PSVR 2 hardware news sounds awesome – but that's not why I'm stupidly excited

Excitingly for PS5 gamers, a new series of leaks have broken cover online that seemingly confirm (via various separate, corroborated sources), that a PSVR 2 developer event took place earlier this week.

At that PlayStation VR 2 developer event more details about the next-gen virtual reality headset were mentioned, including the fact that the PSVR 2 uses a Fresnel OLED display and has a field of view of 110 degrees, which is 10 degrees more than the original PlayStation VR.

That hardware information added to the existing rumored specs that broke cover earlier this year, which state that the PSVR 2 display sports an overall resolution of 4000x2080 pixels, which is 2000x2040 per eye. This again is a massive improvement over the original Sony VR headset.

So far so very good then for PlayStation 5 owners, who the PSVR 2 is being designed for. Indeed, as we noted at the PSVR 2 official announcement back in March, this is very much a next-gen virtual reality system, with Sony itself confirming that stating it is a "next-gen VR system that enhances everything from resolution and field of view to tracking and input."

The thing is, though, as happy as I am to see these exciting hardware upgrades increasingly confirmed, another thing got mentioned at this week's PSVR 2 developer event that I'm much more enthused about.

That's because developers were reportedly told at the event that Sony is, with the PSVR 2, set to "move away from VR experiences and focus on console-quality AAA titles", with VR features, support and extra-content built in to them. And, to me at least, that is music to my ears, as it is literally a win-win for gamers.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed many of the stand-alone games and experiences made for the original PSVR headset, but there was no getting away from the fact that even the best of them felt like they didn't have the production values or quality of major AAA titles. A lot were new, unknown IPs, too.

However, with the PSVR 2 being driven by Sony as something that game makers can use to improve immersion and engagement with mainstream AAA games, that not only should improve the quantity and quality of VR experiences enjoyable through the headset on PS5, with mainstream super popular gaming series getting in on the VR action, but also tie the accessory even closer to the console and give gamers an even greater reason to pick it up.

And the more gamers that buy PSVR 2, the stronger the ecosystem will become, thereby encouraging even more developers to build cool VR worlds for gamers to enjoy on it.

And that's why I think it's a really smart shift in focus by Sony and why I'm currently stupidly excited for PSVR 2 – more excited than I've ever been. This repositioning, if followed through and executed, looks to me like it could be the catalyst to really take virtual reality gaming to the next level and, as a PS5 owner, a great way to cement my loyalty to the console long term. As, as much as I'm in awe of the Xbox Series X, the simple truth is that Microsoft doesn't offer gamers a VR solution, while Sony does.

And judging by the information that has reportedly leaked out of this PSVR 2 developer event, that VR solution sounds game changing.

• These are the best PS5 games to play