PSVR 2 – Will it take VR gaming to AAA levels?

COG Considers – State of PlayStation VR and PSVR 2

PS5 is over a year old and Sony is gearing up to launch PSVR 2, possibly this year. Will Sony be able to take VR Gaming to the next level with AAA Games? The five-year-old PSVR 1 remains a valiant attempt by Sony to mix VR technology with PS4 hardware. Despite a slew of cables, an external camera, breakout box, and repurposed PS3 Move controllers, the PSVR 1 sold the most VR headsets overall. More than any previously released VR PC up to Quest 2.

Ever since the PS5 announcement, PSVR fans have been waiting for Sony's plans for PSVR2. Sony's last official communication regarding the next step in its VR strategy dates back to last March on its website PlayStation.Blog – Next-Gen VR On PS5 – The New Controller. This announcement focused on the then-unnamed new VR controllers. PSVR players have called them Orbs for obvious reasons, as pictured.

PSVR 2 – Will it take VR gaming to AAA levels?

PSVR2 against the competition

Sony had been quiet since announcing the PSVR 2 controller, but more specs for the VR headset have been leaked. Rumors of a 4K display, OLED displays and a foveal rendering surface. Exciting leaks for sure, but as PSVR fans eagerly awaited more details, VR pushed on. The technical landscape of virtual reality is constantly changing and is the proverbial double-edged sword. Each innovation brings a greater sense of immersion and ease of use. Indoor-outdoor tracking eliminated the need for external cameras by placing them on the helmet. On the negative side, a VR headset purchased today quickly becomes obsolete tomorrow.

Virtual reality reached a new level when the Quest 2 launched. The Quest 2's Facebook-subsidized price of US$299 is very friendly. This, coupled with a VR headset that had no clumsy setup steps and required no wires, gave the Quest 2 a mass-market appeal that previous headsets couldn't offer. You no longer needed a high-end PC, cameras or cables to experience virtual reality. The Quest 2 is a super easy to use device. Put it on, turn it on and you're in VR.

There's obviously an appetite for VR gaming, but to make it more appealing, there are several goals Sony should be aiming for. They can divide the goals into two main areas: hardware and software.

PSVR 2 hardware

Sony started 2022 with a bang PSVR 2. They started on January 4, 2022, with a new PlayStation.Blog entry announcing the – PSVR 2 and controllers.

They followed that up the next day at CES 2022 where Sony President Jim Ryan made the official announcement of PSVR 2:

Sony's announcement followed the form of similar events and gave the names of their next-gen VR hardware. The headset is the PlayStation Virtual Reality 2, or PSVR 2, while the controllers are PlayStation Virtual Sense controllers – (they'll always be orbs to me).

PSVR 2 Headset

While Sony gave us the headset's name and showed its specs, they didn't reveal the headset itself or show any images. They are recording the final reveal for the unit's actual launch event. What's important to take away from the specs is how Sony technically addresses the challenge of preventing the headset from quickly becoming obsolete in the rapidly changing VR market.

While an OLED display – for those deep blacks – capable of 4K HDR images is fantastic, the real technical gems to focus on are eye tracking and foveal rendering.

With virtual reality, it is necessary to render each image twice, once for each eye. This render load is the reason why VR games can't achieve the same frame rate as pancake games. With foveal rendering and eye tracking, it is possible to reduce graphics load by only producing high-level graphics on the screen where the eye is focused. The headset can then render the rest of the display with less detail. It's a lot like how we see the world where things on the periphery of our vision aren't as clear.

The PSVR 2 specs aren't quite there yet

It's not yet clear how Sony will use foveal rendering and eye tracking, but it could be the technical ace up its sleeve. If fully utilized, they could solve two problems. First, it would prevent the helmet from aging quickly from a technical point of view. Second, and vitally important, it could allow for higher quality games – AAA. More on this in the software section of the article.

In addition to the screen, they have geared the headset towards creating the greatest possible immersion by also including 3D audio and haptic feedback. Jim Ryan mentioned feeling the pulse of the character during intense action sequences. A far more exciting potential use of headset haptics screams two words at me – Spidey Sense!

PSVR 2 Sense Controllers

A better known item is PlayStation Sense controllers. It's basically a PS5 Dual Sense split in two. Each controller will have two buttons, resilient trigger and shoulder buttons as well as haptic feedback. Moreover, they will detect whether or not your fingers are gripping the device. With built-in Bluetooth for each, tracking these units will be far superior to the light tracking technology of the PSVR1.

Cable ?

Something Sony can't avoid is the dreaded word - wire -. Thanks to the Quest 2, being wire-free is of paramount importance to many VR gamers. If you've ever played VR, nothing is more immersive than getting tangled up in wires. Not to mention the possibility of tripping and injuring yourself and/or doing anything/anyone around you.

To use the power of the PS5, the PSVR 2 must be connected to the console. And that requires a thread. Sony should aim for the quality of its VR software to be so high that gamers will endure a thread. For as much freedom as the Quest 2 offers, that freedom comes at a price. The Quest 2 must carry its gear in the helmet. So, it can do more than display PS3 graphics quality games due to the cell phone Snapdragon chipset it runs.

The Quest 2 can connect wirelessly to a PC to run higher quality PCVR games. However, such an experience means you need a beefy gaming PC that costs a lot more than a PS5/PSVR 2 combo. Beyond the cost of PCVR games, there's also ease of use. PC gamers know how much tinkering needs to be done to get the best results to run a game. A PS5/PSVR 2 combo will be very easy to run.

PSVR2 software

As with any platform, good tech specs are good, but it always comes down to gaming. The VR gaming landscape has reached a plateau. The growing popularity of the Quest 2 shifted VR game development to it, and PCVR game development took a hit.

Another limiting factor in VR gaming is that VR game development is still in its infancy. This means that games created for VR are much shallower than flat games. There is an overabundance of "experiences" in VR. Gamers expect more from games than two or three hours of glorified tech demos. They want AAA games.

Based on the PSVR 2 hardware specs, it looks like Sony is aware of this. AAA VR games are where the future is. According to the CES presentation, the Horizon VR standalone game, Call of the Mountain, is one way to do this. Hopefully it's a real full game and not just a two hour experience.

But there is another option. Hybrid game. Imagine delivered AAA games playable in two modes – 2D or VR! To see just how successful this can be, check out VorpX. It is a PC software tool used to turn PC game versions into VR. Yes, the translation is not always transparent, but if the developer knows in advance that a VR option exists, he can integrate it into his development cycle. VR support might even be easier if Sony provides VR software tools. If, yes, a big if, that's Sony's plan for PSVR 2, color me excitedly.

PSVR Library

The final feather in Sony's VR cap, while not essential, would be as much backwards compatibility as possible with the PSVR1 library. With around 700 titles in the PSVR catalog, this would provide a great source of content until they build the PSVR 2 library. Even support for the top hundred PSVR games would be a boon when PSVR 2 launches.

Other PSVR 2 Possibilities

If Sony really thinks big picture with VR, they should make PSVR 2 usable for PCVR games as well. If Sony allows it, the PSVR 2 could become the de facto VR headset for all platforms. Additionally, and to solve the problem of wired versus wireless, one should consider an additional type of adapter to support wireless gaming. Of course, the adapter should also include some type of battery.

The immediate goal for Sony to achieve meaningful results on VR gaming should be to deliver AAA level games to play on the PSVR 2. There are plenty of positive signs that this is indeed Sony's goal.

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