Sony’s PlayStation VR2 headset is coming in “early 2023,” according to posts the company made on Twitter and Instagram. Sony has been trickling information out about the upcoming headset over the past several months, and now we have at least a timeframe for when we can expect to get our hands on the hardware.
While the company released details of the headset’s design earlier this year, it still hasn’t announced a price. It is, however, promising a lot for the PlayStation VR2 — it’ll feature displays that add up to 4K resolution and can run at 90 or 120Hz, have a 110-degree field of view, and use foveated rendering, which renders certain parts of the image as sharper than others to make things easier for the computer (or, in this case, the PlayStation 5). The company also says the headset connects to your console with a single USB C cable.
Sony has already announced it will have a lineup of about 20 “major” games available when it launches. The titles include games set in the Horizon and Walking Dead universes, as well as VR versions of No Man’s Sky and Resident Evil Village.
Unlike the original PlayStation VR headset, the PS VR2 won’t use a camera connected to your console to track your movements. Instead, it’ll use inside-out tracking, similar to the Quest 2, where cameras on the headset itself are in charge of the motion tracking. This means that the PS VR2 will also be able to let you see your surroundings while you’re wearing the headset. Sony also says that the PlayStation 5 will let you broadcast yourself playing VR games, though you will have to have a PlayStation HD camera connected.
Sony has also shown off the orb-shaped controllers, which will have adaptive triggers and haptic feedback like what’s offered with Sony’s DualSense controller for the PS5. They’ll also have finger-touch detection, which can sense where you rest your thumb, index, or middle fingers without having to press anything.
The PS VR2 will only work with the PS5. Given that it’s been hard to get your hands on the console since it launched in November 2020, that may seem like a bad idea. However, there are some signs that those issues could be clearing up — the consoles no longer sell out immediately after Sony opens a queue for them, and you’ve been able to buy a bundle that includes Horizon Forbidden West for a few days now. At the moment, it seems possible that, by the time the headset comes out, you may just be able to pick up a PS5 whenever you want. With that said, there is always the possibility that Sony will struggle with stock of the PS VR2, in which case the PS5’s availability may be just one part of the equation for those trying to get into VR gaming.
The PS VR2 could face stiff competition when it’s released. Meta’s high-end “Project Cambria” headset is set to come out sometime later this year, though, like with the PS VR2, it’s hard to say how much it’ll cost. (The fact that Meta recently raised the price on its two-year-old entry-level Quest 2 may not be a great sign.)
The tech industry at large is also still waiting for Apple to announce its long-rumored mixed reality headset, which will reportedly cost thousands of dollars. Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has reported that the company could reveal the headset in January 2023.
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