SONY has revealed that the upcoming PSVR2, its next virtual reality headset, will include technology which allows the player to see the room around them.
The company has been developing its second VR headset to be compatible exclusively with the PS5 console.
Players will be warned if they go beyond their play area
PlayStation VR is currently the only VR headset on the market which is compatible with any of the major consoles.
Other virtual reality headsets are usually used with high-end PC setups.
With its new headset, Sony is hoping to bring quality virtual reality gameplay to the console market, in line with its PC counterparts.
On the PlayStation Blog, Sony recently announced a ‘see-through view’ which allows the player to see the room around them even when wearing the headset.
The upcoming hardware will let users set a custom play area which is free of walls and furniture, using the camera on the outside of the headset.
When playing the game the headset will then alert players if they reach the border of their decided area.
The game will pause and the player will be shown the camera view of their room so that they can avoid hurting themselves or breaking things.
This camera view is only for the player and does not record or stream footage.
PlayStation also wishes to encourage more social play and streaming with the new hardware.
Those who want to stream or record themselves playing VR games will be able to do so directly from the console.
If users own the PS5 camera, it can record footage of them playing within the play area.
The console can then attach the image in front of the VR gameplay which can be streamed directly.
This news is in line with statements the company made previously about pivoting the business model to encourage users to play games more socially.
Streaming and content created for YouTube by players helps to significantly boost sales of games.
Recently, many developers and publishers have tried to encourage user created content involving their products for this reason
This has changed from the belief that fewer people would buy a game if they could watch someone else play it online instead.
Written by Georgina Young on behalf of GLHF.
