Sony’s PlayStation VR is widely expected to be the most successful VR solution, owing to its mass market accessibility. However, the launch of the PlayStation VR headset is just the beginning- going forward, Sony said they could easily see themselves launching future iterations of the product.
“We definitely believe [there will be a follow-up someday],”Richard Marks, Director of PlayStation Magic Lab said. “We’re doing everything and planning and setting it up so that we would know how to make a next one, and make that make sense for our customers and stuff, so yeah, we don’t think of this as a one-and-done by a long shot. And we also don’t think VR is like that.”
He isn’t the only one at Sony toying with the possibility, either. SCE’s Jeff Stafford also discussed the possibilities of a PlayStation VR follow up, discussing what a future revision of the product could have.
“We’re going to try and improve every aspect of it,” he said. “Get it lighter, smaller form factor, easier to use. Of course people want wireless- that’s a challenge. There’s so many things. People want to see their hands in VR, or see their body in VR.
“You get all of that [and then] ‘OK, I want to be able to feel things in VR.’ It’s the next thing. ‘OK, can I smell this virtual coffee?’ You know, at some point many years in the future I’m sure there will be some new amazing technology where it gives you a lot of these things. But even now, there’s so many experiences that can be created with the current technology. We haven’t really seen any of it yet. We’ll start to see it soon.”
VR as a medium definitely offers potential to evolve beyond what it is just offering right now- and it is good to see Sony thinking beyond this first generation of VR products. Let’s hope the PlayStation VR is successful enough to warrant follow up products.