Beat Saber has been making big waves on the Rift and Vive since its early access launch back in May, having sold more than 100,000 copies in its first month. Now the game is officially headed to PSVR and this week at E3 we got our first look at how it plays on the console.

Beat Saber puts a pair of lightsabers in your hands and then throws blocks at you set to the beat—pretty typical rhythm game setup. Things get a little more interesting as the game asks you to cut in the correct direction indicated on each block, and with the correctly colored lightsaber, in order to score points and survive each track without failing. The game merges great original music with custom-made note patterns to create a very intuitive and compelling experience.

On PC, the game works great with Rift and Vive’s high-end tracking tech (check out our Beat Saber Early Access review here), and is even plenty playable with the inside-out tracking of Windows VR headsets. Generally speaking, PSVR has the least precise tracking of the bunch, so I was interested to see how it would hold up to Beat Saber’s highly active gameplay.

At the game’s first showing on PSVR, here at E3 2018, Beat Saber made a promising impression. While the Move controllers don’t feel quite as responsive as the controllers on the major PC VR headsets, but tracking on PSVR was solid enough that I could handle the game’s tracks on the highest level of difficulty without much frustration. The only major issues came when my controllers exited the camera’s narrow field of view, which happened at one point in a song when I had to duck under one of the obstacles and hit notes while ducking, which ended up leaving my hands outside of the tracking cone, and unable to hit the notes.

Of course, this could be remedied with some more careful placement of the camera, but therein lies the challenge: Sony doesn’t do a great job of helping players understand how to optimize their tracking setup (and some games are better with one arrangement over another) or even offer a simple way to visualize the camera’s actual tracking cone. And that means if players don’t have a good understanding of how the system works, and what they need to do to ensure their setup is as perfect as it can be, they could have a really frustrating time playing Beat Saber, especially if their setup is dialed in for seated gamepad-based games like Moss (which would have them closer to the camera and therefore in a more narrow part of the tracking cone).

Perhaps Beat Saber, which appears to have a strong retention rate not seen from many other VR titles, will encourage Sony to improve the PSVR setup process to help players dial in their tracking for the best experience.

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Speaking with the developers of Beat Saber at E3, they also mentioned that the current PSVR version is mostly unchanged from the PC version, and they expect there are further optimizations they can do to improve the experience before launch. That could mean adjusting the notes on some tracks to reduce the likelihood that players swing outside of the play volume, or further technical optimizations to help the game better understand the intent of the player’s swing in edge cases. The developers also confirmed the game is currently running at 90Hz, which also helps things feel more responsive, compared to most PSVR games which run at 60Hz.

Image courtesy Hyperbolic Magnetism

Beyond the tracking limitations, the Move controllers physically feel quite nice for Beat Saber, considering that the shape of the handle is very hilt-like and easy to hold without accidentally squeezing the trigger during play. The haptics in the Move controller is also well suited to the game, offering a strong and satisfying vibration when hitting each note.

There’s also a new track called ‘Kumquat’ that’s confirmed for the PSVR version of Beat Saber (hear it in the trailer above) and not currently available in the PC version. I got to play the new track and can say it’s worth looking forward to.

While Beat Saber doesn’t currently have a custom track editor, the developers have confirmed one is in the works, though it isn’t clear if it will make its way to the PSVR version. They also said they’re planning to release more original music for the game, but haven’t talked about a timeline for new tracks.

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Ben Lang
Ben is the world's most senior professional analyst solely dedicated to the XR industry, having founded Road to VR in 2011—a year before the Oculus Kickstarter sparked a resurgence that led to the modern XR landscape. He has authored more than 3,000 articles chronicling the evolution of the XR industry over more than a decade. With that unique perspective, Ben has been consistently recognized as one of the most influential voices in XR, giving keynotes and joining panel and podcast discussions at key industry events. He is a self-described "journalist and analyst, not evangelist."
  • anony

    why the f does road to vr kiss beat sabers *** so much? multiple articles a day when there are more psVR titles to report on, plus beat saber isn’t new, its just now available on psvr. Why don’t you post multiple articles about games coming out that we still don’t know everything about instead of posting more about a rythem game that came out last year.

    i have beat saber, i play it, i enjoy it, but come on. This overselling and over-hyping of a game ruins the overall perception of games. It’s like you’re a “yes man” for beat saber, anything they say or do you repost as if its gold. PSVR alone had TONS of other great games you could be talking about more but nope you chose to write more about beat saber, I just dont get it…

    • anony

      I over exaggerated, you guys used to post multiple times a day about it, butthis one is just pointless. nobody a needed hands on for beats aaber psvr, We’d rather see other games that we haven’t played yet.

      • Daniel

        It’s not pointless, I was looking for hands on impressions of Beat Saber on PSVR and this is the best/only article on it I’ve found so far.

        How many PSVR users do you think are out there who have watched and listened to everyone rave about Beat Saber and are now wondering if it will play just as well on PSVR with the wonky tracking? I can assure you that number is not zero.

        This was quite appreciated, especially the detail with which the author went into the mechanics and potential issues.

    • gothicvillas

      Mate, there are 3 million PSVR users waiting on hands on review. I personally have clocked 80hrs on Beat Saber (vive) and can understand how excited are ps4 crowd.

      • chris miller

        Hahhaa, no there aren’t. No one I know is interested in this. It’s basically a super basic rhythm game with an hour of content. It’s basically a tech demo like Run Dorthy Run or Happy Drummer. The only appeal as far as I can tell is because it has light sabers.

        • benz145

          Have you played Beat Saber or is your opinion just based on what you’ve seen?

        • NooYawker

          Well if you don’t know anyone that wants this game then no one must want it. Except it’s a best seller on steam, I wonder why that is.

          • chris miller

            I didn’t say no one wants it, I was simply stating that it’s a niche product and that not all PSVR owner care about this game. It sold 100K copies on steam which is great for an indie title, but that would equate to about 2.5 percent of all PSVR owners. It’s a bloody 15 dollar indie title, not the “killer app” people treat it to be.

          • gothicvillas

            Chris, my VR library on PC is well over 100 titles. Some great, some are not, and some are pure cash grabs. Beat Saber stands out from the crowd. The moment you are in the game you know its a quality product. Try it and then let us know please.

    • kool

      I’d like an article on evasion or how about an article on all upcoming ports of pc games. That one would be nice as no one whats coming and when thanks to the minimalist approach Sony took with psvr at e3.

  • Chaotic

    cant wait, all my vr friends want to play this too.

  • jordon321 .

    “they also mentioned that the current PSVR version is mostly unchanged from the PC version, and they expect there are further optimizations they can do to improve the experience before launch.”

    Awesome, so they’ve been doing jack shit for development for the actual game the past month and a half. And even then when this releases on ps4 they might do some “optimizations”. Don’t get me wrong i love what’s there, but they’re starting to sound like the kind of devs people are afraid of, the ones who release an unfinished game and jerk off after they get their money, only difference is they’re spending that month and a half porting the exact build that’s remained largely unchanged since it came out for more money. These guys have zero communication to the community which is a big no no for EA games. Literally all they’ve shown since release is one new song.