Sony is on the brink of launch tethered PC VR help for PSVR 2 this summer time, however that could be one the final significant issues the corporate does for its more and more latchkey VR {hardware}.
In keeping with a report by Android Central‘s Nicholas Sutrich, Sony isn’t leaving any funds for first-party content material. Paraphrasing for anonymity, Sutrich’s supply maintains there will probably be “only a few alternatives for VR recreation growth at Sony going ahead.”
Citing a separate supply with data of Sony’s inner technique, the report alleges solely two PSVR 2 video games are at the moment in growth at Sony. The corporate hasn’t responded to the report on the time of this writing.
Whereas PSVR 2 house owners are nonetheless getting quite a lot of highly-anticipated video games this 12 months, resembling Skydance’s Behemoth, Alien: Rogue Incursion, Zombie Army VR and Metro Awakening to call a number of, the headset has been missing out on first-party anchor content for a while now.
These require Sony’s funding and ongoing curiosity in VR to perform, one thing that appears to have faltered for the reason that headset’s launch in February 2023. As well, the checklist PSVR 2’s first-party content material hasn’t modified in a 12 months, which incorporates Horizon Name of the Mountain, Resident Evil Village, Resident Evil 4 Remake, and Gran Turismo 7.
As an alternative of exhibiting off a slate of unique content material to mark its first 12 months anniversary again in February, Sony as an alternative introduced it was going to formally help PC VR video games with the launch of an adapter box, coming in August for $60. PC help received’t embody quite a lot of options distinctive to PSVR 2 although, together with HDR, headset suggestions, eye-tracking, adaptive triggers, and haptic suggestions aside from rumble.
The transfer is available in stark distinction to Sony’s prior technique with the unique PSVR, which pushed compelling first-party content material up till 2018 with the launch of critically-acclaimed platformer Astro Bot Rescue Mission. Notably, Astro Bot Rescue Mission was by no means up to date to work with PSVR 2; in the meantime, its upcoming sequel Astro Bot is skipping VR support entirely.
A few of this little doubt comes all the way down to cost-savings. Earlier this 12 months Sony Interactive Leisure CEO Jim Ryan introduced a wide-reaching layoff round affecting quite a lot of its first-party recreation studios. This included the closure of Sony’s London Studio, identified for VR action-adventure recreation Blood & Reality (2019), and reductions at Firesprite, the studio behind Horizon Name of the Mountain.