PlayStation VR - previously known as Project Morpheus - is Sony’s answer to virtual reality devices like the Oculus Rift.
As one of the industry leaders in the gaming space, the fact that it wants to get in on the ground floor of the virtual reality revolution is unsurprising, and PlayStation VR looks like it could be a very strong start for Sony.
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PlayStation VR: latest news
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PlayStation VR: name
PlayStation VR: games
PlayStation VR: other features
Latest news
17/12/2015: PlayStation VR will require a separate processing unit the size of a Wii.
Sony has previously revealed that in order to cope with the higher graphical demand, PlayStation VR needs to come with additional hardware.
This hardware comes in the form of a separate box, which plugs into the PS4 to provide additional horsepower for processing VR.
Polygon’s Brian Crecente has reportedly had a hands-on demonstration of the finished retail version of the PlayStation VR gear, and has confirmed that the external processing hardware is “a bit smaller than a Wii”.
While it’s still smaller than the mammoth gaming PCs required for the Oculus Rift, this fairly bulky kit may be more than most users are willing to add to their entertainment centers.
07/12/15: Sony has revealed a host of new PlayStation VR titles at its annual PlayStation Experience event in California.
In total, it showed off eight games that will be coming to the system; some are PS4 exclusives while others are pre-existing VR titles.
Job Simulator is one such game. Previously announced for the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift, it involves performing mundane tasks such as working in a grocery store or office building, but with twisted internal logic and a recalcitrant physics engine that owes more than a little to Bossa Studios’ Surgeon Simulator.
Similarly zany is The Modern Zombie Taxi Co., which has players ferrying the whingeing dead from place to place while wrestling with ragdoll physics which can send their passengers flying out the car at the drop of a hat. They also appear to have amusing northern accents, which is always fun.
As many games in VR’s currently limited stable seem to, 100ft Robot Golf also plays with physics, albeit in a slightly more conventional way. Essentially functioning like a VR version of WiiSports Golf, the hook here is that the players are all – as the title suggests – Pacific rim-style battle-mechs, smashing through buildings on their way to the 9th hole.
As a counterpoint to this enforced wackiness, Eagle Flight is pleasingly serene. Apparently more experiential than other titles, this game gives players a literal birds-eye-view of Paris, letting players swoop and dive around a multiplayer city in the form of an Eagle. Coming from Ubisoft, developers of Assassin’s Creed: Unity, we’d be shocked if this didn’t tie into a future title in some way.
Flight games have long been a perfect use-case for VR, and it looks like the major developers are finally cottoning on, with a trailer for Bandai Namco’s genre staple Ace Combat 7. Due to the emphasis on seated experiences with large amounts of looking around, flight sims like Ace Combat should become one of the most abundant genres for VR.
Another older series making a return with PlayStation VR is Rez, with the announcement of a remastered version titled Rez Infinite. For those unfamiliar with the original PS2 classic, it was a bizarre fusion of puzzler, rail shooter and rhythm game, where players generated an electronica soundtrack by destroying enemies and obstacles.
Another underappreciated cult classic, Psychonauts is also getting a new instalment. In The Rhombus Of Ruin was announced as a stop-gap between the now and the launch of the newly announced Psychonauts 2, which received of $1 million of crowdfunding in under 24 hours.
Finally, Highwire Games’ first title Golem sees players controlling a series of the stone giants. With an art style reminiscent of games like Jak and Daxter, the game looks like a puzzle-platformer in the classic mode, and could be one of the medium’s first great stories.
30/11/15: Sony has revealed the potential controller combinations that developers can use with PlayStation VR.
Speaking at this year's Montreal International Games Summit, Sony Computer Entertainment's Technical Account Manager Vernon Harmon showed off the various input methods that could be used with the new device.
Through the PlayStation Camera, the PS4 can track a maximum of four peripherals, not including the PSVR headset itself. This includes both the standard Dualshock 4 controller and the PlayStation Move batons that Sony has been using to show off its VR titles.
