Sony Increases PSVR Production Due To Demand

by Jamie Feltham • May 9th, 2017

A few weeks ago we reported that Sony was planning to bump up production of its PlayStation VR (PSVR) headset around E3 time. Following that the company confirmed the headset was now readily in stock at retailers and, this week, it’s specifically confirmed it’s making more units.

Simon Benson, Director of Sony’s Immersive Technology Group, recently said as much in an interview with MCV. “It is still very early days, but we have a better feel for the demand for VR gaming and so we are planning to increase production,” Benson said.

He continued, noting that the demand had been a “positive sign for the future of VR gaming” going forward. Following PSVR’s launch in October 2016 some have struggled to find stock but hopefully this increased production cycle will bring about an end to those issues.

Elsewhere, Benson spoke about a different kind of demand, this time from developers wanting to make games for PSVR. “To be honest, we have so many VR developers approaching us that we don’t see [getting more developers to make VR content] as an issue currently,” he said. “In the first few months of PS VR’s life, there are already around 100 VR games and experiences on the store with lots more in the pipeline.”

That news will also come as a relief given that PSVR’s release schedule past May is looking a little empty. As we said, E3 is just around the corner, and we’re hoping for some big reveals at the show, especially given recent rumors surrounding both Star Wars: Battlefront 2 and Marvel Games.

“If people think PS VR gaming is great now, then I think they will be even more amazed in a year’s time by the types of experiences that will be available, and I believe that the social element will be a huge contributor to the value of VR gaming,” Benson concluded.

David Dewis

Oh, but I thought this fad was dying already… s. Seriously, the amount of articles I’ve seen in the last week about how VR is dying, mainly based on Oculus closing what was essentially a movie studio, has really annoyed me.
- Fear Monkey
  
  People love to watch something cool get hyped and Die! It’s sort of like what people do with celebs, build them up and then enjoy knocking them down. VR is going to be successful in the long term but they love to be negative and be naysaying all the time. Remember when Single player was dead because of multiplayer, when consoles were dead because of PC, when PC was dead because of consoles? Websites and magazines love to get behind something and tell it as truth, and then forget they were wrong about it.
comicbookjerk

The problem is in a years time They will have released the Playstation 5 and we know how Sony feels about Backwards comparability so the PS VR will suffer as they try to compete with the Scorpio…
- Sryche
  
  Backwards compatibility was more so an issue due to the cpu/gpu technology of previous consoles…since they adopted the x86 architecture for the ps4, backwards compatibility should be less of an issue (unless they want to continue monetizing BC streaming like they are now)
- jimrp
  
  Supersample on the PS5. With the what will become the 1st gen HMD. It will be more affordable for those with less money. Then introduce new HMD. Just make sure they play with each other. (Stepping Stones).
- KLEEBAN KLIBAN
  
  I don’t understand it at a technical level, but the problem with Backwards compatibility in the past was changing architectures between consoles. Now PS4 has conformed to some standard architecture that is expected to be used for PS5. From what I read, backwards compatibility should be a default.. like Pro or Scorpio. Hope that’s true.
  - KLEEBAN KLIBAN
    
    oh someone said that below haha
iNCEPTIONAL

Someone should post this to all the morons proclaiming VR is already dead because it didn’t sell tens of millions of units in it’s first year or whatever, which was just a stupid expectation on their part in the first place.
jimrp

Hope they come up with better controllers. Help VR grow Sony.