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Sales of the PlayStation VR headset, released in October, have
"exceeded our expectations," Atsushi Morita, president of Sony
Interactive Entertainment Japan Asia, said in an interview.
"We are boosting production and a supply shortage should be
solved accordingly," Morita told Reuters.
The sales momentum supports analysts' view that Sony is in a
good position to build an early lead in the high-end VR headset
race with its more modest price tag and by tapping the nearly 60
million users of its flagship PlayStation 4 console.
The headset, designed to work with the PlayStation 4 rather than
requiring new equipment, retails at $399, cheaper than Facebook
Inc's $599 Oculus Rift and HTC Corp's $799 Vive.
According to researcher IDC, about 2 million VR headsets were
shipped worldwide in the first three months of 2017. Excluding
cheaper smartphone-based headsets, Sony ranked top with 429,000
units.
Morita stressed it was still the beginning of Sony's long-term
vision of VR eventually taking over functions offered by
television sets.
"I believe that VR technology is the (greatest) innovation since
the birth of television," he said. "VR allows you to travel to
World Heritage sites or to space while staying at home. It's
like a time machine or a door to anywhere."
(Reporting by Makiko Yamazaki and Yoshiyasu Shida; Editing by
Christopher Cushing)
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