Since virtual reality experienced its new wave of youth, many enthusiasts have hoped that it could become much more popular, in some ways more widespread than it is, precisely because it allows the player to truly be present within the virtual world in which it is projected.\r\nThe interest of huge players, such as Sony with PlayStation VR, had further convinced many that the time had come for VR to make a leap in quality, to the point that I even remember someone prophesying that it would become The «new way» to play video games. We know that things didn’t go exactly like this, for various reasons.\r\nAmong the initial costs, the fact that many of the best headsets initially required to be paired with a PC, the gaming proposal actually present (the real unmissable pearls are not many, given the cost to be spent to approach this world) and also the unsolved problem of motion sickness: many users are afraid of buying a device that nauseates them, because despite all the recent measures there are still no measures that they totally stem the problem.\r\nProbably, these are also among the reasons why not even PlayStation VR has managed to impose a brighter future on the VR world. And, frankly, PS VR 2 succeeded less than ever.\r\nTo the point that Shuhei Yoshida, a veteran and executive who has just left PlayStation after thirty-one years, apologized for being wrong about VR.\r\nThe Yoshida’s words on PlayStation VR\r\nInterviewed by journalist Greg Miller on the popular show Kinda Funny, Yoshida also touched on the topic of virtual reality, saying that the moments when the first PlayStation VR was created were among his funniest ever.\r\nThe birth of the headset, in fact, happened almost by chance through the work of Santa Monica, while he was working on God of War at the time of PlayStation 3. They used Move as a controller and created a headset to project people in the game world: «when they made me wear it, I was Kratos. It’s something that’s fascinating. And so we came up with the idea: during the PS4 generation, we should make a real virtual reality.”\r\n\r\nSo Sony actually went so far as to launch the first PlayStation VR headset in 2016, in which Yoshida believed so much.\r \nSo much so, that Miller remembers him announcing it at GDC by saying that «we are back in the era of the first PlayStation, we are starting from scratch!», as if he were preparing the market launch of a device ready to mark a first and a later in the enjoyment (and diffusion) of videogames.\r\nAt that point, Yoshida adds:\r\n\r\n«I’m sorry I was wrong. PS VR 2 did not become PS2.”\r\n\r\nThe iteration associated with PS5, PlayStation VR 2, in fact did not become like a PS2 at all – that is, an improved version that capitalizes on what the first one did and achieved a record success, but in fact the opposite.\r\nIt may be that the wave of popularity of VR that hit the second half of the 1910s has passed, but the very high price of PS VR 2 (it costs more than PS5), the timidity with which Sony itself managed its marketing and the dedicated gaming proposal were not reasons of sufficient attraction to make it a success. To the point that even today, during Sony’s presentations, one gets the feeling that the segments on PS VR 2 are parentheses that not even PlayStation believes in too much.\r\n”But what happened with PS VR 2, Shu?” Greg Miller then asked. “Oh, well… let’s talk about something else” was the response of a saddened Yoshida, who therefore suggests that for Sony too things did not go exactly as expected.\r\nOn the other hand, , there are two games that Yoshida loved and recommends to VR gamers: the first is Synapse, the second is Before Your Eyes – which, along with Journey, has the distinction of being the only title to ever do so cry.\r\nIt’s a game that I also recommend, exciting and original in design: if you don’t have a headset to play it, you can play via webcam like I did, since the controller is your eyes. And, if you like narrative games that know how to touch the strings of the soul, it will certainly leave you with something.\r\nPlayStation VR 2 came out in early 2023 and, since then, it has been more timid than ever. If you want to give it a chance, you can still find it on Amazon – but be aware that it costs more than the console.