PlayStation VR is getting a huge price drop - is it struggling?

From Eurogamer.

‘Sony is slashing the price of PlayStation VR Starter Pack in Europe, from £349 down to £259.

If you live in a place which uses Euros, the new price is €299, down from €399.

The new price goes live from tomorrow morning - so don't buy one until then!

The PlayStation VR Starter Pack includes a headset, PlayStation Camera and a download code for PlayStation VR Worlds. All PSVR owners also get The Playroom VR free.’

Seems like a really big drop. Is this a desperation move?

It was always a gimmick. PSVR is Sony's Kinect. Nintendo traumatized MS and Sony so much that they're still trying to emulate the success of the Wii.

All VR Headsets are dropping in price, especially now with new versions around the corner.

The PS4 started at $399 and now retails for $249. Is it struggling? Stupid thread.

It's objectively not a gimmick. VR has proven itself at this point. VR has likely been a topic of discussion at Sony before the Wii was even conceived.

PSVR is doing just fine. Sales projections have been consistently met, and Sony are overall happy with how sales are going. A price drop was expected to happen sometime this year.

It only needs more games like RE7, **** that was great!

New VR headsets are coming, all headsets are dropping in price (Gen 1)

It's a pretty great headset the downfall is the device powering it

No.

New VR headsets are on their way, the price drop is normal for a 1st gen device. It’s been out on the market for almost a year and half already.

Well it is a gimmick so yes, and for all those who say that the PSVR is a success, well Sony is quick to announce its PS4 sales, PSVR not so much.

Likely. It's a super niche thing. Should have come out at a mass market price in the first place like people were expecting.

Like a fish outta water. lol :P

People weren't being realistic. Nothing comes out with a mass market price at first.

I'm really enjoying mine still but you need to figure out which games you personally like in the medium. Personally I don't like games with forward motion while walking as it gives me a headache.

VR still infant...

Current gen VR is amazing. Bought my PSVR for 200 euros last black friday and man, it's much more immersive than i thought it would be! It doesn't replace normal gaming, of course, but it's a game changing experience (in the best possible way).

The Oculus Go has everybody spooked into a price war on VR headsets. Good time to buy!

@boycie: The VR will be collecting dust by Christmas like the Guitar Hero instruments now that are in bargain bins. Just the latest fad like 3D Tv's, where are they now??

To be honest who is even talking about VR anymore aside from the small dedicated groups online?... We have yet to see a killer app on any platform for VR, seems as the industry has just moved on silently without even a second glance at VR.

Going by cows logic.....absolutely. Why else would Sony drop the price of the "highest selling VR headset" if it weren't.

Cows have confirmed over and over and over again...... price drops == struggling. FACT

3D TVs are the worst comparison you could come up with regards to VR. Infact, there are no comparisons. It's unlikely anything humanity has ever produced. VR will continue to develop more and more until it becomes a teleportation device, and so much more.

Gaming didn't have killer apps at the start. It took a while for those to pop up. That's how this will play out.

@blueberry_bandit: I hope so... Because I am waiting to pull the trigger but I don't wont to beta test hardware. I do that enough with software.

We already know of 4 games that will likely be killer apps. 3 of them are the Valve games, and the other is Respawn Entertainment's big budget VR FPS game coming out in 2019. There will no doubt be more announced this year.

@blueberry_bandit: VR is not selling, that is why there is a price drop. Real gamers aren't going to spend the money on a 15 minute gimmick, the price of the whole system is also a deterrent.

last I heard VR was going to be used in real estate for viewing homes for sale, I could see it in that application but for gaming no way, you could not fit enough memory to run a full 200 hour VR game. It's also too expensive for most people to afford, the head set, the computer to run it, the sensors, the controllers, it's cheaper to just buy the newest gaming console and play games in 4K

Interdasting...

I guess more wait. Still I have notice a HUGE drop off in media buzz and the industry in general seems to have just slipped slowly away from VR talk. I guess they only talk about pop items so that's nothing new but it is a little worrying hopefully VR sticks around I would love to see more high quality games for it that work and function with little to no immersion breaking VR trade offs.

Current state is still meh as a consumer though.

I'm not sure what you're talking about with regards to memory, but you can easily make a 200 hour VR game, something on the scale of Witcher 3 on current gen systems. It's a matter of budget and time, as well as design decisions.

And VR is selling. Every sales projection is being met.

That's how all new tech mediums work. It's called the gartner hype cycle. First there's a bunch of hype that no technology ever lives up to, and then over time it builds up to meet those expectations again.

yup.

combat in elite dangerous in VR is friggin awesome.

Well according to cow logic(an oxymoron) it's not selling. Why else would there be a price drop.....cow logic :)

Man, i love Elite Dangerous but it's still not compatible with PSVR. Maybe it's too demanding....but i still have my hopes.

@PAL360: I like your perspective about it not replacing regular gaming. I don't think people grasp that concept. I love mine but only use it about once or twice a week now to mess around. 90% of my gaming is still going to be on the tv. But VR is still awesome to have around. And I know it's only going to get better.

that is what he said, and I agree with him and so do you.

he said it will not replace traditional gaming and I think most people with VR experience would agree with that.

@kingtito: it's been out for almost a year and a half. It's due for a price drop. Struggling is when something gets a price drop very shortly after release. A new psvr is probably within 2 years away also. Tech is advancing fast.

I'd don't think "desperation" is the right word to use here, but definitely a logical move.

The thing is as expensive as a console but you also need to console to play with the device, that's a bad combination if you ask me.

At that price point it's a all or nothing purchase. You'd have to be all in and sold on everything VR is or you'd pass on it as an optional gimick.

