Why I Sold My PlayStation VR (And Pre-Ordered A Nintendo Switch)

I love PSVR. There, I said it. From a technical point of view Sony’s first foray into virtual reality has been an immensely successful one, creating the most cost effective entry point to the technological frontier, in what is arguably also its most consumer-friendly form. Let’s face it, PSVR looks like the kind of futuristic electronic device that Steven Lisberger envisioned when he was creating Tron, and compared to the staid monochromatic offerings from HTC and Oculus it’s a phenomenal piece of design technology. Having said that, I’m done with it. For now at least.

As with any new console technology I always want to be there on the first day. When you think of those poor saps who choose to deal with the feature-impoverished, clunky, erratic behaviour of launch day hardware, you’ll find me at the front of the line, paying through the nose to be the first to try it out. PSVR was a wonderful surprise in that sense, with a straightforward and clear set-up, and technology that basically just worked at a price point that it’s rivals must have looked at with abject fear. This wasn’t another Kinect – either the first or the second – but a genuine VR revelation that ran quite happily on a standard PS4.

Let’s not forget the games. My favourite titles of last year included a number of the PSVR’s early hits, including Tethered, Thumper and Rez Infinite, while big hitters like EVE: Valkyrie and Robinson: The Journey sold me on the incredible immersion that the format was capable of. These games were, and are, utterly deserving of anyone’s time, and if you’re a fan of gaming you owe it to yourself to check at least a couple of them out.

But it all feels too familiar. Sony have a history of putting out some amazing pieces of technology, but their failure to support them is almost as remarkable. Most recently we’ve had to watch the support for the PS Vita unceremoniously dry up, brought about in part by the closure of the studios behind a number of the console’s best exclusives. The closure of Guerrilla Cambridge last month, the team behind PSVR exclusive RIGS: Mechanised Combat League, has set those same alarm bells ringing.

The PlayStation Experience event at the end of last year did little to assuage any of those worries. Just as hopeful PS Vita owners had to sit through numerous E3 conferences with little word of anything coming out for their prized possession, there was little there to show what PSVR owners can expect in 2017. Sure, there was Dino Frontier and Starblood Arena, but this was the undoubtedly the opportunity to cement the PSVR’s future. While there have been some fantastic games for it thus far, it has to be said that a number of them are more experiential tech demos than fully fledged games. Sony needed to show that there was a meaningful future for their headset and they simply haven’t.

It’s possible at this point that we’ve already seen the biggest release of the year for the format in Resident Evil 7 – the announcement that some of that game’s DLC doesn’t work with Sony’s headset feels a little unusual. Sure, Farpoint might have a decent shot at taking the title, while bringing back some Wii-esque plastic peripherals, but the PS4’s AAA releases have, at most, “PSVR experiences” to satiate those who’ve parted with their cash.

So with that backdrop, and having played everything that had interested me in the format up to now, I’ve sold up. Thanks to the poor lines of supply from Sony, I got back every single penny I’d spent on the headset, making the whole decision relatively free of guilt. If Sony proves me wrong – and I genuinely hope they do – I won’t really lose out on anything if I pick one up again in the future.

And here I am again at the front of the queue, putting money on Nintendo and the Switch. They’ve arguably had similar problems in the last few years, but not for want of their own  trying, rather that they haven’t been able to convince third party developers to invest any time of their own. In the case of the Wii U it still amounted to a a release schedule bereft of anything for months on end, and an early exit for what remains a clever, if often confusing, piece of hardware.

But I have to be there on the ground floor, on day one, trying it out. In terms of software we already know that it’s woefully under-supported at launch, but there’s a steady stream of AAA games that are due throughout the rest of this year. We already know that it doesn’t have any streaming apps, despite being the perfect kind of hardware for them. Maybe we’ll get them, maybe we won’t, but on launch day it looks as though the system is going to be the purest games console we’ve had for a long time, for better or worse.

The thing is, I’m fairly certain that as a fan of Nintendo games, the Switch is going to be a hit with me. My Wii U is still sat merrily under the TV, and won’t be moving when its younger sibling arrives anyway thanks to a huge range of fantastic, exclusive games that my family will return to for many years to come. As it stands, I can’t see the PSVR having that same legacy, despite all of the things it gets so right.

Written by
TSA's Reviews Editor - a hoarder of headsets who regularly argues that the Sega Saturn was the best console ever released.

26 Comments

  1. It’s sad but true, I didn’t buy into Playstation vr because I expected them to release it and fail to continue to support it. Right now it’s looking like my decision is justified.

  2. Until it gets more games like RE7 and DiRT Rally which are fully playable in VR, I’m not particularly interested.

    It’s either an accessory or a platform, and if it develops into being the latter I doubt it will take off as there won’t be rafts of developers wanting to specifically create a game for a device with much lower sales figures than any console around at the moment.

    I’m curious what will happen later in the year at E3. Sony could deliver an ensemble of support, but it feels unlikely. Microsoft look set to introduce VR, potentially with a much more powerful machine as the minimum requirement and a range of headsets that start around £100 cheaper. Interesting, but would it get any more support from devs than PSVR is getting at the moment.

  3. I Understand the whole selling the VR, I’m in 2 minds about selling mine as it’s a show off tech when guest come or when I play Resi, besides that I rarely use it.

    But to sell it for Nintendo switch though, switch is not justifiable at the moment, compared to current gen out, the only thing switch offers is great first party games.

