Sony Enters the Ring of VR Development

Sony made waves at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco today with the announcement of Project Morpheus, the company's prototype virtual reality headset.

The reveal (which was quite literal, complete with a black cloth presenters dramatically pulled aside to reveal the prototype), marks one of the first forays into commercially-viable virtual reality technology by a major technology company. Morpheus is planned to be PlayStation 4 compatible, with 360-degree visuals and a native 1080p display. 

Morpheus has been in development for over three years already, Sony explained, with some of the earliest prototypes working in conjunction with PlayStation Move controllers. The company has already worked with several developers to test out prototype games for the headsets, including a version of God of War in which users played in first-person as Kratos.

The headset has already garnered serious interest from NASA, who are interested in exploring its potential as a training tool and have already collaborated with Sony's R&D to create a demo that lets users feel like they are standing on the surface of Mars.

Morpheus is planned to be fully adjustable and compatible with custom headphones and microphones, with an eye towards keeping it easy to use and affordable. The headset is designed to work off of PlayStation Move technology in addition to the PlayStation Camera. And yes, it will work with glasses.

Sony's announcement will put it in direct competition with Oculus Rift, another VR headset that has been in development since 2012 and received part of its funding through Kickstarter. Oculus Rift is seen by many as the first real VR headset to be planned for the consumer market, and is expected to become available late this year or early next. 

GDC attendees will have the chance to try out VR demos of games like Thief and EVE Valkyrie at Sony's booth.