Apple Vision Pro could learn a thing or two from PSVR2 when it comes to gaming

Apple Vision Pro is many things, but a gaming device it is not. A large part of that comes down to the complete lack of controllers, with Apple choosing to focus on gesture interaction instead, but that could all be about to change.

When Apple launched the Vision Pro, it focused on a number of experiences, talking about immersive video, the ability to capture spatial video to then relive through the Vision Pro, and it talked about expanding movies onto giant floating screens.

Beyond that, much of the focus was on virtualising your other Apple devices and diving into VR video conferencing with creepy avatars. One thing that really wasn’t on the agenda, was gaming. Yes, you can access and play games on Vision Pro and you can connect Xbox or PS5 controllers, but there are no native controllers, which always came across as Apple wanting to avoid this being seen as a gaming device in the VR space.

However, according to Mark Gurman at Bloomberg, Apple approached Sony earlier in the year about adding support for the PSVR2 hand controllers. This would allow Apple Vision Pro to offer “proper” VR games, because the level of fine control that you get from a VR controller is far in advance of what you can do with hand gestures or via a conventional console controller.

As it stands, Sony doesn’t sell the PSVR2’s hand controllers separately, so only those who own PSVR2 and the Vision Pro would benefit, unless Sony decided to offer those controllers separately, which it could.

Mark Gurman went on to say that the announcement for support was supposed to go out “weeks ago” but things have been postponed – potentially scrapped completely.

Apple faces a bit of a challenge with the Vision Pro. While the device is hugely capable from a technology point of view, it lacks the affordability of rivals in its segment, such as Meta’s Quest headset, which is generally considered the best VR headset by many.

Just supporting gaming controllers doesn’t mean anything unless there are games to play and that will depend on developers ensuring that their games run on Vision Pro and work with PlayStation’s controllers.

Apple could support those developers to flesh out the capabilities of Vision Pro, but it would mean something of a change of direction for Apple’s headset.

It also depends on the demand for such a thing – and those who have already invested a significant bundle in the device might not be the Beat Saber types.