Although Sony’s second generation of PlayStation VR won’t be releasing this year, the company has today revealed the new design and features dedicated controllers for the system.
Hideaki Nishino, senior vice president of platform planning and management, only revealed the existence of the second-gen PSVR three weeks ago, and teased us with information that there would be a new controller for the as-yet unnamed system. Nishino’s follow-up article today shows off the controllers in full.
The new design is certainly eye-catching. Each of the two control units is effectively half of a DualSense, placed inside a tri-lobed hollow sphere. That allows you to put your hand inside the shell to take hold of the controls inside, and it looks like each controller also has a wrist strap. Sony says this “allows you to hold the controller naturally” and means “no constraints with how you’re moving your hands”.
Controls are split between the two units too. On the left controller you get one analog stick, L1 and L2, the Create button, and the triangle and square buttons. Over on the right there’s one analog stick, R1 and R2, the Options button, and the cross and circle buttons. L1 and R1 operate the “grip” feature for each hand respectively, with the L2 and R2 as trigger buttons for actions.
There’s more than a resemblance to the DualSense controller too, as Sony has built in the features of the PlayStation 5’s controller to the VR units. That means that the trigger buttons are adaptive, just as they are with DualSense, increasing or decreasing tension appropriate to the action. Haptic feedback and finger touch detection are built into the buttons too, so the VR controller can detect your fingers near the buttons and give a tactile response.
In addition, each controller features a tracking ring on the bottom of each unit. This will be what the new VR headset — which is still under wraps — will use to locate your hands inside the virtual environment.
Although the next-gen PSVR isn’t due out this year, prototypes of this new controller will be heading out to developers shortly, so games due in 2022 may well take advantage of the functionality at launch. That could, of course, include Gran Turismo 7.
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