We plugged the PSVR2 into a PC, and here’s what it does

Sony’s new PlayStation VR2 headset is designed to work exclusively with a PS5, but will it ever work on PCs? That’s a big question that I can’t answer just yet, and one that even Sony is dodging right now. While the original PSVR got unofficial support for PC, the PSVR2 could be just as complicated to get working with SteamVR without help from Sony.

“The PSVR2 is created for use with the PS5 console,” says Sony PR representative Beca Truong in a statement to The Verge. We asked whether Sony would ever officially support the PSVR2 on PC, but the company failed to answer.

So, what does happen when you plug the PSVR2 into a PC? During our review testing, I tried connecting the PSVR2 to a PC directly into a USB-C port on an AMD Radeon RX 6800XT GPU. Windows picked it up as a second screen and limited the resolution to 1080p, but SteamVR just kept asking me to plug in my VR headset, as it couldn’t recognize the PSVR2.

Sony hasn’t encrypted the video signal over USB-C, but without driver support, there’s not much you can use the headset for other than a fancy second screen. I’m hopeful that someone might get it working eventually, in much the same way that PSVR has been modded to work on PC.

Third-party tools like Trinus PSVR or iVRy allow the original PlayStation VR headset to work on PC with SteamVR. But as iVRy’s developer pointed out on Reddit recently, it was a lot of work to get things like the accelerometer working, and the open-source webcam tracking solutions still aren’t as good as Sony’s own.

While the PSVR2 connects over a single USB-C cable, the bigger challenges for modders will be supporting its inside-out tracking, haptic feedback, and controllers. Obviously, it would be far better if Sony just officially supported it, though. Sony has made a big deal about bringing PlayStation games to PC over the past couple of years, but there’s still no sign Sony will ever officially support PSVR2 on PC.

That’s disappointing because, for $549, this would be a really interesting alternative for PC gamers looking at VR headsets.