Sony Aren’t Really Marketing The PlayStation VR… But Does It Even Matter?

Sony’s marketing attempts for the PlayStation VR may be poor so far, but that doesn’t have to spell doom and gloom just yet.

[stalepie]

It seems like they're going for a soft launch. They probably can only manufacture so many for this holiday, and the game lineup isn't that impressive yet.

[gameseveryday]

A soft launch seems like the case. I really hope they support it in the long term otherwise we are mostly looking at a Vita situation all over again.

[Overload]

I think they severely underestimated the market for VR headsets. Which I gave an example in my other comment.

[morganfell]

A soft launch where the device is completely sold out in North America.

@Overload, how many headsets did Sony sell in the preorder. What's that? You don't know? Did it ever occur to you that Sony has allowed as many preorders as the production companies could fill prior to launch? Ever consider that? Ever think they had the kiosks built because they thought they would have to drive sales instead of what occurred where sales took off like a rocket blew a hole in the market?

[RosweeSon]

Could be but I'm sure if the people pick it up even say 10% of the current owners on launch that's 4 million customers Devs will make the games specially if the customers continue to jump on board I'm still not sure I'm day one as its pretty rammed gaming wise for me this chrimbo and NX In new year and treating myself to that gears Xbox one s as I've not owned the One yet not bothered about Scorpio too much at the moment but then I'm not a massive gears fan so could always trade in for Scorpio limited edition in a year or so... Anyway yeah VR is pretty far down my list of gaming agenda at the moment I've got a big enough backlog on my ps4 without going VR Haha, looks cool tho few good games but all pretty cheap novelty games for launch I'll wait til some juicy stuff starts coming through batman sounds very short until dawn seems ok but the main game was barely 8 hours so can't see that being too long and tomb raider gets an extra levels haha I'll give it a few months and wait until the new year for VR me thinks hopefully be able to get it for £299.99 ish then or at least find a good 10-15% discount code on the £350 on average bring it down a fair bit. Got one pre ordered in case tho but can always cancel of course jury's still out for me.

[Overload]

@morganfell

It's called mismanagement. Not having them available for preorder after they experience it, is just not a good way to start. Dont get me wrong, I think PSVR will be a huge success, but the value of having the kiosks has been diminished, although because of the best reason possible.

[morganfell]

Companies can only manufacture so much. You can't blame Sony for trying to manage cost and demand. You and I have no idea, none whatsoever as to the involved cost and logistics to spin up another manufacturing company to meet additional demand. Bringing another company online doesn't necessarily signal profit. Suppose Sony did and then that company sent out far too many units in a quarter over what could be sold. That would result in a loss that quarter at a time when Sony is recovering and launching major hardware devices. As regards kiosks, if PSVR had not taken off like wildfire and Sony had no kiosks then they would have been blamed for not allowing people to try it and that would be the reason given for the lack of preorders. Damned if they do and damned if they don't.

[IGiveHugs2NakedWomen]

Question:
How in the world do you concoct such nonsense consistently?

PSVR has been available to demo at Gamestop, EB Games, Best Buy, Playstation Experience, E3, Paris Game Show, Tokyo Game Show, Comic Con, and Sony has a website totally dedicated to PSVR. Sony is relying on word of mouth and social media, but you also have to consider the fact that PSVR pre-orders have been selling out so why would Sony need to "market it" in your words?

Stop posting stories dude, because 90% of the fluff you write makes no sense at all.

[Overload]

I understand that. I'm just saying the end result is disappointing and not how you want to begin the kiosk users experience with the device.

[joeorc]

It's not a soft launch..thinking it is; is in my opinion is quite overlooking where Sony is setting up..using regular
marketing outside on hand demo's its demonstrated.. Running regular TV ad's just will not do it, only live demonstrations will. And that is exactly what Sony is doing.

https://www.vrfocus.com/201...

[UltimateMaster]

The marketing no, but the lack of VR support for most First Party games doesn't give me anything interesting for me to play.
I would love to see God of War with VR. Or Horizon Zero Dawn with VR, Guerrilla Games did a good job with the PS Move on Killzone 3.

[zekk]

I'm not sure where u are but Sony has been doing vr demos every Saturday alternating between two of the biggest EB games in the city. They have drawn a pretty big crowd and the reaction has been very positive

[Eonjay]

I don't understand your sentiment. The just launch a countrywide tour taking the device into stores so people could try it first hand. This is direct marketing. In the past Sony has mentioned that it is so hard to convey what VR is like through traditional mediums so they already knew that they would need to take a different approach.

This article in my mind is a complete failure because they have in fact been spending money getting out to people to try. I don't know what you call that but I would call it marketing. It was also featured at E3 and countless other events, they have featured it in many, many videos on their YouTube channel, and we all expect to see more traditional TV advertisements closer to launch.

