Sony’s VR strategy could be affected by the latest firmware update for its headset. According to the headset’s latest firmware update, all signs now point to a direct wired connection–holding a few implications for Sony’s VR strategy.
Update (March 25th, 2024)bringing PC VR support to PSVR 2: iVRy, the leading third-party project dedicated to bringing unofficial PC VR support to PSVR 2,
the headset’s latest firmware update seems to show that Sony is indeed enabling support for NVIDIA GPUs ahead of its own official solution for PC VR. The original article detailing the firmware update is below:Original Article (March 21st, 2024)announced on X According to the
, PSVR 2 now works without Extended Display Identification Data (EDID) and DisplayPort Compression(DSC), two things which were baked into the headset’s firmware for use with PS5 consoles. The original article detailing the firmware update follows below:
Original Article (March 21st, 2024)
: According to the , PSVR 2 now works without needing Extended Display Identification Data (EDID) and DisplayPort Compression (DSC), two things which were baked into the headset’s firmware for use with PS5 consoles.latest PS5 firmware updateHere’s hardware analyst and YouTuber Brad Lynch’s (aka ‘SadlyItsBradley’) take on it:
PSVR2 got a firmware update with the latest PS5 update. The PSVR2 firmware update is now available. It works with no EDID or DSC issues. It might be.
Supporting PC VR through a direct tether and
not
a console-based streaming solution completely frees PSVR 2 from the PS5 ecosystem, letting users ditch the console entirely, which admittedly locks users into
. While this sounds great for consumers in general, it may point to troubled waters for the company’s VR strategy moving forward.March 21, 2024
Of course, Sony hasn’t tipped its hand just yet, although it’s clear that the company is looking at it from a cost-cutting perspective, as it recently
, which shuttered its London Studio (Blood & Truth) and, among others, reduced headcount at Firesprite (a fairly lackluster game catalogueHorizon Call of the Mountain
).laid off eight percent of Sony Interactive EntertainmentUnlike Meta’s Quest platform, Sony ostensibly hasn’t subsidized PSVR 2 hardware in effort to recoup on costs with software sales though–putting the MSRP of the $550 headset likely at or above the cost of production. Granted, we haven’t seen the hardware cost breakdown, although it’s at least clear that from the outset that Sony wasn’t beholden to funding the sort of anchor content that it needed in order to convert a significant portion of ~50 million PS5 owners.Provided Sony is really untangling PSVR 2 from PS5, the company may even see it as a way to wind down its VR efforts. Sony could have chosen a PC-based VR solution, but that would require PS5. This option, however, wouldn’t be attractive to new customers, since Sony had reportedly stopped production of PSVR 2 because it was not selling well.