Despite Sony’s enthusiasm for enabling immersive experiences via newfangled technologies such as the DualSense controller and its haptic feedback functions, PlayStation 5 owners could be waiting a very long time for a successor to Project Morpheus – PlayStation’s first virtual reality headset, which debuted over four years ago.
During a recent interview with The Washington Post, Jim Ryan (President and CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment) gave his thoughts on VR and seemed rather unenthusiastic toward the subject, hinting that it wasn’t really something that Sony was focusing on at this time.
“I think we’re more than a few minutes from the future of VR,” Ryan said. “PlayStation believes in VR. Sony believes in VR, and we definitely believe at some point in the future, VR will represent a meaningful component of interactive entertainment.”
“Will it be this year? No. Will it be next year? No. But will it come at some stage? We believe that. And we’re very pleased with all the experience that we’ve gained with PlayStation VR, and we look forwarding to seeing where that takes us in the future.”
The Washington Post noted that there are no public plans for a PS5-specific headset, which, combined with Ryan’s thoughts, doesn’t give PlayStation VR fans a lot of hope in terms of a headset upgrade.
What Ryan’s statements tell us is that Sony wants to wait until VR blows up in the mainstream before it reinvests further into the technology, but that seems like an incredibly lazy approach for a company that’s blessed with a tremendous install base, which could be used to get VR in front of more people like other giants such as Valve and Oculus.
The only good news to share is that Sony seems fully committed to its current VR headset. Prospective PS5 owners can request a free PlayStation Camera adaptor on the company’s support site, which will allow the PS VR to be used with the next-gen console.
“The PlayStation Camera adaptor is used to connect the PlayStation Camera (sold for the PlayStation 4 console) to a PlayStation 5 console,” reads a support document. “This allows the use of PlayStation VR when playing supported PS4 games on a PS5 console, including games that require PlayStation Move or PlayStation VR aim controllers.”