Sony announces “PROJECT MORPHEUS” VR Headset.

Sony has revealed their VR headset, dubbed “Project Morpheus.” Maybe I’m just old and showing my age, but I don’t really get up for this. If sitting in front of a video game isn’t already a Dystopia Made Real, completely detaching from others in your own house and rummaging around a virtual world seems a final consummation. On the other hand though, gimme the Black Sun from Snow Crash (my usual refrain).

Sony has revealed that it is working on virtual reality technology for PS4. Shuhei Yoshida, president of Sony Worldwide Studios, made the announcement at an ongoing Game Developers Conference 2014 event entitled Driving the Future of Innovation. “Nothing delivers a feeling of immersion better than VR,” said Yoshida. “VR has been a dream of many gamers since the computer was invented. Many of us at PlayStation have dreamed of VR and what it could mean ot the gaming community.”

The VR system is currently codenamed Project Morpheus, and will work with PlayStation 4. While still in prototype form, Yoshida says that Morpheus is the “culmination of our work over the last three years to realize our vision of VR for games, and to push the boundaries of play.” It will integrate with the PlayStation Camera peripheral and the PlayStation Move motion controller.

Although VR is yet to turn up a viable consumer project, the concept has been gaining momentum ever since Kickstarter-funded startup Oculus VR showed off its first headset, the Rift, in 2012. The company demonstrated a more refined Oculus Rift prototype,codenamed Crystal Cove, earlier this year, with more contenders set to join the fray. Valve is working on similar VR technology of its own, and Microsoft has explored augmented reality glasses, known as Project Fortaleza, that would work with the Xbox One’s Kinect sensor.

Sony’s announcement today, however, marks the first serious effort from a first-party platform holder, and could prove the most attractive option yet for VR developers. “We have seen passionate people at Oculus VR and Valve introduce VR prototypes and share their learnings,” said Yoshida. “I have an enormous amount of respect for them. This shows how all of us as an industry can rally around a new medium like VR to push gaming forward.” [The Verge]