Sony Consoles and Updates

[one-armed dwarf]

6 minutes ago, shinymcshine said:

If a key selling point might be a 3 yr old HL Alyx, or a VR version of the 18 yr old RE4, it probably says it all about the continued viability of the VR games market.

RE4 remake, not the current RE4 port.

 

Tho fwiw RE4 VR on quest is super transformative and amazing to play, mercenaries is the best gaming I've had in ages, tho yes there's no real viability here in terms of AAA stuff. It's purely niche and ports town, but we aren't even really seeing much of that from Sony here. It's just another way to play Quest 2 games currently

[spatular]

Im sort of after a vr upgrade but yeah, not at that price, slightly regret not getting a quest 2 before they put the price up now. Still see how it goes, if the price comes down, theres some more games i want on it, (and less likely proper pc support) in a few years id be interested probably.

[DisturbedSwan]

16 hours ago, Snaggletooth said:

New VR headsets are always going to be pricey, PSVR 1 was £500 at launch if I recall?

That being said sure within 2 years it had dropped to about £200 in a special offer at Game.

 

Ultimately there is very little at launch for even a VR enthusiast to think about buying at full price.

 

Honestly I think its almost a missguided step by Sony, they would have been better going for

a cheaper solution in my mind. I bet even at this price they are loosing money on it, but really given the current global economy assuming they are producing a lot of VR sets there will be a lot sat on the shelves for a while.

 

Ill give it 2 or 3 yearssee how cheap it is then.

 

£349 for the standalone headset, VR Worlds and a demo disc AFAIK. But yeah, as others have said once you bought two Move controllers and Camera that would put it up to the £450-£500 range. This time around you're getting custom-built controllers included and don't need to get a camera. 

 

I'm not sure a cheaper solution would've really benefitted the tech, VR developers or the ports they can attract to the system. I think PSVR was already old tech compared to its PC VR competitors when it came out that it was playing catch-up with some titles unable to run on the system throughout its lifecycle (particularly towards the end) or looking terrible if they did so.

 

So PSVR2 is a chance to rectify that and have the cutting edge PC VR releases launch on the platform. I'm by no means a VR or tech expert but comparing the stats it does seem to compare favourably against Valve's Index which is £689 with 2 controllers.

 

It's just still a very expensive niche of the industry. Last time I didn't really want PSVR but a £300 bundle near Xmas with two games and the move controllers included swayed me but I only really played it for a month before it started gathering dust. 

 

So yeah, I'll be waiting too. If Alyx doesn't get ported to it I'm not really interested at this time.

 

16 hours ago, shinymcshine said:

If a key selling point might be a 3 yr old HL Alyx, or a VR version of the 18 yr old RE4, it probably says it all about the continued viability of the VR games market.

 

Alyx may be 3 years old but it's by far and away the best VR game out there and the only 'killer app' on the devices so far really (I'm sure there are a couple of others). I will buy a PSVR2 for Alyx, I want to play that game so badly and have done ever since it came out on PC VR.

[one-armed dwarf]

16 minutes ago, DisturbedSwan said:

the cutting edge PC VR releases launch on the platform

This right here is the chicken and egg situation with VR though, it doesn't have the market presence to bring in the 'cutting edge PC VR' releases anymore. The last one we got was Lone Echo 2, which passed by without comment (and ran like shit for me personally). It's a market which has basically died.

 

So it's sort of a reverse of the previous situation, Sony has a high end headset but the market has shifted towards quest 2 and mobile-like games, and a lot of Sony's offerings here looks like tarted up versions of that. imo I said before but the easiest and most obvious win to me from Sony's pov should just be hybrid games, games which are built for playing on a TV but have unique VR modes (like Resident Evil does). Then you get the big money games on the headset, with the caveat they won't be as tailor made for VR as a game like Alyx would be. Even so there's still a lot of fun player expression that's just intrinsic to putting a game in VR, even with only basic VR interactions (eg, multi tasking, manipulating objects with one hand while aiming a gun with the other, the way you control your character's posture and other things you cannot do with a controller)

 

Anyway blakey, you might consider just borrowing somebody's quest 2 and sticking that in your PC if you want to play Alyx. If I knew you IRL I'd loan you mine, it's definitely one of those things that people will leave on their shelves for months on end until something tickles their fancy

[DisturbedSwan]

Yeah I might have to do just that at some point, I'm not sure my PC would be able to run it but I'd be willing to give it a go if I knew anyone with a Quest 2 lol.

[Jimboxy]

9 hours ago, DisturbedSwan said:

Yeah I might have to do just that at some point, I'm not sure my PC would be able to run it but I'd be willing to give it a go if I knew anyone with a Quest 2 lol.

