PlayStation’s European boss Jim Ryan has said he is “extremely comfortable” with PlayStation VR’s $399 selling price and that pre-orders of the headset have exceeded Sony’s initial expectations.
Asked by MCV if Sony will be able to meet day-one demand given the seemingly strong appetite for virtual reality, Ryan said, “It’s hard to tell. The news on preorders is extremely encouraging, but I’d be very wary about extrapolating how we’ll do through to launch based on less than 24 hours. I would say that the early pre-orders have surpassed our initial expectations.
“So that suggests demand, and therefore, day one might be quite significant.”
Ryan added that Sony put a lot of thought into its pricing strategy for PlayStation VR, which is cheaper than rivals such as Oculus Rift and HTC Vive but does require a PlayStation 4, PlayStation Camera (which usually costs $60), and PlayStation Move controllers.
A bundle including a camera, Move, and game collection PlayStation VR Worlds is available in the US but not Europe, on that front, Ryan commented, “we just need to get into the detail of what our SKU configurations are, and what retailers might do – because UK retailers love nothing better than to create a bundle. I have to work it through country-by-country, retailer-by-retailer… it is messy, but it is eminently solvable.”
PlayStation VR is set to launch this October and Sony confirmed last week that there are currently 230 developers working on projects for the headset. Every PSVR sold will make a profit and the company is expected to sell eight million headsets by October 2018.
