It’s almost always hard to predict what kind of technology will be a success until it’s put out in the public space. Case in point, video games weren’t seen as “money makers” until kids, teens, and young adults started demanding them and putting quarters by the thousands in arcade machines. Fast forward to now, and it’s a multi-billion-dollar industry that continues to grow. The catch is that not everything goes as predicted when you’re riding on a high. For proof of this, you need only look at Sony with its PSVR 2. The device was supposed to be a mega-hit, and it’s been anything but that.
To that end, reports are going around that Sony has cut the funding to the PSVR 2, which is not a surprise given that a few months back, there were reports that there was a stock buildup of the VR headset and that Sony was pausing production until they could be sold. All of that sounds pretty definitive, however, a new patent has been found that seems to indicate that the VR headset could be getting an audio upgrade in the future.
Here’s an excerpt from the patent:
“The method includes presenting a virtual reality scene on a display of an HMD. The method further includes receiving sensor data from one or more sensors in a real-world space in which the HMD is located. Then, identifying an object location of an object in the real-world space that produces a sound. The method includes generating a media cue in the virtual reality scene presented in the HMD. The media cue is presented in a virtual location that is correlated to the object location of the object in the real-world space.”
The TLDR of it all is that the improvement would allow the PSVR 2 to have more realistic sounds and project them through the headset based on when it happens in the virtual space. VR is all about immersion, and, to that end, having realistic sounds and cues to those wounds would help build the immersion.
Obviously, the clear and present problem here is that while this does sound interesting, it’s not something that will grow the VR industry. Its biggest problems are a lack of people wanting to do VR, and a lack of good games that give people a reason to try it out.
As of right now, it’s not a viable platform, and Sony is figuring that out the hard way. If they keep going down this path, it could cost them dearly.
