Sony’s long awaited PSVR 2 isn’t here just yet but after an extensive hands-on with the headset it’s clear it’ll be worth the wait.

Last week I visited Sony’s PlayStation headquarters in San Mateo, CA to see PlayStation VR 2 in person for the first time. Though we’ve known the full on-paper PSVR 2 specs for quite some time now, there’s still a lot about using a headset that isn’t easily quantified from numbers alone. But after a few hours in the headset across a variety of different experiences, I’ve got a pretty good sense of what the full package really feels like.

PSVR 2 Hands-on Impressions

Keep in mind, of course, I was using a prototype version of PlayStation VR 2 which still isn’t due to launch until early 2023, so some things may change between now and then. I got to play four demos on the headset: Horizon Call of the Mountain (impressions here), Resident Evil VillageThe Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners – Chapter 2, and Star Wars: Tales From the Galaxy’s Edge – Enhanced Edition. I’ll have more detail on my time with some of these demos specifically, but first, this is my experience with the headset overall.

From a form-factor standpoint, PSVR 2 is very similar to the original headset, right down to how you can stretch the rear headstrap to don the headset and then turn the crank to tighten it to taste. But through the lenses there’s much that’s changed.

A Feature Every VR Headset Should Have

Photo by Road to VR

For one, PSVR 2 now supports eye-tracking and IPD adjustment. And I’m happy to report that Sony has created a straightforward in-headset calibration which will help users dial into the ideal IPD and even make sure the headset is seated on their head correctly.

When you run the PSVR 2 calibration you’ll see a cartoon head in front of you with holes cut out of the eyes. Inside the holes are blue circles that represent your actual eyes. Your goal is to adjust the headset (both the way it rests on your head and by turning the IPD dial) such that the blue circles are in the center of the holes. Once you get close enough, the holes light up green to tell you everything is good to go.

This is a large quality-of-life improvement not just over the original PSVR, but over most VR headsets on the market. While many headsets have a manual IPD adjustment, few people actually know their specific IPD measured in millimeters—nor do they know to look for uneven chromatic aberration as a sign of misalignment—leaving most to just ‘wing it’ and try to align the lenses to their eyes by look and feel. With PSVR 2 you don’t need to know your IPD because the calibration step will automatically guide you to the ideal lens-to-eye alignment—ultimately helping more people achieve the clearest image they’ll be able to get from the headset. This is a feature every VR headset should have.

Passthrough & Playspace Setup

Another nice quality-of-life improvement on PSVR 2 is passthrough video, which allows you to use the headset’s cameras to not just look out to the real-world, but also to easily define your playspace boundary. The passthrough video view is noticeably higher resolution on PSVR 2 than Quest 2, though it’s still black-and-white and far from maxing out the headset’s display resolution.

Image courtesy PlayStation

PSVR 2’s playspace setup process is very similar to what you see on Quest 2: you’re able to draw an outline from within your headset to set your boundary. Additionally the headset ‘scans’ the space around you to make an initial suggestion for your playspace, which you can then expand or refine as you see fit.

Display & Lenses

Photo by Road to VR

So once you’ve got the headset calibrated and your playspace defined, how does it actually look? Well for one, it’s a heck of a lot clearer than the original PSVR thanks to the jump in resolution from 960 x 1,080 (1.0MP) per-eye to 2,000 x 2,040 (4.1MP). The screen-door effect is functionally invisible, though a noticeable amount of mura (brightness & color inconsistency from one pixel to the next) holds back clarity to some extent.

Mura is often worse on OLED displays (such as the one in PSVR 2) than LCD, but for that downside you get the benefit of much better contrast which brings rich darks and deep colors. In vibrant games, like Horizon Call of the Mountain, the world really pops.

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While Sony says PSVR 2 has an ‘HDR display’ (a fairly ill-defined term), they haven’t specified the max brightness of the headset. In my time with it there weren’t many moments where I felt like HDR was making an obvious difference; this level of ‘HDR’ may just feel a bit more like expanded contrast compared to high-end HDR-capable TVs and phones where the effect is plainly visible.

Though generally quite sharp, I did notice what appeared to be a good bit of persistence blur on PSVR 2 which causes the world to get somewhat blurry when rotating your head. This struck me as perhaps an issue with the display’s low-persistence function (which most VR headsets employ to combat this issue). Assuming I’m right about this being a persistence issue (and I could well be mistaken), it isn’t clear to me if low-persistence isn’t enabled at all, not yet fully tuned, or maybe it’s already optimized but this is just a fundamental limitation of the display. Sony declined to comment on the matter for now.

