Sony's PlayStation VR 2 headset for PS5 confirmed to deliver 4K gaming

Following Sony's official announcement of the PlayStation VR 2 gaming headset for PS5 a few months ago, hype for the next-gen VR system has been growing at a rapid rate. And this is despite the fact that the only thing Sony has revealed so far about the PSVR 2 is a few images of its hand controllers.

Now, though, we've just got our first proper information about the PlayStation VR 2's capabilities. And, simply put, PS5 gamers should be very excited.

Gamers should be excited because the PSVR 2 has been revealed to deliver a 4K resolution of 4000x2040 pixels (that's 2000x2040 per eye), haptic feedback, inside-out tracking, a lens separation adjustment dial and gaze tracking capable of foveated rendering. Combined that is an orders of magnitude upgrade from the original PlayStation VR.

This exciting news comes courtesy of a report on uploadvr, who confirm that their information comes from "multiple sources" and that Sony shared these details with its VR partners, which is seemingly how this information has leaked out. According to the report, the resolution delivered by the PSVR 2 will mean it can display about 8.16 million total pixels, while it will be connected to the PS5 via a USB Type-C connection. PlayStation 5 owners will know that there is a single USB Type-C port on the front of the console.

It looks like the headset's upgraded hardware will also make setup of the console easier, with its onboard cameras used to track the position of the PSVR 2 controllers. This will also reportedly give the player greater freedom of movement (while still being tracked).

Aside from the 4K resolution, though, the most interesting aspect to this info drop is that the PSVR 2 will use foveated rendering, which is a system that uses an eye tracker to track where the user is looking (in the VR headset) and then reduce the rendering quality of things on the periphery or outside of that vision. The benefit of foveated rendering is that it can reduce the amount of resources needed to render things the gamer isn't seeing, thereby improving overall performance and freeing up resources to render what they are seeing in greater detail.

The result of this should mean that detailing of actors and environments should be greatly improved in PSVR 2 games, not just the resolution. This will undoubtedly improve immersion.

And what this info dump also confirms is one thing that is not coming to PSVR 2 – wireless functionality. Rumors had indicated that the PSVR 2 might be powered by batteries and therefore offer fully wireless operation, but that now seems to have been proved inaccurate thanks to the USB Type-C reveal.

While what this report doesn't confirm is what exactly the PSVR 2 will actually be called. PSVR 2, PSVR PRO and PSVR X have all been mooted as possible names, but so far nothing is clear, with the report confirming that "we don't know the product's name".

As to what the actual headset will look like, nothing is still known yet, despite some interesting concept design videos breaking cover this year.

Now, of course, this information has not been officially released by Sony and, as such, despite its apparent validity it should still be taken with a pinch of salt. However, this info tallies well with whispers that we've heard here at T3 and feels accurate to us.

All of which leads us back to a point that T3 has previously raised that PSVR 2 could actually be the accessory that wins this current-gen console war. With both the PS5 and Xbox Series X so evenly matched on paper, the fact that Sony's platform offers VR gaming while Microsoft's does not could very well factor into many gamer's purchasing decisions.

And, with the PlayStation VR 2 headset described above in its armory, Sony will be in a very strong position indeed.

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