We've known details about Sony's new PlayStation VR 2 for a while now, but it seems more patents and leaks are here about the PSVR 2 that are painting a clearer picture.

Sony's next-gen PSVR 2 will not see the light of day until late 2020 at the earliest, with leaked specs suggesting a $249 price and 2560x1440 screen at 120Hz refresh rate. Better yet, it would feature eye and head tracking as well as up to 5 hours of battery life with a large 220-degree field of view.

Inverse is reporting the new PSVR rolling out starting at $249, being completely wireless and having a high-end 1440p 120Hz refresh rate and 220-degree FOV. This new information comes from a recently-published patent application by the USPTO, confirming that Sony is indeed working on a new VR headset with both eye and head tracking.

Sony confirms it's new ultra-powerful PlayStation 5 console won't come with a brand new PSVR headset.

The PS5 is shaping up to be quite a beast that's flexible as well as powerful. The next-gen PlayStation is a true leap with its AMD-powered Zen 2 CPU and Navi GPU architecture, an ultra-fast SSD, and a host of new services and content, but the PS4's legacy will live on through the new gen. Sony confirms the PS5 is fully compatible with all existing PS4 games, peripherals, and even the PlayStation VR. This backward compatibility means Sony isn't in any hurry to refresh its PSVR headset for the new gen--even if the hardware is somewhat antiquated.

In a recent interview with CNET, Sony R&D exec Dominic Mallinson says the PS5 won't have a new advanced PSVR at launch. "There's no reason for us to coincide it with a new console. From the point of view of the consumer, to be bombarded with many many things is a message that we don't want to send. In some ways it's good to have a little breathing space between those things."

Oculus has just announced it will have its next-gen Oculus Rift S headset on sale on May 21, launching side-by-side with the new Oculus Quest headset.

The new Oculus Rift S will sell for $399 and packs a higher-resolution 2560x1440 display (1280x1440 per eye) with a lower 80Hz (down from 90Hz) display. Rift S also packs Oculus' new inside-out tracking technology that is dubbed Oculus Insight, which means you don't need to have external motion sensors as there are five of them built directly into the Rift S headset that provide full positional tracking.

Oculus Quest on the other hand is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835-powered standalone VR headset that has offers the same Oculus Insight technology with four built-in sensors and full positional tracking, with a higher-end 2880x1600 resolution display with its refresh rate set at 72Hz.

Valve plans to release a marquee game onto its growing platform of VR headsets. Is it Half-Life related? Maybe. Maybe not.

Today Valve revealed its new powerful VR headset, the Valve Index, which supports all existing VR games on the SteamVR ecosystem. But the company wants to release a big first-party "flagship VR game" sometime in 2019 that leverages the full brunt of the Index's capabilities. After all, Valve is still making video games, and VR is a big part of its innovation now.

This new flagship game could be the rumored Half-Life VR game that was supposed to be bundled with the Index. Or it could be a Left 4 Dead experience with intuitive controls via the knuckle controllers' new design and crazy immersion capabilities via improved tracking, FOV, and refresh rates.

Today the new Valve Index VR headset was revealed, showing off hardware boosts in HMD tech, base stations, and controllers.

The new PC-powered Valve Index offers a nice performance leap over gen one HTC Vive headsets. Internal specs have been upgraded, including a panel boost to dual 1440 x 1600 resolution LCDs, up from the original Vive's 2160 x 1200 resolution. Valve has taken great efforts to reduce VR sickness by significantly reducing the headset's lighting illumination period by five-fold over previous Vive headsets, dropping it down to as low as 0.330ms and "allowing imagery to remain just as sharp when your head is in motion as when you're standing still."

The Index can maintain an explosive 144Hz frame rate, but Valve says this refresh rate is experimental and the headset will mainly run at 120Hz in newer games and 90Hz in older Vive titles. Thanks to new higher-end adjustments in both optics and lens tech, the Index's FOV can support 130-degree FOVs, up 20 degrees from the Vive. Valve says its new canted optics and dual-element lenses make this possible.

Sony has lots of neat ideas for its PlayStation VR headset, and some of them actually sound pretty fun.

Sony helped pioneer VR gaming so its no surprise they're exploring unique avenues to the immersive platform. VR has yet to become mainstream, though. Sony's own cheaper, more accessible console-powered headset only captured 4.6% of the PS4's huge 90 million install base. But all that could change with the right kind of killer app or experience, and the games-maker could be onto something big here.