Photo by Road to VR

Also on the clarity front… I’m tentatively impressed with the Fresnel lenses on PSVR 2. Most headsets with Fresnel lenses suffer from quite noticeable glare and god rays, but they seemed quite subdued (though not entirely invisible) on PSVR 2 compared to contemporary headsets. As I was being hurried through various demos, I didn’t get to find the ideal test scene to reveal god rays, but as I said, I’m impressed with the levels I saw during nominal gameplay. Fingers crossed that Sony cooked up some special lenses that really are making a difference.

And another nice thing about the lenses on PSVR 2: the field-of-view feels noticeably larger than the original PSVR (Sony claims 110° compared to the original 100°). It’s a nice little boost though it’s not going to make or break your experience.

A New Dimension of VR Haptics

Photo by Road to VR

And you might forget about another new feature until you feel it… PSVR 2 is (likely to be) the first on the market to come equipped with head-haptics. That gives developers the option to give your head a little rumble to communicate in-game effects. It works well to give you an even more intimate sensation than controllers rumbling in your hands. It seems like PlayStation VR 2’s head-haptics will be a perfect stand-in for the moments where ‘screen shake’ would typically be employed in non-VR games (ie: big explosions or really important things happening to your character directly).

Continue on Page 2: Controllers, Tracking, & Conclusion »

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Ben is the world's most senior professional analyst solely dedicated to the XR industry, having founded Road to VR in 2011—a year before the Oculus Kickstarter sparked a resurgence that led to the modern XR landscape. He has authored more than 3,000 articles chronicling the evolution of the XR industry over more than a decade. With that unique perspective, Ben has been consistently recognized as one of the most influential voices in XR, giving keynotes and joining panel and podcast discussions at key industry events. He is a self-described "journalist and analyst, not evangelist."
  • Cless

    Can’t wait to get my hands on one… But only after someone makes a mod for PC, not really interested in getting a PS5 atm D:

    • Nevets

      That’s not going to happen.

      • LiquidPL

        That has already happened with the original PlayStation VR. Granted it might be harder to accomplish because of the controllers are now tracked by a headset instead of an external camera, but I wouldn’t completely discount the possibility.

        • Tommy

          It will be even easier now. The PSVR2 is closer to a PCVR headset than then PSVR1 was.

          • Cless

            Really? Sadly I expected it to do the opposite, at least with all the cool options like eyetracking and such.

        • Cless

          And all the automatic functions like eye tracking and such would be… hard to say the least. But hey, people are hacking the cameras for UE games now in a generic way so they work in VR so… I guess anything is possible? lol

        • Christian Schildwaechter

          The PSVR 1 was technically a rather dumb headset, basically just a display with an integrated IMU to track rotation, all the tracking was done outside. This made connecting it to a PC rather easy.

          The PSVR 2 is not only relying on lots of cameras inside the HMD for all the tracking, but uses a DisplayPort over USB-C connection, which effectively means it can transfer data back to the PS5 only at USB-2 speed, not nearly enough for all the camera feeds. So the PSVR 2 has to have some type of dedicated SoC for head, hand and eye tracking onboard that only reports the results back to the PS5, plus a b/w image for passthrough.

          This could make it either rather easy or pretty much impossible to connect the PSVR 2 to a PC. You would need to have a GPU with integrated USB-C that can even send the DP over USB-C signal, or use a smart cable like the Pico Neo 3 Link that connects to both DP and USB 2 and crates the combined signal itself. Even if you have that, you never get access to the raw sensor data. So someone needs to reverse engineer the signal that comes back from the PSVR 2 SoC, unless Sony is very nice and documents it. I wouldn’t count on that, and if they instead encrypt the signal, the PSVR 2 would at best work as a dumb display on a PC, with no tracking at all.

      • Tommy

        It will absolutely happen and Sony will have nothing to do with it.

    • GaryGary

      I hope that Sony is smart enough to add PC functionality to PSVR2.
      There’s rumors that they’re working on their own PC launcher for PS5 games which would allow you to play your Playstation library on PC. Granted, this is likely just for flatscreen PS5 games, but it’s still a very small chance that it’ll work with PSVR2. Also, the PSVR2 uses a single USB-C cable to connect to the PS5, so it would seem quite easy to implement PC functionality (at least for Sony.)

