Is Sony letting the original PSVR die a slow death?

Sony may not be supporting PSVR as much as people expect. The PS5 is backwards compatible, but the CEO said VR is a few years away.

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Sony's PlayStation 5 launch is mere days away, and people are getting excited about the next-gen experiences that it brings. But one of the bigger features about the console is supposed to be backwards compatibility, but for PSVR players, it might not be as good as it seems.

Is Sony letting the original PSVR die a slow death? 01

Sony has said that its new console would play 99.9% of PS4 games, including almost all of the platform's virtual reality titles. The PlayStation VR headset is compatible with the PS5 console, but it recently came to light that the PS5's camera isn't compatible with the PSVR headset. Sony offers a free dongle that converts the PS4 camera to USB to make it work on PS5.

It turns out; the dongle requirement may have been a sign of the level of support the PSVR would get on PS5. A spokesperson for Sony told UploadVR that the PS5 versions of No Mans Sky and Hitman 3 would not include VR support, adding that the company has "not announced PS5 titles for PS VR." Sony considers the PSVR as a "backwards compatible device," not a PS5 accessory.

This revelation comes just one day after Jim Ryan, CEO of PlayStation, told the Washington Post the VR wouldn't be a big focus for the company for the next few years. "VR will represent a meaningful component of interactive entertainment," said Ryan. "Will it be this year? No. Will it be next year? No. But will it come at some stage? We believe that yes, it will."

Those statements don't sound like strong endorsements for the current state of PlayStation VR nor the platform's immediate future. Hopefully, we'll continue to see new PSVR titles, but it doesn't sound great for the next couple of years.

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Kevin joined the TweakTown team in 2020 and has since kept us informed daily on the latest news. Kevin is a lifelong tech enthusiast. His fascination with computer technology started at a very young age when he watched a family friend install a new hard drive into the family PC. After building his first computer at 15, Kevin started selling custom computers. After graduating, Kevin spent ten years working in the IT industry. These days, he spends his time learning and writing about technology - specifically immersive technologies like augmented reality and virtual reality.

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