Also I feel it needs a big AAA spokesmen like game to push it into main stream. Something like the new Spiderman or something.

your getting a few things wrong here.

1. .you dont 'need' the device. you only 'need' the device to play a game in an VR experience.

2. a porche is more expensive then a ford fesita. is a Porche better? well it depends on what you want to do doesnt?

PS5 with new VR headset confirmed.

It was time for a price cut anyways since PSVR was release a year-in-a-half already.

Cheaper production costs and all VR headsets are getting a price drop. Sony is actually pretty late for the PSVR price drop - so it's far from desperation.

Whooooshhhh!!!!!! :)

VR is amazing. Anyone who tells you otherwise is salty because they own an xbone which promised them vr but that fell through obviously lol.

Plenty of devs and gamers are talking about VR. More developers were interested in VR than Xbox One at the beginning of 2017 indicated by surveys. The technology is rapidly developing, allowing lower production costs and increased competition; occulus go is an indication of this. I would say the industry is moving closer to VR, just as they are with mobile.

Sony is most likely preparing an answer to this. In the meantime, they will have to drop the prices on their current headsets. Sucks for early adopters, but that's the name of the game.

PSVR sales are poor but the Sony fannies say its doing great.

PSVR price drops are frequent and Sony fannies say that it doing great.

If you replace PSVR with any other device such a notion would be ridiculous but fanboys will be fanboys.

Looking at the games that have been released recently, it doesn't seem to struggle at all.

The new price point is probably like the old PS3/PS4 price. Keep it high at first to get as much money from gamers as possible, then release it for a cheaper price (with minor changes to warrant a price drop) to get more people to buy it.

@Pedro said:

PSVR sales are poor but the Sony fannies say its doing great.

PSVR price drops are frequent and Sony fannies say that it doing great.

If you replace PSVR with any other device such a notion would be ridiculous but fanboys will be fanboys.

Okay, lets do that then.

Replace PSVR with a PC from the 1970s. Now tell me, which PC in the 1970s even managed to reach a million lifetime sales? I'll await your answer.

How about the Magnavox Odyssey console which sold 350k?

How about the first smartphones that also happened to sell similar numbers?

And no, you cannot suddenly bring up Kinect, Wii, or other such devices because none of those are entire tech mediums.

PSVR has hit internal sales targets, so clearly it's doing fine.

@blueberry_bandit said:

@Pedro said:

PSVR sales are poor but the Sony fannies say its doing great.

PSVR price drops are frequent and Sony fannies say that it doing great.

If you replace PSVR with any other device such a notion would be ridiculous but fanboys will be fanboys.

Okay, lets do that then.

Replace PSVR with a PC from the 1970s. Now tell me, which PC in the 1970s even managed to reach a million lifetime sales? I'll await your answer.

How about the Magnavox Odyssey console which sold 350k?

How about the first smartphones that also happened to sell similar numbers?

And no, you cannot suddenly bring up Kinect, Wii, or other such devices because none of those are entire tech mediums.

PSVR has hit internal sales targets, so clearly it's doing fine.

I'm sorry but THAT example is absolutely LOL worthy. I mean PCs from the 70s? Weren't those 1000s of $$$$$?

You think VR tech is new? I think you've spiked the VR kool-aid and drank the entire batch dude. It's not THAT impressive

@kingtito said:

@blueberry_bandit said:

@Pedro said:

PSVR sales are poor but the Sony fannies say its doing great.

PSVR price drops are frequent and Sony fannies say that it doing great.

If you replace PSVR with any other device such a notion would be ridiculous but fanboys will be fanboys.

Okay, lets do that then.

Replace PSVR with a PC from the 1970s. Now tell me, which PC in the 1970s even managed to reach a million lifetime sales? I'll await your answer.

How about the Magnavox Odyssey console which sold 350k?

How about the first smartphones that also happened to sell similar numbers?

And no, you cannot suddenly bring up Kinect, Wii, or other such devices because none of those are entire tech mediums.

PSVR has hit internal sales targets, so clearly it's doing fine.

I'm sorry but THAT example is absolutely LOL worthy. I mean PCs from the 70s? Weren't those 1000s of $$$$$?

You think VR tech is new? I think you've spiked the VR kool-aid and drank the entire batch dude. It's not THAT impressive

VR has never had a proper entry into the consumer market until now. It doesn't matter how long VR has been used in labs or in institutions. The consumer push didn't happen until the current batch of headsets.

This is the fairest comparison you can possibly make.

@blueberry_bandit said:

@Pedro said:

PSVR sales are poor but the Sony fannies say its doing great.

PSVR price drops are frequent and Sony fannies say that it doing great.

If you replace PSVR with any other device such a notion would be ridiculous but fanboys will be fanboys.

Okay, lets do that then.

Replace PSVR with a PC from the 1970s. Now tell me, which PC in the 1970s even managed to reach a million lifetime sales? I'll await your answer.

How about the Magnavox Odyssey console which sold 350k?

How about the first smartphones that also happened to sell similar numbers?

And no, you cannot suddenly bring up Kinect, Wii, or other such devices because none of those are entire tech mediums.

PSVR has hit internal sales targets, so clearly it's doing fine.

LMAO you are so desperate to make a point that you have to go to a timeframe where computers were a novelty. This is to funny, comparing modern sales to sales 48 years ago where the market was smaller and near non existent. LMAO. My point has been made.

Probably the stupidest thread in awhile. That's like saying "Ps4 got a price drop it's struggling" everything gets a price drop at some point, psvr is almost 2 years old.