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PSVR 2 Discount More Than Doubled Usual Sales Volume, But Quest Still Leads

From roadtovr

PSVR 2 got its first big sale the other week which resulted in a large lift in sales volume for the headset in the US.

At $550 MSRP, PSVR 2 is actually more expensive than the PS5 console that powers it, at $500. That’s made it a tough sell for some, especially with Quest 3, its nearest  competitor, priced at $500 and not requiring a tethered console.

Demand for Sony’s VR headset may be greater than it appears however, with many seemingly willing to buy once the price is right.

Sony discovered this after its first big sale on PSVR 2 the other week, which dropped the price of the headset alone to $350 (37% discount), and the price of the Horizon bundle to $400 (a 33% discount).

In just the week or so that the sale was active, we can see that sales volume for headset more than doubled on Amazon US compared to the prior months.

PSVR 2’s short-lived Summer sale may tell us something about the forthcoming holiday period, the time of year when the most VR headsets are sold and the biggest sales are generally seen. Sony now has a clear idea of how much its headset sales could ramp up if it offers the same deal during the holiday, or perhaps an even better one.

While the discount appears to have resulted in a nice boost in unit sales for PSVR 2, to put things into perspective we can see that it’s still a far cry from the number of Quest 2 and Quest 3 units Meta has been selling.

Pico to Unveil New XR Product on August 20th in Special Event

From roadtovr

Pico Interactive today announced it’s getting ready to reveal “a new product” this month, promising to boost your “MR/VR experience to the next level.”

The device is slated to get its big reveal on August 20th. An image obtained by Antony Vitillo of Skarred Ghost maintains it will be revealed at 14:00 China Standard Time (local time here).

The company also teased the new headset in a separate X post yesterday, with the hashtags ‘Pico 4’ and ‘Upgrade’:

The tease suggests it will likely be another XR headset and not an optional accessory, although the mention of ‘upgrade’ isn’t conclusive.

Provided it’s indeed a new headset, a possible candidate could be the rumored Pico 4S, which was the subject of a leaked controller design back in March.

Less likely is Pico 5 or prospective Pico 5 Pro Max, both of which have been rumored since late last year. Since then, Pico parent company Byte Dance issued wide-reaching layoffs, which may have dampened its consumer ambitions—at least outside of Asia and possibly Europe where it has launched previous headsets.

HTC Cuts Vive XR Elite Price Ahead of New Headset Reveal

From roadtovr

HTC has reduced the price of Vive XR Elite, its flagship standalone headset, cutting it from $1,100 to $900.

The deal appears to only be available in the US, as Vive XR Elite is still selling for its launch price across other major regions—€1,449 in Europe and £1,299 in the UK.

Released in February 2023, Vive XR Elite was initially positioned as a Quest Pro competitor, offering up a compact and lightweight standalone design and mixed reality capabilities.

Shortly after its release, Meta closed the price gap, dropping Quest Pro from $1,500 to $1,000, essentially removing one of Vive XR Elite’s headlining features.

Photo by Road to VR

Now, at $900, it appears HTC is hoping to move Vive XR Elite stock in the US, or what has been the XR segment’s most performant market for consumer devices.

Additionally, the company is also holding two promotions for Vive XR Elite and Vive Ultimate Tracker bundles in the US, which end on August 31st. You’ll find both available on Vive.com.

  • VIVE XR Elite + Ultimate Tracker 3 trackers + 1 dongle for $1,398
  •  VIVE XR Elite + Ultimate Tracker 5 trackers + 1 dongle for $1,696

Meanwhile, HTC released a video late last month promising something “coming soon,” teasing what promises to be the next XR headset from the company.

While the company hasn’t revealed anything beyond that video, seen above, a supposed leak reported by tech analyst Brad Lynch suggests the headset may be more of an iterative design on Vive Focus 3—delivering what may be Vive Focus 4.

The reported leak maintains the next HTC headset will contain the same displays and optics as Vive Focus 3, however integrate the same Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 Gen 1 chipset used in Vive XR Elite, and also include built-in eye-tracking, USB-C DisplayPort Alt Mode, and work with Vive Focus 3’s accessories—all of which is unconfirmed.

