Even Sony's Takeshi Soeda doesn't dare to easily say that it's going smoothly. How can PS VR open up a new path in China?

The news of PS VR landing in China has become a hot topic in the domestic game industry. In order to make the road of PS VR in China smoother, Sony has not only carried out more suitable bundled sales and online pre-orders, but also reached an in-depth cooperation with Star Travel to launch an offline experience project based on PlayStation and PlayStation VR, and opened the experience ceremony on July 27.

Faced with such a smooth development situation, Sony Interactive Entertainment (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. President Taketo Soeda did not dare to easily give a positive attitude to future development. So, how should PS VR, which has just entered China, develop?

The marketing model is still in a blank exploration period

Although the popularity of the VR industry in China is obvious to all, many potential drawbacks are also becoming increasingly apparent. Not to mention the lack of content, how to monetize and transform the popular VR concept into actual profit has become a difficult problem for many manufacturers. Although the hardware equipment of VR pioneers such as HTC has long been selling well, the profits on their financial reports have not grown too much or too fast.

For the domestic VR industry, the mere hype of concepts has left the VR marketing model in a blank state. Even when PS VR began to enter the domestic market, there was no good solution.

Soeda Taketo believes that there is no correct marketing model for VR products, and VR itself is still being explored. VR is not just about games, but also about life. For the Chinese version of PS VR, experience is the best promotion tool, so Sony PS VR will focus on offline channels to expand the user base through experience, and cooperate with online marketing to achieve dual promotion.

In fact, the domestic VR environment is rather special, with hardware products always taking precedence over software content. Therefore, marketing is often conducted in a single manner, such as promoting hardware and emphasizing configuration performance. The bad experience brought about by inferior content has also caused this approach to fall into a quagmire.

Experience is a relatively slow promotion model for VR, but for Sony, it may be the most correct way today. However, it still needs everyone to discover it together.

Content flaws become a stumbling block for the VR industry in its early stages

For the Chinese version of PlayStation, content is always a major flaw. Even for VR, foreign content is insufficient, let alone the Chinese version. This is why Uncle Wu Ren dare not easily say that everything is going well.

Although VR products had more time to prepare for the domestic market, achieving the amazing milestone of simultaneous global release, many people were reluctant to buy the game when it was released on October 13. Due to special domestic requirements, many games were difficult to import immediately, which made many people hesitate.

However, the global unified specifications + 1-year warranty do not limit the desire of domestic parallel import players to purchase. Although this may also be a way for Sony to make up for the lack of content that may lead to insufficient VR sales, it is ultimately a temporary solution and cannot fully help the development of the domestic market.

Taketo Soeda said that future VR games will be able to mobilize the most natural reactions of the human body, and there are still only a few such games at present. However, due to the emergence of the China Star Project and Sony's continuous efforts, it is hoped that the domestic products will be enriched when they are launched on the market. However, it is obviously a bit exaggerated to take a big step forward, but the most basic goal is double digits.

In fact, VR technology has matured and the industry seems to be booming, but it is ultimately only in its early stages. Just as when the PS4 was released, there was not enough content, which led to many games still developing PS3 versions, the initial sales of the industry do not actually mean anything.

With the development of the industry, high-quality VR content will continue to emerge, and effective marketing and promotion will become increasingly mature. As a company with technical support, a large number of content developers and more than 40 million PS4 users, the development of PS VR may go a step further. Of course, for the Chinese version, the convenient condition of global unified specifications may also drive a new round of sales of the Chinese version of PS4.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.