  4. I’ve had a good play with a mates PSVR now along with another’s Oculus and am totally sold on the technology. I’d much rather get PSVR as the games I’ve played have generally been more fun, especially if more games like Keep Talking get made and Battlefront 2 and Elite have VR support. My worry is not getting my monies worth while there’s only a few games I want and I’m not sure waiting for a year will work as Sony likely will support it poorly, like 3D and the Vita.

  5. It sounds like a lot of people went into PSVR with unrealistic expectations.

    This is new tech at a very experimental stage so it doesn’t surprise me that there isn’t a great deal to play yet. I’m expecting Sony to focus on VR heavily at e3 as it looks like the headset has been a success so far.

    I should clarify that I personally have absolutely no interest in VR but, from what I’ve seen so far, the tech works, people seem to like it and RE7 has proven that AAA VR games are totally possible.

    • I think someone as informed as you will know that but the masses clearly won’t. In that case, it falls on Sony to communicate such a thing so people can make better decisions.

      Thing is, how do you sugar-coat “this is experimental stuff and there aren’t many games out, let alone ‘full’ games”?

    • yep agreed to see resi running on it has made me realise it is worth getting one.

  6. Clearly Dom is a traitor and will be hung from the highest yard arm.

  7. As I understand it, there is not enough of an install base yet to justify making AAA games for VR, you just wont get the return on your investment because their aren’t enough users available to buy the game.

    On “closed” platforms like PSVR and the Rift, this means that the platform owners need to subsidize the development of new games in exchange for timed-exclusivity, which is what is happening on the Rift, but with Sony’s history of not supporting their hardware, I’m wary of its future.

    This isn’t such an issue for “open” platforms like the Vive as anyone can write games for it, so there is always something new available, albeit of the ‘indie’ variety, which is fine for me and will hopefully keep the momentum going until the install base grows enough to justify AAA investment.

    Personally, I think the solution to this for now is for devs to release games that work with or without VR, such as RE7, so they aren’t totally reliant on a small user base, but can still make enough content to grow that base to the point that fully adopting it becomes profitable.

    tl;dr – Closed environments + Lack of subsidies = Bad

    • Doesn’t Vive, as PC hardware, have a few more games in its catologue too. Elite and PCars come to mind, where DK2 laid the foundations for devs to easily add further support. I can only dream of those two games in VR, would be fantastic.

      • It does indeed, mostly because there’s no barrier to entry, like the PS has.. Also, Elite in VR is literally breathtaking. It’s my most played game in VR by a long way and isnt even a VR-specific game, it was just added on later.

  8. I agree with what Tony and Avenger had said. For me I know it would end up sitting there and me not being bothered to either set it up or stand up to play games (appreciate that’s kinda lazy)!

    Futhermore the fact that it doesn’t use HDMI 2.0 over 1.4 is crazy. So if you’ve upgraded to a Pro and want to utilise HRD, you’ll have to unplug the PSVR and vice-versa when you want to use PSVR. This would just annoy the hell out of me – in this era of technology it’s an absurd oversight imo to have to keep switching cables. Plus these devices were released so close together.

    It does seem like a nice gimmick for most games to include a VR feature/level/demo, but a gimmick is all it seems to be so far, with the exception of RE7. But on that front the RE7 DLC omissions is also a worryingly early sign that a developer can’t be bothered with it.

  9. Sells PSVR because there aren’t any games… Buys a Nintendo Switch… ???

    I realise this is an opinion piece but why even mention the PSVR at all?

    Why not simply post a gushing article about how wonderful Nintendo are.

    • I guess it’s because it’s very much a personal piece as oppose to a journalistic affair. It’s to do with Dom allocating funds and realising that the PSVR could be sold and put towards something new – in this case, the Switch.

      I’m currently doing something similar where I think I’ll get a PS4 Pro and fund most of that by selling my PS4 (basic) although I appreciate my PS4 is still getting some use but you know what I mean. :-P

      I have to say, your first line made me smile. Ha! :D

      • There’s a big difference between not having a clue what Sony have really got planned for PSVR over the next 12 months and having a pretty steady stream of first party games coming out of Nintendo. No, there’s not a lot there on day one, but there’s something new every month after that, it feels like.

      • Oh, aye. I know Nintendo will do a decent job of churning out the titles. I just found the cheap jibe humorous. :D

  10. Well it is entirely up to you Dom. I am loving the PSVR but I do get the feeling that those who have the VR are a testers for Sony to see how much money has been made and or how much attention spread throughout friends/family and social media. I can’t help but think Sony will make a PSVR2 with PS5 to improve over this current gen. I do hate what they did with the Vita but I still hope the VR will build I think 2017 is the year for VR.
    There will be Dirt DLC aswell as DiRT 4, there is Battlefront 2 hoping for an awesome VR lightsabre fights, there’s Alien movie with VR support (not a whole movie, just one or two scenes with VR experience) so I can’t wait for this year after experiencing Resident Evil 7.
    Then there is YouTube with fan made films if they have the 360 camera tech!
    Oh not a fan of Nintendo Switch myself but I understand your situation. I wish money grows on trees lol I will not be getting Nintendo Switch as it doesn’t appeal to me and never own Wii U either so not my console type. I’ll stick with PS4, VR and Xbox 1.

    • Also forgot alot of games I haven’t tried out with VR such as tethered, Dollhouse, Robinsons, Headmaster, Driveclub etc…. just lack of money is the problem for me lol.

Comments are now closed for this post.