Sony may be stepping away from virtual reality. According to a report from South Korean outlet ZDNet Korea, picked up by Road to VR, the company has transferred a batch of patents covering virtual, augmented and mixed reality (XR) headsets to Meta, a strong sign that it is scaling back its plans for the segment.

What we know about the deal

• Sony and Meta signed a patent assignment agreement in December 2025 covering 419 patents worldwide.
• Of those, 180 are US patents, while 239 were filed in Japan, China, Korea, Europe and other regions.
• 43 US patents had their transfer recorded between June and September 2026.
• The patents cover information processing for XR applications, head-mounted displays (HMDs) and several types of XR glasses, filed between 2010 and 2022.

Neither Sony nor Meta has commented so far.

From PS VR’s success to PS VR2’s silence

The original PlayStation VR had a respectable run, with standout experiences like Resident Evil 7 in VR. Over time, though, releases dried up, much like with the PS Vita, and many headsets ended up gathering dust on the shelf.

PS VR2 arrived in February 2023 at $549.99, with no backwards compatibility with first-gen games and few big titles: Horizon Call of the Mountain, Firewall Ultra (since shut down) and the VR modes for Resident Evil Village, Resident Evil 4 and Gran Turismo 7. About a year later, Sony released an adapter to use the headset on PC with SteamVR games, a sign the device was no longer a PS5 priority.

Meanwhile, Meta keeps investing heavily in the space and has already announced its Meta VR Glasses for 2027 at $1,300. Sony’s patents are unlikely to change Meta’s plans, but they do take a potential rival off the board.

Does VR still have a future?

For Rino (@RinoTheBouncer), who shared the news on X, VR will only take off when technology allows full immersion with natural movement, and when any game can be played on a screen or in VR at launch, instead of dedicated modes that arrive months later for games everyone has already finished.

He also criticizes the current experience: sitting down with a headset and a regular controller, or wrestling with motion controls that don’t always register the gesture, in games that are neither realistic enough to immerse nor fun enough to hook you.

What about you, do you still use your PS VR2? Let us know in the comments.

Sources: ZDNet Korea, via Road to VR; @RinoTheBouncer.