•Exactly ten years after PlayStation VR launched on Oct. 13, 2016, Sony has all but confirmed the end of an era for its console VR ambitions. This September, Sony reportedly transferred several patents related to VR to Meta.
The bulky headset debuted as a mainstream turning point for virtual reality in gaming’s infancy. A decade later, PSVR stands instead as a monument to a trend that is on the brink of extinction in 2026.
While buzz about VR had been brewing through the mid-2010s, 2016 properly kicked off the trend. The Oculus Rift released in March as what was considered the first consumer headset of the era, quickly followed by the HTC Vive in April and starting a rat race in the headset market. Those devices were not entirely consumer-friendly, though, requiring owners to possess a gaming PC capable of running them.
The PlayStation VR looked like the answer when it launched in October: as long as you owned a PlayStation 4, all you needed was to plug it in. It required a mess of cables, but that was still an easy setup compared to competitors, and its white design came off as friendly and approachable next to black rival headsets that looked like serious, complicated pieces of tech.
Despite those strengths, PSVR took a few years to come into its own. Its launch game lineup wasn’t memorable, with PlayStation VR Worlds and Batman: Arkham VR doing little to shake the feeling that VR games were glorified tech demos. A few great games showcased potential—including Ubisoft’s Eagle Flight and Rez Infinite—but PSVR really didn’t take off for another two years.
2018 was so significant for Sony’s headset that it could almost be considered a relaunch. Its game lineup received a huge infusion of new blood thanks to Tetris Effect, Moss, and Astro Bot: Rescue Mission—all three bonafide killer apps needed to convince curious players to give VR a shot.
PSVR had already sold three million units as of August that year, and the number seemed to rise dramatically during a successful holiday season. VR on consoles had arrived.
In retrospect, 2018 was the peak for Sony’s VR experiment. While new games like Blood and Truth continued to push what the tech could do throughout the headset’s life, Sony couldn’t remain on VR’s center stage. In 2020, Oculus regained mainstream attention with its Quest 2 headset, and Valve took the spotlight by releasing Half-Life: Alyx—a landmark VR game that players couldn’t play on PSVR.
Sony’s last shot at making PSVR a viable part of the landscape came in 2023, thanks to PlayStation VR 2. The revamped headset was a major upgrade in every way—more comfortable, more powerful thanks to the PS5, easier to set up, and with a deep backlog of great games on day one. It seemed like Sony was serious given that the device launched with Horizon: Call of the Mountain, a true first-party exclusive using one of its biggest franchises.
The triumph was short-lived. PSVR2 was virtually dead on arrival, launching as mainstream interest in the tech had all but faded. Aside from launching a VR mode for Gran Turismo 7 and putting advertising muscle into promising titles like Synapse, Sony seemed to abandon the headset instantly. In 2024, one year after launch, Sony released a PC adapter for the device—a way to generate a last bit of buzz that also seemed like an admission that console VR simply wasn’t the future.
If that was in question in 2024, it’s all but certain in 2026. The VR gaming industry is on its deathbed: many of the superstar developers behind VR’s greatest hits have pivoted to flat-screen games, while others—including Moss studio Polyarc—have shut down entirely.
High-profile VR games from major publishers are becoming less frequent, with early adopters like Ubisoft stepping away from the tech entirely. Any hope that Valve would revitalize the space with this year’s Steam Frame faded when its high price tag and lack of first-party game support came to light.
While console manufacturers may never get into VR again, there’s still a little life left in a space shrunk down to a dedicated niche. A newly released mod giving Titanfall 2 VR support is turning heads at the moment, suggesting fan projects could gain momentum as official game releases slow down. Nintendo’s surprise Virtual Boy revival this year also demonstrated that doomed tech can sometimes get a nostalgia-tinged second life.
The tech rat race that gave us PSVR is firmly over—wrapping up a 10-year journey in a perfectly imperfect bow.
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