PSVR2: Next-Gen Boogaloo

[CMcK]

Anyone tried the Cosmic Smash demo yet?

[ItsThere]

Yeah, the RE4R VR version is probably going to be largely the same game, plus some bells & whistles.

Those don't personally "do it" for me; I've yet to play one of those VR conversions where, after the initial wow factor of being in the location fades, I wouldn't rather just play on a nice big TV while sat on the sofa. But they're popular.

With 7 and 8 I've been a mix. I really like the full VR experience but man RE8 is much harder than the flatscreen edition. I've turned on auto reloading to the guns because I couldn't do it quick enough and keep stressing myself out too much . I remember 7 being a lot easier because you still played with a pad and no actions were mandated to "real" actions.

My trophy hunting goes back to flatscreen though. Speedrun and knife only runs are too hard in VR

[Asura]

With 7 and 8 I've been a mix. I really like the full VR experience but man RE8 is much harder than the flatscreen edition. I've turned on auto reloading to the guns because I couldn't do it quick enough and keep stressing myself out too much . I remember 7 being a lot easier because you still played with a pad and no actions were mandated to "real" actions.

Whether reloads should be physical actions or optional is a big question in the design of VR games, and within the community as a whole (not just reloads, of course but those sorts of actions).

This isn't an accessibility thing. That's a different (but no less important) discussion; I'm purely talking about those who don't have accessibility concerns.

Personally I really need them in my VR games. That type of immersion is really core to what I love about them.

Plus, there's a gameplay factor to them which is good to consider; that you can screw it up. In some of the competitive shooters I've played, you will sometimes choose a "simpler" weapon, just because it's easier and faster to reload.

[Neon Ignition]

Reloading in VR literally makes the experience. It's why I've never been convinced by KB&M either, other issues aside it feels like those in favour just want whatever control option strips the gameplay back to identikit whack a mole levels of simplicity.

[ItsThere]

I think that's a really fair set of points that I hadn't really considered. Pavlov is a great example, I have been destroyed many times because I can't reload my weapons properly, or quickly.

It is a whole new set of muscle memory to learn and that is a good thing. More practice needed which is more excuses to spend time in the headset

Going to get Dark Pictures Switchback next as I loved the first one.

[Asura]

I think that's a really fair set of points that I hadn't really considered. Pavlov is a great example, I have been destroyed many times because I can't reload my weapons properly, or quickly.

Yeah, ditto but that's part of it. It gives another dimension for weapons to be better/worse; so you have damage, recoil, clip size etc., but then you add reload complexity as another feature. Sometimes a pistol is better just for this reason, which is something regular videogames can't really do (admittedly, those games can have longer/shorter/interruptible reload anims to get some measure of this but it's not quite the same).

[Neon Ignition]

Yep, if the VR game or its community online effectively forces point and shoot approaches then there's not much you can do but certainly for single player content I always go for as immersive as possible despite some of the practical issues that pop up on occasion

[Neon Ignition]

Embedded Tweet

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-03-30/sony-psvr2-headset-off-to-slow-start-as-metaverse-push-sputters

[nonny]

I think a price cut is a bad idea. Great for the consumer but you can't reverse that too much and I'd wonder how much this thing costs to manufacture... plus it's an add-on so it's not the same as raising prices on the console itself. Once they cut the price raising it again would be extremely difficult.

They really couldn't have released it at a worse time so it isn't really a fault of the hardware... the market is just really suffering right now.

My guess is they might temporarily halt sales and only re-open when the market improves our there are some key titles they can pack in to entice adopters.

[Asura]

I think a price cut is a bad idea. Great for the consumer but you can't reverse that too much and I'd wonder how much this thing costs to manufacture... plus it's an add-on so it's not the same as raising prices on the console itself. Once they cut the price raising it again would be extremely difficult.

They really couldn't have released it at a worse time so it isn't really a fault of the hardware... the market is just really suffering right now.

My guess is they might temporarily halt sales and only re-open when the market improves our there are some key titles they can pack in to entice adopters.

I very much doubt they'll discount it. I think they'll look to the example of the PSVR, which did really well, but wasn't an absolute smash out of the gate (though was doing better than this). It went on to sell around four million units, but it managed that in a consistent manner over a longer period of time (people might remember how it was always in stock on Amazon, for literally years).

[nonny]

I don't know enough about the software release schedule for this but I guess that is the other factor. You also don't want to annoy developers who have stuff in the works in the foreseeable future.

[Lebowski]

I expect a big retail push at Christmas, it was almost like a soft launch it coming February and it only being available via Sony direct, it wasn't scalped and didn't end up being sold for double rrp which was great for consumers but it had no visibility on the big electrical retailers like Amazon Currys, Game, John Lewis ect.

i imaging a bundle with the dock and call of the mountain will be available for the price of the current base unit once it hits wider retail, or even just a pack in with a couple of games fantavision and call of the mountain are contenders for pack in products, i cant see them pausing sales or reducing the price in a slash and burn type way though.

[Neon Ignition]

Yep, if it's underperformed then Sony needs to establish a marketing push and get it out to other retailers asap. Even if they do a push in the winter it will be considered an after thought to new releases so they'd be better to move on it before the summer. Once that initial window passes I don't think it would ever recover as it's incredibly rare that games/tech does after a very slow start. Alternatively, if they keep it a Sony Direct only item throughout this year then that can likely be taken as an confession by Sony that they know the demand doesn't exist to burden themselves on the manufacturing and distribution costs of having it elsewhere. Looking at vid clicks and forum posts on other sites on new game reveals, discussion etc it seems that the interest level has evaporated very quickly which I can completely believe is currently largely down to how poorly marketed it's been by Sony since launch.

[MartyG]

Alternatively, if they keep it a Sony Direct only item throughout this year then that can likely be taken as an confession by Sony that they know the demand doesn't exist to burden themselves on the manufacturing and distribution costs of having it elsewhere.

It means the margins are so small on this that they'll be losing loads of money by pushing it to the retail SKUs, from which the retailers will want a cut. They've done it directly to keep the market price as low as they can without losing money, given the tech inside these headsets I'd imagine the £530 was a squeeze as it is.

I also don't put much faith in any of these market analysts tbh - they're more about making a buck on investments than anything else and generally spout a load of old bollocks - they're little better than weather forecasters or horse racing tipsters. Only Sony knows the actual numbers and can decide whether it's underperformed or not, by whatever KPIs they're using. I don't believe Sony ever said they expected to sell 2 million units at launch, that was something the media dreamt up all by itself.

270K in a month seems reasonable to me, it pretty much tracks with PSVR1 IIRC.

[teddymeow]

It will end up in retail stores eventually.

You can buy the Dual Sense Edge in Game, Smyth's and multiple online retailers now.