Sony’s PSVR 2 Gets A High Price And A Close Release Date

PS VR2

Sony

As Meta struggles to get its metaverse off the ground, even with decent Quest sales, now it will face additional challenges with an old champion returning to the fight. In a previous generation of VR, Sony’s PlayStation VR was king, outselling Oculus at the time. Now, PSVR 2 is coming, though we will see if it can dominate the niche market once again.

PSVR 2 will arrive on February 22, 2023, according to a new announcement from Sony. And it will cost $550, $50 more than the highest priced model of the PS5, at least in the US. The original PSVR launched at $400 back in 2016, and even accounting for somewhat severe inflation, that doesn’t make up the full gap of the price increase, though PSVR did not come with controllers at the time. The PSVR 2 bundle includes the headset, its Sense controllers and stereo headphones. And yes, PSVR 2 plugs into your PS5 with a cord. That means more power, but also not a cable-free experience like the quest.

Of course, PSVR 2 at $550 is miles cheaper than the Meta Quest Pro that Mark Zuckerberg just announced at $1,500, meant for ultra hardcore VR fans and enterprise use. The Quest 3 is likely to be out next year, and the Quest 2 currently costs $400, so a bit cheaper than what we’re seeing from Sony here.

Sony also took today to announce 11 new titles coming to PSVR 2 at some point, almost all of which are dedicated VR titles, not VR ports or anything like that.

I remain somewhat skeptical about Sony’s decision to keep dedicating so many resources to VR. At least no, they are not heavily relying on VR to be the Next Big Thing like how Mark Zuckerberg has staked his entire reputation and company on the metaverse, but I do wonder if hardware resources could be better spent resurrecting say, a mobile console, in an age when the Switch and Steam Deck are massively popular. But as the former VR market leader, I guess I understand why we’ve arrived here for a sequel. I just hope they do a VR PlayStation Home at some point, and that ends up being way, way better than Meta’s Horizon Worlds, which seems like a pretty low bar.

The VR market has continued to grow, but slowly, and it remains a fractional part of the gaming landscape compared to console gaming, PC and mobile. I expect PSVR 2 to do pretty well, but the price is a tall order for many in this economy, and a luxury VR headset for a small handful of short games may not be worth it for many besides extreme enthusiasts. We’ll see how things go at launch, and what the Quest 3 may bring to the table in terms of competition next year.

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