PlayStation VR2: Release date, launch games, price, and more

Sony was the first of the console manufacturers to really give virtual reality a shot when it made the first PlayStation VR unit for the PS4. While impressive for the price, there were a lot of drawbacks: Players didn’t like having to use controllers from the PS3 generation, the camera tracking wasn’t great, and the resolution left much to be desired. Despite all of that, PS VR ended up being one of the bestselling headsets on the market.

Seeming to take all the lessons learned from the PS VR, as well as looking at what advancements other headsets have made, Sony unveiled the new PlayStation VR2. Initially just a blog post, Sony has slowly been trickling out more and more information on the upcoming addition to the PS5. Some of the major questions we have are still up in the air, but there is plenty of information floating around to get excited about. Here’s everything we know about the PlayStation VR2 so far.

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Release date

PlayStation VR2 hasn’t been given a date nor a window of release as of now. There’s a lot of speculation that it could come sometime at the end of 2022, but we feel like early- to mid-2023 is far more likely. Not only would this let Sony get more PS5 stock into people’s hands, but the company could also attempt to build up a larger stock of this new unit so that we don’t have another situation where people who want one can’t get their hands on it for months or even years.

Launch lineup

Sony has stated that the PlayStation VR2 will ship with over 20 games at launch. We’ve seen a handful of VR titles teased by Sony, but there’s no definite list of which ones will be available on day one.

We feel that Horizon Call of the Mountain, a first-party title and the first game we saw for PS VR2, is a good bet to be one of those launch titles. Other games we know are coming to PS VR2 at launch or after include:

We also still don’t know if PS  VR2 will be backward-compatible with the original PS VR unit’s games. We have a suspicion that it won’t be or Sony would’ve advertised that launch lineup number as being much higher or qualified it as being 20 “new” games at launch.

At the same time, simply saying “over 20” games could mean it includes the entire PS VR library, but our guess is that developers will need to go in and update their games to work on the PSVR2. The biggest games from that system will likely get ported, potentially at launch, but it doesn’t look good for native backward compatibility.

Specs

Even for the time, the first PS VR was quite underpowered, as well as cumbersome. The resolution, tracking, and makeshift motion controls with the camera, plus the thick cords and extra box, made it a chore to use. PS VR2 flips the script by appearing to be, at least for the time, one of the most powerful headsets on the market.

The first major question is always going to be about cords. While we can’t untether the PS VR2 from the PS5, which is doing the heavy lifting, we at least are down to a single, slim USB Type-C wire running from the headset into your console. It isn’t ideal, obviously, but still a big step up from the last iteration.

PS VR2 will have two OLED eye displays that each display at a 2000 x 2040 resolution, combined equaling 4000 x 2040 at a 110-degree field of view, which is higher than the Meta Quest 2. It will also be able to handle foveated rendering and frame rates of 90Hz or 120Hz. What that all means is this headset can do 4K HDR and potentially hit up to 120 frames per second. This will all vary from game to game, however.

Not only is the PS VR2 impressive in what your eye will see but also in how it will see your eye. PS VR2 will feature eye-tracking technology, which can allow for more immersive experiences, but potentially also ease motion sickness. There’s a lot of potential with eye-tracking and how it can be implemented, but it’s still so new we don’t really know what to expect from it.

Another great lesson PS VR2 learned was to ditch the external camera and use inside-out tracking. This means the headset itself has four cameras built in that make it track your movements far more accurately, without any blind spots or lighting interference that the PS VR camera had trouble with. It will also have built-in 3D audio, which is essential for VR.

Finally, let’s talk about the new controllers. Called the PS VR2 Sense controllers, these look very similar to other top VR controllers in design. Each controller has a thumbstick, two face buttons, a trigger, and a button where your thumb will rest. It has the same adaptive triggers as the PS5’s DualSense controller, haptic feedback, and full finger touch detection. This lets the game know whether or not your fingers are resting on the controller or lifted to more accurately represent gestures in-game.

Price

The official price for PS VR2 hasn’t been shared yet, but there is a ton of speculation that attempts to predict where it might end up based on the specs and how other headsets are priced. As a comparison, the HTC Vive Pro headset alone costs just under $800, while the Oculus Quest 2 only runs around $300. Sony won’t want to price the unit as high as the Vive, and we suspect it will do everything it can to keep it below the cost of a PS5, even if it means selling at a slight loss. The original PS VR launched at $400, which is a number we could see it launching at again, but not going above $500. Lower would obviously be better, but for the power it’s packing in this thing, it likely won’t fall below $400.

Pre-order

Much like the PS5, or any new gaming hardware, really, expect the PS VR2 to sell out very fast upon launch. Since there’s no date or price announced yet, there’s no way to pre-order a unit yet. However, once they go live, expect them to sell out fast, so keep your eyes peeled on this page so that you know the moment pre-orders go up so you have the best chance at reserving one of the first units.

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