Its official, Sony has finally launched their Project Morpheus VR headset, or the PlayStation VR, at the Tokyo Games Show. The name PlayStation VR is only fitting since you need Sony's PlayStation 4 in order to play the virtual reality device. Project Morpheus was first introduced in March 2014 at the Game Developers Conference in response to the Oculus Rift, another virtual reality gadget that was touted to shape the future of the gaming industry.
Although the virtual reality system was formally launched, Sony admits that it has a long way to go and they promised to continue in refining its hardware from various aspects while working with third party developers and publishers as well as with SCE World Wide Studios to bring the content that will deliver the best experience, as much as possible, for the PlayStation VR users. At this point, there are tons of third parties that were involved in the project that have showcased demonstrations during the PlayStation VR launch like Trackmania Turbo from Ubisoft, Summer Lesson from Bandai Namco, and Godling from Solfar Studios. Also, Sony has upcoming big titles including Final Fantasy XIV from Square Enix and Cyber Danganronpa VR from Spike Chunsoft.
The PlayStation VR is also capable of having two displays (split screen) simultaneously, in which one display will show the headset's display and the other would be a display of the television. Sony pointed out that they do not want the PlayStation VR to be confined to the gaming experience.
Sony's interest into virtual reality dates back in the early 1990s and released their first virtual reality venture, the Glasstron, which was used in the game MechWarrior 2 in 1997. At that time, virtual reality looked really futuristic which mainly the reason why it was not fully embraced by the industry.
Nonetheless, the consumer electronics giant did not let go of the idea and publicly announced their Project Morpheus in 2014, 17 years after the release of Glasstron.
