VR remains on the fringe of gaming, which it has done for the past several years. Headsets are freely available and there are some games such as Elite Dangerous and just about any car racing game that benefit hugely from playing within a headset.
There are still people who get motion sickness and the barrier to entry of cost is a big one, especially with a major lack of any mainstream titles specifically developed with VR in mind.
When PlayStation doubled down with a second version of its PSVR for its console it was seen as a good thing – here was a major operating in the industry supporting the technology. But if a report from RoadtoVR means anything, the Sony-backed headset had a tough time getting any sales traction over the holiday period on Amazon at least.
Taking data from Amazon US and tracking sales volume of Meta’s Quest 2 and Quest 3 headsets, along with PSVR2 showed, astonishingly, that Quest headsets outsold PlayStation headsets by 30 to 1.
Data highlights that between November 16th and January 16th Meta sold at least 320,000 units compared to PlayStation’s 10,500.
Obviously, it is important to note that this is just one online storefront, albeit the biggest, and both brands may have sold considerably more than that.
Apple has found out this week that transferring a desirable product into sales is not always easy as it struggled with pre-orders of its new Apple Vision headset.
With headsets costing getting on for the same price as a high-end console, they are a considered purchase (in the case of Apple’s you could buy a decent second-hand car). VR continues to look for its killer app that will take owning a headset from a nice-to-have to a must-have.
