Sony sells over 40 VR patents to Meta, raising fresh doubts about PlayStation VR's future

[Sentry]

Sony has sold 43 VR related patents to Meta, VGC reports, based on US Patent and Trademark Office records first spotted by ZDNet. And that is only the start. Under an agreement signed in December 2025, the total will eventually be more than 400 patents worldwide. That includes about 180 in the US and 239 filed in Japan, China, Korea, Europe and elsewhere

It is hard not to read this as Sony closing the door on PlayStation VR. PS VR2 launched on 22 February 2023 at $549.99 or £529.99. Sony only made two original VR2 games for it, Horizon Call of the Mountain and Firewall Ultra, which was developed by First Contact Entertainment. That is not much first party support for an expensive headset

The hardware itself was praised. It had a sharp OLED display, eye tracking and clever haptics. But the high price, the lack of backward compatibility with PS VR games and thin software support made it a hard sell. In 2024 it got a price cut of more than 30% and PC support through an adapter

Sony has never been fully committed in public either. Back in 2024, marketing head Eric Lempel called VR a category that can help with innovation, but also said it was a nascent business for Sony. PS VR2 is still in stock on PlayStation Direct, so it has not been discontinued. Selling hundreds of patents to the market leader does not look like a company planning a PS VR3, though

I feel sorry for PS VR2 owners. It was a lovely piece of kit let down by a lack of games. Meta clearly sees value in Sony's research, and it will strengthen its position even further. VR on console might be over for this generation at least

Do you own a PS VR2, and do you still use it? And is this the end of console VR?

Sony Seemingly Closes The Door On Playstation Vr As It Sells More Than 40 Vr Patents To Metawww.videogameschronicle.com