PlayStation VR headset: The verdict - BBC News

Strategy Analytics forecasts that only 3% of Brits will own a VR headset this year and the PlayStation model will account for just 7% of that number. The bulk, it says, will instead own more basic "shells" into which they can slot a smartphone.

BBC Click's Marc Cieslak put the PS VR to the test and had reservations of his own.

[ArchangelMike]

Why does the news media always get some clueless journalist to review and comment on gaming technology and game news? That was just so uninformative I feel like I've been retarded in some way.

[The 10th Rider]

That just reminds me of this horrid review in our local paper for the movie "the Eagle." It complained that the Romans were barbarians, so they couldn't be the good guys, that there was no lead female character, and that they could simply forge another eagle so the lost legion could reform. Basically it was one long review of Roman culture. Bleh.

[ArchangelMike]

Brilliant film, The Eagle. I wasn't expecting much, but ended up really enjoying the twist in the story.

[DeeBeers]

I agree. People shouldn't be allowed to review things. Let us stop this intolerable trend. Only fanboys and robots and sentient machines designed to think like fanboys who were designed by robots may henceforth review consumer technology.

[ArchangelMike]

Sure, let any old uninformed talking head do video game reviews. Why not, because the point of a review is not to inform and educate, but just to stand in front of a camera flapping your mouth about a product you have zero interest in, and have no idea about the technology. smh.

[Apex13]

What did the journalist say or do that made them clueless or am I missing something because he didn't say it was perfect?

[TankCrossing]

It is relevant to their audience. BBC addresses pretty much the whole British nation, and there are a lot of people out there with maybe a passing interest in VR who will approach it from the same clueless position as this guy.

Mainstream media won't educate people like you or me on anything games related because we're enthusiasts who absorb as much information as we can from enthusiast sources. Articles like this can only provide us some insight on how the mainstream perceive things though, which can be interesting to observe.

[Aenea]

It wasn't that bad actually. Just missing the enthusiasm a bit I suppose and the silly wires stuff. Yes, lots of cables, but it isn't that much! There are only 5 of them I think and it's pretty straight forward and the manual is rather clear and the numbered cables help too.

It just misses something tho, it's not negative, not positive either, it was rather neutral with mentioning some small negatives, the cables and set up mostly and that it isn't perfect yet, still he said it was one of the best VR solutions at the moment. Again, I missed the enthusiasm, what I mean is, is that you can't really say stuff like "the green screen will show what I see" since it's not entirely correct, your experience is in 3d which is fricking awesome, what you see on the flat tv output seems very normal...

[rainslacker]

Well, BBC would be approaching it from the viewpoint of the layman who wouldn't care to have as much detail as us hardcore gamers would, so the "clueless guys" perspective may be relevant.

That being said, it'd be nice if they did at least have enough technical knowledge to describe it properly.

Sadly, this is likely only the beginning of the clueless mainstream media's take on the device. If it becomes a big thing, it'll only get worse. Best example I can make is just how clueless and sensational GG became due to mainstream media's inept and unresearched reporting....which to be fair wasn't helped by some in the gaming press doing their irresponsible reporting....but I digress.

Maybe PSVR will get lucky, and a lot of the layman reports will actually be greatly impressed by it, and random reporters feeling ill from it won't be blown up into huge proportions, and the press will actually warn people in a responsible way that it often goes away soon after you use it a bit never to return, or that some games may be more prone to causing such things, and that people should try it out....along with how to be responsible in controlling your gaming intake until you get used to it.

Somehow though, I don't think that's going to happen, because the media does love it's sensationalism.

[REDGUM]

There's 64 million people in the UK.
3% = 1.92 million sales in just under 3 months.

That's pretty good in my books!

[ballisticvoodoo]

Excellent point. Of course the media wont' say 1.92 million sales. They'd rather water it down with "only 3%".

[Valkron1]

Don't mind me watering it down a bit, but they said PSVR would account for 7%.
7% of 1.92 million is 134,400.
It's not bad, just not a huge seller.
And down votes for math starts..........NOW!

[Rimeskeem]

@Valkron1

Also, there have been around 3 million PS4s sold in Britain as of March (couldn't find any other info). If we take the 134,000 and divide 3,000,000 (3,000,000/134,000) = 22(ish). So 1 of every 22 PS4 owners in Britain will own PSVR.

[G20WLY]

^You guys are all absolutely right. Media wish to downplay with the same stats that show a promising start. retain isn't a huge market, so 134,400 is a great number as a portion of 3 million and all expected within the before end of 2016!

