A Year Since Its Release, Sony Seems to Have Abandoned PlayStation VR2 - IGN
A year after its release, the future of PlayStation VR2 looks bleak as a lack of first-party exclusives and apparent disinterest from Sony make it hard for the headset to thrive.
A Year Since Its Release, Sony Seems to Have Abandoned PlayStation VR2
Shattered reality.
BY TAYLOR LYLES
UPDATED: FEB 29, 2024 1:08 PM
POSTED: FEB 29, 2024 12:35 PM
In 2021, Sony announced it was working on a next-generation headset it described as “a next-gen VR system that enhances everything from resolution and field of view to tracking and input.” Roughly a year later, PlayStation VR2 was officially revealed, with a release date set for February 2023.
Fast-forward to just over a year after its release, and the PSVR2 has not achieved its full potential. Between its lack of first-party exclusives, steep price, lack of backward compatibility, and retail delays, the PSVR2 has barely made a ripple in the VR market.
Now, amid devastating layoffs that include the closure of the VR-focused PlayStation London, it seems like PSVR2 may already be on its last legs. Here’s how we got there and what the future may hold for PlayStation’s troubled VR headset.
PlayStation VR2 Review
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PlayStation VR2 Review
Great Hardware, Not a Ton of System-Selling Games
There is no denying the PSVR2’s hardware is fantastic: OLED displays, great controllers with haptic support, and eye tracking, just to name a few. Yet, as I pointed out before its release last year, one of the major measures of success for the PSVR2 is a strong showing of exclusive content, and that part has generally failed to materialize in the year since release.Take the PSVR2’s launch lineup, which featured over 40 games. It’s an impressive number, but upon closer inspection, only three of those games were true PSVR2 exclusives, and only one of those games – Horizon Call of the Mountain – went beyond an optional VR mode.
Every PlayStation VR2 Launch Game
A list of games confirmed to launch alongside PlayStation’s second VR headset.By comparison, Meta has dominated the VR market for the last five years not just because it does not need to be tethered to another device to function but because it has desirable exclusives like Resident Evil 4 VR and Asgard’s Wrath 2.
Elsewhere, third-party support for PSVR2 has mostly been okay. Games like Supermassive’s The Dark Pictures: Switchback VR and the now-defunct First Contact’s Firewall Ultra were met with lukewarm receptions. Synapse and C-Smash VRS were better-received and have turned into two of its most popular games, though the latter will become a multi-platform release this April.
Despite touting the PSVR2 as a AAA VR platform, Sony doesn’t seem interested in having its first-party studios work on VR games. Aside from multiple unannounced games canceled by the company, some of the studios affected by the recent reduction in staff include the aforementioned London Studio, which worked on two PSVR games, including 2019’s Blood & Truth Firesprite, which developed PSVR games Air Force Special Ops: Nightfall, The Persistence, and more recently Horizon Call of the Moutain, also lost staff.
"Despite touting the PSVR2 as a AAA VR platform, Sony doesn’t seem interested in having its first-party studios work on VR games
Those familiar with Sony’s gaming hardware ecosystem are likely realizing the similarities between PlayStation VR2 and PlayStation Vita, Sony’s gaming handheld first released in 2011. At the time, the Vita was intended as a big-budget gaming handheld that, but a lack of support and other issues resulted in it underperforming in comparison to the PlayStation Portable. Now it seems as if the PSVR2 is suffering the same fate.
Abandoned by Its Creator?
One year later, PSVR2’s first-party support leaves a lot to be desired. While Horizon Call of the Mountain was a great launch game, Sony’s lack of interest in making first-party games is noticeable not just to the media but also to the players who shelled out $550 for a headset only for it to collect dust within a year or so of buying it.An ongoing theme on X/Twitter shows the frustration of PSVR2 owners for wasting money on a headset that not even Sony appears interested in giving the time of day.
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I will not call in my back up (JAHGamer) the "Game Master" 
