Officially supporting the PSVR on the PC, via something like OpenVR, would be a win for everyone involved.

Sony, presumably making a profit off sold units (plus cameras, controllers), would enlarge their potential market to be larger than any one of their direct competitors, ultimately driving down costs through scale, and driving up profits through sales.

Developers too enjoy a bigger market, and would have an obvious reason to port PSVR games to the PC. As it stands, VR is best suited for 'smaller experiences', and a smaller developer can't reasonably disregard the PC market anyway.

Gamers with only a PS4 are unaffected.

Gamers with only a PC will have the currently cheapest desktop VR solution available to them.

Gamers with a PC and PS4 will get better value out of their investment.

The counter-argument would be that Sony could lose software sales as people with both a PC and PS4 will opt for the PC version. I find this argument weak because how likely is someone with a VR-capable PC to buy a PS4-only VR solution in the first case? Long-term what matters more is that the market gets established. Expanding market share and brand recognition while making a profit selling units you wouldn't have sold otherwise should be more than enough to counter-balance this 'issue'.

As someone with both a PC and a PS4, the prospect of spending ~$450 on something which will only work on the PS4 is wholly unappealing. If I were able to leverage that investment onto the PC also, 'splitting the cost' as it were, it'd instead be a non-brainer.

The reality is that, as it stands, the right choice for me is to not invest in PSVR at all.

I don't think Sony will have a problem selling PSVR they also want to shift PS4's like MS did with Kinect., PSVR will have a media player for non-gaming content and cinema mode for non-vr games. If available PSVR would not the cheapest VR option to PC users, why wouldn't PSVR also work with the PS5?

Razor OSVR

Yeah, if the PSVR could be used on the PC, that'd be a HUGE plus. While the Kinect didn't fair well for Xbox, it had some interesting uses on the PC side.

Sony's always had "issues" supporting their hardware addons. Playstation Eye, Move controllers, Wonderbook. If PSVR ended up with that level of support, it'd be a relief to know I could at least use that hardware to play some Skyrim in VR, or something.

If it had PC compatibility, you'd at least see a lot of small demos and pet projects pop up, especially at that price range. As it is, if you have to do certification and pay to be listed, you're coughing up a considerable chunk of change to hit a fairly small audience.

I honestly wonder if it would be even possible to make PSVR work with PCs just like that.

It already seems that the lack of unified memory is a huge headache for some Devs porting current console games to PC, and with PSVR using some kind of external processor to upscale the frame-rate and mirror a TV-friendly game output on top of that, i'm not sure if raw power can make up for the very specific hardware usage.

That said, i'd be happy to be proven wrong. Having multiple uses for PSVR would probably make it an actual buy for me.

Great idea that will never happen. All Microsoft has to do is announce a console add-on at E3 that lets the Oculus run on Xbox One. Suddenly Oculus is making the move that Sony should and the Xbox gets to join the VR fight and be in parity with Sony.

Sony wants you to get on their ecosystem and buy your VR games on their store since that's where they make the bulk of their money. The cash they earn from the headset/accessories are nothing compared to game sales, so I don't see how this would actually be a plus for them.

Besides as it stands now PSVR looks like a great way to experience good VR relatively cheap and a big selling point for the PS4, doing anything to diminish that doesn't seem like a good buisness decision.

@dragon_puncher: This article from Gamespot makes your reasoning pretty compelling: http://www.gamespot.com/articles/playstation-vr-sales-could-hit-16-million-units-an/1100-6435717/

@dragon_puncher said:

Sony may "want" that, but I have a VR-capable PC so that's not happening. I just don't see how there's a market here that they would lose.

People in my position simply aren't likely to ever buy the PSVR, and hence no PSN games either. It just doesn't make sense. If I'm spending money, it's PC first, console second. Always.

The idea that the PSVR working on PCs too would cost them any significant PS4 business is almost to ridiculous to entertain, IMO.

AFAIK the only real processing it does is scaling and a barrel transform. A PC GPU eats that for lunch, it's not an issue.

Whether or not this would require a different SKU, and how much that would cost to produce is of course highly relevant, but also unknown at this time. I would assume that for the sake of development they already support PC on the devkit side, but that's just a guess.

will probably come down the line.

@eloj said:

It's not an issue of Power, but of Infrastructure.

While of course there are PCs multiple times as powerful as the PS4, the way PSVR seems to work MIGHT be a bit of a tricky process.

As far as it is speculated (Digital Foundry wise at least), the PSVR external processor serves as upscaler for both resolution and framerate, as well as channeling a mirror to the TV, while also one of the images is processed because of the VR lenses.

