While PlayStation is handing out free hardware adaptors so PlayStation VR headsets will work on PlayStation 5 consoles, the company has clarified that PlayStation 5 games currently do not support VR, even if PlayStation 4 versions of cross-generational games do.
This means that a game launching for both PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 will only offer its PlayStation VR features on the last-generation version of the game.
It’s a complicated facet of backwards compatibility that now emerges as a point of confusion right before the launch of the new console generation.
The clarification given to the folks at UploadVR uses Hitman 3, a game launching on both PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5, as an example. Players that purchase Hitman 3 for PlayStation 5 outright won’t be able to tap into the game’s promised VR mode, but players that purchase Hitman 3 for the PlayStation 4 can play its PSVR mode on either PS4 or via backwards compatibility on PS5.
The same is true for other cross-generational games that feature PlayStation VR support, like No Man’s Sky, with Sony reiterating to UploadVR that it has “not announced PS5 titles for PSVR.”
Both games, like a good number of other cross-generational titles, promise a free upgrade to PlayStation 5 for those that buy the PlayStation 4 version (with some game-specific caveats). So in theory, people in that particular purchasing situation would be able to both play the PlayStation 5 version of the game and the PlayStation VR compatible PS4 version. However, those that buy the PlayStation 5 versions outright won’t have the same flexibility.