Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) doesn’t normally have a presence at CES. While it was considered an important part of the annual videogame exhibition circuit in the early days of the PlayStation brand, CES has since given way to emerging technologies opposed to videogame consoles and content therein. However, this year it appears that PlayStation VR will feature in SIE’s CES 2018 plans, as parent company SONY has announced a press conference for the event.
Little is currently known about what is planned for the press conference. The SONY brand as a whole will take part in the event, with everything from cameras and headphones to external hard-disk drives featuring. However, important to gamers is the fact that the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation VR also appear to be included in the event.
No official briefing has been issued, simply the image below (edited to remove location details). The press conference will take place on 8th January 2018, the day before CES 2018 officially opens. Furthermore, this same date will host many press conferences from companies involved in VR hardware, such as Qualcomm.
It’s unlikely that SIE will have any new hardware or software to reveal at the event, despite the VR community’s wishes to the contrary. However it could be that an official statement on the North American launch of the second iteration of the PlayStation VR head-mounted display (HMD), known as CUH-ZVR2, could be planned. This is just conjecture at this point, however.
This revised HMD lead to a boost in PlayStation VR sales upon its launch in Japan, and it’s already been revealed that the original PlayStation VR HMD has been discontinued in North America. While there have been reports of the CUH-ZVR2 shipping in select bundles in the US, no official comment has yet been offered.
CES 2018 takes place in Las Vegas, 9th – 12th January 2018. VRFocus will be present on the show floor throughout the event, and also attending every major press conference related to VR development and consumer products. Stay right here for all the latest announcements and hands-on reports for every VR HMD and software company present at the event.