Barely Anyone Is Playing The Best PlayStation VR Game

Screen Rant writes: Sparc, the first 'vsport' game from developer CCP Games is one of the best virtual reality games on the market but hardly anyone is playing it.

[Scatpants]

That's the problem with multiplayer VR titles. Not a big enough base yet.

[ILostMyMind]

VR producers need to unify their networks to have a good installed base of handsets or VR will die in this generation.

[Eonjay]

That doesn't make sense unless everyone buys every game. Someone has to pay for that network btw...

[Mulando]

but it costs much to run different servers for PSVR, Vive etc.
btw, the star trek game does this, but well ... multiplayer ... it is not helping to keep something like this alive. There is not enough game inside to really keep a big audience on the game.

[jukins]

Hmm I have no problem finding matches. I mean yea only need one person but still

[Einhander1971]

VR dead already to expensive, Sony should drop the price to try and lift sales. Love the tech but it's to pricey.

[optimus]

They already have. In fact, everybody has. It doesn't seem to be helping. Still too pricey.

[bolimekurac]

its not just its to pricey which it is, its cumbersome , its bulky, its to many wires, its to many sensors, there is not enough big aaa games, the screen door effect is still a issue, the goggle effect is still a issue, its simply not ready for primetime.

[IanTH]

Not entirely true. If you take a gander here:

https://infographic.statist...

That's just for 2017. You'll see Q2 for Oculus was pretty solid after the $400 Summer of Rift sale, and the second half will be interesting to see with the new $500 base price and the upcoming holiday season. Vive numbers took a dive as a device twice as expensive as Rift that quarter, but I bet we'll see a solid uptick in Q3 thanks to the new $550-600 the Vive is going for now. PSVR is pretty impressive in accumulating over 1 mil in 2017 alone, and has a commanding lead given that doesn't include the units sold in Oct-Dec 2016. Also curious to see how it's Q3 does after its price drop/new bundle.

Sure, it pales in comparison to your average console, but I bet we see more and more people jump in as the price comes down - and of course as the tech/efficiency improves, lowering the barrier of entry on the hardware side. So while it hasn't maybe helped *enough* to get the blockbuster numbers people decrying it require, it is clearly helping. And when looking at adoption of VR versus other tech year-over-year, VR is actually doing pretty well.

Hopefully with companies like Facebook that are in it for the long haul, meaningful content can continue to get produced and allow enough time for mass market devices (standalone units w/inside-out tracking) to hit the market at mass market prices. Seems the most likely scenario for the market truly achieving the growth that is ultimately required for the industry to attain sustainability.

[mafiahajeri]

Haha im enjoying the heck out of it bunch of cheapass pessimistic people here.

And theres a bunch of games coming out in the next couple of months.

[timotim]

You mean to say, barely anyone is playing any PSVR game. It's not exactly taking off like Sony has hoped.

[Liqu1d]

Actually Sony said it was selling as expected.

[Bigpappy]

What else do you expect the PR to say: "Oh this s* isn't moving we are going to have to dump it soon?"

I am hoping for its success by the way. A lot of people see a lot of promise in the tech. I am just avoiding it because I still believe it could cause tremendous eye strain that could hurt your sight or the brain functions that control sight. Yeah, I am scared of the tech. Could take me several years to get to a trusting point.

[-GreenRanger]

@Liqu1d, Heeeellllllllllllllooooooooooo ...

http://wwg.com/2016/11/30/p...

[-GreenRanger]

Also...

Sony didn't share any actual numbers when they spewed out PR talk, because they must have been embarrassing

http://www.playstationlifes...

Are there any updates since?

[Kribwalker]

It sold only 85,000 units from February to June which is when it finally hit 1 million units. I don't know who would invest that kind of money into the tech and say selling 85,000 units in 4 months is "as expected"

[-GreenRanger]

Ooooohhhhhhhh damn. Only 85,000 units in 4 months? That isn't good. The games will not sell enough with the small install base PSVR, or any VR platform for that matter. Even VirtualBoy sold more and that was called a flop.