In this case you simply failed to comprehend or just basically ignored their strategy. Stop with the lowest common denominator articles. Choose quality!

[TheLEGENDofTydo]

Game lineup for the year is 50+ so meh

[Overload]

They are doing a good job at marketing it, but have kind of screwed up on their implication. For example, they have kiosks to play it, but then no headsets available for preorder. That's just stupid.

[SonyWarrior]

all headsets preorders ran out thats why if you want it at this point you will have to stand in line over night at launch. I preordered mine at bestbuy few days after it became available only reason bestbuy still had some preorders left is because they make you pay in full upfront Amazon preorders ran out in like 5 minutes because they dont require full payment until it ships

[kneon]

That's odd, Best Buy in Canada never make me pay for pre-orders until they actually ship. I have a PSVR pre-ordered at both Amazon and Best Buy and haven't paid anything for either yet.

[Nitrowolf2]

@Kneon

I believe, like walmart, they charge your card to check for funds first and then redoposit that back in. I noticed this with my Bestbuy pre order once, and it did it with my walmart pre order

[SonyWarrior]

I just checked to see if they charged it and then removed it and they didnt, they charged 423.99 6 days after i preordered and i payed it, they never put the money back either.

[KwietStorm_BLM]

lol that's because the first shipments are sold out. Were you really being serious with that?

[Eonjay]

I understand where you are coming from but at the same time, they can't just produce millions of units at will. Remember what happened when the PS4 launched and they couldn't keep up. These are material realities to manufacturing products.

[antikbaka]

ps vita karma...

[SonyWarrior]

i guess their ads all over the ps store and bestbuy and gamestop in store demos and driving around a huge PSVR semi trucks with psvr demos to it at each stop doesnt count as marketing these days.........

[RosweeSon]

Yeah think there's been plenty to be honest not gonna see it on tv and such yet as its still not out until October but they've pretty much sold all their pre orders I see this being sold out and shortly supply for majority of Christmas and possibly into new year I know ive got one order but as said above still not sure if I'll go through with it yet but they could have had a really small number of pre orders available for now until nearer the time when they have an idea on how many have been produced to their standards. However it could also just be a load of scalpers who have pre ordered multiple units to try and rinse people at extortionate prices on ebay... In that case I may sell my 1 pre order and grab another when it's cheaper or more freely available but yeah I'm not a scalper who'll buy 10/20/100 units and flog them at double triple but yeah if they start going for silly money I'll have to go through with it and see what I can get in not made of money too busy spending it on all these games ;)

[nitus10]

Unfortunately, you are always going to get scalpers if some people weren't so impatient. It's a simple case of supply and demand.

[OB1Biker]

Yea I dont understand what they mean in the title, but then again its gmbolt. I m sure we ll see the same concern pieces from this site for neo or ps4 slim while you can count on them to promote scorpio or xb1 s marketing
http://gamingbolt.com/xbox-...

[Silly gameAr]

Don't link to their site and give the clicks they don't deserve.

[Fist4achin]

If they treat it like the vita, it will end up like the vita...

[Lionsguard]

I tried the demo at a Bestbuy and i was quite impressed with it.

[DragonDDark]

THAT'S NOT MARKETING - GamingBolt

[SweatyFlorida]

Supply and demand, pretty sure they've ran out of units available for pre-orders. I think they realized there's not much point marketing further right now, best let the ones who bought it (and general media outlets) do the lion share of the marketing for them, until they get more units available to really push the pedal to the metal again. The Wii was choked on pre-orders for pretty much its entire 1st year and then some, no matter how much you market it, you're not selling anymore then you already have, so best to save money until you get that small decline. A slow burn approach is better for things that cannot meet supply demand.

Also I wouldn't say it was poor, they've shoehorned it in about every event they could, and had commercials (least on youtube) with montages of it. Consumers themselves did marketing about how VR is the next big thing (little did they know it was actually Pokemon GO). It's an untested market, no reason to go all out until the product is at least ready to ship. From what I can tell oculus is kinda whatever atm, no one is really chalking it up on a day to day basis, maybe that's because again, small amount of pre-orders, but shows that it isn't instantaneously huge out the gates.

[Hoffmann]

Marketing will start in September.

[TheColbertinator]

You cant market VR easily since its all kiosks and showfloors doing the brunt of the advertising.

This is how I tried HTC Vive. It was ok,nothing impressive.

[anchor]

Why would they advertise the weakest vr option?

[Liqu1d]

Because it's their headset for their console. What a stupid question.

[Goldby]

Why would samsung advertise their gear? Or microsoft advertise the original xbox or nintendo advertise the nes classic? Its their products and they are trying to sell them.

[greenlantern2814]

They are sold out everywhere that you can pre-order them so I guess their marketing isn't a problem

[magiciandudeII]

Nope. Waste of money. Once the die hard 3% of all PS4 owners bought one the sales will plummet and flop like the PS Move and Vita.

