It’s no secret that Sony is working on a successor to the PlayStation VR. Back in February of this year, the Tokyo-based company revealed that it was developing a new virtual reality unit for the always-out-of-stock PS5.
We haven’t had much in the way of official updates from Sony since then, but a recently discovered patent application gives us a glimpse of what the device’s controllers might look like.
A patent application for what we’ll call the PSVR 2 controller was filed with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) on Feb. 26, 2021. The images filed with the application show a device identical to the official render of the PSVR 2 controller that Sony previously revealed.
The images in question have several black dots on each one, and some of the dots appear to correlate with the device’s tracking points. According to the filing, “the present invention improves the stability of detecting a light-emitting unit by using a camera.” This would presumably be the PS5 HD camera.
Save for the tracking light’s placements, the patent application doesn’t show more than we’ve already seen from the official render. We see three additional buttons that a user can press with their middle, ring, and little fingers. It’s anyone’s guess what these extra buttons are for. The ring sitting behind the buttons and the user’s thumb, as seen in the official render, is clearly visible.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen a patent application filed for the PSVR 2. Early in November, a patent application for the device’s headset surfaced. Back in 2019, another patent application mentioned the potential for a wireless headset.
That particular patent application said that "signals could be transmitted to the [head-mounted display] by a wired or wireless connection". It further stated that Bluetooth could be one method of wireless connection with the console.
While the latest patent application is certainly real, it is no indication of something that will actually see the light of day. Even the official render revealed in February isn't one hundred percent finalized.
Whatever the case, we will see a PSVR successor eventually, though there’s no way to determine when that will be. It will be interesting to see how this device will distinguish itself from machines like the Oculus Quest 2 and Valve Index.
Be sure to check out our PSVR 2 hub for all the information we’ve gathered so far.
