It’s been long expected, but PlayStation has officially confirmed that PlayStation VR2 will not work with original PlayStation VR games out of the box.
This was confirmed on the official PlayStation Blog podcast where SVP of Platform Experience, Hideaki Nishino said that “PSVR games are not compatible with PSVR 2 because PSVR 2 is designed to deliver a truly next-generation VR experience.”
“PSVR 2 has much more advanced features like all new controllers with haptic feedback and adaptive triggers and inside-out tracking, eye tracking in the headset, 3D audio all coming together of course. So this means developing PSVR 2 requires a whole different approach from the original PSVR.” continued Nishino.
Whilst this is it unfortunate, it was expected that this would be the case due to the fact that the original PlayStation VR using light based tracking with PlayStation Move controllers and a camera, whilst the PlayStation VR2 headsets uses inside out tracking for both its headset and controllers. There shouldn’t be any reason why original PlayStation VR games can’t be ported over to PlayStation VR2 by developers, and hopefully these upgrades won’t be charged for.
We’d expect larger titles like Beat Saber, Astro Bot Rescue Mission and such to be ported over, but what it means for smaller titles, we’re not sure at this stage and hopefully PlayStation and developers provide some kind of announcement on what the state of bringing original PlayStation VR games looks like.
We recently go to go hands-on with PlayStation VR2. You can read our preview HERE where we said: “PlayStation VR2 is without a doubt the experience that users of the original version have been imagining since we first stepped into the shoes of Ethan Winters, and it’s only fitting that those are the same shoes I filled this time around. Whether it’s the superior comfort, the amazing OLED displays, the impressive eye-tracking tech, the brilliant controllers or just the exciting software slate, just about everything you could ask for in a second iteration is here. If you’re lucky enough to have a PS5 and these don’t wind up being prohibitively expensive when they launch, I can’t recommend it enough.”
PlayStation VR2 is set to launch in early 2023 and will be exclusively compatible with the PS5.
