It is no secret that Sony is developing a successor to the PlayStation VR. In February of this year, Tokyo-based Sony revealed that it was developing a new virtual reality unit for the constantly out-of-stock PS5.

Since then, there have been few official updates from Sony, but a recently discovered patent application gives us a glimpse of what the device's controller might look like.

A patent application for what should be called the PSVR 2 controller was filed with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) on February 26, 2021. The image submitted with the application shows the same device as Sony's previously revealed official renderings of the PSVR 2 controller.

Each of the images in question has multiple black dots, and some of the dots appear to be associated with tracking points on the device. According to the application document, "The present invention improves the stability of using the camera to detect light emitting units." This would presumably be a PS5 HD camera.

Aside from the placement of the tracking lights, the patent application does not indicate anything beyond what we have already seen from the official renderings. We see three additional buttons that the user can press with the middle, ring, and pinky fingers. No one knows what these additional buttons are for. As seen in the official renderings, the ring behind the buttons and the user's thumb are clearly visible.

This is not the first time we have seen a patent application for the PSVR 2. In early November, a patent application surfaced for a headset for the device; in 2019, another patent application mentioned the possibility of a wireless headset.

That particular patent application stated that "signals may be transmitted [to the head-mounted display] via a wired or wireless connection. It further stated that Bluetooth could be one method of wireless connection to the console.

While the latest patent application is certainly genuine, it does not indicate anything that will actually see the light of day; even the official rendering released in February is not 100% definitive.

In any case, we will eventually see a successor to PSVR, but we don't know when that will be. It will be interesting to see how this device will differentiate itself from machines like the Oculus Quest 2 and the Valve Index.

The PSVR 2 hub contains all the information we have gathered so far.