PlayStation VR2 production cut after pre-orders slump

Sony is cutting the numbers of its upcoming PlayStation VR2 after pre-orders have failed to live up to expectations.

Despite promising an increase in the console output to help with the upcoming PlayStation VR2, Sony has announced that it is cutting its shipments of the headset.

Due out on February 22, the PS VR2 will feature an improved feature set over the original PS VR headset, including dropping the PS3 and PS4 Move controllers in favor of its own custom, hand-tracking controllers.

It is suspected the relatively high cost of $549, and unproven hardware that will exclusively work on the PS5 is to partially blame.

PlayStation VR 2 struggling to find buyers

Sony originally planned to have 2 million headsets ready to go but has now cut this to 1.5 million instead. While still an impressive amount of hardware to have on hand, it does begin to signal the lack of trust by the consumer in virtual reality.

VR found success on the PlayStation 4 but was a relatively slow burn for PlayStation-branded hardware. The original PlayStation VR headset sold around five million units between 2016 and 2020.

Late last year, Sony did have an invitation-only scheme for pre-ordering, but this was soon dropped. Bloomberg reports that the headset is still available for pre-order without any kind of waitlist, unlike the PS5 console itself.

The PS VR2 is set to launch with Horizon: Call of the Mountain, and will support Resident Evil Village’s upcoming VR mode.

Sony has a lot of titles on its dedicated PS VR2 page, but most are either already available on other platforms, leading to little enticement for the prospective customer.

Despite the tech industry’s best efforts, the metaverse and virtual reality have continued to see a slump. Meta and the Quest 2 has seen sales drop since their announcement of a price increase and the company also dropped the price of the Meta Quest Pro by $400 this week.