Thursday, February 22nd 2024
PlayStation VR2 PC Compatibility Teased by Sony
Sony's second generation virtual reality headset—PlayStation VR2—is a very neat bit of kit, but many VR gaming enthusiasts believe that its potential is being wasted to some degree. Presently, VR2 is locked into the Sony PlayStation 5 console ecosystem, yet efforts to break this exclusive cycle started many months ago—modders have been working on PC platform support. The "iVRy VR" project is a notable endeavor—its leader outlined a bumpy development road on Reddit late last year: "PS VR2 can now be used for SteamVR on Windows. I wrote the driver some months ago, but the project has been delayed due to hardware or GPU driver hacks necessary to get the headset driven correctly by the GPU." Things are back on track according to iVRy's latest social media posts: "Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order running on Sony PS VR2, using UEVR and iVRy Driver for SteamVR (Windows). Use your device as a SteamVR VR Headset for your PC." The latest rumblings from Sony indicate that iVRy's crowdfunded efforts could be usurped in 2024.
First-party support on PC platforms has been teased by Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE)—a freshly published PlayStation Blog article reveals that a conversion team is tinkering away in the background: "PlayStation VR2 launched one year ago, backed by a 40+ game launch window lineup which included all-new experiences like Horizon Call of the Mountain and Pavlov, as well as PS VR2-compatible titles such as Gran Turismo 7 and Resident Evil Village... We're pleased to share that we are currently testing the ability for PS VR2 players to access additional games on PC to offer even more game variety in addition to the PS VR2 titles available through PS5. We hope to make this support available in 2024, so stay tuned for more updates." Company representatives have insisted, in the past, that their second generation VR headset is exclusive to PlayStation 5—The Verge has "reached out to Sony to clarify exactly what "access additional games on PC" means and whether the support will be limited to certain games. We'll update you accordingly."
Sources:
PlayStation Blog, Eurogamer, The Verge, PSVR Subreddit
First-party support on PC platforms has been teased by Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE)—a freshly published PlayStation Blog article reveals that a conversion team is tinkering away in the background: "PlayStation VR2 launched one year ago, backed by a 40+ game launch window lineup which included all-new experiences like Horizon Call of the Mountain and Pavlov, as well as PS VR2-compatible titles such as Gran Turismo 7 and Resident Evil Village... We're pleased to share that we are currently testing the ability for PS VR2 players to access additional games on PC to offer even more game variety in addition to the PS VR2 titles available through PS5. We hope to make this support available in 2024, so stay tuned for more updates." Company representatives have insisted, in the past, that their second generation VR headset is exclusive to PlayStation 5—The Verge has "reached out to Sony to clarify exactly what "access additional games on PC" means and whether the support will be limited to certain games. We'll update you accordingly."
19 Comments on PlayStation VR2 PC Compatibility Teased by Sony
I see no issues with VR2 being the only headset compatible with the PS5, but there is no reason for the PS5 to be the only thing compatible with the headset.
Price has been my sticking point with dipping my toes into VR for a long time. The Quest 2 at $250 is finally a VR headset with PCVR capabilities that I wouldn't hesitate to purchase just to see what VR is about.
Offer VR2 at $250/299 but to a larger audience and I'll pass on Meta's mandatory account creation and pick up Sony's headset instead.
Out of daily users (the people actually using Steam because it's fun), that's 1.15 million VR users that just recently turned into 1.4 million users.
Totally not a lot of new traffic.
You can find 1.5 million people who say the earth is flat or reptilians control the world or whatever nowadays. Its not a lot of people on a planet with 8 billion people.
As a point of comparison, there are about 6.75 billion smartphones in the world today. There are 4 Billion Laptops in the world. Hell, there are 33 Million people who use LINUX (all distros), an OS almost no one has actually heard of.
1.4 Million users is *nothing*, even just on Steam.
Don't let the echochamber of tech forums influence your perception of reality.
But that doesn't mean it's NOT important or valid or even a big part of video games future.
The 30 and 40 series cards from Nvidia are arguably the first true GPU's that can properly drive "AAA" game experiences in VR at native resolutions, maybe even up the scaling a bit.......just go back a few years and you were looking at 1080 Ti's barely able to hit 60fps in games that looked like they were made in UNITY for Mobile Phones........and all our AAA games were being run at low resolutions with scaled-back everything just to get the fluidity in games to keep you from immediatly throwing up with motion sickness :)
But it's still totally niche. It's important, and it's going nowhere....but it's also not going to wildly take over everyones lives. Anyone can flop on a couch and hold a controller....but you put on a VR headset, your entire body becomes involved, all your senses....more of a commitment, more like getting on a ride at the fair....so it requires a commitment to the experience that a lot of people just don't get or don't want. I ain't that person but I understand why not everyone wants to embrace VR, its still an expensive hassle on the PC side of things.
I've been out of VR for a solid 19 months now, mostly to recover some normalcy as a desktop gamer but for the majority of this time it's like I can't be bothered to pick up a controller or run anything. I just end up binging videos. My first adoption of this tech involved the Rift CV-1 and I decided that was good enough until the device breaks or some other hardware blows up. Turns out that was the correct answer but if I ever go back to that, I'm probably not going to be just a user but some kind of entertainer that utilizes this as one of my primary content features.
Throughout 2018 I struggled to maintain 90FPS even in my own projects and 60FPS in fully populated worlds within that HMD setup. I've always been interested in higher frame fluidity (and hardware like the PiMax that could supposedly deliver it). If PSVR is doing 120Hz refresh with better quality and experience than what I've got AND it gets picked up by SteamVR, it would be interesting to see if that's worth it.
I don't want to go back to that unhealthy binge like I used to for any size bag though. That was incredibly unhealthy and even young people shouldn't be doing that.
it worries me that Sony might become like Sega someday. i mean all their games are on PC, Dualsense is well supported on PC now too. their VR next... i mean at what point do console sales die off as more and more people transition to PC, is the console only crowd going to stay dedicated enough in numbers for ps5 pro and ps6 to warrant a ps7, or will this be the last console or two ever made because one too many people made the transition to PC cause had no need for console anymore.
Especially considering its cost and relative comfort compared to most other headsets are often cited as strong positives in most reviews. It could also pave the way to Sony's future PSVR3 adopting even more PCVR-specific features such as wireless connection, full-body tracking, and even more compatibility with PCVR games.