CES finally returns to a physical, if somewhat muted show this week. Here’s what to expect on the VR side.
CES was once one of the key events in the VR calendar, but its impact on the industry has waned over time. Meta has its own events for Quest announcements, Sony saves gaming reveals for other showcases, HTC Vive hasn’t held a press conference in a number of years and, as VR has become less and less of a buzzword, we’ve seen fewer big players flaunt the tech on the show floor.
But the Vegas showcase does remain a fascinating display of VR oddities, underdogs and the occasional juggernaut. Here’s just a few things to expect from CES this year. We’re at the show so we’ll be offering full coverage.
CES 2022 VR: What To Expect
bHaptics’ Quest 2 Gloves
Last week the company behind one of Quest’s most popular haptic vests revealed its own haptic gloves, named TactGlove. They use the headset’s hand-tracking with motors at the tips of your fingers to provide a sense of feedback when touching objects in VR. But will they offer a compelling enough experience to justify a $299 price point? Hopefully we’ll get an answer during the show.
Panasonic’s Lightweight VR Returns
As announced earlier today, Panasonic subsidiary Shiftall seems to be working on the first consumer version of the company’s lightweight SteamVR headset, named MeganeX. It’s a bit of a puzzle, given the light form factor is somewhat negated by being attached to a PC via USB, but if it offers a comfortable, high-fidelity experience then it could be a strong new contender for the PC VR market. We’ll look to bring you more as the week goes on.
A First Look At Pimax Reality?
Pimax is one of the many companies to have pulled out of CES proper, with no presence on the show floor. But, as the company confirmed in an update last week, there will still be some media meetings available. Hopefully, then, we’ll be able to bring you a first look at the recently-announced Pimax Reality series, a hybrid, modular headset that promises to spare no expense.
Sony, LG And Beyond?
Some of the highlights of every CES include the conferences from big tech companies announcing their range of products for the year to come. Usually it’s all about fridges that can tell your car what you need to buy and robots that can take your bags to the airport. But we do occasionally get a glimpse of surprising new VR announcements here and there. With that in mind, we’ll be watching a lot of shows today, January 4th, including LG’s show at 8am PT, Nvidia also at 8am PT, Intel at 10am PT, Qualcomm at 11am PT, Sony at 5pm PT and Samsung at 6:30pm PT. Again, we don’t expect anything to be revealed at these shows, but each of these companies has dabbled with the VR market to some degree in the past, so we’ll keep an eye out.
As for a potential PSVR 2 sighting? Well, Sony does like to announce some PlayStation news at these shows, like the 2013 introduction of PlayStation Now or, in 2020, the PS5 logo, but it’s not likely. We’d settle for confirmation the headset is definitely coming this year, though.
And that’s what’s happening with VR at CES 2022! What are you looking forward to? Let us know in the comments below!
