Sony’s PSVR headset is thought to be the most successful of the three major VR devices from 2016. We don’t know that for sure, but the headset has sold 4.2 million units. That might be a lot for the nascent VR industry, but it’s just a fraction of the near-100 million PS4s sold out there. Sony, then, wants to do better.
Dominic Mallinson, senior vice president of R&D at Sony, said as much at Collision 2019 last week. As reported by VentureBeat, Mallinson noted that Sony was “very happy” with PSVR’s current position.
“We’re very happy with those numbers and very happy with the position,” Mallinson noted. “But we know we can do better. There are over 96 million PlayStation 4s in the market today. And every single one of those is capable of delivering a great VR experience. So we’d like to convert many, many more of those people to be PSVR users. And we won’t just stop with PS4.”
That last comment led Mallinson on to outline the next-generation of VR headsets. But he also spoke about how to pull more people in with the current PSVR. One area to improve in is non-gaming VR applications.
“We need more people to come in and make compelling experiences for VR,” Mallinson said. “We have a pretty good handle on games. So I’m not too worried about that. And we’re still investing in our own first-party games as well. But I think everyone else out there — they could step up their game a little bit. So we could see more education, see more training, see more medical applications.”
With likely at least a few more years on the market, how much further can Sony push PSVR sales?
