Sony’s June 2022 State of Play featured something for everyone in the PlayStation ecosystem. The presentation announced the long-anticipated Resident Evil 4 remake and showed trailers for everything from Street Fighter 6 to the cat simulator Stray. It also featured the once unthinkable announcement that Insomniac’s Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered is being ported to PC.
In addition to announcements that affect players on established platforms, Sony devoted a significant portion of the presentation to its next piece of hardware. Although Sony still hasn’t provided a release date for it, the PlayStation VR 2 headset was well represented during State of Play. While the PSVR2 games may sound appealing to players who have bought into VR gaming, they did little to win over anyone else.
Sony showcased four PSVR2 games, including VR versions of popular games like Resident Evil Village and No Man’s Sky, a new chapter of The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners and a VR spin-off of the Horizon series. That’s a solid line-up of games and franchises, and it even includes one with a recent entry still fresh in PlayStation fans’ minds after a new update. On paper, it seems like these announcements would generate excitement from fans of the various properties.
Instead, for many gamers, the PSVR2 games were an unwelcome addition to State of Play. They were overwhelmingly met with negative comments during the live stream. Fans protesting that PS5s are still hard to come by while Sony tries to hype up new hardware is one thing. A commenter saying “no one cares about VR” is another.
VR gaming hasn’t quite caught on with the core gaming audience. Games like the soon-to-be remade Resident Evil 4 and Half-Life: Alyx have been well received by critics and the fans who have embraced VR gaming. However, there hasn’t been a “killer app” that has led to the wider adoption of VR gaming. That burden might be too much to ask of any one game.
It’s one thing for Sony fans dedicated enough to watch a State of Play live being irritated that PSVR2 games are being featured. The “hardcore gamer” demographic frequently doesn’t represent broader tastes in gaming. However, VR gaming remains a niche, even outside the gaming community that spurns it in places like State of Play presentations. This is not a case of gaming enthusiasts spurning something that’s broken through to the mainstream, like what happened with the Nintendo Wii.
VR has long been considered the future of gaming. Ironically, it looks like the actual future of gaming is moving farther away from the need for dedicated hardware like a VR headset. With the new incarnation of PlayStation Plus, Sony is finally embracing the subscription service model that’s made Xbox Game Pass so popular. Meanwhile, Microsoft continues to experiment with cloud streamed games. Rumors suggest that a Game Pass-dedicated cloud streaming device is in the works at Microsoft. On the other hand, the death of the console has been long anticipated. However, the demand for PS5s shows that the post-hardware world has not yet arrived.
The PSVR2’s poor reception during State of Play won’t deter Sony from promoting it. Just because something is niche doesn’t mean it doesn’t have a place in Sony’s line-up. While some fans won’t welcome it, Sony will promote PSVR2 games as they ramp up to the headset’s release. They’ll most likely continue to use spin-offs of first-party Sony games like Horizon to entice PlayStation fans into trying out VR. While some fans may not like it, PSVR having a place at Sony’s table during hype sessions makes perfect sense.