A slide from Harmon's presentation, obtained by VR Focus, demonstrated the ways that creators could use the various peripherals for multiplayer experiences. One suggestion was forSuggestions included one player using the batons, while another used the controller while another had all four players using the Dualshock pads.
The only slight surprise was that all the given options only included one headset - meaning any multiplayer experience would leave some people playing in a non-virtual environment.
While some may be a little put off by this, we'd cite the excellent Keep Talking And Nobody Explodes as a perfect example of this kind of asymmetric multiplayer. The game tasks one player with defusing a bomb, with the others relaying instructions on how to do it without blowing themselves to kingdom come.
The catch is, the experts can't see the bomb, and the defuser can't see the instructions. It's ideally suited to VR, and is currently available for the Oculus Rift and Gear VR, with a PSVR version coming at an unspecified future point.
16/11/15: PlayStation VR will have a big head-start on other virtual reality headsets thanks to the processing power and popularity of the PlayStation 4, according to analyst Michael Pachter.
Speaking on the Pachter Factor, his show providing video game industry analysis, he cited the fact that by the end of 2015, Sony will have an install base of “around 30 million PS4s”. This means that the company already has a substantial supply of customers that will be ready to use Sony’s hardware on launch.
Pachter stated that “Sony’s got a big advantage cause of the CPU/GPU that sits in every PS4”. Rather than devices like the Oculus Rift and the HTC Vive, which require a high-end gaming PC to function, PlayStation VR is built to work with the PS4.
“It already does whatever you need it to do,” he said, “and so that processing power has humongous value”.
09/11/15: Fans of PlayStation VR may be in for a long Christmas as Sony has confirmed that fresh information about its virtual reality headset will not be revealed until 2016.
Speaking to Digital Spy at Paris Games Week, Shuhei Yoshida - president of Sony Worldwide Studios and arguably the public face of Playstation VR - explained why details about the device's launch have been so scarce.
"We have an idea [of the launch date]," he said, "but there are things we want to make sure. It's similar to any platform launch." He stated that the company's focus is now on compatibility and optimisation.
"As far as hardware development is concerned, it's going great... everything going well," Yoshida said. "But the people working hard now are the system software people".
Another big question is which titles PlayStation VR will support at launch, with various developers throwing their hats in the ring. Rebellion has claimed that its remake of Atari classic Battlezone will be a launch title, and Mike Bithell has stated that the VR port of his stealth title Volume will be one of the first out the gate.
"We don't know the launch date or the launch titles yet," Yoshida said. "Of course [Bithell] doesn't know because we don't know either. We'll know that next year".
29/09/15: Sony executives have detailed some of the potential use cases for PlayStation VR, including the social gaming aspects of the device.
Last week saw Birmingham's EGX games expo, in which Sony used its keynote speech to evangelise about its virtual reality headset.
One of the points made by Simon Benson, director of Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide's immersive technology group, was the ease with which newcomers to VR could pick it up and play.
"With PlayStation, people expect we can take technology however advanced and we can make it simple and accessible so everyone can be included and everyone can access that,” he said.
He also wanted to dispel the notion that VR is a predominantly solitary medium, saying: “Some people think that VR can be quite an isolating experience, but that’s not really very ‘PlayStation’".
He reiterated that the social elements of PlayStation's ecosystem are not falling by the wayside, and stated, "we also looked at ways that we can make sure that the whole idea of sharing and community – which works really well on PlayStation [VR]".
Benson went on to explain how Sony is building systems that can include other people, without the need for multiple headsets.
“If we were playing a VR game in our living room, people who walk in who want to play with you, can do – they’re not excluded from the experience. So we’ve done a lot of work on looking at the social aspects; how we can bring other people into the game, too," he said.
"For example, we have the social screen, where you can put a different picture on there and someone can be playing in VR, and other people can be playing along on the TV screen, and you can take turns – you can pass and play, so I think that’s really a significant area that we’re really proud of.”
As part of the keynote, Benson gave an idea of how PlayStation VR may be initially deployed on launch. He explained, “some people will make a game specifically for VR; some people will take part of a game, maybe, that works really well and make that work with VR, and some people will take the game world and re-present it as a VR experience in another way."