In a 2017 patent that was published this month, Sony outlined one of the most interesting use cases for VR: multiplayer gaming en masse. The patent would essentially let gamers not only watch live events like esports tournaments or big venue-based affairs, but participate in them using PSVR headsets. The HMD would essentially act as both as a virtual ticket and a viewscreen that emulates VR Chat levels of interactivity while also maintaining gaming features like a HUD. Sony could combine both spectatorship and gaming into one immersive online experience.

Nintendo's new Switch-powered VR headset will interact with some of its best-selling games.

VR is coming to the Nintendo Switch, but not in the way you think. Rather than take on competitors like Oculus or HTC with a dedicated peripheral, the Switch's VR kits are more like Google's low-cost cardboard kits. Gamers can buy Labo VR kits and assemble their own headsets and weird, wacky peripherals like a bird, an elephant trunk, and even a gun to interact with special VR games. But Nintendo isn't missing out on the golden opportunity to breathe new life into some of its best and brightest Switch games using VR.

Best-selling Switch games like Super Mario Odyssey and Zelda: Breath of the Wild will have special VR compatibility with the headset. Each game plays differently in VR: Super Mario Odyssey, for example, has three special mini-games made specially for VR, whereas Breath of the Wild offers a more immersive theater mode experience.

In April, Valve's new enterprise-grade Vive Focus Plus brings high-end standalone VR to the commercial world.

The Vive Focus Plus, the beefier cousin to the Vive Focus, is a portable but potent VR HMD built specifically for industry professionals rather than consumers. The comfy all-in-one headset is powered by a Snapdragon 835 processor and doesn't need a PC to operate, and is geared towards training simulations across multiple disciplines as well as interactive virtual conferences. It's also built for developers who need a real-time platform to test out builds of their apps, projects, games and other interactive VR media.

Now Valve and HTC reveal key pricing and specs of the Vive Focus Plus, confirming new boosted fresnel optics that boost visual clarity. The HMD sports a 3K resolution (2880x1600) AMOLED display with a 75Hz frame rate and a big 110-degrees FOV. Outfitted with camera sensors, the Vive Focus Plus offers six degrees of freedom for room-scale movement tracking, making interactivity in VR spaces more fluid.

Valve's mysterious new HMD has finally been confirmed, but there's still a lot we don't know.

Today Valve put up a website for a new VR headset called Valve Index, hinting at a more powerful HMD by calling for gamers to "upgrade their experience." A nebulous May 2019 window is also mentioned, which is presumably when the Index will be revealed, but no details or specifications were revealed.

What's interesting is how the Vive brand isn't found on the headset. It appears Valve is making and shipping their own HMD and may not be teaming with HTC for this one. The headset seems to match last year's leaked prototypes, which said the Index would deliver Vive Pro's 1440 x 1600 pixels per eye (2880 x 1600 pixels combined) resolution alongside with a boosted 135-degrees FOV. The Index also sports two tracking cameras.

Ryff is moving into its stride in 2019 with a new deal inked with Perfectomundo Tequila, with Paul Oakenfold entering into a new deal between Ryff and Perfectomundo Tequila which will see tequila brand morphed into "various forms of entertainment together starting Spring of this year".

The new deal with Ryff will see the company using its technology to integrate the Perfectomundo branded tequila into movies, TV, and streaming social media. Perfectomundo will be seamlessly integrated into content by Ryff, something that the company is quickly becoming the star of. Integrating big brands like Perfectomundo and securing deals with Grammy Award nominated DJs is a big deal for Ryff, which is made up of champions from the industry from companies like AMD, NVIDIA, Warner Bros., and DreamWorks.

Paul Oakenfold commented on the deal, saying: "Ryff's' new technology is really a game-changer for Perfectomundo. I've always thought that there was a huge opportunity for brands to utilize branded entertainment to create a unique personal relationship with our customers. And now, together we will help to prove this theory".

Nick Hendra, vice president, global brand sales at Ryff said: "We're thrilled to be the very first digital brand integrator to create unique and multiple integration opportunities across all forms of entertainment. This Perfectomundo brand fits with our strategy to reach audiences in more engaging ways and drive a deeper connection with consumers through our content partners. It is also the very first advertising initiative in the US that will take advantage of digital brand integration".