If you're around Birmingham you could probably borrow mine for a bit. I've used it twice in about 6 months

[shinymcshine]

A report from 2020 showed worldwide PSVR sales at 5m against PS4 sales for 106m, which shows the relative struggle that devs face in terms of justifying development of VR games against those for the base console (in terms of potential sales). 

 

https://www.thesixthaxis.com/2020/01/07/playstation-vr-psvr-ps5-million-sales-ps4-106-million-ces-2020/

[Snaggletooth]

I wonder what the software attachment rate is, I would have thought with a genuinely decent VR title a large % of the user base would purchase. 

 

Think titles need to go 1 of 2 ways produce something decent like a half life quality game and it will sell other wise, you gotta produce titles that can be ported from and too other platforms easy to maximise revenue. 

[DisturbedSwan]

16 hours ago, Jimbo Xiii said:

If you're around Birmingham you could probably borrow mine for a bit. I've used it twice in about 6 months

 

We do go to Brum a few times a year to meet up with Char's family so it is possible I might take you up on that one day, ta 😘. 

 

3 hours ago, shinymcshine said:

A report from 2020 showed worldwide PSVR sales at 5m against PS4 sales for 106m, which shows the relative struggle that devs face in terms of justifying development of VR games against those for the base console (in terms of potential sales). 

 

https://www.thesixthaxis.com/2020/01/07/playstation-vr-psvr-ps5-million-sales-ps4-106-million-ces-2020/

 

Yeah, its still a very niche product and a niche market for sure. I think the Meta (Oculus) Quest has done pretty well though.

[mmmark]

How much will the games be? £40? £50? It needs at least one free fully featured demo disc to show off the tech too. Can’t just slap it with Horizon and charge £40 more. 

[DisturbedSwan]

If we go by the Horizon Bundle pricing, which is £40 more than the standard set then games will be £40 each but I've no idea really as of yet.

[one-armed dwarf]

The fact that we haven't had a real VR blowout in the form of a 'state of play' and they are asking people to pre-register to pre-order on the 15th of November is sort of appalling to me

 

I mean, I pre-registered and all, but I'm only going to pre-order if it's actually possible to change my mind later. I'm more likely than most to buy on of these things but it's almost like they are just marketing to VR zealots with the amount of blind faith they're asking for here

 

Hopefully this comment ages poorly and they announce a state of play immediately, cause wtf

[DisturbedSwan]

Appalling isn't the word I'd use personally lol, I think the reason it hasn't had an SoP is because all the folks who aren't interested in VR would have a moan. 

[one-armed dwarf]

That makes no sense at all. Who cares if people moan about it being VR focused? It wouldn't even be for them in the first place. Either this release is important for Sony or it isn't

 

Even if the library is weak, give us a showcase of what they are all about. Sometimes the less flashy games can be the more innovative ones.

[DisturbedSwan]

Yeah, I do agree that there should be an SoP purely focused on PSVR2 but I also think there is still a lot of negativity about VR, I used to see a lot of moaning whenever VR stuff came on in a PS conference or something, it's like the bit you go to the loo in for a lot of folks unfortunately. 

 

So I'd say the release is important but they either don't have enough to show or they're concerned about possible negativity, I can see folks saying things like 'wasted an SoP on VR' and stuff now to be honest. 

[one-armed dwarf]

It's still just fleeting social media negativity tho, if that actually factors into why they don't want to big up their product it doesn't make any sense. I don't believe that is the reason tho, I think it just has a very weak lineup and they don't have lots of cool stuff either secured for it yet, or it isn't mature enough to show off yet. Either way I would think they would be more forthright about it.

 

The likelihood for this thing is probably it'll have a PS Vita style life anyway (Vita means death), a big niche device for a few years and then it'll languish. Still, I want to see what they have planned for it. Hell, I'll accept a logo, Metroid Prime 4 style

 

I didn't get an invite email in any case so I may not be able to get one anyway. 

[AndyKurosaki]

No bloody way would I pay that much for VR, that just takes the piss. 

[DisturbedSwan]

Got a PSVR2 pre-order slot through my email. Don't think I want it but may ask for it for Xmas from the Wife as she's just got a big pay rise and can afford that kind of purchase lol.

[one-armed dwarf]

I got an email, but it is useless because my PSN was created in the UK and they do not allow you to change your country of origin on PSN 😕

 

Nice one Sony, great system you have here 🙄

[DisturbedSwan]

I managed to get a Cult of the Mountain bundle. I may not end up keeping it, if so you'll be the first to know @one-armed dwarf or you're welcome to get yours shipped to me and I will DPD it to you from work as have an account with them.