According to Bloomberg, Apple and Sony have entered into an agreement to add support for Sony's Sense VR controller in the Apple Vision Pro headset.
Apple already supports Sony's controllers for PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4, namely DualSense and DualShock, across its platforms including tvOS for Apple TV and visionOS for Apple Vision Pro.
The partnership with Sony is set to expand soon, Bloomberg reported on Sunday.
- "Apple approached Sony earlier this year, and the duo agreed to work together on launching support for the PlayStation VR2's hand controllers on the Vision Pro. Inside Sony, the work has been a monthslong undertaking, I'm told. And Apple has discussed the plan with third-party developers, asking them if they'd integrate support into their games."
For gaming and more
The collaboration on the VR controller, which can track your hand movements, is focused on gaming but will reportedly also allow the controllers to control the user interface of the Apple Vision Pro.
At this stage, there are no indications that Sonys wants to bring PlayStation VR games to the Vision Pro headset, as the games are fundamentally incompatible due to the differing processor architecture, x86 versus ARM, between PS5 and Apple Vision Pro.
Sony's Sense controllers. Photo: Sony
Sony's Sense controllers are not supported on Meta Quest, and Sony does not currently sell them separately. According to Bloomberg, the collaboration includes Apple starting to sell Sony's Sense controllers online and in its own stores.
Sony's Sense communicates wirelessly via Bluetooth and charges via USB-C. Each of the two controllers features five buttons plus a joystick, which can be operated with your thumb.
Video entertainment has been one of the focus areas for Vision Pro, whereas gaming has not seen much success. Meta, with its Quest headsets, has focused primarily on gaming.
- Source: Bloomberg Power On
