Tue, Feb 28, 2017 page10

• PlayStation VR sales surprise even Sony

  ‘PEOPLE LINING UP’: Sony’s goal was to sell 1 million headsets in the first six months, but it is about to reach that mark only four months after the product hit the shelves

  • NY Times News Service, SAN MATEO, California
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  There are plenty of people who are skeptical about virtual reality (VR), a technology some have heralded as the biggest thing to come along in years in games and entertainment.

  Even Andrew House, global chief executive of Sony Interactive Entertainment, the video game division of the Japanese electronics giant, had doubts about how quickly virtual reality would be embraced by the mass market.

  So when Sony needed to decide how many of a new virtual reality headset to manufacture, House was among those inside the company advising that Sony make fewer of them.

  “It’s the classic case in any organization — the guys who are on the front end in sales are getting very excited, very hyped up,” House said. “You have to temper that with other voices inside the company, myself among them, saying: ‘Let’s just be a little bit careful.’”

  It turns out House was too cautious. The headset, PlayStation VR, has been scarce in many stores, especially in Japan, since it went on sale in October last year.

  In an interview at his Silicon Valley office on Friday, House revealed PlayStation VR’s sales for the first time, saying consumers had purchased 915,000 of the headsets as of Feb. 19, about four months after it went on sale.

  Sony’s internal goal was to sell 1 million of the headsets in its first six months, by mid-April.

  The company will almost certainly surpass that forecast.

  “You literally have people lining up outside stores when they know stock is being replenished,” House said, describing the scene in Japan, one of the largest games markets.

  House said the supply of PlayStation VR headsets will improve by April.

  By fall, Sony expects to begin selling them in Latin America.

  The sales figure is a positive sign for virtual reality and probably establishes Sony as the leader in the premium side of the market — headsets connected to PCs and game consoles that provide more immersive experiences than are currently possible through inexpensive headsets that use smartphones for visuals.

  Sony’s primary competitors, Oculus from Facebook and HTC Corp (宏達電), have not disclosed sales of their premium headsets.

  One research firm, SuperData Research, estimates there were 243,000 Oculus Rift headsets and 420,000 HTC Vive headsets sold by the end of last year.

  The current generation of virtual reality headsets arrived on the market last year with a flurry of hype. Demonstrations thrilled people throughout the industry — many have been waiting for virtual reality to jump out of the pages of science fiction.

  Facebook’s US$2 billion acquisition of Oculus in 2014 set off a wave of investment in the sector.

  Among the other challenges facing the technology are high prices for virtual reality equipment, limited high-quality content and thorny side effects like motion sickness.

  Sony enjoyed advantages as it entered the market because its headset is sold as an add-on to its game console, PlayStation 4, more than 53 million of which had been sold by the start of last month.

  The headset sells for US$400 — or US$500 with a set of virtual reality hand controllers and a required camera — hundreds of US dollars less than other premium products, which also require powerful PCs.

  House said that he would be “very happy” if the product ends up being purchased by a high single-digit percentage of all PlayStation 4 owners.
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