PlayStation VR 2 will not be backwards compatible with PSVR

nme.com:

PSVR 2, will not be backwards compatible with PSVR titles.The news was broken by SVP of Platform Experience Hideaki Nishino on the PlayStation Blog podcast, where he said that the new headset will not be backwards compatible as it is “designed to deliver a truly next-generation VR experience.”The news has had something of a mixed reaction on social media, with many decrying the poor state of game preservation, particularly in the VR space.

Others have expressed disappointment that they will be unable to revisit beloved PSVR titles such as Astro Bot Rescue Mission without having to dust off their old hardware.The lack of backwards compatibility, while disappointing for some, isn’t particularly surprising given the age of the technology the original PSVR relies on – as Sam Watts, Immersive Partnerships Director at VR experts Make Real Ltd, explains to NME:“It’s a shame for users and developers alike not to have backwards compatibility baked in but it makes sense from a technical point of view, especially as PSVR relied upon the much older PS Move controllers, or DualShock gamepad,” he says.“Both of these required the PS4 Camera to detect and track these for positional input.

This could be done using the inside-out tracking method of the PSVR 2 headset for the PS Move controllers I suppose, but the majority of games were gamepad-based so it would be a fair bit of effort for small gains.”It would be technically possible for developers to update their titles to the newer PSVR 2 SDKs to enable support on the PSVR 2, assuming their past sales were strong enough to justify the work.

Additional work would be required to update the games for the PSVR 2’s new control system, however.“Considering the PS Move were far simpler input.