However, there is a big question mark on how the signal is delivered from the PS4 to the External VR Box, what the specifications are to get a PS4 game running on VR (with unified memory, system memory can be sacrificed for graphics memory, which theoretically could mean that a game needs more GPU memory than most cards on PC can deliver), and whether or not the external box does other work for VR games.

It's quite a different thing than the Oculus Rift, that as far as i see it can and does pretty much brute force every output needed for VR with the beefy specs high end PCs can deliver. And i'm not sure if just writing some good drivers is enough to make PSVR work on a PC, or if a game has to be specifically designed for the features and hurdles unique to that hardware.

@brayvonmartin: If people are already unsure of buying a $400 piece of hardware that works out of the box with their console, how are you getting them to buy an adapter and a more expensive VR headset unit? The Rift is $600 and any breakout box it would need is likely to add another $100-300 on top of that. Sure it means it'd work with your PC too, but at that stage, why aren't you just using it on your PC?

I think the OPs point here is that if Sony put their much cheaper piece of hardware on a platform like PC, then it's a better option for everyone. Bringing a more expensive peripheral back the other way doesn't seem to make much sense.

That's fine, but now you're just applying your own situation to the general gaming populace. The fact is, most people don't have a VR-capable PC and so if they want to experience high-end VR they are left with a choice:

Upgrade to or buy a VR-capable PC + headset
Buy a PS4 + PSVR / buy PSVR if you already own a PS4.

When making consumers pick between these choices, Sony's biggest advantage is price. So why would they partially undermine their biggest selling point, by offering a cheaper solution on a competing platform? And on top of that, on a platform where they don't generatete revenue on every piece of software sold, aka their main source of income.

If we're talking about ridiculous notions, that seems right up there.

My guess is Sony won't 'officially' support PC, but they won't stop someone from making a hack so you could use PlayStation VR on a PC.

The big issues really isn't Sony opening the hardware to PC. If you wnat cheap VR - BELIEVE ME - there will be many options from many companies. In fact, I rather doubt Sony will be the cheapest and taht si why they don't need to nor should they put any effort into such a push.

As we see to the left, China finds a way.

Move over Will Smith, there's a new VR meme man on your heels. He drinks coffee, he wears chains...and he is SHOCKED at how good the VR is!

The argument you are making is pretty much the argument againist all console exclusives.

Look at Nintendo they could make so many more sales on a per game basis by releasing their IP on all platforms. But the goal of platform makers is not to sell software or hardware. Their goal is to sell a platform they control.

Exclusive software and hardware are not made to make money. They are made as bullet points that collectively make the argument that your platform has more value to consumers than the competition. The true money comes with market share.

Aldo as it stands now PSVR is very well poised to be the biggest selling VR device on the market. So they have market share in the VR space while already having the console market share locked especially as MS looks like they are pulling out. They have no need to do anything unconventional.

Seeing the weird shit people come up with on PC is the big draw of VR for me as a toy. Playing some motion games with my eyes covered isn't why I want a headset. Without being able to throw this thing on a PC and explore some dark subreddit of weird VR creations, PSVR doesn't excite me. Its novelty as a gaming-only device will wear off quickly for me, just like motion controls, those vests that vibrate, or the gaming chairs with the speakers in the headrest.

I just think it's crazy to drop $400+ on a peripheral this late into a console cycle. At least if you buy VR for the PC you're investing in something that theoretically should be around for a while, it would be a smart move on Sony's part as far as longevity goes but who knows how they'll play this one.

I just also wanted to mention that due to development cycles and this being new hardware it will most likely be a few years before we see any quality VR titles for consoles so by the time the Sony VR is worth having, a new console will be on the horizon. I dunno, just something to think about. The PC sim market is ripe with VR ready software as it is, ARMA, DCS, IL-2(all of them), Star Citizen, Elite, Eurotruck and Dirt to name a few.

Oh, man I think you over estimating the life-cycle of these devices on PC. I think PS4 might be the "one headset for the rest of this generation",a rock of stability in a stream of chaos.

On, PC there will be a new VR headset from Oculus, Valve/HTC, or Samsung and many other every 12 to 18 months. As soon as you buy a headset, it will be considered obsolete within 6 months.. It is just a guess, we can't know, but I think anyone who want to buy into VR but wants THAT device supported for awhile might need to consider the console route. The Sony device won't keep up, but teh games for ist will be taylored for it without the need to get into the grind of a better CPU- GPU-HEADSET being what is considered necessary.

The PC side of things won't be the "it will be around for awhile" that you can invest in unit even with higher specs. The PC side will be the 18 month upgrade cycle side where what you have is 'not considered good' anymore just months after you buy it.