GameStop has been bullish about PlayStation VR’s potential in the past, but now it’s got some statistics to back that up.
The company announced that pre-orders for Sony’s upcoming VR headset sold out faster than any other piece of hardware in its long history. That was revealed during GameStop’s second quarter financial call, and reported on Twitter by industry analyst and enthusiast, Daniel Ahmad. The headset was apparently sold out within five minutes of going live, which presumably refers to the final wave of pre-orders that went out shortly after E3 2016 a few months ago. Those did indeed sell out very fast.
While initial demand for PlayStation VR is undoubtedly strong, this doesn’t necessarily indicate that the device is pulling in record numbers; stock is said to be limited meaning there wouldn’t have been a wealth of units to pre-order in the first place. In fact, Sony’s Shuhei Yoshida previously revealed that PlayStation VR was delayed from its original H1 2016 window back into the second half of the year as the company had underestimated demand for the device.
It’s clear PlayStation VR doesn’t have comparable stock to something like a console launch, though hopefully demand won’t outstrip supply for long. GameStop expects units to be limited throughout the fall but we’re still crossing our fingers that Sony avoids another Oculus Rift-like launch situation.
GameStop also anticipates the upgraded PlayStation 4 console, codenamed PlayStation Neo will be revealed at Sony’s upcoming event on September 7th. The device, which was confirmed by Sony itself back in June, is expected to offer 4K resolution for media and possibly even improved performance for PS VR titles. Listings also revealed this week suggest that a new DualShock 4 and PlayStation Move controllers could also be revealed alongside the heavily-leaked slim version of the original PS4. It’s a good thing Sony isn’t a ship.
PlayStation VR is launching on October 13th for $399. If you haven’t already secured yourself a unit then it’s looking like you might about out of luck for some time now.
