Poll Do you trust Sony with the PlayStation VR? (79 votes)
Everyone knows I'm pretty pumped for VR, and by extension, the PlayStation VR (because it is the only VR platform I can actually feasibly try lol). I'm pumped enough that for a while there, I did consider waiting on the NX and just getting the PSVR this year instead. VR seems to be the next big thing, an evolution of gaming, and Sony is making it accessible at a far more mass market price than the other players. And this is a Sony product- I have no doubts it will be well made, and extremely pleasing to use, too.
This topic is not about that- this topic is instead about whether we trust Sony to be able to support the PlayStation VR and honor their consumers' purchases or not. It's a fair question to ask- Sony have a long line of failed peripherals and side projects, that they lost interest in when they did not take off right away. The most memorable, and most important from our perspective, are the PlayStation Eye, PlayStation Move, and PlayStation Vita.
I hear your objection already- Sony is treating the PSVR as their next major platform. There is no way they would let it wither on the vine, and just let it die out like they did with Move or Vita!And you'd be right... except you're not. See, this was the exact sentiment that Sony expressed back when they first announced the PlayStation Move, too. 'We're approaching this like a virtual platform launch,' Sony's Peter Dille had said. Multiple companies and partners were announced, and Sony had hoped the Move would become the go to motion control platform for gamers. This was before it launched, Sony lost interest in it, support faltered, sales plummeted, and Sony abandoned it.
The PS Vita is an even worse story- unlike the PlayStation VR or the PlayStation Move, it wasn't like a platform launch... it was a platform launch. Sony dropped $50 million on the Vita launch. The Vita was supposed to lead Sony's games strategy for three years. Sony promised that they would not drop support for it in favor of the console- "In the past we launched PSP and then shifted our attention to PS3 when that came on the horizon, which we now concede was a mistake. So with PS Vita we are working on this huge range titles and planning ahead for a constant supply of excellent games," Yoshida said. We all know how the Vita turned out- it came out with minimal marketing, minimal game support, and then was promptly relegated to being a 'legacy' system just three years after its launch.
My point here is, we have no reason to believe that the PlayStation VR will be any different- how do we know that Sony is not just using it as a jumping point for another cool technology, like they did with the Move, like they did with the Eyetoy, like they did with their 3D gaming ventures, and that they won't forget about it so quickly? Sony is quick to call the PSVR a new platform launch- but they said the same for previous products, and they were only too willing to let them die.
You know how the success of a Sony product is decided, whether or not Sony calls it a 'major platform?' It is decided by the game support- I mean major in house first party game support. If Sony's premier development teams support a new product, then Sony indeed views that product as a new platform on par with their flagship consoles. Basically, will Polyphony release a new game for this product? Will Sony Santa Monica? Naughty Dog? The answer to these questions was 'no' for the PS Move, it was 'no' for the PS Vita, and so far, it appears to be 'no' for the PSVR, too.
In which case- do you really have confidence that it will actually be supported by Sony? VR is a cool new frontier, and the sheer novelty is enough to sell people on these headsets- but would you actually be willing to drop $400 on a new 'platform' that Sony may drop support for just years later? Especially when not even a year ago, Sony dropped support for a $300 new platform just two years after it launched?
It's food for thought, but it is something that strengthens my resolve, personally speaking, to wait it out with the PSVR. For all I know, it's a new Move, Vita, or worse, Kinect.
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