VR market struggling to peak up steam, sales still falling despite huge investments

Grim5

Grim5

Grim5

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Sales of VR/AR headsets and games continues to struggle and limp along, the market is not yet showing growth that could justify its existence. Yet Meta and Apple continue to invest in the hope that something changes. Meta itself has spent $25 billion in the last two years and is now losing billions every quarter which is getting harder to justify to investors when sales numbers don't correlate with investment

www.cnbc.com

VR market keeps shrinking even as Meta pours billions of dollars a quarter into metaverse

Sales of VR headsets and AR glasses in the U.S. have plummeted nearly 40% this year, while Meta has invested billions of dollars into the technology
www.cnbc.com www.cnbc.com
 
I've been into VR since 2014, every year or so since then I recall there's been articles like this one and yet here we are 9 years later with several great ever better vr headsets on sale and some great games being released. There might be ebb and flow as manufacturers and game studios time their releases but VR is here to stay.
 
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Love the article. Market that has brand new headset incoming, quietened. They state it did actually pick up when the Q3 was released in October, and their data only goes up to November, so probably didn't include any sort of Christmas rush.
 
swillsy said:
Yeah the amount of people I know with headset has pretty much doubled in the last 3 years. Someone is buying stonks0
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I suspect there's a lot of headsets gathering dust and not generating any sales (especially bad as I suspect the hardware is heavily subsidised) . I'm a big PC gamer and my Quest 2 was amazing for a few weeks and then ended up in a drawer. It being a totally solo experience locally and nausea killed it for me.
 
I've a little visibility into the supply side of this, though I've got to fill in a few blanks as I can only see it from one angle - there are up-ticks in interest when something new/big comes along in the space, but between that it is definitely slumping. There was a significant stock build to retail going into this seasonal period but it isn't shifting off the shelves like they thought/hoped from what I can see and now discounts or promotions are being pushed through to try and shift stock.

The problem with VR generally is the convenience factor still just isn't there and it becomes a novelty for all but the most hardcore fast.
 
PCVR has certainly been struggling outside of sims (which fortunately continue to support VR, likely because it is quite easy in seated VR experiences).

Hopefully the unreal engine VR injector will be a shot in the arm for PCVR because if over night 100s of games suddenly get actually competent VR support without too much faffing around, many of which are already in peoples games libraries it may get more people plugging their headset in again.

MobileVR is a difficult one..... it is just too fragmented. OK Meta will likely still be around in 5 years time (though going on past history their name may have changed a few more times by then ;) ) but would i really throw money at say the pico store? its a shame no one has written a reVive equivalent for mobile VR to get all headsets able to access all store fronts. I know for me personally nothing puts me off buying software on a platform more than fragmentation.

if people are steadfast that they refuse to strap the headset to their face, well then that is their call but VR just isnt for them imo. i dont see how things could get much easier than grabbing a quest headset, turn it on, draw a quick box around your gaming area then you are good to go. it cant get much more convenient than that imo.
 
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I'll repeat a comment on Reddit about this article, the article apparently (i've not read it) references the timeframe when the Quest 2 price was up by £100/$100, it's a 2 year old hmd and many people were holding out for the Quest 3. The article also states (apparently) had they referenced year on year to October when the Quest 3 was released they'd be a increase in VR revenue.
 
tyke_ said:
I'll repeat a comment on Reddit about this article, the article apparently (i've not read it) references the timeframe when the Quest 2 price was up by £100/$100, it's a 2 year old hmd and many people were holding out for the Quest 3. The article also states (apparently) had they referenced year on year to October when the Quest 3 was released they'd be a increase in VR revenue.
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It talks about 2023. Q2 was old by that point, Q3 was known to be incoming, and it talks about data up until November. They do say there was an uptick in sales with the q3 release. However, it's going to be missing most the pre-christmas stuff, and people have shown that Amazon stores from around the world, have the q2 (both varieties) and the q3, as some of the highest selling "console" category items, and I believe that includes games etc.