This sentiment echoes the hints dropped by Sony Computer Entertainment America CEO Shawn Layden, who also intimated that the first examples of Playstation VR gameplay would be smaller segments in non-VR titles.
Benson continued: "You can imagine, say, a first-person shooter. Maybe they’ll leave the [sections] that require a lot of interaction as a D-pad thing that’s very well tuned, and maybe you’ll get into a vehicle and suddenly it’s a perfect simulation.
"The sensation of just putting on the headset would be like putting a helmet on; suddenly you’re in a vehicle – you’re in a helicopter, tank, whatever… You can see how those would fit into existing games as transitions to different experiences within that title.”
The finer details of PlayStation VR's launch are still unknown, but as the headset's projected release draws closer, we're likely to see more and more information coming out surrounding the device.
21/09/15: Fresh clues regarding PlayStation VR's eventual launch price have surfaced, courtesy of Sony Computer Entertainment CEO Andrew House.
In a Bloomberg interview at the Tokyo Game Show last week, House said the system would carry similar pricing to a new gaming platform although he neglected to go into specific figures.
Given that Sony has priced its last two consoles around the £300-£400 bracket, this would suggest that the company is looking at a launch price of roughly £350.
House also stated that PlayStation VR will have over 10 full titles available at launch. While some of them - such as Rigs and The Assembly - have already been announced, the exact breakdown of new titles versus ports of existing ones is still unknown.
One game that's looking increasingly likely to feature as a flagship is The London Heist. Currently existing as two separate demos showcased at various conventions, The London Heist is a British gangland crime title that has received widespread critical acclaim.
It's clear that Sony is giving the title a lot of attention, and the fact that it comes from the developers of PS2 classic The Getaway could potentially mean that the long-dormant franchise could be facing a revival in the near future.
15/09/15: It's official - Project Morpheus will now be known as 'PlayStation VR'.
The name change, announced during the company's Tokyo Game Show keynote, may come as a shock to some fans. With such a short time to go until the device's projected release, many were expecting Sony to stick with the Morpheus moniker.
While PlayStation VR is a more straightforward name, the earlier Morpheus codename has built up a substantial amount of recognition within enthusiast circles.
PlayStation VR is still set for a release date in early 2016, although a firm date has yet to be revealed.
04/08/15: Games on Project Morpheus may soon be a lot shorter than players are used to.
Shawn Layden, CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment America, shed some light on the company's attitude to VR experiences in a recent interview with Fox Business, where he warned that the company's early VR games will not have the "50 hours of gameplay" that modern gamers are accustomed to.
"I think the VR experience really befits a more concentrated and concise gaming experience," he said, implying that Morpheus' early titles will be more along the lines of brief experiential pieces like The Stanley Parable.
He also mentioned that the very first uses of Project Morpheus are more likely to be additional modes or stages in non-VR games rather than standalone titles. An increase in hardware sales, however, will drive more exclusive standalone titles.
16/06/2015: Sony’s E3 2015 presentation came and went with barely any mention of Project Morpheus. Given last week’s unveiling of the Oculus Rift consumer model, we were expecting Sony’s event to place a considerable emphasis on its debut VR device.
However, the final name, release date, specs and price are still something of a mystery. The only mention that Morpheus got was the unveiling of Rigs, a competitive multiplayer title for Morpheus that features Titanfall-style battlemech combat.
This is highly surprising. E3 is by far the biggest and most well-known event in the gaming calendar, and it would have been the best opportunity to drum up interest in the product ahead of the proposed Q1 launch.
We can only speculate as to why we didn’t hear more about Project Morpheus at Sony’s conference, but the most likely answer is that it simply isn’t ready. If the device has hit a snag in development, we could see its eventual release date pushed back, possibly even as far as E3 2016.
Following Project Morpheus’ E3 no-show, the best chance for a full bells-and-whistles reveal is most likely CES 2016, Las Vegas’ consumer electronics show at the start of January.
However, we’ve got a hunch that the final shipping date will end up being closer to Q2, leaving the Oculus Rift with nigh on a full quarter to control the market unopposed.
