Rumors emerging yesterday regarding the future of PlayStation VR have proven to be true. During its CES 2022 conference, Sony shared new details on the PSVR 2 and its unique new controllers, officially dubbed the Sense Controllers. It’s still unclear what this new headset will cost or when it will hit the market, but if recent leaks are to be believed, it may come prior to the 2022 holiday season.
The PSVR 2 will feature an HDR OLED display with 2000 x 2040 pixels per eye, amounting to 15.7 percent more area than the Meta Quest 2. Players will enjoy a field-of-view of 110 degrees, and the new hardware will have four cameras on the headset that will track a user’s space without an external device. The first PlayStation VR headset required that players set up a webcam. The PSVR 2 will support 90Hz and 120Hz.
One major difference between the PSVR 2 and other VR headsets on the market is the inclusion of haptic feedback. Sony has suggested that this curious feature will allow players to “feel a character’s elevated pulse during tense moments, the rush of objects passing close to the character’s head, or the thrust of a vehicle as the character speeds forward.” Headsets will also include eye-tracking, which Sony claims will heighten technical benefits. Wherever a person’s pupil isn’t aimed, the headset will dynamically add blur and reduce pixel count. This will allow games to run at faster frame rates.
After discussing the system’s specs, Sony surprised audiences with a look at the first PSVR 2 game.
Horizon VR: Call of the Mountain, created by Guerrilla and Firesprite Games, will put players into the world of the beloved franchise. It’s unclear how users will interact with the world for now, but starting with such a huge property shows the confidence Sony has in this new generation of virtual reality.