VR

As Sony preps its next-gen PSVR technology, what does the future of VR gaming look like?

At the beginning of the year, with VR support on its new console rather shaky, it looked like Sony might have followed in the footsteps of many tech firms before it and simply given up on its VR ambitions. As it stands, playing PSVR games on a PS5 requires ordering an adaptor from Sony and, in some cases, separately installing the PS4 edition of a game alongside its current-gen equivalent. With that in mind, it’s understandable that PSVR releases have been thin on the ground in terms of brand-new dedicated VR titles, with ports of older games from other platforms and VR modes in games such as Star Wars: Squadrons feeling like meagre compensation.

In February, though, the mood changed, with the confirmation of a nextgeneration PSVR system. Since then we’ve had, if not quite a deluge of information and releases, then at least a persistent drizzle. A March event revealed a raft of games for the current system, and we’ve had our first glimpse of the next-gen VR controller, which combines DualSense features such as adaptive triggers and haptic feedback with an ‘orb’ design much closer in style to Valve’s Knuckles and the Oculus Quest controllers. With our PlayStation Move controllers now marking their birthdays in the double digits, a wellearned retirement is finally on the horizon.

George Jijiashvili and Tadhg Kelly

On top of DualSense functionality, Sony’s next-gen VR controllers have finger touch detection, so players can make “more natural gestures” with their hands

Details about the headset are more sparse. We know it will be able to track the controllers without the help of an external camera, and Sony has promised improvements in all the areas you’d expect – resolution, field of view, input – although hard specs are absent for now. One crucial change for anyone who’s wrestled with PSVR is that the new model will connect to the base PS5 hardware via a single cable.