The highly anticipated successor to Sony's PSVR headset, the PSVR 2 has finally arrived, marking the beginning of a new era for virtual reality in the gaming industry. Building upon the success of PSVR, the PSVR 2 seeks to take the immersive experience even further with multiple new features and upgrades. With an elegant and slick design, powerful specifications, and a gaming library that is rapidly growing, the PSVR 2 has entered the VR race with a bang.
With the rise in popularity of the VR medium, the gaming industry has already started shifting its focus towards virtual reality technology and games, offering several notable contenders in the market, like the Meta Quest 2 and the Valve Index. However, the release of PSVR 2 is all set to shift the tides of the VR market, making it a key player. Here are a few things that distinguish the PSVR 2 from the rest of its competitors.
5 Resolution and Display
The PSVR 2 sets itself apart from the likes of Meta Quest 2 and Valve Index by offering an HDR OLED display with a 120 Hz refresh rate. The OLED panel displays offer higher contrast, deeper blacks, and lower power consumption when compared with the LCD screens used in other VR headsets.
The PSVR 2 also boasts a powerful 2000 x 2040 pixel-per-eye resolution, which is a significant improvement over the PSVR's 960 x 1080 pixel-per-eye resolution and is also higher than the Meta Quest 2's 1832 x 1920 pixel-per-eye resolution. Though HTC's Vive Pro 2 takes the crown with its 2448 by 2448 pixel-per-eye resolution, the PSVR 2 offers greater value for a cheaper price tag making it the more attractive option.
4 Tracking
Sony's new PSVR 2 headset comes with the much-needed inside-out tracking technology which aims to make the VR gaming experience seamless and more immersive. This tracking method allows a VR headset to track the user's movements without the need to utilize external cameras and sensors, by incorporating built-in sensors and cameras. Inside-out tracking offers more freedom to users in terms of movement by eliminating the need to be within the range of external sensors and makes for a smoother VR experience.
While many other VR headsets include inside-out tracking technology, the PSVR 2 sets itself apart by offering an exclusive feature, which is eye-tracking. PSVR 2's Eye tracking allows for additional inputs by simply looking in different directions, which could potentially lead to far more immersive VR experiences if incorporated properly in VR games.
3 Controller Design
Taking inspiration from the PS5's DualSense controller, the PSVR 2 comes with the new and improved Sense controllers which feel much more advanced in design and functionality when stacked against other VR-compatible controllers. One of the key features of the Sense controller is that it offers haptic feedback, which allows the controllers to mimic physical sensations corresponding to the in-game actions of the users.
The adaptive triggers of the Sense controller are another fantastic inclusion. With this feature, the tension and resistance of the triggers can be automatically readjusted to mimic the actions and performance of tools and weapons in a VR environment. With adaptive triggers game mechanics such as gunplay and archery become way more immersive and realistic.
2 Compatibility
The PSVR 2's design is in line with most other VR headsets, in that it needs to be plugged into an external console, that is the PlayStation 5, to be functional. The only headset to be completely free of external hardware is the Meta Quest 2. While having to connect to the PS5 may seem like a hindrance at first, in reality, this allows the PSVR 2 to make use of the PS5's powerful capabilities to deliver gaming experiences that are far more immersive and engaging than what most other VR headsets and hardware have to offer.
The PSVR 2 is arguably the only headset that offers a VR experience on par with those offered by gaming PCs, thanks in part to its compatibility with the PS5. It is unfortunate, however, that the PSVR 2 is incompatible with the library of games offered by the PSVR, as this only puts more pressure on Sony to deliver a solid library of games exclusive to the PSVR 2.
1 Games
When everything has been said and done, the real factor which is bound to set the PSVR 2 truly apart from the rest of the VR contenders will be the games that the headset has to offer. Sony launched the PSVR 2 with a pretty solid lineup of games consisting of several exclusives, like Gran Turismo 7 VR, Resident Evil Village VR, and Fantavision 202X VR. The Exclusive that stood out the most, however, was Horizon Call of the Mountain which showcased just how powerful Sony's new VR headset is.
If the headset continues to receive solid VR entries like Horizon, then there is no denying that it will end up being crowned the best VR headset in the market. Sony is already working on a good deal of VR titles exclusive to the PSVR 2 which include the likes of Before Your Eyes VR, The Dark Pictures: Switchback VR, Crossfire: Sierra Squad, and Firewall Ultra.