VR is dead! Or: VR is the future! Depending on which of these two schools of thought you belong to, I hope I’ve piqued your curiosity to read on. Now, after this black and white introduction, we continue with the terribly bland shades of gray that claim: VR is neither nor!
Even the biggest critic of VR, once he has slapped a pair of virtual reality glasses in front of his face and got started (after often having a great desire to throw up due to motion sickness at first), will probably admit that it was a (not anymore ) is a whole new, unique gaming experience. You’re right in the middle of the action, the controllers are high-quality, the movement controls suddenly make so much more sense than they ever could have done in the Wii days, and even simple gaming experiences can become great cinema. But: the VR spectacle is complicated. Even with wireless glasses – and in terms of performance correspondingly limited devices like the Meta Quest 2 – you need a good bit of space in your apartment or house if you don’t just want to play while sitting. Putting on bulky glasses instead of just lounging in front of the TV with the controller in your hand in the evening is a great effort to overcome. And yes, some people just get sick of VR gaming, even on the 20th try and with a well-executed VR experience.
That’s why, despite all the predictions, virtual reality never became the big hype, the “future of gaming” or even the “future of entertainment”. On Multi-billion dollar loss at Meta’s VR division sing a song about it. VR is niche and will remain so for a while.
But of course there is a “but”: This niche is quite large, and it is primarily occupied by Meta Quest 2 and Playstation VR in addition to significantly smaller players. And the inhabitants of this niche are loyal! Those who play VR often do so very, very regularly, and those who release high-quality virtual reality titles are also rewarded with very high sales in proportion to the amount of VR headsets in circulation.
The big, small VR niche
Much too long an introduction in a nutshell: Although Playstation VR was successful in its field, but also only a niche, there was a good reason for Sony to rely on a successor despite manageable profits. Because VR didn’t come to take over the gaming helm, but it did to stay.
Playstation VR 2 finally tried: This is what VR should feel like! (6)
Source: PC Games/Kamann Sun
Unlike the first Playstation VR from 2016, Sony is taking a slightly different approach this time. The first glasses were of high quality, but technically, also considering that VR was still quite young, only average. The resolution of the built-in screens was low, umpteen cables provided limited user mobility, you needed a Playstation camera and (often) the Playstation Move controllers, which were already very outdated at the time, to play.
Playstation VR 2, on the other hand, is much more in the direction of a premium device. That was already clear when looking at the pure data, but it was also evident now when I was allowed to immerse myself in virtual reality at Sony in Frankfurt. By the way, I played one Demo for Horizon: Call of the Mountain, you can read my impressions in a separate article starting tomorrow, which I will also link here.
Playstation VR 2: Technology
But this is only about the glasses. By the way, please don’t expect any precise information or explanations of technical details from me, such as why the Schrömpliplömp processor is significantly better than the Hubbelbubbel four-core flux capacitor, I can’t help with such specialist knowledge.
I offer you a field report based on my fairly large previous knowledge of VR, but I have one for those with an affinity for technology the official basic PSVR2 data from the Playstation Blog also packed again here in the article.
Playstation VR 2 finally tried: This is what VR should feel like! (17)
Source: Playstation Blog
Playstation VR 2 finally tried: This is what VR should feel like! (18)
Source: Playstation Blog
Playstation VR 2: The controllers
Gone are the days of cables dangling everywhere. PSVR2 now only connects to the PS5 with a single – comfortably long – USB-C cable. The Playstation Camera is also no longer needed as a sensor, and unlike the predecessor, two high-quality controllers are included, each for one hand. My Playstation contact described the control units as “a dual sense, just in two parts”.