      • Cl

        Even if it comes to PC I won’t get it. I’m not buying any more headsets with cables unless there’s some amazing feature that makes it worth it, but this doesn’t have that.

        • GaryGary

          It’s a very thin USB-C cable, it brings many more benefits than cons in my opinion. With the use of a wire, you get things like uncompressed video, no need to recharge the headset, no latency/stuttering, easy connection and much more. With a wireless connection such as Virtual Desktop on the Quest 2, you have to deal with finicky streaming technology that very much depends on your internet, compressed video, lag, latency, incompatibility issues with every new graphics driver update, etc. All of these things can be completely eliminated with the use of a thin cable that you won’t really notice much.

          • Cl

            I have a swappable battery and a dedicated router for quest 2 so It works great for me. Felt the freedom of no cable and I won’t go back.

        • Cless

          I personally couldn’t care less about the cable. I just want to play all and any games in 3DVR and in real scale. I… really don’t care about the “VR genre” of games. Its cool from time to time, but not my favorite genre by a long shot.

      • Cless

        Hmm… I highly doubt that will happen, and not because they have to come with their senses, its because its a terrible business idea for them. They aren’t trying to sell many VR headsets as they can, they are trying to give value to their PS5 to sell more consoles and games. If anything doing that, would remove “value” from their PS5 and get less sales.
        Think about it this way. Them not hindering any PC mod that would do that is “their way” of helping… sadly :/

  • WaveyDavey

    Is this going to be better than the Valve Index? Worth switching?

    • Torsten Balle Koefoed

      Switching seems a weird idea. The Index is for PC only and the PSVR2 is for Playstation only. If you have a bunch of VR games for PC you’ll lose the ability to play those if you switch.

      • WaveyDavey

        Yes I fully understand that!

        I mean in terms of quality of VR experience compared to the Index.

        I have a few PC games but for the convenience, IF the PSVR2 would better or match the visual and user experience then I’d consider switching. I have both a decent PC and PS5 already, and presumably the Index would sell on the used market for more than the PSVR2 would cost (hence covering the costs of some PS5 PSVR games).

        So to the author of the article… Ben, as you’ve now seen both in action…how do they compare?

        • Tommy

          Yes, technically, the PSVR is more advanced in just about every category beside FOV. Maybe a bit higher tracking capability on Index, as well due to base stations have better tracking than inside ouy tracking.

          • Gonzax

            Yeah, agreed, I’ll buy PSVR2 when it’s out but PCVR is still my main option. I’ve played more VR mods this year than native games, probably.

          • WaveyDavey

            Thanks, it’s a difficult decision, guess I’ll wait and see what the RRP is before deciding.

            I used to use the PC for my main job (video editing) and for VR gaming was a secondary use. However recently I’ve tended to use the new high spec MacBook Pro’s for my editing work so have used the PC less and less. So that’s the reason why I may consider moving to PSVR2.

            Main concerns were image quality and framerate, given that the PS5 surely won’t be as powerful as an RTX3080 so wonder how these compare. Hopefully at least 120Hz is standard for the PSVR2!

          • Tommy

            The GPU in the PS5 is equivalent to a RTX 2070 Super. Good starting point if you want to compare your options

          • Sven Viking

            The level of difference foveated rendering will make is also still a bit unclear.

          • Sven Viking

            Also speakers and some controller differences. Comfort may depend on head shape.

          • Tommy

            Good point! I wonder what kind of increase the foveated eye tracking will end up providing.
            The audio is definitely a win for Valve. I think Sony is trying to push their 3D Pulse for VR. Comfort is indeed subjective and I would say the same about the controllers without having used them yet.

          • ApocalypseShadow

            I guess I look at this differently. Sony’s giving you a choice of what earbuds or headphones you want to use beyond theirs. That’s consumer choice just like they gave gamers choice on buying SSD drives and not making it proprietary. Not a single choice with Valve. But will most likely pack in earbuds like the first. You can buy their Pulse headset or not.

            The 3D audio doesn’t come from the headset. It comes from PS5 and Sony’s Tempest Audio. Just like PSVR had the breakout box that produced the audio. Not your earbuds or headphones.

          • Tommy

            It like that Sony decided to put the 3D audio in the console this time. Still debating on getting pair of 3D Pulse.