Release date
So far, the closest Sony has come to a confirming a release date for PlayStation VR is saying that it will launch in Q1 2016. However, it’s competing with Oculus Rift, which is also set for a consumer debut in the same period.
Whichever device arrives first will have a considerable market advantage. As such, we’d expect Sony to release PlayStation VR as early in Q1 as possible; we’re betting on an early February launch.
At GDC 2015, the company teased “additional details” at games expos like LA’s E3 show. However, though the company is promising hands-on demos of various VR titles, the company's main E3 event went by with no new information about the device itself.
Price
PlayStation VR’s eventual retail price is yet to be announced, as its proposed release date draws ever closer. However, we’ve got a reasonable idea of what to expect already.
Project Morpheus release date, price, specs and games
As a device entering a largely untested market, PlayStation VR is likely to have its work cut out convincing the public to get on board with VR. A more affordable entry price would go a long way towards helping that. Sony worldwide studios boss Shuhei Yoshida told Gamespot that the price will be “as low as possibly can be done”.
However, SCE CEO Andrew House has indicated that the device will cost the same as 'a new gaming platform'. Given the pricing of the PlayStation 4 and its predecessor, this suggests that the eventual retail cost will be somewhere around £350 although this is not yet officially confirmed.
Features
As we’d expect from a modern VR device, PlayStation VR features full positional tracking, sensing where the user is in real time. This allows users to experience immersive 3D games in a full 360-degree environment.
Users can interact with their games via the standard Dualshock gamepad, which has certain motion-control functions built in. However, Sony has also opted to incorporate elements from its PlayStation Move products, a rival to Microsoft’s Kinect motion control system that never really caught on.
Using handheld batons, PlayStation VR can independently track players’ hands, allowing for a range of action such as manually reloading weapons and completing coordination challenges.
Project Morpheus release date, price, specs and games
Specs
PlayStation VR sports a 5.7in 1920 x 1080 OLED display. Since Morpheus uses stereoscopic 3D – using two screens with identical images for each eye - this translates into a resolution of around 960 x 1080 per eye. The choice of OLED over LCD means that Sony’s VR games will really pop, thanks to the increased colour saturation and brightness.
The head-tracking uses the PlayStation Camera, and Sony claims that it can capture the headset’s position up to 1000 times every second. If accurate, this would make PlayStation VR both incredibly smooth and fantastically accurate.
Improvements have also been made to the frame and refresh rates, bringing them down to 120fps and 120hz, respectively. This is critical to comfortable VR experiences, as it makes the visuals smoother and more immersive, with a latency of less than 18ms.
Although the PlayStation 4 is currently incapable of rendering games at such a high frame rate, Sony’s chief of PlayStation has stated that a software update will address this. It will also be aided by the small additional unit, which connects to the PS4 in order to handle some of the more demanding processing tasks.
Design
As one would expect, the power of Sony’s product design and prototyping departments mean that even the early developer versions look a lot closer to a finished product than anyone else’s headsets.
While the Oculus Rift is rather boxy-looking, PlayStation VR’s headset is made of rounded, matte-finish plastic that looks sleek and professional.
It has nine LEDs – the standard method of positional tracking for VR – which are spaced around the front, back and sides. However, rather than hiding them as some of its competitors do, Sony has opted to use the front-mounted LEDs as a design feature, dotting the visor with glowing colour segments.
Project Morpheus release date, price, specs and games
The headset is secured around the back of the head with a single solid headband, but rather than being elasticated, it pulls out and expands via a push-button system.
There’s also a button on the front, allowing the main visor to be moved closer or further away from the eyes. It’s a useful touch, as it makes it easier for those with glasses to use the device.
However, the device also features a strange flappy rubber fringe around the outside. This is to reduce the amount of light bleed from the outside, but unlike other VR devices, it doesn’t form a complete seal. Instead, it just sort of flaps there awkwardly, with light leaking in around the edges. I’m led to believe this is a deliberate effort to counteract the motion sickness that has intermittently plagued VR, but in reality it’s distracting and awkward.
