Apple’s Imaginative and prescient Professional headset hasn’t caught the creativeness of the world’s avid gamers, a failing which can be no less than partly all the way down to the truth that it doesn’t help any devoted VR gaming controllers. You should use PS5 and Xbox controllers with the headset, nevertheless it doesn’t help third-party grip equipment designed particularly for VR content material. And Apple determined to not make any such equipment of its personal.
It’s doable that Apple didn’t view Imaginative and prescient Professional as being primarily a gaming machine (or that, this being Apple, it merely failed to understand the significance of the gaming market) however different, arguably extra profitable headsets concentrate on that space greater than every other, by way of branding, content material, and {hardware} help. Sony’s PlayStation VR2 is an apparent instance of 1 route Apple might take if it wished to enhance take-up within the gaming area.
It is a extra advanced challenge than you would possibly suppose, not least as a result of Sony doesn’t presently promote the controllers on their very own: they’re solely accessible when bundled with the VR2 itself. For the controllers to be accessible for Imaginative and prescient Professional house owners to purchase would require Sony to undertake the logistical work wanted to bundle and ship the equipment as standalone merchandise. Gurman says Apple will promote the controllers in its retail shops, as effectively by means of its web site… a lot because it presently sells Sony’s DualSense controller.
Even when Apple continues to downplay Imaginative and prescient Professional’s concentrate on gaming, the transfer might nonetheless be useful as a result of, as Gurman notes, the VR2 controller might be a superb method to navigate the headset’s interface with out having to rely upon the default eye-tracking system. Those that discover the interface idiosyncratic and fairly difficult could desire to make use of Imaginative and prescient Professional on this manner.
In the end, nonetheless, including help for a third-party gaming accent is not going to immediately remodel Imaginative and prescient Professional’s fortunes. If Apple needs avid gamers to make use of its headset, it wants to influence extra builders to make and launch video games for its platform. And proper now, the indicators will not be promising.
