tom is a bit obsessed virtual reality 2, but I, a VR skeptic, have my doubts. So Tom put on a headset and tried to convince me that, yes, Sony’s latest VR platform is the real deal, and well worth buying. In fact, he says, it’s the most exciting leap forward in gaming since Mario 64. But I wonder if this pricey peripheral is more akin to Mega Drive’s 32X—an impressive add-on that’s cumbersome to use and doomed to a limited library of Class-B proprietary and hasty ports. We argue about it in this video:
There’s no question that the PlayStation VR2 is an incredible piece of hardware: 4K resolution, eye tracking, all the haptic capabilities of the DualSense controller, and powered by the PS5’s high-performance chip.But all this, of course, does not come cheap: at £529.99/$549.00
This is somewhat offset by the fact that VR exclusives tend to be budget-priced, but that’s mostly a concession to the fact that most VR exclusives aren’t what you’d call a “full-fat” experience. The vast majority of VR libraries (regardless of which headset you choose) consist of short tech demos, mini-game compilations, and legacy titles that have been adapted for VR with varying degrees of success.
In short: It’s an incredibly groundbreaking technology, but a hard sell. This is the vicious cycle that VR has been stuck in since its re-emergence in the 21st century a few years ago: high barriers to entry (cost, space, accessibility) keep the user base low, which gives studios little incentive to customize, and AAA its experience, which makes the game library unattractive to potential buyers. Ironically, the original PS VR made some headway in breaking this paradigm, as it was a cut-price VR solution (with a cut-price feature set). But next-gen upgrades come at next-gen prices.
It’s a conundrum, and I don’t envy any tech company trying to establish VR as the next big thing, which it should be.
Big first-party publishers like Valve and Sony can put money into hit titles like Half-Life: Alyx and Horizon: Call of the Mountain, which are of course high quality in their own right experiences, but are they enough for VR to finally explode? Mainstream, and beyond a curious toy for wealthy enthusiasts? It remains to be seen how it will work on PS VR2, but I bet most of your friends haven’t played Half-Life: Alyx, as good as it is.