[Liqu1d]

@GreenRanger They did announce numbers.

http://www.playstationlifes...

Over 400,000 sales in the first quarter of 2017.

http://www.playstationlifes...

Your source is about a research firm lowering their ridiculous estimates. Sony wanted to sell 1 million by April.

http://www.wired.co.uk/arti...

So you provided incorrect sources and Kribwalker provided none.

[Kribwalker]

"Shawn Layden, president and CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment America, admits there’s still plenty of work to be done, especially given the large install base of PS4 owners, which is approaching 60 million. “It’s still just a million units,” he says."

https://uploadvr.com/sony-p...

So from February to June there was 85,000 sales. There you go pal

[Segata]

PSVR has a lot of similarities to 32X.

[G20WLY]

What were their published target figures, please? I must have missed that.. 🤔

[Araragifeels]

It sold 1 million and sold more than other VR combined.

[Kribwalker]

The only VR that had really taken off is Samsung Gear VR which is over 5 million in January. 1 million in 8 months isn't great

[Araragifeels]

@Kribwalker I won't compare PlayStation VR to Samsung Gear VR because Samsung Gear VR is for videos only and cost cheaper. PSVR is for games/movies/TV shows/music/ videos while Samsung VR is movies/TV shows/videos only. Plus PlayStation estimated that they will make 1 million within a year but it surpass expectations that they announced that it was doing very successful especially that other gaming vr together couldn't outsell PSVR. So it a success to PlayStation.

[Mulando]

1m is not much and now PSVR sit in stores.
Kinect (1.0) sold 19m but still had not enough people to buy games. You really need a big audience to get good enough numbers for game-developers.
But as PSVR is more for hardcore gamers, they might buy more games than Kinect-owners at that time.
But VR-games are much more complicated to make and look worse than non-vr games (because you need to render 2 pictures), that does not help in reaching the break-even.
With just 1m we just get better "tech-demos", but not good games.
It's also not helping to sell multiplayer-games as it reduces your audience and the VR audience is already small enough.

[lio_convoy]

VR is a big joke. I'm sorry, but no. Just no.

[bolimekurac]

its to pricey which it is, its cumbersome , its bulky, its to many wires, its to many sensors, there is not enough big aaa games, the screen door effect is still a issue, the goggle effect is still a issue, its simply not ready for primetime.

[ApocalypseShadow]

The only problem about this game is that it has a multiplayer emphasis. I was going to buy it but decided not to because it pushed online just like street fighter 5. It didn't really have a single player game to it.offline is just to practice. I don't want that. I want a game with optional online.

Has nothing to do with psvr sales or anything naysayers are talking about. Super hot has sold the most for psvr 2 months in a row but naysayers will deflect and ignore that in favor of a click bait ish title talking about low multiplayer counts in **one** game.

If naysayers are going to jump to one game's online as a reflection of headset sales. Then I can use super hot as saying headset sales are through the roof.

[Dario_DC]

I haven't bought it because of being MP focused, I just don't have the time or patience to play MP games...
I wish it had CPU opponents, but it only has a couple of tutorial things to do.

[ApocalypseShadow]

Yeah. Me too. I was hoping for computer opponents like Danger Ball from VR Worlds. That game is fun offline that could do well with online play. But I enjoy it just as it is.

Or, they could have bought the license for Tron and made the disc battles, light cycles, etc in VR like the movie. I would have bought it for that and the name would sell it even more if it played similar to the movie
https://m.youtube.com/watch...
https://m.youtube.com/watch...
Cycles
https://m.youtube.com/watch...

Gamers would have flipped if we had that in VR.

[mogwaii]

Hardly anyone is playing VR full stop.

[MattSomething]

I want to play BoomBlox in VR.

[KillBill]

Barely anyone is playing VR at all, regardless of title. Less so than those that likely played Kinect games. VR has not come far enough to be anything but a gimmick more than not. It is the 'Virtual Boy' of modern times.

[Segata]

Because barely anyone is playing VR still.