The PlayStation VR2, the successor to Sony's VR headset, was supposed to be a revolution in virtual reality. But upon release in February 2023, PS VR2 failed to live up to expectations.
A small number of games, a high price tag, lack of backward compatibility and shipping delays meant that the PS VR2 failed to make much of an impression on the VR market. Now, following mass layoffs affecting VR games studio PlayStation London, the headset may be doomed.
The PS VR2 launch offering included over 40 games. This is a lot, but only three of them turned out to be real PS VR2 exclusives. The Dark Pictures: Switchback VR received a lukewarm reception. Synapse and C-Smash VRS fared better, becoming the two most popular games on the Sony device, although the latter will be coming to multi-platform in April. So for now Meta* dominates the VR market thanks to exclusives Resident Evil 4 VR and Asgard's Wrath 2.
Despite PS VR2 being advertised as an AAA platform, Sony seems to , is not interested in having its own studios work on VR games. In addition to a number of unannounced and canceled games from the company, some studios have been hit by cutbacks.
You can see the similarities between the PlayStation VR2 and the PlayStation Vita, a handheld gaming console that lacked exclusive games. Sony quickly lost interest in the device and stopped supporting it. Will the same thing happen to PS VR2? Now there is no clear answer to the question, but owners of the Sony device have every reason to worry.
* – Meta is recognized as a terrorist and extremist organization in Russia.