Sony's PlayStation VR 2 has won the Hardware of the Year prize at the Golden Joystick Awards.
PSVR 2 arrived in February to mass acclaim and kicked off what would be a terrific calendar year for virtual reality technology. Even outside of its own market, competition has been fierce. Gaming hardware has well and truly recovered from the chip shortage issues of the pandemic era, and there have been some astounding bits of hardware and technology released in 2023.
PSVR 2 was widely rumored and hotly anticipated in the latter stages of 2022, and despite complaints about pricing, the lack of backwards compatibility with Sony's first visor, and arguably misleading reports of poor sales, PSVR 2 has taken home the gold for so many reasons.
The full list of nominees for this year's hardware awards can be seen below:
- PSVR 2 (winner)
- Turtle Beach Stealth Pro Headset
- Alienware 34 AW3423DWF
- Nitro Deck
- ASUS ROG Strix Scope 2 96
- Samsung 990 PRO
If its astounding OLED display doesn't ground you in a virtual world, PSVR 2's haptic feedback and best-in-class controllers definitely will. Not only is PSVR 2 a massive leap above its predecessor but it's shown the VR market that the best innovations and highest specs don't need to cost over a grand.
The arrival of PSVR 2 sparked a 2023 filled with mainstream interest in VR. Coming off the heels of the disappointing Meta Quest Pro, and arriving in a market filled with very expensive PC devices, PSVR 2 reminded the mainstream gaming masses that this is an exciting and emergent way to play games.
As the library of games for PSVR 2 has grown, Sony has made a clear statement that it's here to support its next-gen headset. PSVR 2 has made a clear rival out of the Meta Quest 3 and with the upcoming Apple Vision Pro waiting in the wings, the VR market is about to seriously heat up.
PSVR 2 jumped straight to the top of our best VR headset list when it launched, overtaking 2020's highly popular Meta Quest 2.
Discover the best games of 2023 at the best prices by checking out the Golden Joystick Awards Steam sale page
