give impressions on it. And hey they can find a way to do streams of them, which I'm sure will lead to loads of motion sickness.

@rjejr aye, I don't think they will do that though, they should definitely advertise the cinematic feature just because personally I think it's great. I can't see them ever advertising a game as compatible in VR without it having at least a couple of features but I'm not sure why any dev would make a game semi-VR, I think we're definitely going to see though a huge variation in the implementation of VR in games so maybe some might be considered semi VR. Now I'm just waffling.

@Neolit we should all buy shares now... a... heads up...

@Bad-MuthaAdebisi Maybe they could call those games VR- Lite?

I think they'll just call them VR games though. There has always been varying amounts of how much accessories are utilized in games. I've always felt there should have been different labeling for Move games that used movement as opposed to those which just used it as a make-shift light gun. Those light gun games always seemed to fair better than the games based on moving the Move. I think the same will hold for PS VR, 1st person games that really entrench you in the game with fake hands and such will seem much more VR like than using VR for a 2D platformer like LBP.

They will all just be called VR games though.

I have finally pre ordered my PSVR and a friend of mine who works in a certain game store said that they have been selling a lot more pre orders than they were expecting. Of those 50 launch window games alot of them are not going to be as good as some may hope. The games I am getting with it are, RIGS, Battlezone and EVE. Those three games will keep me going until the bigger AAA's arive.
The great thing is Sony have around 250 developers currently working on Virtual Reality aswell as all the other studios that are making games for the Oclus Rift and the HTC Vive.
I totally understand that its going to take a couple of years before developers really get to grips with these new devices, but I am in it for the long hall. I believe that within a year PSVR will have those must have games that will really help to sell the device.
With the way pre order sales are going I cant see it being an issue. Anyone lucky enough to have already tried PSVR will already know the potential for the PlayStations version of VR. The only problem PSVR will have at first is convincing those people who still believe that Virtual Reality is just a fad,but how wrong those people are.
If game stores have the unit on display with the likes of Battlezone then the VR headset will pretty much sell itself. I just hope they have games like that to demo instead of some stupid party games otherwise its going to be difficult to convince those none believers

But I really think that is actually going to come down to those early adopters who show their friends and family. I see no reason that by Xmas 2017 that Sony will have easily sold somewhere between 2-3 million units worldwide. That may not sound that much, but when you take into account the sales from the HTC Vive and Oclus Rift too those numbers will rise alot higher.

Ps vr release might be in bundle with ps4 eye and move
http://www.hotplay.com.ua/publ/playstation_vr_budet_imet_bandl_s_kameroj_i_move/1-1-0-777

I overheard staff at GAME that VR pods are ready to go. They seem mega excited by it. If PS VR truly works without a tv then my PS4 is ready go probable! That will change my holidays and work trips considerably.

@WARDIE Pre-orders are not a good way to look at sales, especially hardware, most of the time companies create a low amount of units so it can sell out pretty fast creating the illusion of something selling much higher than it actually is, creating "hype".

not saying this is the situation but its a PRETTY common practice.

@JaxonH are you so sure? What if the allocation numbers were closer to the original estimates? Maybe it would have already sold out and them upping the number of units is the only reason that there are enough to go around.

Also its 6 months out till launch, I doubt many are going to preorder that far out. Also also, they havent put up the core unit. I would wager that most early adopters of this, those willing to preorder 6 months in advance, are also those that adopted other PS technology and dont want to rebuy them in a bundle.

Also anecdotal "my local store hasnt sold a single one" is a worthless metric. When the PS3 was going for $1000+ during its launch, there were always random stores that had quite a bit of stock. I had to buy mine on ebay, my friend had a family member buy one in another state that had plently in stock. Its a wierd regional thing.

@Neolit Why wouldnt those schools just use GearVR or Google Cardboard, or numerous other products which already offer those experiences and are more than enough.

@Neolit what extra support do you think GearVR has? Stick the phone in, and its done. Requires no additional effort, and has the ability to easily publish to the platform (and already has these experiences). I am preordering the PSVR, but my GearVR is the most plug n play as you can get.

And the other integrated or mobile platforms are not far behind.

@thedevilsjester
No I'm not sure. It's just my theory based on personal observation.

But uh, not sure who you're talking to with the "my store didn't sell any". Cause I never said anything of the sort. I said PSVR still hasn't sold out yet on multiple online retail sites. Which is true.

@JaxonH the whole comment wasnt directed at you, just the first part. I am sorry if I didnt make that clear.

@Neolit ah ok, no worries!