        • Gonzax

          Not a fair comparison as Index is 1st gen and PSVR2 is 2nd but I’d like to read Ben’s opinion, anyway.

          • Jistuce

            I mean, it’s a fair comparison in that they are both products in the same market being sold at the same time, unless Valve is about to discontinue the Index suddenly and without warning. Knowing which product is “better” is a lot more useful to a potential customer than knowing what product was best in class when it launched.

            I’m also pretty sure neither device is “first gen” VR in any meaningful sense.

          • Gonzax

            First, second… never mind, Index is an old device, PSVR2 is a new one, so new it hasn’t been released yet. I’m still interested in the comparison, as I said, but fair? I don’t think so.

        • Cless

          Funny you would say that confidently… you know how much the PSVR2 will cost already…? ;P

          • WaveyDavey

            No but Sony will want to sell lots if them, if they are as expensive as the Index… They won’t. Hence (imho) it will be significantly less expensive.

          • Cless

            I mean, less expensive than the Index? Sure. Cheaper than a second hand index?… Not so sure!

          • WaveyDavey

            You seriously think Sony will price this at more than £700?!!

          • Cless

            Uhh… DISQUS is being weird… my last answer got immediately flagged as spam and hidden…?

            I just commented that you can buy the full kit in good condition for $500USD, even importing them to the UK it would still save people $200 to $300… So I’m not sure you could sell yours for 700GBP anymore, and this is even not accounting for how bad currency exchange is at now, in a more normal scenario it would be even cheaper to buy USD…

          • WaveyDavey

            Local sales routinely sell for £700 for the full kit. Been tracking them for weeks. I’m afraid it’s not really of any relevance to me what they sell for in the US. Import duty PLUS 20%VAT also put most people off.

          • Cless

            Christ, you guys have it rough as hell. No wonder then. Must suck to live in the UK to buy things from outside then man, I live in Japan and they just charge me 80USD for sending it, and then a 5% on import duty… Making it around 500GBP total… :S

    • shadow9d9

      Index only has access to PC games, the worst library. The PSVR library is the best, followed by the quest, which has boatloads of exclusives along with the paltry pcvr options.

      • Tommy

        Lol, PC library destroys the PSVR library and then some.

        • Cless

          And then we can also add that with a bit of tinkering and knowhow, you can emulate in VR pretty much any older console and inject it in VR, plus all the older PC games you can play in VR through other means.

      • Cless

        Index only has access to PC games, the worst library.

        LMAO

  • Ad

    I would have really hoped for it to have adaptive analogue grips. Buttons are a real let down.

    • Sven Viking

      Mightn’t be so bad if they’re ultra-sensitive, or capacitive or something, but I doubt that unfortunately.

    • kraenk

      It’s only the grip button that’s digital. The trigger is adaptive even and analog.

      • Ad

        The grip makes more sense to be adaptive and analogue, not less.

        • kraenk

          Not really. Have you ever used a VR headset? The thumb isn’t as important as the trigger finger.

          • Ad

            That’s not how it’s supposed to be. The knuckles are how your hands are actually supposed to work in VR, this doubles down on the vive wand design.

          • kraenk

            A thumb is only grip or no grip. Making it analog is basically useless.

          • Ad

            That’s really silly. Half of what the adaptive triggers are trying to emulate is just your hand not being able to close around something.

  • Adrian Meredith

    The issue with oleds are they are quite smudgy. Ironically making dark scenes really poor as they turn into a smeary mess (and it’s still not true black)

    • kraenk

      BS

  • Nothing to see here

    How is Sony addressing vision correction which 60% of us need? The previous generation was not designed for vision correction lenses and the third party solutions are not optimal. The ones I use are attached with magnets and do the job but it is clear Sony did not design the original PSVR optics with corrective lenses in mind.

    • sfmike

      So true and this should be a top feature that all manufactures deal with in an intelligent way.

      • Cless

        I don’t remember what headset was, its one quite recent, standalone and also with OLED displays that included it. It was kinda like binoculars, you could regulate each eye between +5 and -5 I believe. It seemed quite convenient!

    • Cless

      I guess I must be quite lucky… I really never have issues while wearing my glasses (Unlike in my portrait image my glasses aren’t that oversized lol). At least not with the Vive and Vive Pro, which have been my main headsets at least.

    • kraenk

      PSVR was the best headset for glasses.

  • FrankB

    Was hoping Sony had sorted out the mura issue with OLEDs. It was a real bugbear in the original PSVR.

