The Sony PlayStation VR headset was a hit when it was released. This was another budget-friendly way to get into VR, and several games were released for the platform. However, Sony is looking to expand with VR, and as a result, the company is bringing out its second iteration of the VR headset. Sony’s PlayStation VR2 is set to launch in early 2023, but don’t pick this device up if you want to play past VR games.
Sony is releasing the PlayStation VR2 headset without the ability to play previous VR games. It’s all due to the company’s technological advancements on the headset. As a result, there doesn’t appear to be any efforts to ensure past games will run on the new VR hardware. To make things even bleaker for your original PlayStation VR game collection, ports won’t be easy. This news comes from Hideaki Nishino, the senior vice president of platform experience for Sony. Speaking in an interview with Famitsu, the individual commented on the upcoming PlayStation VR2 release.
According to Hideaki Nishino, the company put a lot of time into new controller tracking and what they call foveate rendering. This is a technology that will track your eyes and offer a higher resolution to the part of the displays being focused on. As a result, the system is quite different from the original hardware that Sony released for the PlayStation VR. Additionally, Hideaki notes that this new hardware will not make ports easy for developers.
With that said, it’s also said that porting won’t be impossible. But it does appear that the games will have to be looked at closely by developers. Right now it boils down to if the developers feel that the ports will actually be worth their time. So if it comes down to spending more resources on a game that might not have very many adopters upon its release, then odds are we won’t get the game port. Of course, with the new hardware and hyped-up features that Sony hopes you’ll take up with, there are bound to be plenty of new thrilling releases to enjoy.
For now, we’ll have to wait for the official PlayStation VR2 headset to make its way into the marketplace. At the current moment, players interested in the hardware can expect the headset to launch in early 2023. More specifically, players can pick up a unit on February 22, 2023, for $549.99.