PlayStation VR2 PC adapter gets a release date and price, but many of its best features won’t work

We knew a PC adapter for the PlayStation VR2 headset was on the way, and it looked like it would be very soon – and we were right! Sony’s brightest virtual reality offering has now been confirmed to add official PC support via a nifty wired adapter in early August. It’ll cost £50 / $60 – but whether it’s worth the price, given the number of key features it’ll be missing is another question entirely…

On the good news side of things, the PlayStation VR2 PC adapter will support SteamVR out of the box when it comes out on August 7, meaning you’ll be able to plug it in and play virtual reality games on Steam – including Valve’s own Half Life: Aliks. To do this, you’ll just need to connect the headset to your computer using the adapter and a DisplayPort 1.4 cable, then run SteamVR and the new PlayStation VR2 app, which will let you change settings for things such as the play area.

That’s great news, especially since the VR2 is a very comfortable headset by all accounts and puts some beautiful 4K 120Hz (2000×2040) OLED screens in front of your eyes in a 110-degree field of view.

What’s not so great is that many of the features that make the VR2 a strong contender for one of the best VR headsets overall won’t be supported on PC, even when using the official adapter. Notably, those panels, clear as they are, won’t support HDR on PC, and the VR2’s impressive eye tracking won’t work either – though solid rendering without using eye tracking will still work. Headphone feedback also won’t work, nor will the DualSense-based adaptive actuators of hand controllers or haptic feedback beyond simple noise.

That leaves the list of working features on the panels themselves, the clear view of the headset – useful in case you bump into something – and the touch detection of controllers, along with 3D audio in some games – although using SteamVR audio technology instead of Tempest 3D AudioTech for PS5 only.

If you already have a VR2, being able to play VR games on PC without having to cough up a brand new headset seems like a no-brainer. If you’re weighing this up against other PC offerings like Meta Quest 3, though – which is already cheaper than the base VR2, and roughly on par due to these limitations – the combined cost of the VR2 adapter itself certainly makes this a tougher sell, in my opinion.

Still, the VR2 apparently hasn’t set the world on fire since it came out a few years ago, so you might be able to grab one for a steal and make the most of its decent hardware — even if some of its potential promise goes unfulfilled on PC.