Farpoint dev tells Sony what he wants in PSVR 2
In an interview with finder.com.au, Impulse Gear founder Seth Luisi talks about the next iteration of Sony’s hardware.
It’s been quite a journey since Sony successfully launched its PlayStation VR headset in 2016. For the most part, it has been well-received, achieving over five million global sales. While not as powerful in its hardware, or diverse in its software offerings as the far more expensive Oculus Rift and HTC Vive VR headsets, it’s still no slouch. It provides a comfortable, highly playable and affordable VR experience without the need for a high-end PC.
In my opinion, every PS4 owner should try it out. Although PS5 owners may want to wait for the just announced PSVR 2 headset.
The release schedule has been dotted with interesting and unique experiences, too, ranging from blockbusters like Resident Evil VII, through to peculiarities like Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes. One of the marquee additions to PSVR's growing list of games, however, is Farpoint. The game sought to tackle one of the biggest issues facing the FPS genre in VR; movement. To do this, the game adopted a new peripheral called the Aim Controller, which turns the DualShock into a gun. And it works, providing the best shooter experience I’ve played in VR.
Fairpoint Vr
Amazon
Farpoint developer Impulse Gear worked closely with Sony in developing the Aim Controller and one of PSVR’s first genuine must-own experiences. As such, its founder, Seth Luisi, has a deeper understanding than most of the technology and where it can go. I recently got an opportunity to chat with Luisi and wanted to pick his brains about the future of PlayStation VR. When Sony upgrades the hardware for the PS5 in 2022, where should it put its focus? Here is how that conversation went.
At some point Sony will iterate and improve its VR headset with a PSVR 2: when that happens, what order would you like to see Sony put its focus from the following features - a wireless headset, a Move 2.0 controller, room-scale and improved resolution?
Talking from the Impulse Gear developer position, as we show with the Aim Controller, we do feel that controls and controller tracking are very important. We are able to achieve a lot with the Aim Controller and I would love to see that taken further. So I would probably put Move 2.0 at the top. I think room-scale would come along just behind that.
Resolution is always going to get better and the higher it gets, the more realistic the games will look. More important than that, however, is a wider field of view. Having a wider field of view can make you feel more immersed in the world, and I think that will be a big focus [for Sony] going forward.
To me, I am not that interested in wireless headsets, mostly because I know how big the technical challenge is with them. It’s not that you can’t do it wireless, it’s more the latency, the image quality and the fidelity challenge of it. That is something that I think is going to be a little further away as there are just so many challenges with doing it right.