Sony’s PlayStation 4 will have enjoyed five years on the market by the end of 2018 and it’s had a great run with a massive 73 million units sold as of December 2017. But as the console grows older, fans have increasingly started to wonder what comes next or, rather, where is PlayStation 5? For VR fans, that question is even more complicated.
PS4 and PlayStation VR are sold as separate products, both relatively affordable on their own but starting at around $500 together (and you need a PS4 to use PSVR). This has us wondering about how VR will look on the unannounced PS5; will Sony ask us to lay down a lot of money for two separate pieces of hardware yet again, or will a potential PSVR2 actually be bundled in with the hardware?
We don’t yet know, but the developer of Knockout League thinks they should be kept separate.
Speaking to Official PlayStation Magazine UK (via Wccftech), Harold Vancol, Creative Director at the studio behind Knockout League, noted that the two should be separate, though ultimately be considered ‘essential’ together.
“Buying a new console is a big undertaking for a lot of people, and buying the headset that I think people want to see in the future of PlayStation can almost be like buying a new console,” Vancol said. “So having these purchases separated gives each thing its own time to shine. However, PlayStation 5 and PSVR should be considered essential together.”
There’s much to learn about how Sony will handle VR on its next console, which the company last year said was ‘some time‘ from release. Will current PSVR owners be able to use their existing headsets with the console on day one? No doubt a potential leap in hardware capabilities will provide much more immersive experiences, but will we also see a second iteration of the headset — which is considered relatively successful at two million units sold — that could drastically change the tracking systems and more.
How Sony will introduce its next generation of VR, which could include new controllers, is one of the biggest questions for VR for the next few years.