Q2 significant price drop is I suspect, an effort to try and shift stock before the q3 "lite" is released, since I believe that had an aimed for price of $200, who's going to buy a q2 at that point, especially as they're around the 200 mark now as well.

VR is niche, but with over 20 million q2 sales before the q3 was released, and it's subsequent price drop, combined with q3 sales (there were shortages all over for the 512gb model I believe, and I suspect that wasn't being sold for a loss, given the big markup), that's a hell of a good market foothold. Even if a lot are mostly gathering dust or only getting weekly use. It's becoming more commonplace and getting the exposure, I don't see Meta dropping out of it any time soon, especially as they now have a decent marketplace to work in.
 
Thing is when they talk about companies like Meta ploughing large sums of money in, its mainly imho them trying to control the market not simply build it... so they are doing it in a way which suits them.

So I think what is happening is the rate of growth is shrinking not the overall size of the market, so if ur an investor then that might concern you or to put it another way how many Q3 owners were Q2 owners a lot I'd wager.
 
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BigBANGtheory said:
Thing is when they talk about companies like Meta ploughing large sums of money in, its mainly imho them trying to control the market not simply build it... so they are doing it in a way which suits them.

So I think what is happening is the rate of growth is shrinking not the overall size of the market, so if ur an investor then that might concern you or to put it another way how many Q3 owners were Q2 owners a lot I'd wager.
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I'd say most. But those q2's aren't going in the bin. I sold mine to someone else.

Meta are absolutely trying to capture the market, but whilst they still allow PCVR, they aren't creating a completely closed garden (unlike PSVR2 for instance). Yes, they're going to keep their exclusives as standalone only for some time I reckon (and if it's a system seller, why not), but standalone is a "gateway drug" to PCVR for those that can afford it. Those that can't afford it, wouldn't have got there anyway.
 
Yeah so you have
- Sony screwing about on their own closed platform
- Meta basically investing heavily in standalone but grudgingly allowing PC gaming whilst putting half worlds influencers on the payroll whilst going out of their way to not go for HQ hardware
- Apple interested in AR/MR adoption of iOS and productivity app development but not a consumer focused solution atm
- PCVR being well suited to simulators but niche in other areas, highest quality but super expensive Valve being secret squirrel and non committal

All during a cost of living and inflation crisis, its not surprising really. To the earlier point though I don't agree that the market is shrinking I just don't think its growing at the rate pitched at folks with the finance.
 
BigBANGtheory said:
All during a cost of living and inflation crisis, its not surprising really. To the earlier point though I don't agree that the market is shrinking I just don't think its growing at the rate pitched at folks with the finance.
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Albeit stuff like VR would be amongst the first things cut - but this cost of living crisis isn't stopping people buying shiny hardware, though I don't know how many are putting that on credit - there is talk of an impending debt problem.

The cost of living crisis can be quite strange as well - there are people who really are in a situation where they can't afford some essentials, but can afford some luxuries! and going without some luxuries doesn't materially help them afford some essentials - it really is that messed up in some situations.
 
Rroff said:
Albeit stuff like VR would be amongst the first things cut - but this cost of living crisis isn't stopping people buying shiny hardware, though I don't know how many are putting that on credit - there is talk of an impending debt problem.

The cost of living crisis can be quite strange as well - there are people who really are in a situation where they can't afford some essentials, but can afford some luxuries! and going without some luxuries doesn't materially help them afford some essentials - it really is that messed up in some situations.
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I think that is true in many cases though Im not sure VR goes too deep into that territory, but I've no data and am no expert its just an opinion
 
Meanwhile Amnesia, Robocop, Terminator Resistance and Hogwarts Legacy gets VR via the UEVR injector...

I bought all four recently solely because of VR, but the sales won't be credited as such just as with paid modules and expansions to MS Flight Sim and DCS hell even Resident Evil Village & CP2077 (which I still haven't played). My point is I doubt I'd have bought any of the games were it not for VR.... I should probably mention that in the Steam review so the devs wake up to what they might not have considered before.
 
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