How PSVR 2 looks set to hand Sony victory in the Xbox Series X vs PS5 console war

So it finally happened. What T3 had been reporting would take place for years has come to be – Sony has officially announced its PSVR 2 gaming headset.

And, as T3 noted just days ago, the announcement of the Sony PlayStation VR 2 gaming headset is great news for PS5 and really bad news for Microsoft and its next-gen Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S plans.

Sony's bombshell announcement, which was dropped on the Japanese firm's official PlayStation blog, led the next-gen Xbox assault with commentary from Hideaki Nishino, Sony's Senior Vice President of Platform Planning & Management.

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"Today I’m pleased to share that our next-generation VR system will be coming to PlayStation 5," stated Nishino, "enabling the ultimate entertainment experience with dramatic leaps in performance and interactivity. Players will feel an even greater sense of presence and become even more immersed in their game worlds once they put on the new headset."

The dispatch from PlayStation HQ to loyal PlayStation gamers then continued to reveal that the PSVR 2 system "enhances everything from resolution and field of view to tracking and input", and that it will also come with a brand new VR controller, too, which builds in plenty of the new tech debuted in the PS5's DualSense controller.

Simply put, Sony just dropped a bomb right into the heart of Xbox HQ and, right now, the damage it could cause is unknown but, arguably, scalable from distracting detonation to a full-blown platform breaker.

The reason? Xbox not only doesn't have a virtual reality gaming headset of its own, but has actively try to tell gamers that "customers aren't asking for it" and stated that VR isn't a focus at all for Microsoft's gaming arm.

As such, right now, when a gamer faces the decision as to if they should buy Xbox Series X or a PlayStation 5, they no on one side that Sony already has a VR platform and, shortly, will have an even more advanced one in the PSVR 2. While, over at Xbox, there not only isn't a VR platform but Microsoft has literally said that there will not be one in the future, either.

And, when a gamer then looks at the core specs of the two systems, sees that they're both incredibly similar in terms of the gaming performance they deliver, what is a gamer then going to look at to split the tie? Games, sure. But there both platforms are again very evenly matched. So it then will come down to peripherals and unique extra gaming experiences, and it is here where Sony is going to land the killing blow as it has virtual reality gaming on-lock and, potentially, even has a PSP 5G handheld console incoming, too.

Put it this way, if someone held a loaded gun against my head and demanded I choose between PS5 and Xbox Series X, then because of the PSVR 2 and the chance of a PSP 5G, I'd choose PlayStation 5 every single time. I'm a passionate gamer and, despite what Phil Spencer says, I do want VR gaming, and Sony delivers that for me.

While Sony was very forthcoming with its official PSVR 2 reveal in terms of information, in terms of what the virtual reality gaming headset looks like, right now we remain very firmly in the dark. However, as T3 reported a few months ago, our best unofficial look yet comes courtesy of the below video, which shows just how advanced the PlayStation VR 2 could be.

Hopefully we will hear more from Sony about the official PSVR 2 before the end of 2021, with the maker confirming "it won't be launching in 2021" – as T3 has said before, we think a summer 2022 release looks likely, so a teaser reveal around winter holiday season this year would be ideal.

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