We knew it would happen tonight at the Game Developers Conference and it did- Sony has officially announced their very own virtual reality headset for the PS4.
During the GDC Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios President Shuhei Yoshida has just announced the headset, named Project Morpheus, and revealed details on the long history behind it. According to him the VR headset has been in the works since 2010, starting with the following goofy experiments that utilized a Playsation Move in various ways.
Sure, they're fairly embarassing, but then again so is the Oculus Rift and any other sort of VR ggogles. It's a small price to pay to be able to stick your head into another world.
Yoshida-san showed how the prototype changed over the years and finally revealed the latest iteration.The lights look a lot better than that glowy Move ball and will allow Project Morpheus to work with the camera for head-tracking, something that the lastest model of the Oculus Rift (the 'Crystal Cove' prototype) utilizes as well to promote greater realism. That means that you can move your head into and out of the picture, and tilt it as well. It's supposed to be as close to a real experience as you can get with a headset.
Senior Director Richard Marks came on stage later on to show off a project he worked on with NASA called the "Mars Demo" that did exactly what it sounds like, utilizing actual pictures from Mars to make you feel like you're actually there on the Red Planet, minus all the suffocation and such.
As far as the Oculus Rift comparisions, well, they're already coming. According to journalist Geoff Keighley "Developers who have used Project Morpheus tell me the fidelity of the image and experience is superior to Oculus Rift." That's a pretty big statement, although there are no specifications on Project Morpheus yet. It's still in prototype form after all, and Project Morpheus will likely not be its final name.
The reason for unveiling it during the GDC is that Sony wants developers to get on board with it- they've already got their single-party studios thinking up ways to utilize the headset but of course it won't get anywhere if there aren't any other studios making games for it.
Much more on this exciting project as we hear it!
UPDATE- Sony has announced that the display will feature 1080p resolution and a 90 degree field of view, with accelerometers and gryroscope sensores built into the unit. It will also feature their new 3D audio technology that recreates stereoscopic sounds in all directions depending on head orientation. They also promise a plug-and-play experience with this to make things as easy as possible for PS4 users.
