PlayStation 4s, PlayStation 4 slims, and PlayStation 4 Pros; Sony made its gaming ecosystem much bigger this month. It all begs the question: which one is right for PlayStation VR?
Somewhat surprisingly, the company labelled the standard console, which boasts the same innards at the new slim model, as the “primary platform” for the anticipated VR headset and not its newer, more powerful PS4 Pro. Speaking to MCV, President and CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe (SIEE), Jim Ryan, said that the company had given the situation “very careful thought”, adding that PS4 Pro will provide “An enhanced VR experience” for those that use it.
That said, the company “absolutely maintain the primary platform for PlayStation VR is the standard PS4.” As Sony has stated time and again, the 40 million consoles that it’s already sold will be fully compatible with the headset, but Ryan’s comments suggest that Sony will continue to push the standard PS4 as the main platform for VR, and not start to insist that people need to buy the Pro for the complete experience.
“It’s very important that people are clear about that,” Ryan concluded.
That message will indeed by crucial to PS VR in the next few months if it wants to maintain confidence that the original PS4 is up to the job of running VR. Before September, every PS VR game we’ve ever seen first-hand has been running on the standard hardware and, for the most part, it’s all performed well. Still, we haven’t got the device and full games in our own hands to find out if this will hold up at launch.
Sony revealed the PS4 Pro earlier this month to mixed reactions. On the VR front, the company confirmed that developers could use the extra power to increase the performance or visual fidelity of their games. As an example, Impulse Gear’s anticipated VR FPS, Farpoint, was shown off with refined, crisper graphics. It wasn’t enough to impress some of us watching at home, though at the event we could definitely notice the difference between the standard experience and the enhanced one.
So far no other VR developers have commented on possible PS4 Pro support, but we’re interested to see if others opt to improve framerates. The system hits on November 15th for $399, while PlayStation VR arrives on October 13th for the same price.
