Sony believes PlayStation VR2 has a ‘good chance’ of outselling the original

Sony has said it believes PlayStation VR2 has a “good chance” of outselling its predecessor.

The original PlayStation VR launched for PS4 in October 2016 and had sold five million units by the end of 2019, according to Sony.

Its follow-up, which requires users to own a PS5 console, launched last month priced at $549.99 / €599.99 / £529.99.

During a fireside chat at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference on Monday, Sony executive deputy president and chief financial officer Hiroki Totoki was asked to evaluate PS VR2’s launch and what the company’s expectations for the hardware are going forward.

“We are very happy to launch VR2 on PS5,” he said. “VR1, we sold over five million units, and I think we have a good chance to exceed that amount with PlayStation VR2.”

Totoki went on to reference forecasts that the overall VR market could be one of the largest growth areas in the media and entertainment segment during the first half of this decade.

If accurate, he said there’s “good potential” for the VR/AR market and also “good potential of technology development in this field as well”.

In late January, Bloomberg sources claimed Sony had halved its launch projections for PS VR2 following disappointing pre-order numbers.

They claimed Sony’s shipment forecasts were cut from two million to one million units this quarter. In response, Sony issued a statement claiming it had “not cut PlayStation VR2 production numbers”.

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Sony recently announced that Totoki will be promoted to president, chief operating officer and CFO, effective April 1, 2023.

A management reshuffle will see Totoki replace current Sony president Kenichiro Yoshida, who will retain his roles as group chairman and CEO.