[bafa]

You are really hoping for it to fail aren't you. So desperate. Sad really.

[Elda]

This person may not hopes it fails,they may be speaking the truth.

[Antnee534]

I will say that I'm so excited for this. I got to play with the headset for about an hour.yesterday. battlezone with the tanks is the besy game I demoed. That has the most defined gameplay of the bunch they had.

[fllysurfer]

In retrospect the Wii did the same thing… created artificial demand by not having enough of them available. You could argue that´s a console versus a peripheral but Sony did say they were treating the PSVR launch as if it were a new platform.

[Elda]

I'll continue buying games especially first party games to support my PS4 but I will not support PSVR,it's just not something I'm interested in.There's nothing more relaxing then being comfortable on your couch or bed & playing a game on your 50 inch hdtv.

[MrsNesbitt]

I don't think so, they've done enough to peak my interest. It must be working

[NerveGearneeded]

i found a neogaf thread about PSVR launch titles and other titles to come, more than i expected.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum...

[rezzah]

Imagine this and Pokemon...it'll be far better than Pokemon Go.

[Tobsesan]

How? Can you run around with it? Nope
Pokemon with AR will be the future. VR is just a gimmick that will die out in 2 years, because noone want so spend that money to get into it. Theire are almost no full games for VR, just tech demos and games you dont want to play for more than 10 min.

No games = No sales = No games will be made = dead

[rezzah]

VR actually puts you in the pokemon world itself, AR puts the pokemon world into reality.

I guess it would depend on your preference.

[Goldby]

VR isnt just used for video games.

Vr is used for training doctors, astronauts. VR can be used for Concert venues, for tours in exotic places for people who can travel. VR will open up doors that lets people actually walk through them

I don't think you fully understand what i meant by my comment Tobsesan.

Since when is motion controls used to train doctors on how to perform open heart surgery, or Astronauts on space walks? why would motion controls help concert venues.

Again, Virtual Reality, not motion controls, is used for more than just gaming. VR is used Medical schools to teach new doctors. Concert venues could have a 360 camera set up and boom all of a sudden you have millions more expereinces concert venues of any type that wouldn't have been able to see it before hand.

Are motion controls used for museum tours, or virtual tours of real estate?

and the focus playstation is putting into VR is completely different than what they did for motion controls.

They have an entire consulting department just to help developers with VR issues they are having. they have minimum requirements for games to meet before they even consider releasing them. not to mention 50 games coming out this year alone for PSVR.

Do u consider GT sport, not a full game or a game you woudl only play for 10 minutes? what about Golem, or WiLD, or Eagle Flight, or possibly NMS (still holding out for that one) Eve, Rigs, are all full games that either have VR as a requirement or optional.

So to say VR is just like motion controls first tells me you dont know the difference between the two, (one being a form of input, the other being an immersion device, and that you havent tried PSVR. so please, bring some evidence that VR si just like motion controls before you start saying stuff like that

[Tobsesan]

@Goldby

Just like motion control... oh wait

[mkis007]

Finally got to try it out for myself today! I am so sold on it now! I am so excited for the future, and to be frank other VR solutions should thank Sony for the eventual mass adoption of VR. The price of entry being so low for VR is going to move the technology forward by many years.

Just the fact that cinema mode exists...you are getting a tv and a console for 400-500$

[Jayszen]

Wow! Gamingbolt is known to be pro-Microsoft and goes out of its way to ensure that there is always something negative about Sony on an almost daily basis.

The launch of the PSVR is just over two months away and anyone interested in accuracy in journalism would have known by now that Sony has already postponed the launch so as to ensure that there is enough stock to meet the demand in ALL markets and avoid the kind of launch that Oculus Rift had. Sony has already stated that all the pre-orders have sold out and Andrew House stated as recently as a month ago "We have growing confidence that we'll be supply constrained with this product, but we'll do our very best to meet demand." He went on to say "We're obviously very excited about the overall future potential for virtual reality and we think it's the right opportunity to start to build a market. But we need to keep reminding ourselves that you're requiring a very different user engagement than we have seen previously..." (gamesindustry.biz - easy enough to find such information online if the writer could be bothered.)

It is clear that Sony is not approaching the launch of the PSVR in any conventional manner and that Sony wishes to avoid over-marketing the new product as supplies are constrained. This has nothing to do with not having faith in their product or the fact that the product has thus far sold itself but a more genuine concern to ensure that supplies meet demand, that Sony does not help create a level of demand that may well cause a backlash for non-availability, and perhaps ensure that consumers avoid paying ridiculous prices on ebay.

[DivineAssault]

They'll market it when it gets closer to launch.. They should start soon though so people save money to get it.

[InTheZoneAC]

Sony isn't...

not Sony aren't...

I see this far too often on N4G

[Goldby]

i sawed it two....