    • Cless

      The actual pixels being way smaller makes it better already too. Its still so much better than feeling like you have a 2005 LCD display strapped on your head like with most current VR headsets. It really doesn’t seem so bad… until you do a side by side comparison, its eye opening.

    • kraenk

      It never shows unless it’s pitch black so who cares?

  • ApocalypseShadow

    Very good assessment of the headset. Couple of points. Even if he tried to come up with negatives most users will never see. OLED is a better trade off. End of. I posted this at CNET..

    The headset is light. Lighter than what gamers think it is. And a USB C cord is not heavy or bulky. Has great features for the headset and controllers. And has/will have Sony 1st, 2nd and 3rd party support that runs rings around most PC VR developers and Facebook’s in-house developers. Also easy to port games because of the new controllers.

    You can wear glasses comfortably. Another win. Gamers want VR glasses but the tech hasn’t arrived for VR glasses. At least for a consumer price. You’re getting a great headset for a great price until we get there.

    Graphics that rival PC and may surpass it because of eye tracking and foveated rendering. No games on PC are designed for it or will in abundance like PS VR 2 will until they catch up. Those who mention Quest and a PC seem to never mention the price of a PC that would rival PS5. PS5 starts at $399. Is there any PC that does VR at high quality for that price? No.

    So good that gamers are begging for it to be used for PC when there’s no games or developer support for PC. Sony might port over games like their flat games. But there’s no reason to support a platform they don’t control like Steam. That’s making Valve money. Not making Sony money. You want to use it, get a PlayStation.

    Lastly, there are naysayers that still think VR is going away. Lol. Still fooling themselves when VR and AR will be used at homes, at work, at schools, at construction sites, in medicine, etc like it is now. It’s not just games. Saying it’s like 3D TV when 3D TV wasn’t used in those areas makes these individuals look ignorant. Yeah. It’s slow moving. But it’s increasing its uses and areas of use. You naysayers have failed. You won’t stop its momentum.

    PS VR 2 is showing it has the chops to compete graphically and in features. You would need to spend more money to equal or surpass what Sony’s doing. Plug and play baby.

    • Bob

      Were you there yourself and actually tested the device, or are you just forwarding positive thoughts from the general consensus?

      • ApocalypseShadow

        Nope. Don’t have to. Just spilling the facts. I want all of VR to do well. Everyone doing well increases adoption until it’s just another device we use in our every day lives as an option. But all the previews today from every corner, every journalist, say PS VR 2 is the real deal. It’s no question now.

        But the facts are, that Sony has everything built into their device that other headsets don’t have. It’s not a theory. That’s why gamers want it to work on PC because most headsets don’t have those features. PS5 has a standard SSD. Most PC gamers don’t have an SSD or have games made specifically for it. It’s just another fact. No arrogance. Just stating. To get all these things and more power like a 3D card, it costs more than PS5 or in accessories like eye tracking add ons.

        If we were to compare Sony’s 1st party to just Valve or Facebook’s 1st party, there’s no comparison. Valve takes forever to make new games and are fine just rolling in the dough of royalty money. Facebook seems fine making DLC money from beat saber. But there’s no big games coming. They have to pay Rockstar or Capcom. If Capcom wasn’t there, Sony could still make a new Persistence game because they own that. Or make a Siren game. Think of every franchise or genre of games. Now, think of all the games Sony’s made from puzzle, music, action, adventure, RPG, racing, platformer, etc. They’re no comparison between companies. Sony has all that to draw from.

        But there are gamers discrediting Sony because of a wire that gives us better VR for the future and not being held back by mobile chips..

    • sfmike

      Comparing VR to what happened to 3D TV is a relevant comparison when you consider how the big tech companies deal with new products. If a product doesn’t meet the profit point that was wildly predicted in a couple of quarters they are more than willing to dump billions of dollars of development to make the board and investors happy. Investment bankers and CEOs only care about short term profits and thus if VR doesn’t make bigger inroads into mainstream households and culture faster it could like 3D TV be unceremoniously dumped like 3D TV using the comment and Tweets of VR haters as a tool to increase corporate short term profits. Look how poorly Microsoft has dealt with VR. Lazy is being way too kind.

      • ApocalypseShadow

        But Sony sold PSVR at profit. It sold low because of the high launch price compared to PS4 that cost less than it. But it made Sony over 2 billion on the headset and games. Money on top of money.

