According to a new bit out by the WSJ which was reported on by Gamasutra, Sony is looking to expand the presence of PlayStation VR.

 Sony will start pushing its PlayStation VR virtual reality headset as a commercial device after making “slower-than-expected” progress in the consumer arena, according to a Wall Street Journal report citing people familiar with the matter.

Sony’s video game wing has established a “location-based entertainment” unit tasked with leading the commercial VR charge and finding partners in various industries, the report said. 

Reading the above piece might make you think that Sony wants to utilize PSVR in different commercial fields like say business or medical but that’s not all that’s happening. Instead, Sony will target

 video game arcades and theme parks 

The idea here is that PSVR sales are going slower than what many had anticipated so Sony is looking to pursue new avenues, which is both accurate and not.

 By February this year around 915,000 PlayStation VR headsets had been sold. That put Sony on track to meet its internal target of selling 1 million devices in six months. 

As PSVR sales figures go, they’re exactly in line with what Sony had predicted, which isn’t exactly reflected by the way Gamasutra’s article is put together. Reading their piece, you’d think PSVR sales aren’t what Sony expected and this was a reactionary move on their end to gain traction which might not be entirely off, given the right context.

Even if PSVR sales were double what Sony expected to sell, the move to bring PlayStation VR into more public places is a great one. Right now if you want to demo PSVR or any other VR device, you either have to visit a GameStop or Best Buy store, narrowing its availability.

By bringing PSVR to much more public spaces that see more diverse foot traffic, Sony will have the opportunity to expand the reach of who they delight, expanding beyond the typical techie and gamer audience which are currently its core users.

If VR is to succeed like the smartphone or PC, it needs to grow beyond its initial target audience and by bringing PSVR to more public spaces where people can try it first hand, Sony is hopefully speeding up the headset’s adoption. That’s a move that makes sense no matter what PSVR sales figures are.