Sony launched its The first virtual reality PlayStation headset was back in 2016. That was before the era, an era of simpler, epidemic-free 1080p graphics, with just a little bit of real-world apocalypse imminent. It’s safe to say that people are more eager to escape into the virtual world these days.
To that end, Sony will soon release a brand new VR headset for the PlayStation 5. It’s faster, prettier, and more powerful than the last. Last week, the company gave some journalists (myself included) a hands-on experience with the PlayStation VR2. The demonstration took place at Sony Interactive Entertainment’s headquarters in San Mateo, California.
I can’t tell you exactly when the PSVR2 will go on sale, how much it will cost, what its battery life will be, or even how much it will weigh. Sony is still keeping all these things under wraps.But the company Have Said the system will be available sometime in 2023. PlayStation’s first VR headset launched at $399 and is now on sale for $99, so extrapolate your thoughts on the new product’s price from these numbers. The first PSVR headset weighed just over 1.3 pounds; I’d say the new PSVR2 is there too, but of course that’s just a guess.
The new headphones have some immediately noticeable upgrades. First, connecting headphones to the console doesn’t require an external interface or processor box. Just plug the goggles into the USB-C port on the PS5 and it’s ready to go. Inside the headset are dual OLED screens; each eyeball has a 2,000-by-2,040-pixel display.
bad news? PSVR2 is only for PlayStation 5 (hey, good luck finding one of these). There is one color option: white with black accents. Unlike Meta’s Oculus Quest 2 headset, there’s no wireless option. You’ll hit the rope with a waving hand, I promise. But unlike the Meta headset, the PSVR2 doesn’t require a Facebook account to use.
Apply directly to the forehead
With the push of a button on the headset, you can activate perspective mode, giving you a grainy black-and-white view of the real world around you. For those of you who don’t want to accidentally punch holes in your TV, this feels like an absolute must. Customizing the game area is easy. After rotating to quickly auto-scan the room, you can use the controller to map out specific areas for flinging. When you reach the edge of a predefined flail zone while playing, a vertical grid pops up showing you where the border is in virtual space. Go too far beyond this boundary line and the view automatically switches to perspective mode so you can safely reposition yourself.
The PSVR2 headset uses a technique called centerpoint rendering, which tracks the wearer’s eye movements to bring out the most visible detail in the area of the display where the eye is focused. The effect is a bit like the apparent depth of field in a photo or video, where the main subject is in focus and the rest of the background is softly blurred.The key benefit is efficiency; by simplifying the rendering of graphics you are not viewing, it frees up computing resources that could be used to render your graphics Yes Viewed with higher fidelity. Unfortunately, at least in my experience, the technology makes me feel like a lot of the virtual world around me is out of focus and kind of removed.
A big reason virtual reality hasn’t caught on as quickly as its proponents hoped is that many people simply don’t want to strap a big, bulky rig to their faces. Each new headset is lighter than the last, but bulk is still an issue. The PSVR 2 headset is light enough (again, Sony won’t quote a specific weight), and it even packs comfort features like padding and adjustable shoulder straps. But after about four hours of putting on and wearing the headphones, I really started to feel the pressure physically. I could feel the turf on the skin where the earphones had been pressing against my nose. (Yes, you can adjust the straps and viewbox; I fiddled with it a few times without success.) I was also a little dizzy after coming out of every virtual realm I explored.
There were also some technical issues during the demo. Occasionally, if I gestured too hard with the controller, or just turned my head a little too quickly, the game would black out or auto-pause. These are probably just demo bugs that will be fixed later.
control
The new VR2 Sense controllers are a big step up from Sony’s PlayStation Move controllers paired with the first-gen headset. The new controller has a handle with a wide white circle that hovers over your wrist. The PlayStation VR2 Sense controller includes many of the same features as the DualSense controller Sony developed for the PS5. (It looks like the company is supposed to save the DualSense name for what’s actually a two-part controller, but oh well.) These controllers have the same matte finish around the handle that you can feel on existing DualSense units. During my demo, a Sony representative gleefully pointed out that the roughness is actually made up of tiny PlayStation button shapes—circles, triangles, Xs, and squares. (Look very, very carefully at the matte finish on the bottom of the DualSense controller. It’s crazy.)
The button layout on the VR2 Sense controller doesn’t feel as intuitive as the standard PS5 controller, at least not right away. The buttons are separated, with the circle and X buttons on the right controller, and the square and triangle on the left. There is a trigger on each controller and another depressible pad on the handle. There are no arrow keys. The controller is wireless, but Sony won’t share details about battery life.
