At the time, I was compiling two theories from this quote. First – and this is the one I will admit I was willing to adopt – it can be seen as Sony trying to take a graceful exit from the VR market. It’s a strange step to sketch the future of VR as something distant, only to announce a new headset less than four months later.
The other theory I will explain after this more recent quote, given to GQ on the day the PS5 VR headset was announced.
‘We believe in VR and were very pleased with the results with the current PlayStation VR and think we will do good business with our new VR system for PlayStation 5. More importantly, we see it as something beyond the upcoming iteration that can really be really big and really important. ”
This quote fits nicely with my second theory, namely that PlayStation does not see its second PSVR headset as a game-changing device that will deliver ‘the future of VR’. Again, maybe a weird way to discuss your upcoming product for which you want to sell a bunch of units, but this is undeniably a smart point, suggesting that Sony understands how far its work with VR should go.
Console peripherals by their nature do not sell as well as the consoles themselves. Even success stories like the Kinect for Xbox 360 make up only a fraction of the total installation base in their lifetime. It’s enough to make a neat profit as a side-noise – or in Ryan’s words ‘good business’ – but we all know that VR as a medium is destined for bigger and brighter things than sidekicks to home consoles. Ryan’s quotes seem to acknowledge this and suggest that even if Sony builds PS5 VR, he plans future iterations that will broaden the company’s position in the VR industry beyond what PSVR 2 can do.
The future of VR at Sony
This most likely means a standalone headphone, and perhaps not one that is so intrinsically linked to the PlayStation brand itself, but developed throughout Sony Corporation. Speculative as it may sound, there are precedents for this; in August 2020, the broader Sony Corp in Japan offered a mailing list to work on a VR headset ‘with a view to five years from now’.
It makes a lot of sense. Sony is, after all, a versatile company with leading TV, camera and audio products, not to mention a movie department to start with. All of these arms somehow extend to VR, and VR’s real potential lies not only in gameplay, but also productivity, fitness and film, areas to which PlayStation as an entity is not so closely related (although I like the future of work to be on the PlayStation).
I can not wait for PSVR 2 (or whatever it’s called). I can not wait to play great AAA games with refined motion control and superior graphics. And I’m optimistic that it will have a healthy life, strong enough to support the game developers who take a chance. But gaming is only one small part of ‘the future of VR’, and Sony in general seems to understand it. As a result, its VR ambitions could go far beyond PlayStation itself.