Even though it launched a little over a year ago, Sony’s PlayStation VR 2 feels like the forgotten child in the VR landscape. And now reports say Sony’s pausing PSVR 2 production until it can sell through its stock because of disappointing sales. Sony could fix this, if it wanted to.
The $500 VR headset accessory for the PlayStation 5 wowed me when I first reviewed it, but in the past year, I haven’t used it nearly as much as the Meta Quest 3 or even, recently, Apple’s Vision Pro.Â
At least part of the issue is that it’s a tethered headset that requires me to be attached to my PlayStation 5. That means it’s far less portable than Meta’s or Apple’s standalone devices, which can be used anywhere.
But that’s not the real reason I don’t use the PSVR 2 all that much. It’s more that Sony hasn’t made enough unique experiences to make me want to return to it.
It’s even weirder to me because right now, in 2024, VR is having a bit of a comeback. Meta’s headsets have continued to be popular. Apple’s Vision Pro, while way too expensive for most, is showing off new ideas for multitasking, apps and eye- and hand-tracking. Sony already built eye-tracking into the PSVR 2, along with some fantastic-feeling haptics in the controllers and headset, but these technologies still don’t feel maximized yet on Sony’s hardware.
There are a few big obvious misses Sony’s made with this headset since its launch, which I’ll expand on below, with suggestions on how Sony could make the PSVR 2 feel more essential, if Sony cared to pursue them.
Astro Bot: Rescue Mission is a true classic. It’s just one of the PSVR games that never made the leap to PSVR 2.
PSVR 2 still has no access to Sony’s original PlayStation VR game libraryÂ
Sony released the first PSVR headset all the way back in 2016 and kept feeding the PSVR with a number of unique exclusive games that helped make the accessory recommendable well after VR hardware from that same year had become obsolete. Games…
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