"One million-plus" gamers have PSVR - Sony
Latest figure suggests modest growth in installed base since February's announcement of 915,000 sold
Today marks the one-year anniversary of the launch of PlayStation VR, and Sony Interactive Entertainment president Shawn Layden marked the occasion with a celebratory post on the PlayStation Blog. After touting the headset's library of more than 100 experiences and saying it rivals the PlayStation 4's catalog after its first year on shelves, Layden said "the best is yet to come" for the device.
"The future is bright. And as we celebrate today, I want to give my sincerest thanks to the adventurous teams who helped create, shape, and build PlayStation VR," Layden said. "We are equally grateful for the one million-plus gamers who have taken the plunge into virtual reality with us. We'll have a lot more to share with you in the days, weeks, and months ahead."
The "one million-plus" figure for PSVR owners may be smaller than expected, given Sony confirmed sell-through of 915,000 units almost eight months ago. The intervening time has seen the lineup of new PSVR releases headlined by games like Ubisoft's Star Trek: Bridge Crew and Sony's own Farpoint. Last month also saw a price drop of sorts for the system, with Sony adding the PlayStation Camera into the introductory $399 bundle. Earlier this month, the company also announced it would be releasing an updated model of the headset with integrated stereo headphone cables and other tweaks.
The installed base after one year underscores just how bullish some predictions for the system really were. Months before the headset launched, Jesse Schell had the PSVR pegged to sell 4 million through 2017, while Macquarie Securities analyst Ben Schachter suggested 8 million in its first two years on sale. Even more recent assessments seem to have over-estimated things, as tracking and research firm Superdata predicted in May that PSVR would sell 2.6 million this year, and in July put PSVR at 1.8 million sold over its lifetime.