Sony Corporation (NYSE:SNE) (TYO:6758) unveiled a prototype of its virtual reality headset for the PlayStation 4 console at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco on Tuesday. Tentatively titled Project Morpheus, the VR headset is still under development. Its rival Oculus Rift is already garnering attention from techies in the gaming industry. Virtual reality headsets promises to change the video game industry.
Sony has been working on Project Morpheus since 2010
Project Morpheus is designed to offer an immersive gaming experience by projecting a VR image in front of the user’s eyes. The headset tracks the movement of the user’s head, and shifts the image accordingly. Sony Corporation (NYSE:SNE) (TYO:6758)’s idea is to display the virtual world from its headset on a TV screen so that others can also watch. The Japanese company has been trying to popularize virtual reality goggles for the past several years. Sony released a “personal 3D viewer” in 2011, which was rejected by users as clunky and gimmicky.
But Project Morpheus appears to be more promising. Sony Corporation (NYSE:SNE) (TYO:6758) has been working on it since 2010. Shuhei Yoshida, the president of Sony Computer Entertainment, said that he is encouraged by the positive response to similar products from start-ups Oculus VR and Valve. Sony’s Project Morpheus is a black and white headset with a strip of blue light on the rim. It will use the PlayStation 4’s camera, Move motion sensors and controller to replicate user movement in-game. Sony said the headset will soon be made available to game developers soon, without specifying a release date.
Microsoft to challenge Sony in VR headset market
Sony Corporation (NYSE:SNE) (TYO:6758) has sold 6 million units of its PS4 gaming console as of March 2, beating the rival Xbox One by a wide margin. Anyway, the Wall Street Journal reports that Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is also working on a VR headset for the Xbox console. The software giant’s project is code named Fortaleza.
Sony Corporation (NYSE:SNE) (TYO:6758) shares rose 0.76% to $17.28 at 11:14 AM EDT.