There’s no integrated audio either, but the ability to connect your own earphones or speakers means gamers can be more flexible about what level of audio quality they require.
Given the high level of design sophistication already on show here, we would honestly be surprised to see PlayStation VR’s design change that much from a visual standpoint. What’s more likely is a continual series of tweaks and improvements to the headset’s various mechanisms and moving parts.
Name
At the 2015 Tokyo Game Show, Sony finally took the lid off Project Morpheus' official name - PlayStation VR.
While 'Morpheus' was always designed to be a temporary codename, the lack of official branding had previously led some to speculate that Sony would simply continue to brand the device as Project Morpheus.
However, the new name is much more straightforward and explanatory, and will presumably make the technology much more accessible to first-time users.
Games
Sony's PlayStation Experience conference saw the announcement of a new wave of PlayStation VR games. Physics-based indie titles were plentiful, with Job Simulator, The Modern Zombie Taxi Co. and 100ft Robot Golf all revealed.
Some classic franchises also saw VR revivals: Rez, Psychonauts and Ace Combat will all be getting new installments for PlayStation VR.
Earlier in the year, E3 2015 saw the unveiling of PlayStation VR's first multiplayer titles. Developed by UK-based studio Guerilla Cambridge, Rigs is a 3v3 multiplayer title in which players pilot huge combat mechs in eSports-style arena matches.
Effectively a cross between Titanfall and Monday Night Combat, Rigs eschews the dark brown and gunmetal grey palettes of other games. Instead, its aesthetic is based on the garish colour schemes and branded sponsorship of Nascar and NFL matches.
It looks like an innovative use of VR, and an ideal antidote to many of the 'dark and gritty' games that have saturated the industry. The announcement was also prefixed by a reel of various other titles, including Wayward Sky, World War Toons and Godling.
The lead-up to E3 also saw the reveal of one of PlayStation VR's first indie games. Deeply reminiscent of titles like Monument Valley and Fez, Gnog is an indie puzzle game developed by a four-person studio in Montreal. The action centers around giant monster heads, each with their own worlds inside them.
Project Morpheus release date, price, specs and games
The game promises “puzzles, adventures, cool art and chill music”, and is infused with a brain-melting neon and pastel colour palette that makes it immediately distinctive. Exactly how it’s going to utilise the virtual reality element is unclear, but we’re excited to find out.
While Gnog is the first title to be officially announced, there are numerous other games that are heavily rumoured to be appearing on the system. Along with ports of existing titles such as dino hunting sim Ark: Survival Evolved and horror game Among The Sleep, Sony is also pushing a number of first-party projects.
One of the more exciting-looking examples is cockney gangster-themed action title The London Heist. Although currently just a demo, it shows off the positional tracking and incorporation of motion control in a great way.
Honourable mention also goes to space sim Eve: Valkyrie, a spin-off from popular space-trading game Eve: Online. Putting the player in the shoes of a starfighter pilot, the cockpit based action is a perfect fit for PlayStation VR's capabilities, and it looks visually spectacular.
Ultimately, the fate of emerging platforms is decided by the breadth of its software library. Sony has acknowledged this, and Yoshida has said that PlayStation VR will not launch until it has a large enough selection of titles. This is encouraging and implies that the company has a good amount of revelations up its sleeve.
Other features
VR isn’t just a platform for games, however. Along with traditional games, Sony is sure to offer VR-ready content from its PlayStation Music and PlayStation Video arms, probably in the form of immersive music visualisation or virtual movie theatres.
As one of the industry leaders in the gaming space, the fact that it wants to get in on the ground floor of the virtual reality revolution is unsurprising, and PlayStation VR looks like it could be a very strong start for Sony.
Jump to:
PlayStation VR: latest news
PlayStation VR: release date
PlayStation VR: price
PlayStation VR: features
PlayStation VR: specs
PlayStation VR: design
PlayStation VR: name
PlayStation VR: games
PlayStation VR: other features
Latest news
17/12/2015: PlayStation VR will require a separate processing unit the size of a Wii.
