Apple is reportedly making good headway on its quest to bring controllers to Vision Pro, as Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman maintains a collaboration with Sony to bring support for PSVR 2’s controllers to Apple’s headset is still on track.

Gurman noted late last year that Apple had approached Sony in early 2024, which allegedly was a part of a “monthslong undertaking” to bring PSVR 2 controller support to Apple’s $3,500 XR headset. At the time, Apple was also reportedly in discussions with third-party developers to integrate controller support into their games.

“[A]ll signs point to this project still being in development,” Gurman writes in his recent ‘Power On’ newsletter, noting support could likely arrive in a software update later this year via visionOS 3.

Notably, Apple launched Vision Pro in February 2024 without the addition of controllers, relying instead on its integrated hand and eye-tracking capabilities—an extension of the headset’s ethos as a general computing platform over the sort of game console ambitions of devices like Meta Quest.

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Choosing Sony as a partner makes a good deal of sense here, as the company has already cut PSVR 2 loose from its PS5 console ecosystem by offering support for PC VR games via a purchasable PC adapter, which some have seen as a sign of wavering commitment to invest in its latest VR headset. Additionally, the deal would allow Apple to offer a familiar controller standard for developers to target whilst not directly competing with Sony in the process.

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Provided the report is true, supporting motion controllers marks a decisive shift by Apple to appeal to mainstream VR gamers—or at least what you’d come to expect from a modern XR headset. Even before Vision Pro launched, industry rumors alleged Apple wasn’t keen on making controllers or supporting third-party controllers either.

Still, that hasn’t stopped third-parties from doing the legwork themselves, Apple be damned. Most notable is Surreal Touch controllers, which raised $127,000 via Kickstarter, which critically don’t rely on Vision Pro’s tracking capabilities at all, instead using on-board cameras to track their position, similar to Meta’s Touch Pro controllers. To learn more, check out XR industry veteran Nima Zeighami’s early impressions of Surreal Touch.

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Well before the first modern XR products hit the market, Scott recognized the potential of the technology and set out to understand and document its growth. He has been professionally reporting on the space for nearly a decade as Editor at Road to VR, authoring more than 4,000 articles on the topic. Scott brings that seasoned insight to his reporting from major industry events across the globe.
  • Christian Schildwaechter

    One interesting aspect from Gurmann's initial report a couple of weeks ago was that Apple intends to use the PSVR2 Sense controllers not only for VR gaming, but also as high precision inputs in productivity apps, both for XR and adapted iPad apps like Final Cut. So they would have to fully integrate 6DoF controller support into visionOS as a secondary input method to the hand tracking AVP so far relied on.

    • Stephen Bard

      Typical Apple illogical behavior that they would select these controllers with bulky obsolete IR rings instead of something compact. Not illogical to have controllers for "precision" input since even with eye-tracking users report frustrating hand-tracking difficulties.

      • Christian Schildwaechter

        TL;DR: Lack of options

        The main reason will be their existing relationship with Sony. The PS4 Dualshock was the first non-proprietary (i.e. not "Made for iPhone") controller supported on iOS, MacOS supports wireless Dualshocks out of the box, and Apple has sold/sells PS4/PS5 controllers in their Apple stores as gaming accessories.

        The second issue is choice: Apple apparently doesn't want to release their own controllers, so they had to pick from existing 3rd party controllers. And while there have been a number over time, currently the selection is rather limited. Any controllers relying on lighthouse like HTC wands or Valve Index controllers are out by default. In principle any IR based or self-tracking controllers could be supported on AVP that uses IR camera based inside-out tracking. But after the demise of WMR, the selection of IR controllers has shrunk to Meta Quest, Pico, Varjo and HTC Focus controllers, while the only self-tracking ones are Meta Touch Pro and Surreal Touch controllers, with only the Touch Pro actually released.

        The Varjo and HTC Focus IR controllers have a ring similar to the Quest 1/2 Touch controllers, the Pico 4 a huge ring going over the back of the hand like PSVR2 Sense, leaving only the Quest 3 Touch Plus and Pico 4 Ultra controllers as ringless IR options. Meta could of course implement support for other headsets and for example make the self-tracking Touch Pro controllers the universal "works everywhere" 6DoF controller, but so far they haven't even made them compatible with Quest 3S. Most likely because it wouldn't pay, because they don't expect many people to buy USD 250 controllers for the USD 300 Quest 3S instead of going for Quest 3 that is already supported. They'd have even less impetus to help out a rival who so far sold not even 1/50th the number of HMDs, when only a tiny fraction of the less than 500K AVP owners will buy extra controllers. Making the Touch Plus AVP compatible makes even less sense for Meta.

        So the sole available ringless choices would be Pico 4 Ultra and (unfinished and unproven) Surreal Touch. Apple doesn't want to create their own controllers, and I'm still astonished that they will allow 3rd party controllers after only 1.5 years, while iPhone got "Made for iPhone" gamepad support after six years in iOS 7, and PS4 Dualshock support in iOS 13, twelve years after the iPhone launched. Given the lack of available options, their pre-existing relationship with Sony and Apple's reluctant position towards 6DoF controllers in general, the PSVR2 Sense actually locks like the most logical choise.

  • STL

    Am I the only one who finds it pretty weird that PCVR (in this case) relies on two completely non-PC platforms, such as Sony PlayStation and Apple?

    • Andrew Jakobs

      How is that different from Meta and Pico supporting PCVR?

      • CyberVR

        Oculus (Meta) and Pico have VR (MR) origins whereas Apple and PS are PC (Mac is a PC) and console (it is basically a gaming PC) platforms. But you have a good point.

    • XRC

      PCVR is openVR and openXR run on gaming grade PC.

      There is no reliance on Playstation nor Apple?