Provided that leak is true, the company may be in danger of undercutting Vive XR Elite’s functionality, becoming a veritable Quest Pro to Meta’s Quest 3, which has a majority of the former’s functionality at  nearly half the price.

Magic Leap Lays Off Sales & Marketing Amid Report of “last ditch” Pivot to License AR Optics

From roadtovr

Storied AR headset unicorn Magic Leap has laid off its entire sales and marketing departments, making for around 75 jobs cut from its rolls.

Initially the focus of a Bloomberg report, Magic Leap has now confirmed the layoff round, stating the move was to adjust its strategy moving forward:

“Magic Leap has been evolving our go-to-market approach to better align with market dynamics and emerging opportunities, optimizing how we support our customers and our ecosystem,” Magic Leap told Bloomberg. “As part of this, we have consolidated our frontline engagement to our developer support and care teams. We will continue to actively support Magic Leap’s customers, developers and our large ecosystem through the Developer Support and Care teams.”

Citing two people familiar with the matter, Bloomberg reports Magic Leap has been struggling in recent months, as the company allegedly told employees earlier this year it would pivot from selling AR headsets to enterprise, and instead move to license its AR optics tech.

Magic Leap 2 | Photo by Road to VR

While no such plans have been made public, one of the insiders told Bloomberg it represented “a last-ditch effort” by leadership to salvage its remaining value. The other insider maintains laid-off employees will receive two months of severance pay, stating the layoff came “out of left field” despite the company’s recent struggles.

Founded in 2010, the Plantation, Florida-based company initially had high hopes it could pitch Magic Leap 1, its first headset released in 2018, to both consumers and enterprise. Priced at $2,300, the AR headset had difficulty gaining traction, forcing Magic Leap to pivot and drop its consumer-focused ambitions in mid-2020 amid the departure of CEO and co-founder Rony Abovitz. The company released Magic Leap 2 in late 2020 solely targeted at enterprise.

The company has amassed nearly $4.5 billion in funds to date, which included early investments from Google, Qualcomm, Alibaba, and AT&T. In late 2022, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund became majority stakeholder after injecting $450 million into the company. That country’s investment fund further pumped in an additional $590 million in January 2024.

More recently, Google announced earlier this summer it was forming a “strategic technology partnership” with Magic Leap, the details of which still aren’t well understood.

Considering Magic Leap’s recent layoff and further claims of potential optics licensing, it could potentially mean Google is looking to leverage some of Magic Leap’s waveguide tech in future AR hardware.

Meta Reportedly Targeting Quest 4 Launch in 2026, Vision Pro Competitor in 2027

From roadtovr

According to a report from The Information, Meta plans to release its next flagship consumer headset, Quest 4, in 2026. Meanwhile, a Vision Pro competitor—likely Quest Pro 2—is reportedly planned for 2027.

According to The Information’s Wayne Ma and Kalley Huang, Meta is planning two consumer-focused headsets for 2026. Codenamed Pismo Low and Pismo High, these are thought to represent Quest 4 and a more affordable Quest 4S (or whatever naming scheme Meta picks for a more affordable variant). That would be two years after the widely rumored launch of a more affordable ‘Quest 3S’ that’s expected to be revealed in September, and three years after the launch of Quest 3.

Beyond those headsets, Meta is also reportedly planning a Vision Pro competitor set for 2027, codenamed La Jolla. While the company’s first “pro” headset, Quest Pro, didn’t find much traction given its price and lack of some key capabilities, Apple’s $3,500 Vision Pro has busted open the price ceiling.

That could make even a $2,000 pro headset from Meta look affordable. At the same time, Apple has paved a clear path for what productivity in an XR headset looks like, which Meta has been rapidly adopting.

In the backdrop however, Meta is reportedly tightening its belt on its XR and metaverse organization, Reality Labs. According to The Information, Meta is trying to cut Reality Labs spending by 20%, following years of costs far outpacing revenue.

Image created by Road to VR, data courtesy Meta

This has coincided with some reshuffling of the inner workings of Reality Labs, including laying off “more than a dozen directors and vice presidents in Reality Labs,” The Information’s report claims.

The report also claims Meta plans to launch its first augmented reality glasses next year, but curiously specifies that it will have a display only “in the right lens” of the glasses, suggesting perhaps an advanced pair of smartglasses (Meta Ray-Ban 3?) more than full AR.