        VR does way more across the board than 3D TV ever did. Just like cellphones, there’s too many use cases for VR to fail. 3D TV wasn’t used in medicine to make people feel better in a hospital or cure PTSD. It wasn’t used in construction to see a building before it’s even built, it wasn’t used in the auto industry where you can drive a concept
        car before it’s even built. You couldn’t walk through a house before ever buying one with 3D TV. Or multiple walk throughs before even leaving a real estate agent’s office to walk the real house. You couldn’t use a 3D TV to get hands on experience before doing a job function. You couldn’t use it to see the past, present or future in a classroom of education with the immersion VR gives. There’s no comparison.

        If we are comparing to other peripherals, Kinect never had any big games worth owning the camera. Unless you just liked dancing. Microsoft has trillions, but did nothing for core gamers who owned it. Wii became a fad like Kinect that was their own undoing as the casuals left to play on their phones and never returned. PS Move, ended up working on PS3, worked on PS4 with VR and works on PS5 through PSVR and an adapter. It was only to add to gaming. Not replace it. And it still lives. Fancy that.

        PS VR 2 is just another way to play games. It’s not a replacement to flat gaming and it doesn’t have to sell one to one with the system to be profitable or have another one made. Microsoft claimed there’s no money in VR yet. But Sony proved that is untrue with PSVR with money on top of money. That’s why this new one exists. To give higher quality while making more money. If it sells 20 million, that’s better than the first and growing the console VR market steadily. That’s the point. Grow the market. Make money doing it.

        • Putler LGBT Army

          VR already failed, you can make the best hardware [and we still use trash level hardware], but without AAA game support no one will buy it.
          There is only few freaks that play rhythm games, gorilla games, virtual chat and otehr Crap-Deluxe.
          Most people to play their favorite AAA games just in VR, thats it.
          Not “new” games that made just for VR, most people dont want that, people want top play whatever they play on TV just in VR and not some indie 10$ crap that sold for 50$ but games from all the big publishers.
          I hope Sony saves us and makes good games, PSVR had some good ones and lots of same indie crap that available on PC

          Quest 2 native games are outright unplayable, even games like RE4, even if they make the next COD for Quest 2, when it looks like Puke, no one will buy it [except the most hardcore fans]
          Mobile VR is not the future its going backwards.
          I mentioned quest because they the only ones actively working on VR.
          Valve still sells the old headset that came out outdated and now its outright dinosaur.

          • kraenk

            Quest 2 sold almost as much as XBox in the same time frame. Fail my ass

          • Putler LGBT Army

            Show me the numbers.
            And most important game sales.
            VR failed long time ago, I have ques t2 so im part of the buyers so what? I dont use it, there are no AAA games just indies, and the worse part it looks like puke, like PS2 game with Vaseline, mobile VR is useless, its for people that never seen a sharp PC game in their life.

          • kraenk

            Indies are usually the better and more creative games in recent years. If all you define joy in gaming is budget you probably should just stop gaming. Looks like it’s not for you.

          • Putler LGBT Army

            Im not a child to look for creativity, i look for experiences and budget is important.I been gaming since mid 80, im not looking to get back, I dont enjjoy retro crap, i dont want anything that looks old, only progress, ray tracing, good graphics, high production values

            Im not paying 60$ to hit some flying pixels and listen to music
            and i wont be wasting my time on some crap like gorila tag, pavlov, minecraft, superhot and so on

            Only AAA multi-million blockbusters.

            Thats how i watch movies and TV too, the word indie is not in my vocabulary, im not wasting time on crap.

            These is what I enjoy
            All Quantic Dreams Games
            All Naughty Dog Games
            Most Bethesda games [Fallout 3/NV yes, Failout 4/76 NO]
            Most Insomniac Games
            Old Square games, up to FF 10
            All Metro Games
            Most FromSoftware games
            All Single Player COD Games
            All Single Player Gears of War
            Classic God of war games
            All PC Diablo Games
            and so on

          • kraenk

            What a narrow minded sheep. Whatever, you enjoy what Ou enjoy even if you’re massively ignorant.

          • kraenk

            The only experience you seem to look for is your constant trolling with your obvious troll account.

          • Kraken

            Keep playing with your toys, son.

          • kraenk

            I’m sure I’m older and have more money and cars than you, kiddo.

          • Kraken

            Thats a very butt hurt teenage thing to say.

          • kraenk

            A subject you seem to know a lot about.