Sony has previously revealed that in order to cope with the higher graphical demand, PlayStation VR needs to come with additional hardware.
This hardware comes in the form of a separate box, which plugs into the PS4 to provide additional horsepower for processing VR.
Polygon’s Brian Crecente has reportedly had a hands-on demonstration of the finished retail version of the PlayStation VR gear, and has confirmed that the external processing hardware is “a bit smaller than a Wii”.
While it’s still smaller than the mammoth gaming PCs required for the Oculus Rift, this fairly bulky kit may be more than most users are willing to add to their entertainment centers.
07/12/15: Sony has revealed a host of new PlayStation VR titles at its annual PlayStation Experience event in California.
In total, it showed off eight games that will be coming to the system; some are PS4 exclusives while others are pre-existing VR titles.
Job Simulator is one such game. Previously announced for the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift, it involves performing mundane tasks such as working in a grocery store or office building, but with twisted internal logic and a recalcitrant physics engine that owes more than a little to Bossa Studios’ Surgeon Simulator.
Similarly zany is The Modern Zombie Taxi Co., which has players ferrying the whingeing dead from place to place while wrestling with ragdoll physics which can send their passengers flying out the car at the drop of a hat. They also appear to have amusing northern accents, which is always fun.
As many games in VR’s currently limited stable seem to, 100ft Robot Golf also plays with physics, albeit in a slightly more conventional way. Essentially functioning like a VR version of WiiSports Golf, the hook here is that the players are all – as the title suggests – Pacific rim-style battle-mechs, smashing through buildings on their way to the 9th hole.
As a counterpoint to this enforced wackiness, Eagle Flight is pleasingly serene. Apparently more experiential than other titles, this game gives players a literal birds-eye-view of Paris, letting players swoop and dive around a multiplayer city in the form of an Eagle. Coming from Ubisoft, developers of Assassin’s Creed: Unity, we’d be shocked if this didn’t tie into a future title in some way.
Flight games have long been a perfect use-case for VR, and it looks like the major developers are finally cottoning on, with a trailer for Bandai Namco’s genre staple Ace Combat 7. Due to the emphasis on seated experiences with large amounts of looking around, flight sims like Ace Combat should become one of the most abundant genres for VR.
Another older series making a return with PlayStation VR is Rez, with the announcement of a remastered version titled Rez Infinite. For those unfamiliar with the original PS2 classic, it was a bizarre fusion of puzzler, rail shooter and rhythm game, where players generated an electronica soundtrack by destroying enemies and obstacles.
Another underappreciated cult classic, Psychonauts is also getting a new instalment. In The Rhombus Of Ruin was announced as a stop-gap between the now and the launch of the newly announced Psychonauts 2, which received of $1 million of crowdfunding in under 24 hours.
Finally, Highwire Games’ first title Golem sees players controlling a series of the stone giants. With an art style reminiscent of games like Jak and Daxter, the game looks like a puzzle-platformer in the classic mode, and could be one of the medium’s first great stories.
30/11/15: Sony has revealed the potential controller combinations that developers can use with PlayStation VR.
Speaking at this year's Montreal International Games Summit, Sony Computer Entertainment's Technical Account Manager Vernon Harmon showed off the various input methods that could be used with the new device.
Through the PlayStation Camera, the PS4 can track a maximum of four peripherals, not including the PSVR headset itself. This includes both the standard Dualshock 4 controller and the PlayStation Move batons that Sony has been using to show off its VR titles.
A slide from Harmon's presentation, obtained by VR Focus, demonstrated the ways that creators could use the various peripherals for multiplayer experiences. One suggestion was forSuggestions included one player using the batons, while another used the controller while another had all four players using the Dualshock pads.
The only slight surprise was that all the given options only included one headset - meaning any multiplayer experience would leave some people playing in a non-virtual environment.
While some may be a little put off by this, we'd cite the excellent Keep Talking And Nobody Explodes as a perfect example of this kind of asymmetric multiplayer. The game tasks one player with defusing a bomb, with the others relaying instructions on how to do it without blowing themselves to kingdom come.
