Rumors have abounded for years about a new next-gen PSVR headset in development, and Sony’s finally making it official. PS5 PSVR was officially announced today on the PlayStation Blog as simply “the next-generation VR system coming to the PS5 console.” While it currently doesn’t have a snappy name (like PSVR 2) and we don’t know what it will look like (the image above is just the old PS4 PSVR headset), we did get a few other scant details on the upcoming PS5 PSVR headset and how Sony is aiming to improve the PlayStation virtual reality experience.
Sony used a lot of buzz words in the new PS5 PSVR announcement, everything from “greater sense of presence” to “even more immersed.” Without talking any specifics, they also said it “enhances everything from resolution and field of view to tracking and input.” No additional numbers, details, or examples were provided, but these will apparently provide “dramatic leaps in performance and interactivity.”
The new headset won’t be wireless, but it will rein in the assortment of cables to a single cord, solving much of the unruly cable mess problems that the existing PSVR headset has. Given the inputs on the PS5, it’s likely this single cable will be a high-speed USB connection, but Sony didn’t offer any more details about how the headset will connect or how it will be powered.
Sony also announced a new VR controller that will use “key features” from the DualSense. While they stopped short of actually saying anything specific, it can be assumed that haptic feedback and adaptive triggers will make their way into the new VR controllers. Again, this announcement comes without actually showing anything or talking about specific features the new controllers might entail, rather just a “yes, we’re working on new VR controllers.”
The announcement seems to come as a precursor to potential leaks as development gets underway on new virtual reality games and experiences for the PS5 and new headset. Much like the announcement of the PS5 itself as the “next-gen PlayStation” long before the console was formally unveiled, this follows a trend that Sony’s had the last few years of very slowly trickling out details in order to get ahead of leaks and the inevitable speculation that follows. (Though if you ask me, announcing things without having much to actually say in the announcement is just as bad for the speculation machine.)
What do you think of the new PS5 PSVR headset announcement? Was Sony premature on revealing the upcoming headset that won’t be out for at least another year? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
[Source: PlayStation Blog]
