Sony Promising PS5 Support For PSVR Gives VR A Clear Future

Contrary to conventional wisdom, the best-selling consumer electronics products aren’t necessarily a company’s latest or highest-end products; mass-market customers often gravitate instead towards affordable models with good enough performance. That’s the reason game console makers keep last-generation models around after launching superior sequels: as long as there’s a promise of at least token continued support, “old” hardware is still viable.Yesterday, Sony officially embraced that strategy for its 2.5-year-old virtual reality headset PlayStation VR, and in so doing may have saved a great device from an unnecessarily early death. PSVR has spent almost half of its relatively short life clouded by premature discussions of a sequel, and it’s clear that many potential PSVR customers considered the investment a leap of faith — particularly at the tail end of the PlayStation 4’s life cycle.Even so, PSVR managed to become the world’s most popular tethered VR headset: over 4.2 million units had been sold as of last month, with continued sales attributable to price drops and an increasingly spectacular software catalog. Yet with an installed base of over 90 million PlayStation 4s, the VR headset clearly could be selling even better. With a mass-market-friendly $199 price tag, the only thing it was missing was a guaranteed future.