As of this writing, PSVR2 is on sale until January 2 for $349.99 across multiple retailers, including Best Buy, Target and Amazon. I just bought mine via PlayStation Direct, and I’m talking about the Horizon: Call of the Mountain bundle, specifically.
The standalone PSVR2 unit is also $349.99, so if for some weird reason you already own a wayward copy of Call of the Mountain and no accompanying virtual reality unit to play it on, then yeah, go that route. I’d urge you to then write a sprawling think piece about how you found yourself in such an odd predicament.
So yes, almost two years after its initial release, I’m finally caving and buying a PSVR2. This particular Horizon bundle was originally priced at $600, which is—in my opinion—an insane ask for a piece of proprietary hardware that I still consider a quirky novelty. The first PSVR, a device Sony sent me ages ago for review, sits abandoned inside a drawer, a jumbled mess of inconvenient cords and motion controllers. The clunky processing unit is in there, too. A cursed thing.
It’s not that I haven’t felt the urge to extricate my PSVR from its entertainment center tomb over the last few years, not at all. I have a decent collection of VR games sitting on my PlayStation account, some of which I’ve never even played, but the idea of dragging out all those cords and hooking them up…well, it feels too heavy a burden for this Forbes blogger to bear. Ah yes, the most First World of First World problems: Shouldering the inconvenience of cumbersome tech installation.
From the looks of things, PSVR2 is much more streamlined than PSVR. This time around, there’s only a single USB-C cable to contend with; gone is all the jerry-rigged camera nonsense of the PS4 headset. On that note, I am kicking myself for not grabbing one of the free PS5 camera adapters while they were still available on Sony’s website last month. Oh well, I guess I’ll just have to buy an adapter off Amazon if I want to use my old PSVR on my PS5/PS5 Pro, or boot up my old PS4 Pro as I’m some dirty peasant. And hey, one of the reviews for the third-party Amazon adapter says it’s ‘better than the second coming of Jesus Christ’, so that’s great.
And truthfully, PSVR’s walled software garden was what initially scared me away. The glaring lack of backward compatibility—I still find it rather unacceptable. Now that PSVR2’s price is almost half-off, though, it’s a little easier to stomach, yet I’m still not entirely on board. It’s really the promise of Metro Awakening and Behemoth that have convinced me to take the plunge at $349, although admittedly, I’m looking forward to trying out Call of the Mountain.
Sony stopped manufacturing PSVR2 back in March of 2024, purportedly in an attempt to clear out excess stocked units. I’m guessing the holiday sale is a continuation of this clearance, although it remains to be seen if production will start up again, maybe if enough people properly enlist before January.
As stated above, new games are making their way to the platform, if at a snail’s pace, so the headset hasn’t been left to die just yet. A perfect time swoop in and take advantage of lower prices, really. It reminds me of when Circuit City was going out of business in the early 2000s. Man, did I clean up on Dreamcast games.
Then there’s the recent addition of hand-tracking, which could be part of Sony’s gradual move toward a totally controller-free PSVR2 experience. I think most VR will probably end up in this realm at some point anyway, so it’s good to see a forward-thinking update like this. Also of note is the recently released PC adapter, which opens up Steam’s VR library for play on PSVR2. Down the road, I might grab one of these.
We’ll see where Sony takes PSVR2 in the coming year, and while virtual reality has a long way to go in terms of mainstream acceptance, I’m happy to plunk down a pile of Christmas cash to see what’s been cooking on the present generation of PlayStation headset immersion.
Did anyone else snag a PSVR2 during the sale? I’d be interested in knowing. Once I receive the hardware, I’ll publish my impressions, if I’m not motion sick and vomiting a jolly stream of fruitcake and eggnog onto the local church’s nativity scene, of course. That Amazon reviewer wouldn’t be happy with me. I can’t disappoint him.
