There are lots of signs of a healthy business venture, but one thing I would not list in that category is conducting a fire sale of basically all your valuable patents, which is, unfortunately, what Sony has reportedly been doing with its PlayStation VR headset.
According to ZDNet Korea (read via Google Translate), Sony has transferred 43 patents between June and September relating to VR, AR, and XR. Those patents run the gamut; some relate to information processing on a wearable device, others to head-mounted displays or cameras, and more. And that’s just the beginning. ZDNet Korea reports that there are a grand total of 419 patents set to be transferred, and 180 of them are in the U.S.
What lucky company will be the recipient of all of that patent goodness? I’ll give you one guess… If you guessed Meta, congratulations, you’ve checked in on VR in the last seven years. Despite plenty of warranted skepticism in the past year over Meta’s aspirations in VR, the company appears to be as interested as ever, as evidenced by its newly announced Meta VR Glasses, and now its decision to gobble up Sony’s VR/XR spoils.
While this is clearly a boon for Meta’s VR ambitions, it looks like a pretty bad sign for Sony and the PlayStation VR, which has struggled to gain a foothold in the space. Though the original sold more than 5 million units, PlayStation VR2 never really caught on. For one, the console debuted at $550, which was $150 more than the original, and well over competitors like the Meta Quest 3S, which started at $299.
And despite a decent number of launch titles in 2023 when the PlayStation VR2 debuted, like Horizon: Call of the Mountain, Resident Evil: Village/Resident Evil 4, as well as Gran Turismo 7, clearly none of those were enough to rope people in and keep them there. Eventually, Sony wound up decreasing production of the PlayStation VR2 and discounting the price permanently in March 2025 to $399.
It’s been a bit of a bumpy ride for PlayStation VR2, and almost immediately from the jump, so it’s no wonder that Sony appears to be losing interest. Though Sony hasn’t officially discontinued its ambitions in VR, it’s a disconcerting day for the apparent handful of PlayStation VR enthusiasts out there. The good news, I guess, is that, if you can stomach dealing with Meta, there’s more to look forward to in VR on the whole.
