PlayStation Plus Video Pass enters testing phase, launches in Poland

By Joseph Yaden April 22, 2021

Sony confirmed the existence of PlayStation Plus Video Pass, a service that is currently in its testing phase only in Poland. This comes after the service previously leaked on the official PlayStation website.

PlayStation Plus Video Pass is an added bonus for PlayStation Plus subscribers. It grants access to over 20 Sony Pictures film and television shows on PS4 and PS5, including films like Venom and Zombieland: Double Tap.

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This news comes by way of Sony Interactive Entertainment’s VP Nick Maguire, who spoke with Spider’s Web (as translated by VGC) about the service.

“We want to see how players will benefit from such a service,” Maguire tells Spider’s Web. “What titles do they watch, what do they care about, how often do they use them.”

Sony is currently testing the service in Poland to gather data before launching in other regions. Maguire says that the decision to launch in that market specifically due to the country’s large player base and high level of activity on the PS Plus network. Maguire didn’t share the exact statistics to back that up, but he notes that the country meets all of Sony’s “criteria.”

It’s currently unclear if the service will launch outside of Poland. “We are currently focusing only on the Polish market, on Polish players and what will be their reaction to the additional benefit under the PS Plus program,” says Maguire.

This news comes shortly after Sony announced that movie and TV purchases and rentals will no longer be available through the PlayStation Store starting on August 31, 2021.

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Get these 6 PlayStation VR2 launch games to showcase its features

A side view of the PlayStation VR2, which sits on a wood table.

If you're planning on buying a PlayStation VR2 at launch, be prepared for an intimidating process as you decide which games to pick up first. Early adopters will have a lot of options to choose from, as Sony's latest headset will support over 40 games at launch. The bulk of those, though, are ports of preexisting VR games from the past few years. That makes it a little tricky to figure out which games actually showcase what the PSVR2 is capable of and which will feel like a dated experience that doesn't benefit from new tech.

To help guide you, we've spent time playing through a wide variety of launch titles, from classics like Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy's Edge all the way to Horizon Call of the Mountain. While there are plenty of games that we've enjoyed, including charmers like What the Bat? and Jurassic World Aftermath Collection, six games in particular act as great showcases for various PSVR2 features. Whether you're looking to test its power, Sense controllers, or audio options, you'll want to put these six games in your digital shopping cart.
Horizon Call of the Mountain

Gaming

PlayStation VR2 adds even more games to its launch lineup

Gameplay from Sushi Ben, an upcoming PlayStation VR2 game.

Sony has finalized the launch lineup of the PlayStation VR2 headset just before its February 22 release. With that comes the confirmation of the new games coming to the PSVR2 platform throughout the rest of 2023, including a sequel to a critically acclaimed PlayStation VR title, as well as many exciting ports.

Starting with the newly confirmed launch titles, ports of the Viking rhythm game Ragnarock, 1980s anime-themed motorcycle combat game Runner, sci-fi simulator Startenders: Intergalactic Bartending, medieval sword-fighting game Swordsman VR, and VR Guitar Hero-like Unplugged: Air Guitar will all be available on February 22. This cements the following list as PlayStation VR2's 43-game launch game lineup.

Gaming

Bringing VR’s best Star Wars game to PlayStation VR2 was a no-brainer, devs say

star wars tales from the galaxys edge psvr2 interview ilmxlab starwarstalesee screenshot c 3po and r2 d2

When ILMxLAB learned about the PlayStation VR2, Director Jose Perez III thought it was a "no-brainer" for the studio to bring the Oculus Quest game Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy's Edge to the new headset.
"We're always looking at how we can push the fidelity of the work that we're doing," Perez III tells Digital Trends in an interview. "PlayStation VR2 is ridiculously powerful; we got really excited about what we could bring to that. We started talking with our friends at Sony because we had a great relationship with them for Vader Immortal, and it was really a no-brainer. Then, you put the headset on, you start feeling the haptics, and you start seeing what you can do with the visual fidelity and lighting, and it's like, 'Oh, this is awesome!'"
Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy's Edge - Enhanced Edition | Official Trailer | PS VR2
PlayStation VR2's launch and its first wave of games are nearly upon us, and Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy's Edge Enhanced Edition is one of those titles. This is a make-or-break time for VR, which is still struggling to move into the mainstream but could become more popular if Sony's headset can offer a compelling and accessible virtual reality experience. Ahead of its release, Digital Trends spoke to Director Jose Perez III and Producer Harvey Whitney from ILMxLAB to learn about the process of crafting one of these critical "no-brainer" launch games and PlayStation VR2 will ultimately stand when it comes to the future of VR gaming.
The power of PlayStation VR2
Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy's Edge was originally released for Meta Quest VR headsets in November 2020. It's set on the planet of Batuu, which people also explore at Dinsey parks, and follows a Droid Technician who gets caught in the middle of a grander fight against the First Order after crash-landing on the planet. At the time, it was meant with decent reviews and only got better as its story was completed and expanded with the Last Call DLC.
After getting the "Enhanced Edition" of the game for PlayStation VR2 greenlit, ILMxLAB actually had to go and make it. As the team was dealing with new hardware for the first time, producer Harvey Whitney thought it was good that the team's first project on PlayStation VR2 was an enhanced version of an existing game.
"Early on, knowing that we already had the content that was created for the original, that changes things quite a bit," Whitney tells Digital Trends. "We're not redeveloping the story and coming up with all of that. We just had that opportunity to work as a team and ask, 'What do we really push here, and where are the changes that we want to make, and what we can do to really take advantage of this hardware?'"

The VR space is full of different headsets with unique specs, with the much higher specs of the PS VR2 standing out. The PlayStation VR2 sports some impressive specs compared to its VR peers, displaying content in a 4000x2030 HDR format at a 90Hz or 120Hz frame rate. Plus, games have the PS5's power, spatial, and brand new Sense controllers to take advantage of, rather than the 2013 console and 2010 motion controls that limited the original PlayStation VR.
PlayStation VR2 supports Roomscale, Sitting, and Standing play styles, which added more complexity as Tales from the Galaxy's Edge supports all three. Thankfully, Perez III that bringing Tales from the Galaxy's Edge to PlayStation VR2 was relatively manageable because of how impressive the system's specs were.
"A lot of the development processes are similar [to other VR platforms]," Perez III says. "We're still working inside of Unreal, and we're doing a lot of those same processes. But we don't have to look at performance quite as much as we do on some of the other devices, so we're able to open up a lot of things or not be as concerned about certain things. That comes with better hardware."
Better hardware, better games
Looking at the biggest games of the PlayStation VR2 launch window lineup, the visuals of titles like Horizon Call of the Mountain and the VR modes of Resident Evil Village and Gran Turismo 7 are impressive. In our discussion, Whitney also made it quite clear that one of the real advantages of working on this remaster was not having to worry about strict limitations on the visuals or even the audio. "We got lucky in the sense that there's a lot more to PlayStation VR2 that we hadn't had previously," Whitney says. "We could really push the graphics and make it shine. But then there were also some other things that came into play. We totally redid the audio, it sounds amazing."