Shuhei Yoshida is "super excited about PS VR2, can't wait to have more people try it"

Besides receiving BIG Conference's Honorary Award and reminiscing about how Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest's exclusivity changed PlayStation's fortune back in the 90s, Shuhei Yoshida also answered a few questions in Bilbao at the weekend. The following one, specifically, by Gamereactor.

As Yoshida-san had always been a big fan and supporter of virtual reality, and as we talked with him in 2014 about the then so-called Project Morpheus and its Jurassic Encounter demo, it was a nice coincidence seeing him looking back at how the "dinosaur demo" of the PSX sold the system to many sceptical publishers, and now there's another PlayStation VR headset around the corner.

"We know how great it is to be inside the world of Horizon, and you look up and these Tallnecks walk behind you"

"I'm super excited about PS VR2. I was heavily involved in the making of PS VR", Yoshida recalls as he was acting as a bridge between hardware and software teams. "Actually the PSVR project came as a grassroots work from multiple studios, like Santa Monica Studio used God of War on PS3 to create the hand-made VR system. That was really inspirational when I tried it... [looks at his own body] I was Kratos! It's unbelievable!", he laughed about an anecdote he'd shared a few times already.

"So VR, for the first time, the video game world is not behind the screen. It's surrounding you. And the first PSVR, the Oculus Rift and Valve's system, these are the first generation of consumer VR systems, were just good enough to make it comfortable and enjoyable", the Japanese exec remembers from that time.

"But we all knew that with more resolution, with more power, with more interactivity, everything technically speaking should be and will be improved", Yoshida-san answers regarding the upcoming PlayStation VR2. "So because of the console lifecycle, we waited. The launch of PS VR was in 2016, and we announced the launch of PS VR2 next year, so we waited for seven years to release the new experience. And the challenge of a VR system is, unless you try it, you really don't understand, so of course people in the company, we have been using it and we know how great it is to be inside the world of Horizon, and you look up and these Tallnecks walk behind you. So I can't wait to have more people try it. It's very limited at this point. Even journalists are, only a limited number of people have tried it. So I'm looking forward to getting more people to try PS VR2 and start writing about it, talking about it so that everybody has a better idea of what we're bringing to the market".

The PS VR2 will launch in February.