PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan gave some hints about how Sony views the future of VR, in an interview with the Washington Post.
According to Ryan, Sony doesn’t see VR kicking off for a few years just yet – but he stresses that he does believe there is still a future for VR.
“I think we’re more than a few minutes from the future of VR,” he 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 forward to seeing where that takes us in the future.”
This attitude may explain why the Playstation 5 doesn’t support PSVR out of the box, with Sony offering free adapters to PSVR owners via the Playstation website.
Sony aren’t alone in not seeing VR becoming a mainstream possibility anytime soon. Google recently put its VR ambitions to rest when it ended support for Daydream VR software, after having gradually moved away from VR for some time now.
Daydream VR was specifically mobile-based VR, as opposed to Sony’s PSVR, and Google said mobile VR had clear limitations in an interview with Variety.
“There hasn’t been the broad consumer or developer adoption we had hoped, and we’ve seen decreasing usage over time of the Daydream View headset,” said a company spokesperson. “So while we are no longer selling Daydream View or supporting Daydream on Pixel 4, the Daydream app and store will remain available for existing users.”
“We saw a lot of potential in smartphone VR—being able to use the smartphone you carry with you everywhere to power an immersive on-the-go experience. But over time we noticed some clear limitations constraining smartphone VR from being a viable long-term solution. Most notably, asking people to put their phone in a headset and lose access to the apps they use throughout the day causes immense friction.”