The catch is, the experts can't see the bomb, and the defuser can't see the instructions. It's ideally suited to VR, and is currently available for the Oculus Rift and Gear VR, with a PSVR version coming at an unspecified future point.
16/11/15: PlayStation VR will have a big head-start on other virtual reality headsets thanks to the processing power and popularity of the PlayStation 4, according to analyst Michael Pachter.
Speaking on the Pachter Factor, his show providing video game industry analysis, he cited the fact that by the end of 2015, Sony will have an install base of “around 30 million PS4s”. This means that the company already has a substantial supply of customers that will be ready to use Sony’s hardware on launch.
Pachter stated that “Sony’s got a big advantage cause of the CPU/GPU that sits in every PS4”. Rather than devices like the Oculus Rift and the HTC Vive, which require a high-end gaming PC to function, PlayStation VR is built to work with the PS4.
“It already does whatever you need it to do,” he said, “and so that processing power has humongous value”.
09/11/15: Fans of PlayStation VR may be in for a long Christmas as Sony has confirmed that fresh information about its virtual reality headset will not be revealed until 2016.
Speaking to Digital Spy at Paris Games Week, Shuhei Yoshida - president of Sony Worldwide Studios and arguably the public face of Playstation VR - explained why details about the device's launch have been so scarce.
"We have an idea [of the launch date]," he said, "but there are things we want to make sure. It's similar to any platform launch." He stated that the company's focus is now on compatibility and optimisation.
"As far as hardware development is concerned, it's going great... everything going well," Yoshida said. "But the people working hard now are the system software people".
Another big question is which titles PlayStation VR will support at launch, with various developers throwing their hats in the ring. Rebellion has claimed that its remake of Atari classic Battlezone will be a launch title, and Mike Bithell has stated that the VR port of his stealth title Volume will be one of the first out the gate.
"We don't know the launch date or the launch titles yet," Yoshida said. "Of course [Bithell] doesn't know because we don't know either. We'll know that next year".
29/09/15: Sony executives have detailed some of the potential use cases for PlayStation VR, including the social gaming aspects of the device.
Last week saw Birmingham's EGX games expo, in which Sony used its keynote speech to evangelise about its virtual reality headset.
One of the points made by Simon Benson, director of Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide's immersive technology group, was the ease with which newcomers to VR could pick it up and play.
"With PlayStation, people expect we can take technology however advanced and we can make it simple and accessible so everyone can be included and everyone can access that,” he said.
He also wanted to dispel the notion that VR is a predominantly solitary medium, saying: “Some people think that VR can be quite an isolating experience, but that’s not really very ‘PlayStation’".
He reiterated that the social elements of PlayStation's ecosystem are not falling by the wayside, and stated, "we also looked at ways that we can make sure that the whole idea of sharing and community – which works really well on PlayStation [VR]".
Benson went on to explain how Sony is building systems that can include other people, without the need for multiple headsets.
“If we were playing a VR game in our living room, people who walk in who want to play with you, can do – they’re not excluded from the experience. So we’ve done a lot of work on looking at the social aspects; how we can bring other people into the game, too," he said.
"For example, we have the social screen, where you can put a different picture on there and someone can be playing in VR, and other people can be playing along on the TV screen, and you can take turns – you can pass and play, so I think that’s really a significant area that we’re really proud of.”
As part of the keynote, Benson gave an idea of how PlayStation VR may be initially deployed on launch. He explained, “some people will make a game specifically for VR; some people will take part of a game, maybe, that works really well and make that work with VR, and some people will take the game world and re-present it as a VR experience in another way."
This sentiment echoes the hints dropped by Sony Computer Entertainment America CEO Shawn Layden, who also intimated that the first examples of Playstation VR gameplay would be smaller segments in non-VR titles.
Benson continued: "You can imagine, say, a first-person shooter. Maybe they’ll leave the [sections] that require a lot of interaction as a D-pad thing that’s very well tuned, and maybe you’ll get into a vehicle and suddenly it’s a perfect simulation.
