A PSVR2 review from the POV of a PC VR User (2024)

@notlNSIGHTปีที่แล้ว ⁺⁷

And there lies the biggest issue with the PSVR 2. It's locked down. If it supported PCVR, we'd see a FLOOD of PC users buying them, which means we'll finally have a proper "affordable" PCVR headset with stuff like eye tracking, high res displays, and good controllers. On top of that, devs would be forced to improve their games to take advantage of the new hardware, which in turn means that better games come out. Better games means more sales of VR headsets to play said games, more people in VR means more development.

@GreyMatterShadesปีที่แล้ว ⁺²

@@notlNSIGHT Problem is, if it was PC compatible, it would be more expensive. The PSVR 2 is such a good value BECAUSE it's tied into a closed ecosystem. Sony is probably selling the headset at a loss (or maybe an incredibly slim profit), and they can do this because they make money off of every game purchased for it. They wouldn't be able to rely on that revenue if they made it PC compatible, and would therefore have to add in a profit margin to the hardware by increasing its cost.
As for the flood of PC users, I'm somewhat skeptical of that as well, especially if the price were higher (which again, it would be). Considering the Quest 2 has been out for ages, costs significantly less (especially before the price hike), and is PC compatible, I'm not sure there are a ton of PC gamers who are just waiting to buy VR headsets. I'm sure it'd expand the PC VR userbase a bit, but most of the people buying it would be existing PC VR users, which is a fairly small audience (around 3 million, according to the latest Steam survey), many of whom wouldn't bother upgrading if they already have a headset like the Index or maybe the Reverb G2. At the end of the day, I think they'd lose more potential customers by having to raise the price than they'd gain from adding PC compatibility.

@ninetail11111ปีที่แล้ว ⁺³

@@GreyMatterShades The raise of cost wouldn't make any sense since it is all software compatibility. The first psvr can be used with the pc using a software. Sony just has this weird thing with PC and only now started to shift some things over. A lot of people are hesitant in buying VR headsets due to the lack of AAA quality games coming out at a reasonable pace and the strong barrier of entry.

@notlNSIGHTปีที่แล้ว

@@GreyMatterShades It's already a grand when you factor in the PS5. And by the flood of users, I mean people switching out of the quest 2, which is a piece of sh*t

@GreyMatterShadesปีที่แล้ว

@@ninetail11111 The raise in cost would be required because the hardware isn't profitable. Sony makes their money on games, not hardware. The PS5 was sold at a loss when it launched. After a year or so they started making a small profit off the disc version, but AFAIK the digital only PS5 is still sold for a loss. Sony can afford to sell the PS5 hardware at a loss because they make money off of every single PS5 game sold (whether it was developed by Sony or a third party, and whether it was purchased physically or digitally). It makes sense to sell their hardware at a loss because it will sell more units since the price is so low, and that means there are more people to buy games for that hardware.
I expect the PSVR 2 is in a similar position (or if it isn't, it really should be). It probably costs Sony more than $550 to manufacture and ship a PSVR 2, but they can sell it at that price because they can count on people who buy a PSVR 2 also buying games for it, which is where Sony will make their money.
If they brought it to PC, they would be losing money on every headset sold, with no way of profiting off of the games people are buying for it. Even if Sony ported games like Gran Turismo 7 and Horizon Call of the Mountain to PC to sell alongside PSVR 2, they couldn't count on PC players buying them, and they would be giving up part of their profits to Steam or Epic or whatever PC ecosystem was selling their games on PC.
The only way that selling PSVR 2 on PC could be profitable for Sony is if they built a hefty profit margin into the cost of the headset, which means raising the price. This is one of the reasons why PC VR headsets are typically more expensive than headsets which are meant to be used within a specific ecosystem.