What does surprise me - and I can't help doubting a little - is the 7% of VR sales going to PSVR. If they're talking about the next 3 months, I don't believe it - it's obviously going to sell tonnes more than Rift or Vive and, outside buying Cardboard to see what the fuss is about, I can't see droves buying the cheap stuff like Samsung Gear. You're either up for VR or you're curious.

If they mean 7% of the WHOLE year, however, I can see that being reasonable, as only 3 months remain and that would be inline with the negative picture the media like to opt towards for headlines. What would be fairer, would be to look at what portion of VR will go to PSVR for the remainder of 2016.

[rainslacker]

I wouldn't take the numbers as gospel right now. It's a predictive number for how many people will own some sort of VR device, not an actual sell through on what's been sold.

Assuming the numbers are right though, one can say 134K based on people's math, but 150K would likely be a more logical number, since Sony is likely to only ship that many to the UK this year....or maybe 200K. Apparently retailers won't be getting restocked after the initial allotment until November, so shortages of the device are likely already happening.

Overall 134-150K isn't a terrible number for the UK. It's new tech, hasn't been advertised that heavily yet, and will have limited supply. So long as it keeps growing, and drives interest then it's probably going to be considered successful.

Using the same maths, we could say that these same analyst are predicting that smart phone VR is going to be in the 1.5+ million range if we make some assumption on OR/Vive sell through, which kind of defies logic since smart phone users aren't prone to buying auxiliary peripherals that don't involve the listening of music or using their smart phone in ways that aren't related to gaming.

but realistically, if VR can manage to capture 3% of a market so quickly, it means good things for VR going forward, so long as people's perceptions of it aren't turned off by their experience with whatever means they decide to partake in the technology. For instance, if one got Google Cardboard, it may make the experience less than compelling if they don't really research the games(which many may not because they're more casual), so that may form their position on VR for another decade until the tech gets another go around or the VR of now takes off to a point people decide to give it another go.

[s45gr32]

What was the verdict of PS VR because the article hid it away

[G20WLY]

They love it like the rest of Earth!

[Jayszen]

This journalist clearly is not a gamer and is prone to over-dramatisation such as with his crack about "wiring a building" or something like that. Yes, there is a fair amount of cabling but Sony has made it so easy to attach the PSVR to your console that even a child can do it so clearly this journalist is not as smart as a child. Of course wiring in this day and age of wireless hardware is inconvenient but the PSVR is part of the FIRST generation of VR hardware and as the industry matures, the hardware will get better and I am sure we are not too far away from a wireless headset. All three major brands of PSVR, the Rift and the Vive are encumbered with wiring.

No mention of what games are available for PSVR and why it represents the best chance of VR succeeding, Just a look at a couple of games and not even the best of them which are Driveclub VR, Rigs or Eve Valkyrie as well as a brace of other smaller games.

BBC should do better!

[andibandit]

BBC's audience arent really characterized as gamers, they are problably regular people who would problably have the same impression, as the guy doing the review had.

[DivineAssault]

Well I dont expect casuals to buy it so that narrows the market.. Still, I think PS4 owners surely are interested..

[rainslacker]

I think PSVR is more likely to sell to the casuals than OR or Vive. Not just on price alone, but since Sony will be marketing it as a console. That alone will get people's attention. Samsung has been advertising GearVR pretty heavily, and they've been getting sales because of it. Even Google is doing more marketing for Cardboard, and it's been a popular option....particularly among the casuals. Vive and OR have no casual marketing, and I'd be surprised if you could find anyone outside gamer forums who even know what they are, or could tell you much about them.

I don't think Sony is targeting it at the casuals for now though. But I'd imagine if they're already making a profit on the hardware, that the price could easily reach a mainstream acceptance point within a year or two, at which time, Sony will likely be the most thought of console VR solution since OR and Vive can't compete on price, and Facebook overall is probably going to take a different approach with OR. I also don't think that OR and Vive are even competing with the console VR market right now, although they obviously wouldn't turn away the chance to have their hardware sold there if it's made available like with the Scorpio. But they'll have to have it ready out of the gate, because the longer Sony has the console VR market to themselves, the more they become known for it, and the bigger their support for games will become.

[DivineAssault]

You have a point.. I still think gamers that are looking for something new instead of better graphics will turn toward it too though.. Thats why i bought it and trust me, dropping $400 wasnt an easy choice..