Sony is on the point of launch tethered PC VR assist 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 response to a report by Android Central‘s Nicholas Sutrich, Sony isn’t leaving any finances for first-party content material. Paraphrasing for anonymity, Sutrich’s supply maintains there might be “only a few alternatives for VR sport 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 presently 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 a lot of highly-anticipated video games this yr, similar to Skydance’s Behemoth, Alien: Rogue Incursion, Zombie Military VR and Metro Awakening to call just a few, the headset has been lacking out on first-party anchor content material for a while now.
These require Sony’s funding and ongoing curiosity in VR to perform, one thing that appears to have faltered because the headset’s launch in February 2023. In addition, the checklist PSVR 2’s first-party content material hasn’t modified in a yr, 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 yr anniversary again in February, Sony as a substitute introduced it was going to formally assist PC VR video games with the launch of an adapter field, coming in August for $60. PC assist received’t embody 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 by 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 assist completely.
A few of this little question comes all the way down to cost-savings. Earlier this yr Sony Interactive Leisure CEO Jim Ryan introduced a wide-reaching layoff spherical affecting a lot of its first-party sport studios. This included the closure of Sony’s London Studio, recognized for VR action-adventure sport Blood & Fact (2019), and reductions at Firesprite, the studio behind Horizon Name of the Mountain.