A few days ago we published an opinion piece in which we said that virtual reality for games was dead for two reasons: firstly, because of people who still want to keep it as a luxury item. Secondly, due to the fact that the company that bought the largest creator of this type of peripheral has stopped creating games and it seems that they have hives. Now comes SONY, giving the official price of their PlayStation VR 2 and gives us the final stone.
The price of PS VR 2 makes them only for the privileged
Virtual Reality is a medium in itself, with its own rules and is not based solely on transmitting the images of the game to the virtual reality glasses. One of the most important rules is that of telepresence, which says that the entire process from the moment we press a button until the action appears in our viewer must last less than 20 milliseconds. Which is enough to give the viewer’s brain the feeling of being there. This obviously requires power and that is why almost a decade ago having a VR was something for very privileged people.
The normal thing about all technology is that they not only scale down, but also become accessible in terms of price for most people. That is to say, that they have the right price for mass adoption, without neglecting high-end versions with higher technical specifications for users who have developed a more demanding taste. The problem comes when the medium has become a cult object for a minority and has no potential market share. That is to say, it has been made to believe that it cannot be democratized for the masses.
The first PlayStation VR were commercially unsuccessful, the reason for this is that you not only needed to have a PS4, preferably the Pro version which is more powerful. If not, in addition, you need the PS Move and the PS Camera that added 150 euros to the package. Namely, the official price of the PlayStation VR 2, €599, does not differ much from the first model. Which was excessively profitable, but they only sold 5 million units in all these years, a figure that the Quest 2 quickly surpassed in a year.
How does it compare to Meta Quest 2?
We are not going to deny that the PlayStation VR 2 brings with it a series of cutting-edge technologies that greatly improve the experience. Among them is the ability to follow the movement of our eyes, which not only reduces the sensation of dizziness and lack of coordination, but also positively increases immersion. Nor can we rule out what are the high-quality HDR OLED panels. However, we believe that they should have come at a lower price, since a good part of these tasks are not processed by any internal chip, but by the PlayStation 5 console.
The most used virtual reality glasses at the moment are the Meta Quest 2, which have recently increased in price by more than €100. They do not have eye tracking technology and it is an independent unit, but we can use them on our computer thanks to Oculus Link. However, a quick comparison with the PlayStation VR 2 shows us that SONY’s are technically superior.
| Characteristic | PlayStation VR 2 | goal quest 2 |
|---|---|---|
| screen type | OLEDHDR | LCD |
| resolution per eye | 2000 x 2040 pixels | 1820 x 1920 pixels |
| refresh rate | 120Hz | 120Hz |
| Tracing | 4 internal cameras in the unit | 4 internal cameras in the unit |
| eye tracking | Yes | Nope |
| field of vision | 110º | 90º |
| Does it require original hardware? | Yes, PS5. | No, but it can be connected to the PC. |
We have to start from the fact that the Meta Quest 2 to work independently has the circuitry of a top-of-the-range mobile with its processor, RAM and storage, something that the PlayStation VR 2 lacks. So at least these The latter could have come out at a price 100 euros cheaper and cost no more than the console itself. 
What are our conclusions?
We believe that SONY would benefit greatly from bringing its PS VR 2 to PCdue to the fact that it is for now the platform where virtual reality titles are more mature and there is an already established community of developers that would take advantage of eye-tracking technology and would facilitate the conversion to your console of many games designed for VR. It may seem silly, but what a platform like this needs are games and if they are also adapted correctly to take advantage of technology, it is a victory for all.
Not everyone has a gaming PC and prefers the console to play games. The benefits for SONY when it comes to mounting their PS VR 2 are not few and we know it from the price comparison with the Meta Quest 2. Apart from the fact that they recover the money with the royalties of the games, at least on console. Since Meta doesn’t seem too excited about VR gaming, at least SONY makes an effort.
That said, the PS VR 2 a fair price and being able to use it on PC would have been a very positive point. In any case, we have to slap the graphics card manufacturers for not including at least one USB-C Alt DP output in their models, apart from not doing it in their gaming laptops. Which has caused an insurmountable barrier for the adoption of VR in a massive way.
