I held Earth in the palm of my hand. Universe Sandbox, a celestial body simulator, isn’t available on the PlayStation 5, yet I was running it inside the PlayStation VR2 with the help of the relatively new PC adapter. It was thrilling to access a whole new library for Sony’s virtual reality headset. Until it stopped working.
The PS VR2 has been struggling since its launch early last year. The hardware is impeccable—I rated it an 8/10 in my review largely due to its stellar eye-tracking and comfortable headgear—but there are fewer games than one might have hoped. Some new titles are still on the way, but there aren’t many wave-making tentpoles.
The flagship launch title, Horizon Call of the Mountain, was an excellent showcase for the hardware, but it remains one of the highest-profile games on the platform in the year and a half since its debut. Most other games for the VR headset are also available for less exclusive platforms like the Meta Quest 3. A dearth of games makes the PS VR2 a hard sell when it costs $550 on top of the need to own an expensive PS5. In comes Sony’s PC adapter, which lets players use the headset with a gaming PC to access a larger library of VR games, but the reality isn’t quite as appealing.
Complicated Setup
The PS VR2 PC adapter costs an extra $60 on top of the $550 price of the VR headset. You still need a PlayStation 5 or, with the adapter, a gaming-capable PC to run anything on it. Worse, some of the PS VR2’s features aren’t supported on the PC, like eye tracking or HDR. Compare that to a higher-end VR headset like the Meta Quest Pro, which costs around $1,000 and doesn’t rely on another device.
It doesn’t help that the adapter is less straightforward than the word “adapter” might imply. The adapter connects via USB 3.0, but you’ll also need to run a separate DisplayPort cable to your computer. That’s just for the headset itself. The controllers pair via Bluetooth, and each has to be paired separately.
While setting up the controllers, it started to sink in how clunky this all was. Bluetooth pairing is, in the best of circumstances, mildly annoying, and here I was doing it twice to use something I just bought an adapter for. I also had to ensure the multiple cables I was running to my computer weren’t getting in the way of the space I planned to use my headset. This might’ve been tolerable in 2012, but when we have good standalone headsets now, it’s annoying.
All of this adds up to a tedious setup process that leaves you with a mess of cables running to the headset, and that’s before you use the software. The PS VR2 requires the SteamVR app and Sony’s own PS VR2 app for the headset to work. It took around half an hour to get the headset up and running.
In fairness, some PC-based headsets still have physical cables connected to the computer or require a bit of setup, but the appeal of the PS VR2 is that it just works when it’s connected to a PS5. Judging it as a PC headset, well, it doesn’t measure up all that well.
Disappointing Performance
A lengthy setup process would be forgivable if playing on the headset was worthwhile, but it frequently wasn’t. While looking around the virtual solar system in Universe Sandbox, the game would glitch, causing the image to jitter left and right, which was rather disorienting. I couldn’t tell if this was due to lag with the display or possibly a flaw in the motion tracking, but either way, it was difficult to focus my eyes at times.
The PC adapter also doesn’t include a Bluetooth radio to pair with the controllers, so you’ll need to rely on whatever wireless adapter is in your computer. This isn’t an issue with most prebuilt gaming PCs, and most motherboards these days include a Bluetooth radio, but this still might be an issue for some. (Thankfully, you can snag cheap Bluetooth adapters.)