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A new gaming reality was virtually within sight
In the video game industry, 10 years may as well be a lifetime. Entire tech empires can rise and fall in that span given how quickly the medium tends to evolve. If you need a concrete example of that, look to the PlayStation VR, which launched on Oct. 13, 2016. At the time, the bulky headset felt like a mainstream turning point for a niche corner of gaming that was still in its infancy. A decade later, the PSVR instead stands as a monument to a doomed trend that’s on the brink of extinction in 2026.
While there was buzz about VR brewing in the mid-2010s, 2016 was the year that properly kicked off the trend. It began when the Oculus Rift, a device considered to be the first consumer headset of the era, released in March. That was quickly followed up by the HTC Vive in April, starting a rat race in the headset market. While those devices were exciting, they weren’t entirely consumer-friendly, seeing as they required you to own a gaming PC rig capable of running them.
The PlayStation VR looked like the answer to that problem when it launched in October. So long as you owned a PlayStation 4, all you needed to do was plug it in to the headset. Okay, it was a little more complicated than that and required a mess of cables, but it was still an easy setup compared to its competitors. It also looked more inviting; its white design came off as friendly and approachable next to its black rival headsets that looked like serious, complicated pieces of tech.
Despite those strengths, it took a few years for the PSVR to really come into its own. Its launch game lineup wasn’t terribly memorable, with games like PlayStation VR Worlds and Batman: Arkham VR doing little to shake the feeling that VR games were glorified tech demos. A few great games showcased the potential, including Ubisoft’s Eagle Flight and Rez Infinite, but PSVR really didn’t take off for another two years.
2018 was so significant for Sony’s headset that you could almost consider it a relaunch. Its game lineup got a huge infusion of new blood thanks to Tetris Effect, Moss, and Astro Bot: Rescue Mission. All three games were the bonafide killer apps that were needed to convince curious players to give it a shot. I know that for a fact, because that’s when I bought the PSVR. It was a hot item during that year’s Black Friday sales, with reasonably priced bundles that came with heavy hitters like Moss. PSVR had already sold three million units as of August that year, and the number seemed to rise dramatically during a successful holiday season. VR on consoles has arrived.
In retrospect, it’s now clear that 2018 was the peak of the mountain for Sony’s VR experiment. While new games like Blood and Truth continued to push what the tech could do throughout the headset’s life, Sony couldn’t remain on VR’s center stage. In 2020, Oculus regained mainstream attention with its Quest 2 headset. Valve also took the spotlight that year by releasing Half-Life: Alyx, a landmark VR game that you couldn’t play on PSVR. Sony’s headset was starting to feel clumsier and less capable as the tech evolved rapidly around a device that was tethered to a last-gen console come 2020.
Sony’s last shot at making PSVR a viable part of the landscape came in 2023, thanks to the PlayStation VR 2. The revamped headset was a major upgrade in every way. It was more comfortable, more powerful thanks to the PS5, easier to set up, and had a deep backlog of great games on day one. It seemed like Sony was serious about it given that the device launched with Horizon: Call of the Mountain, a true first-party exclusive using one of its biggest franchises.
The triumph was short-lived. PSVR2 was virtually dead on arrival, launching as mainstream interest in the tech had all but faded. Aside from launching a VR mode for Gran Turismo 7 and putting some advertising muscle into promising titles like Synapse, Sony seemed to abandon the headset instantly. In 2024, one year after the launch, Sony released a PC adapter for the device. It was a way to generate a last bit of buzz, but also seemed like an admission that console VR simply wasn’t the future.
And if that was in question in 2024, it’s all but certain in 2026: This September, Sony reportedly transferred several patents related to VR to Meta. On its 10-year anniversary, Sony has all but confirmed the end of an era for its VR ambitions.
It’s a sensible example of a company reading the room, because the VR gaming industry is on its deathbed in 2026. Many of the superstar developers behind VR’s greatest hits have pivoted to flat-screen games. Others, including Moss studio Polyarc, have shut down entirely. High-profile VR games from major publishers are becoming less frequent, with early adopters like Ubisoft stepping away from the tech entirely. Any hope that Valve would revitalize the space with this year’s Steam Frame faded away when its high price tag and lack of first-party game support came to light. There aren’t many reasons to be optimistic about the tech’s future these days.
While we’ll likely never see console manufacturers getting into VR again, there’s still a little life left in a space that has shrunk down to a dedicated niche. A newly released mod that gives Titanfall 2 VR support is turning heads (literally) at the moment, suggesting that fan projects could gain momentum with official game releases slowing down. There may be a world where VR gaming continues to hang on as an enthusiast hobby for people who like to tinker with old games. (And Nintendo’s surprise Virtual Boy revival this year taught us that sometimes doomed tech can get a nostalgia-tinged second life.) But the tech rat race that gave us the PSVR is firmly over, for better or worse, wrapping up a 10-year journey in a perfectly imperfect bow.