Can games made for the first-generation PlayStation VR, which has since become technologically obsolete, be used on the new-generation hardware…?
Hideaki Nishino, Sony Interactive Entertainment’s senior vice president of platform experiences, spoke about it in the latest episode of the official PlayStation podcast (available on the PlayStation Blog). It’s a fair question, as it’s becoming more and more accepted nowadays to be able to run older games on modern consoles. Microsoft started it with the Xbox One, but on the Xbox Series, you can play older games going back to the first generation Xbox…
Sony has been slow to follow it up, and it could be argued that they have done so almost out of necessity. We still remember when Jim Ryan, CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment, in a lower position, called backwards compatibility stupid. Still, since Microsoft was rubbing Sony’s moustache into this consumer-friendly move, the ‘blues’ had to take action too…
But let’s see Nishino’s response: “PlayStation VR games are not compatible with the PlayStation VR2 because it’s designed to be a truly next-generation virtual reality experience. The PlayStation VR2 has much more advanced features like an all-new controller with haptic feedback and adaptive triggers, as I’ve said, and inside-out tracking in it, 3D audio is coming together, 4K HDR, of course… so this means that making games for the PlayStation VR2 requires a whole different approach than the original PlayStation VR. These features enable developers to create worlds that feel more vivid and alive and bring players closer to the experience. I believe that.”
So, NO. There will be no backwards compatibility, which seems sad. Specifically, it means the first PlayStation VR will end up in the closet as soon as we get a PlayStation VR2 (planned to debut in early 2023) to go along with the PlayStation 5. We don’t know how much it will cost yet, but given Sony recently pushed the price of the PlayStation 5 up by €50 in Europe, for example, we fear it won’t be cheap…
Source: Gematsu
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