Rumors surfaced late last year that Apple was looking to finally add VR motion controllers to Vision Pro, albeit through an unusual collaboration with Sony to support PSVR 2’s Sense Controllers. Now, 9to5Mac reports that the project is still on track, and official news could come as early as next week.
The report states that not only is visionOS slated to add official support for PSVR 2’s Sense Controllers, but also PlayStation and Xbox gamepads.
9to5Mac wasn’t able to confirm whether the controller update will definitely be announced at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) next week, or rather later in the year, however the Cupertino tech giant is set to announce changes coming to visionOS 26 at WWDC—a notable naming shift also set to affect macOS and iOS.
Vision Pro has presented a unique challenge to VR developers since the mixed reality headset’s February 2024 launch. The $3,500 XR device currently only supports hand-tracking and Bluetooth accessories, such as traditional gamepads, keyboards, and headphones, forcing XR studios to either start new projects, or retroactively add hand-tracking to existing games.
That doesn’t always make sense, as many games are specifically designed around motion controllers. Essentially, this could set the stage for more games, both traditional and XR, to launch on Vision Pro’s App Store.
That said, adding PSVR 2 controllers to Vision Pro likely won’t be a massive sales driver of the admittedly pricey headset, which has largely been couched as a spatial computer instead of a game console. It is however a sign that Apple may finally be ready to fully embrace motion controllers in cheaper versions of the headset in the future though.
This follows a series of reports from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, which claim Apple approached Sony in early 2024 to officially integrate PSVR 2’s controllers. Notably, Apple confirmed only a few months prior to the reported talks that it had no plans to make or support VR controllers.
We’ll of course be following the big keynote, which kicks off on Monday, June 9th at 10 AM PT (local time here). You can follow along with us by tuning into Apple’s YouTube Channel.
