PSVR 2: At least VR would have made Sony more money than cancelled live service games (probably)
Sony's VR strategy falters as live service games struggle, but PSVR 2 offers hope in a shifting gaming landscape, aiming to captivate the core gamer market.
In his column "Gaming In Focus", MIXED guest writer Jamie Feltham regularly looks at current developments and shares his experiences from over 10 years in the XR industry.
Sony just couldn’t let Nintendo have the last laugh. In a week that was supposed to be dominated by the reveal of the Switch 2, a Bloomberg report renewed the focus on PlayStation’s struggling live service strategy. Two more cancelled projects – including a live service God of War game (the horror) – joined the likes of The Last of Us Factions, Twisted Metal, and more in the “four years and nothing to show for it” club.
A Reddit thread, based on the swathe of headlines, reports and leaks from the past few years, puts the figure at at least ten cancelled live service games in the past four years. Ten. Okay, maybe Nintendo did have the last laugh.
For any gamer or general industry champion, this stings. We all want to see PlayStation do well, because it means the industry is doing well. But, for faithful Playstation VR 2 fans who have been calling out for new exclusive titles to justify the purchase of the very expensive headset since its launch nearly two years ago, it doesn’t just sting — it hurts.
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Live service struggles
From the outside looking in, you could (at least partially) sympathize with Sony’s shift away from VR content at the turn of the decade. Yes, PSVR 2 was on the horizon, but challenging economic conditions made it hard to justify going all-in on a follow-up to PSVR 1. While modestly – even encouragingly – successful, PlayStation VR only sold a fraction of the units the PS4 itself moved.
Sony's Concord was one of the biggest failures in video game history. Image: Firewalk Studios
Fast forward to 2025, though, and it’s clear that these moves weren’t made to secure PlayStation Studios’ place as a single-player powerhouse, but instead play an arguably even riskier game. One that, at a glance, really doesn’t seem to have paid off. Even if you stack up the wins, like Helldivers 2’s enormous success, how much of it was cancelled out by the post-launch cancellation of Concord?
Suddenly the turn away from VR content becomes all the more frustrating. Many of these studios could have instead been making smaller, more manageable titles to prop up the PSVR 2 line-up.
The PSVR 2 line-up that could have been
Sony London, a studio that paved that way for VR design with PlayStation VR Worlds and then capitalized on those learnings with the excellent Blood & Truth, was shut down after spending years on a non-VR live service game. Sony Bend, a team that has traditionally brought its A-game to side-projects like the Vita and PSP, just had a live service game cancelled.
Sony London Studio brought the excellent Blood & Truth to PSVR. Image: SIE London Studio
Insomniac – which made some of the best Oculus Rift exclusives – scrapped a live service Spider-Man project. Firesprite Studios hasn’t followed up Horizon Call of the Mountain while its Twisted Metal game was cancelled. The list goes on — there was a lot of potential for Sony to challenge Quest in the core gamer market.
To be clear, I’m not suggesting that PSVR 2 would have been a runaway success or money-printing machine had those efforts been made. It’s still an expensive headset attached to an expensive console, competing with a cheaper (and in some technical aspects, far superior) headset that is finding a lot of success with younger demographics. And it released in a financially awful time for the world.
But it would definitely have led to a healthier install base capable of moving a meaningful number of units for developers.
Turning ripples (if not tides)
Even without that support, there are hints of that narrative emerging. Max Mustard sold better on PSVR 2 in its first two weeks than it did on Quest (although not well enough to prevent studio layoffs a few weeks ago). Swordsman VR – a game that has been committed to the PlayStation platform for years – performed better on PSVR 2 over the 2024 holiday season than it did on Quest.
Swordsman VR performs better on PSVR 2 than on Meta Quest. Image: Sinn Studio Inc.
Even if you look at the number of store reviews for some of last year's biggest VR games, PSVR 2 is holding its own. Metro Awakening has ~1,500 reviews, just 200 behind SteamVR with its 9-year-strong install base, and 600 reviews ahead of the Quest version. Skydance’s Behemoth has the most ratings on PSVR 2, as does Alien: Rogue Incursion (though that’s admittedly not on Quest just yet).
Tellingly, it trails in the more active, younger playerbase. Gorilla Tag has nearly 8,000 reviews on PSVR 2, 30,000 on SteamVR, and 137,000 on Quest — it can’t even begin to compete. Clearly, the future of lucrative, free-to-play social experiences is on standalone. But that doesn’t mean that the core gamer market is simply irrelevant, and its home could well be PSVR 2.
PSVR 2 still matters
Despite the negativity around PSVR 2, I do think there’s plenty of moves Sony could make to pick up its momentum without breaking the bank (which I’ll cover another time). It’s never going to be the front-runner for the industry at large, but as Quest becomes more and more focused on a fresh new wave of social experiences for younger audiences, alternative platforms become increasingly vital for traditional developers.
And that matters. VR isn’t just a place for younger audiences that want to play with friends. It’s a place where I can discover my favorite worlds in-person, meet and become characters I’ve idolized, and star in my own blockbuster. It’s a place where I can play a videogame and be active at the same time, or complete a puzzle with my Dad from hundreds of miles away.
All of that stuff matters too, and PlayStation is an important part of that identity.
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Jamie Feltham has 10+ years of experience working in VR, first covering the industry for a number of publications including UploadVR, where he created the UploadVR Showcase. After handling biz dev for HTC Vive and global PR & marketing for Fast Travel Games, Jamie founded the VR Games Showcase, the premiere digital showcase for VR game announcements and updates. You can follow @VRGamesShowcase on YouTube to get ready for the next VRGS events. Jamie can be reached at jamie@thevrshowcase.com.
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