In an interview with The Nikkei, Sony Interactive Entertainment said PlayStation VR would see a massive increase in its library this year. The VR headset, the most affordable of the major competitors, has received a great deal of support from Sony. Enough that it's safe to say it’s less of a gimmick than the Kinect.
After a year and three months, the PSVR has sold more than 2 million units, enough to convince studios to feasibly create VR titles. Sony is confident its VR headset can expect PSVR-compatible titles to increase by 80 percent in 2018, from 150 games to 280. Sony also announced a rise in PSVR sales occurred near the end of last year due to a price cut on the peripheral in October.
Sony hopes the increased PSVR user base and support from third-party developers results in a cycle that is profitable both for Sony and gamemakers. Ideally, people will want to play PSVR games enough to buy hardware, and those that already have the device will want to buy the games coming out.
Unfortunately, there's no real killer app that's exclusive to PSVR. While there's a ton of really cool games, there’s yet to be a genuine system seller. Games like Skyrim VR and Rez can be found in 2D forms on the PlayStation 4, without the need for additional hardware.
PSVR has only been around for a little over a year and it's understandable that studios are still working on the best way to use the hardware. It takes a different approach to design games for VR. However, studios like Bethesda are learning how to adapt its existing titles to VR without making it an entirely miserable experience.
I'm eager to see what's in store for the PSVR this year. Virtual reality has the potential to change the way we play games, and once the platform matures, I believe there will be some real game of the year material made for VR. For now, though, early adopters will get to have fun seeing the hits and misses of VR in its fledgling years.
