The Vision Pro could gain support for Sony PSVR2 controllers soon, according to Mark Gurman in today’s Power On newsletter for Bloomberg. Apple and Sony apparently planned to announce support for the controllers “weeks ago” but have pushed back the rollout. Under this rumored partnership, Apple would begin selling Sony’s controllers, which aren’t currently available on their own.
Sony has apparently been working on adding the support for months, while Apple has asked third-party developers if they would take advantage of Sony’s VR controllers. That’s potentially great news for Vision Pro owners who wish the headset had more gaming chops. (There are precious few good, native visionOS games — Thrasher, a mesmerizing game where you fling a giant worm / dragon thing around a psychadelic space using just hand movements, comes to mind.)
Gurman writes that Apple also wants to use the controllers for more than gaming — the controllers will be able to navigate visionOS, and would offer more precise controls in apps like Final Cut Pro and Adobe Photoshop. Right now, you can pair a standard Bluetooth controller and navigate visionOS — tapping buttons to select things, scrolling with the analog sticks, and so on. They also work for gaming, but you’re mostly limited to iPad and iPhone games with controller support or made-for-iOS emulators or that native Virtual Boy one.
Will this partnership bear fruit and help games actually flourish on the platform? I’m not immediately hopeful, given the Vision Pro’s sales and Apple’s track record of support from game publishers.
Still, the Vision Pro is fundamentally different from Apple’s other devices, and VR is its own landscape. And there are signs the community wants this, with at least one fully-funded Kickstarter project to develop Meta Quest 3-style controllers, called the Surreal Touch, for the Vision Pro. Maybe the Vision Pro will get some great VR games — whether anyone will be around to buy them is another question entirely.