Tobii, a company who describes themselves as the “pioneers of eye tracking and attention computing”, has caused confusion today. The company claims to be in negotiation with Sony to be the “eye tracking technology provider” for their upcoming PSVR 2 headset. However, bearing in mind the PSVR 2 headset was expected to be released ready for the 2022 holiday season, the fact that Sony is still negotiating aspects of that headset puts that expectation in doubt.
Tobii’s role in PSVR 2 development
Sony announced the PSVR 2 headset at the start of the year, confirming it will have eye-tracking where the headset detects in which direction a player is looking to provide additional inputs like foveated rendering. As noticed by ResetEra, Tobii announced they are “currently in negotiation with Sony Interactive Entertainment (“SIE”) [to] be the eye tracking technology provider in SIE’s new VR headset, PlayStation VR2”. This announcement is more likely to be about negotiations for use of software algorithms and codecs to operate the hardware.
So what could this mean? The timing of the announcement is what is confusing people. The hardware is already likely to be finalized for PSVR 2, especially if rumors the headset has entered mass production at Chinese manufacturer Goertek are true. However, it was expected Sony would have ironed out software negotiations by now too. With several games in development for PSVR 2, developers would need to get their hands on dev kits soon to be able to release those games for 2022. It could be the headset’s development is not as far ahead as people had assumed. Alternatively, it could merely be the announcement has been delayed due to a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) and negotiations are almost finalized.
Sony is yet to confirm a release window for PSVR 2 but they did recently launch the official website for the headset. On it players can sign up to be notified of that release date, as well as pre-order dates and other information.
In other news, the new CEO of PlatinumGames has hinted the developer may be looking into creating more live service titles. One of those games could be Project GG, the conclusion to Hideki Kamiya’s superhero series. Elsewhere, Uncharted movie star Tom Holland has said he wants to make another movie with Sony, this time based on the Jak and Daxter franchise.