          • kraenk

            XBox Series sold roughly about 15 million in its first two years. Quest 2 is estimated to come close to those numbers.

            Quest 2 is weak AF, which is a reality though. It simply isn’t capable of PSVR2 like graphics, not by a long shot.

          • Putler LGBT Army

            Bro, there is no mobile SOC they can use to match even PS5 level, this “mobile” VR thing is a failed experiment, VR cant be mobile.
            They need to invest in Wireless VR, yep that has future , but Mobile VR? you have to be a Die Hard fanboy to use mobile VR with all the Vaseline, soap and PS2 level of graphics, actually PS2 looked sharper than Quest 2
            Meta is the leader in VR and they navigating the industry towards mobile, its bad and its doomed from the start.

            Steam lost its lead, they WAY WAY WAYYYYY too slow, they haven’t updated they device and when it came out it was already outdated, both in resolution and in old style sensor based tracking.
            Sadly there is no VR leader to take us toward high resolution PC VR, only Sony with PSVR2, they at least try and implement cool things and new features that peoiple want, i want HDR, i want RGB OLED, i dont want mobile VR.

    • I am not a super active gamer, I rather straddle the borderline between gaming and non-gaming VR. That is my bias when I say it’s a shame that this platform seem to be restricted to gaming only, because it could be wonderful for many of the other use cases you mention. For instance, the Varjo is fantastic for conveying the experience of a car or a house in a sales scenario. But at this price and quality the Playstation would be a very strong contender. We develop stuff like that in UE, but will Sony open up to us or is if going to be a walled garden for select game studios? That is the question.

      • ApocalypseShadow

        Sony is not making their headset for those other use cases. It’s to sell PS5. That’s its function. Dual Sense Controllers on PS5 are not to sell drapes. Gamers make it seem like a walled garden or supporting your own product is bad.

        Why is the Big Mac not sold at Burger King? Why does Honda not sell GMC cars? Maybe, because they are trying to sell their own product and or products.

        Sony isn’t selling houses with their headset and not trying to sell Valve’s games. They are not selling it for classroom education. I don’t know why gamers don’t get that. PC has plenty of hardware manufacturers to make headsets. There are dozens of headsets to choose from. And will be more in the future with features similar to Sony’s. Why does Sony need to do that when there are already enough manufacturers there?

        • Nababa

          Why are Sony releasing more and more games to PC? How come the PS5 controller doesn’t have PC support disabled and actually works excellently for PC gaming?
          Maybe, just maybe they are adapting to the demands of the market and expanding their customer base.

          I might be hoping for too much, but it would probably be a smart move on their side to allow people to buy their VR hardware for use on PC. It would give them better reputation and they would stay competitive with Xbox/Games for Windows while having more people to buy the games they publish on either PC or PS5.

    • disqus_o4N8KCTF90

      True

    • Mike

      I think you need to drink some more of sony’s cool aid. you clearly haven’t had enough yet.

      • ApocalypseShadow

        A PC gamer that drank the Kool aid calling a console gamer a fanboy while being a fanboy. How quaint. Did you need some black paint for your pot?

        • Mike

          I play ps5 also dude, I have both. I had the psvr when it launched and if you plugged it into a pc it was recognized as a monitor, and you could see your desktop in the headset, so it was clearly designed with the possibility of it being cross platform. I’m no pc fanboy I love them both for different reasons. your so blinded that you can’t see your own bias. if Sony was smart, they would create a pc driver for their headsets and allow integration into steam vr. Sony would sell at least twice as many headsets as they would otherwise and would give players that use pc and console like myself a much bigger reason to invest in psvr2 at the 500-dollar asking price. that would put Sony in a better position to continue to justify investing in vr tech. with a vr headset at that price with the feature set it has there could be a revitalization of vr games development on PC that would in turn benefit Sony as those pc games could then be ported to the PlayStation growing the vr library on both platforms as most vr games are cross platform. it would benefit everyone. if psvr2 also works with pc it’s not like I’m not going to play anything on my PlayStation. like I said I have both and I play both. the same would be true with the psvr2. remember a rising tide lifts all boats. now go drink some more of that cool aid.

