Yesterday at the GDC Sony confirmed their Virtual Reality project called ‘Project Morpheus’. The headset is basically a stylized Oculus Rift, with whom the Japanese company will try to compete with in the VR headset market.
Shuhei Yoshida, president of SonyCE, said: “Virtual Reality is the next innovation from PlayStation that may very well shape the future of games.” That’s odd, as Sony was neither the first nor will be the last on the VR branch. They could, however, beat the Oculus Rift to the market, as it still has not been officially released.
Sony’s headset will potentially be cheaper as the Oculus Rift as well, because Sony can refinance losses with exclusive ‘Morpheus’ games on a wider scale. The current Developer kit of the Oculus Rift costs $300, the consumer version is rumored to be released slightly below that. Prices of Project Morpheus are currently unknown.
Behind those elegant glasses is a five-inch display with 1080p and 90+ degree field of view. It is, contrary to the OR, equipped with headphones, which promise “true spatial sound, synthesized by simulating the human ear.” It can be combined with PlayStation Move and uses the PS4 camera to transfer the head movement onto the screen. Sensors will be Gyroscope and Accelerometer. The monitor entirely surrounds the field of vision and uses sensors to counter motion sickness.
For multiplayer purposes, what happens inside the headset can be copied onto a monitor via an interface. The processing unit itself uses HDMI and USB to create and transfer images. A ‘social screen’ is accessible through the headset, too.
The combination with PS Move could be especially entertaining. Imagine, slashing with a sword through enemies and have new sense of VR, which Wii or Move alone couldn’t provide. The current design of Project Morpheus looks more appealing than the OR’s, too. Of course, many aspects of the VR-competitor may change during the next months, but right now it looks promising and is a potential threat to the Oculus Rift monopoly.
Microsoft has worked on an ‘augmented reality’-headset for some time now. An announcement will follow.
