As the dust settles from another Black Friday weekend, retail analyst SuperData has labelled virtual reality the “biggest loser” going into the holiday season.
Such a revised forecast has had an impact on the company’s sales projections across the board, with PlayStation VR witnessing the biggest downgrade. Thanks to “notably fewer units sold than expected due to a relatively fragmented title line-up and modest marketing effort,” SuperData estimates that PSVR will struggle to break past 750k sales before the year’s end, a significant dip from the original forecast of 2 million. For the sake of comparison, the HTC Vive, Oculus Rift and Gear VR remain unchanged at 450k, 355k and 2.3 million, respectively.
Stephanie Llamas, Director of Research and Insights at SuperData, explained the revision to GamesIndustry.biz, stating that Sony’s decision to prioritize the PS4 Pro in many ways hampered PSVR. Compared to its competitors, “PSVR had the best opportunity to benefit from the holidays but their supply inconsistencies and lack of marketing have put them behind their potential. They did not offer any first-party deals this weekend, restock bundles or market the device, pushing instead for the PS4 Pro.”
Llamas continued:
“Had Sony pushed the PSVR the way they’ve been pushing their other new hardware, the demand would have certainly fulfilled a supply of over 2 million. However, given its quiet release it’s clear they’re being cautious before fully investing in the tech. Without the ‘killer app’ and the slow, steady release of AAA content, they will release less than 1 million devices until they have content they feel confident will bring in the praise they want.”
What do our readers make of this revised sales forecast for PlayStation VR?
[Source: GamesIndustry.biz]