          • ApocalypseShadow

            Sony doesn’t need to support PC. Do you see them selling computers? Does Sony own Steam? Do they own the Epic Store? Gog? No. In order to offset the headset, they would have to create their own store on PC to make some profit. Not make something where other companies profit off of them. It’s like asking Nintendo to support PC with Labo VR. No. They don’t have to. They are selling the Switch. Not trying to sell PC. There’s over a dozen headsets to choose from on PC. But you got beggars wanting Sony to support PC that has no true backing of AAA developers. Or think because of Facebook or ByteDance, that Sony needs to do the same. They don’t. You want consolidation of one headset that does it all when that doesn’t make any sense and Sony becomes the monopoly.

            Unless Sony ports VR games for PC, there’s no point. There’s no point in PC gamers buying Sony’s headset for PC unless they are going to hack it. But what they would be doing is taking away sales for PS5 owners looking to buy the headset. That’s more a detriment to Sony than benefit. Because that’s where Sony sells the hardware, the accessories, the royalties from 3rd parties, etc. Those sales offset the cost to manufacture the headset.

            It’s business common sense. But I’m expecting common sense where there is none. All boats get raised from multiple companies providing hardware for developers to port their games to. That means Valve needs to get up off their butts and make a headset gamers can afford. HTC needs to make an inexpensive headset which I believe will be at CES that you can use on PC. ByteDance needs to separate themselves from CCP. Samsung needs to get in the game. And so on. But Sony has a console to sell. Not another company’s platform or PC hardware. Carry on making no sense.

  • Sven Viking

    Low-persistence has a pretty significant effect on (effective) brightness. Assuming it is present, I wonder if they’re tuning it to a level much subtler than usual to try to ensure their HDR display doesn’t end up looking more dim than expected?

  • Tommy

    ..

  • Juan Ritz

    I was really hoping that the controller haptics were going to leave a much stronger impression after some of the clever implementation seen on PS5.

  • shadow9d9

    No mention of weight and front heaviness.

    • Bob

      It’s lighter than the PSVR and has a halo strap.

    • kraenk

      PSVR Never was front heavy. It’s not a Q2

  • XRC

    Comprehensive preview, but nothing about audio?

    Audio is super important for convincing virtual reality.

    Yes you can place audio headphones or earbuds, but that’s like going back to 2016 Vive…

    As well as increased onboarding friction, if audio equipment is left to each user, the audio experience is completely different depending on the equipment used, which has noticeable impact on game experience.

    Seems Sony missed a really important aspect here, especially with their long experience producing hi-fi and audio headphones

    • Cless

      Audio will be great, specially if you use Sony’s headphones that have decent quality. They use also hardware to encode for good surround binoral positional audio.

      • XRC

        Well that’s the thing, the audio experience is dependent on whatever aftermarket equipment is used by the consumer, ranging from earbuds to wide range of different audio or hi-fi headphones.

        Emily Ridgway from valve:

        “The tonal sound quality of some headphones can interfere with the subtle frequency colorations of binaural simulations. For example, headphones, where mid-high frequencies are either exaggerated or muffled, will most likely interfere with the subtleties of HRTF filters, resulting in a poor sense of directional sound in games and VR.”

        If Sony can provide an official headphone accessory designed to work specifically with their headset in terms of fitting and audio compatibility, that would be ideal.

        • Cless

          I mean, they are already selling 2 or 3 different tier headphones specifically made for ps5… I’m sure they took the PSVR2 into account when making both…
          There is also the chance they messed up though.

    • disqus_o4N8KCTF90

      Yeah disappointing that it doesnt have built in audio. I guess they will see some nice quality clip on over the ear solution similar to valves at some point.

      I wonder if leaving out the audio was to keep the price down?

  • Very good review, thanks for sharing it. Excited for this new headset

  • Sky Castle

    Right now I care more about the games than new headsets. I’m tired of the “new experiences” or AAA remakes. I need fresh full AAA VR games.

  • Alfredo Andre Alejar

    The one major factor that will ensure the success of vr in the future is encapsulated in this one word. Porn..

  • Bill Fisk

    Great post and review. Makes me realize how much further new releases have become since years ago. Do you think the new tech can overcome haptic feedback sensitivities, or will it need to hook new users on touch and feel alone? PSVRII is compelling because it offers both the compatibility with an existing system and the novelty of new tech — nice!

  • kraenk

    No real comments about the much better display? Really weird.

  • Lucidfeuer

    Sounds okay, but no BC is immediate thank you bye, I’m not hearing about the PSVR2 and I won’t even talk about it.

    • kraenk

      That was absolutely to be expected. It’s just too different in Tracking and controller tech.