OPINION: Last week, I wrote about how PlayStation and Xbox are turning me into a PC gamer, with increasingly open ecosystems leading the charge. This direction has continued, with the news this week that PSVR 2 could get the huge boost of working with your PC down the line.
The news was brought to us by PlayStation itself, with a virtual reality-related blog announcing a bunch of game release dates and the like. Nestled in the closing section of the introduction, standing out like a sore thumb was the following bombshell for those eager to get access to more games on their PSVR 2:
Also, 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.
From the outset, the PSVR 2 has failed to invigorate VR on PS5 quite like Sony would’ve hoped. Industry analysts Omdia highlighted the underperformance of VR in general throughout 2023, but put some of the PSVR 2’s lack of overwhelming success down to a lack of “compelling releases, leading to slower adoption than its predecessor, worsened by Sony’s shift in focus towards expanding PS5 peripherals.”
Not long after launch, Bloomberg reported that Sony had slashed its expectation of selling two million units, with it eventually hitting 600,000 when the period was over. It was then comfortably topped by the Meta Quest 2 and Quest 3 over the holiday season, with the numbers at roughly 10,500 versus 320,000 (via RoadToVR).
Sony has clearly recognised these shortcomings itself, with comments that come across as cagey on its VR offering to say the least. In October, it described PSVR 2 as not being its “core proposition,” a largely obvious statement but not something typically said aloud (via Barrons), while in December it recognised the VR market was a “challenging category” (via Bloomberg).
In our initial review of the PSVR 2, our reviewer, deputy editor Ryan Jones, highlighted the issue of a lack of games from the off. Its flagship VR title, Horizon Call of the Mountain, received plenty of praise but the rest of the offerings were light and largely bulked out by Meta Quest ports. Since then, there have been very few launches that have taken the VR world by storm, with the likes of Resident Evil Village, Gran Turismo 7 and Arizona Sunshine 2 being the “big” releases.
So, it’s clear, PSVR 2 has a “games” problem. And, this week’s announcement might just be the saviour that this device needs. It opens up an extra slice of freedom, even if this prospect may be most appealing to a bit of a niche market – that being PlayStation 5 owners who also have a solid Steam library. However, even for those without an existing PC game library, bringing PC support to PSVR 2 for those who also own a gaming PC is an absolute gamechanger.
It would immediately open up a sea of VR titles to PSVR 2 owners that they’ve never been able to access before. Think titles like the runaway hits Powerwash Simulator or Phasmophia, even games like F1 23, Assassin’s Creed: Nexus and, the holy grail, Half-Life: Alyx may then have a chance of being playable on the PlayStation headset. The prospect of a huge new selection of games for the PSVR 2 could be a beautiful thing for the waning peripheral.
Ctrl+Alt+Del is our weekly computing-focused opinion column where we delve deeper into the world of computers, laptops, components, peripherals and more. Find it on Trusted Reviews every Saturday afternoon.