"The sensation of just putting on the headset would be like putting a helmet on; suddenly you’re in a vehicle – you’re in a helicopter, tank, whatever… You can see how those would fit into existing games as transitions to different experiences within that title.”
The finer details of PlayStation VR's launch are still unknown, but as the headset's projected release draws closer, we're likely to see more and more information coming out surrounding the device.
21/09/15: Fresh clues regarding PlayStation VR's eventual launch price have surfaced, courtesy of Sony Computer Entertainment CEO Andrew House.
In a Bloomberg interview at the Tokyo Game Show last week, House said the system would carry similar pricing to a new gaming platform although he neglected to go into specific figures.
Given that Sony has priced its last two consoles around the £300-£400 bracket, this would suggest that the company is looking at a launch price of roughly £350.
House also stated that PlayStation VR will have over 10 full titles available at launch. While some of them - such as Rigs and The Assembly - have already been announced, the exact breakdown of new titles versus ports of existing ones is still unknown.
One game that's looking increasingly likely to feature as a flagship is The London Heist. Currently existing as two separate demos showcased at various conventions, The London Heist is a British gangland crime title that has received widespread critical acclaim.
It's clear that Sony is giving the title a lot of attention, and the fact that it comes from the developers of PS2 classic The Getaway could potentially mean that the long-dormant franchise could be facing a revival in the near future.
15/09/15: It's official - Project Morpheus will now be known as 'PlayStation VR'.
The name change, announced during the company's Tokyo Game Show keynote, may come as a shock to some fans. With such a short time to go until the device's projected release, many were expecting Sony to stick with the Morpheus moniker.
While PlayStation VR is a more straightforward name, the earlier Morpheus codename has built up a substantial amount of recognition within enthusiast circles.
PlayStation VR is still set for a release date in early 2016, although a firm date has yet to be revealed.
04/08/15: Games on Project Morpheus may soon be a lot shorter than players are used to.
Shawn Layden, CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment America, shed some light on the company's attitude to VR experiences in a recent interview with Fox Business, where he warned that the company's early VR games will not have the "50 hours of gameplay" that modern gamers are accustomed to.
"I think the VR experience really befits a more concentrated and concise gaming experience," he said, implying that Morpheus' early titles will be more along the lines of brief experiential pieces like The Stanley Parable.
He also mentioned that the very first uses of Project Morpheus are more likely to be additional modes or stages in non-VR games rather than standalone titles. An increase in hardware sales, however, will drive more exclusive standalone titles.
16/06/2015: Sony’s E3 2015 presentation came and went with barely any mention of Project Morpheus. Given last week’s unveiling of the Oculus Rift consumer model, we were expecting Sony’s event to place a considerable emphasis on its debut VR device.
However, the final name, release date, specs and price are still something of a mystery. The only mention that Morpheus got was the unveiling of Rigs, a competitive multiplayer title for Morpheus that features Titanfall-style battlemech combat.
This is highly surprising. E3 is by far the biggest and most well-known event in the gaming calendar, and it would have been the best opportunity to drum up interest in the product ahead of the proposed Q1 launch.
We can only speculate as to why we didn’t hear more about Project Morpheus at Sony’s conference, but the most likely answer is that it simply isn’t ready. If the device has hit a snag in development, we could see its eventual release date pushed back, possibly even as far as E3 2016.
Following Project Morpheus’ E3 no-show, the best chance for a full bells-and-whistles reveal is most likely CES 2016, Las Vegas’ consumer electronics show at the start of January.
However, we’ve got a hunch that the final shipping date will end up being closer to Q2, leaving the Oculus Rift with nigh on a full quarter to control the market unopposed.
Release date
So far, the closest Sony has come to a confirming a release date for PlayStation VR is saying that it will launch in Q1 2016. However, it’s competing with Oculus Rift, which is also set for a consumer debut in the same period.
Whichever device arrives first will have a considerable market advantage. As such, we’d expect Sony to release PlayStation VR as early in Q1 as possible; we’re betting on an early February launch.
At GDC 2015, the company teased “additional details” at games expos like LA’s E3 show. However, though the company is promising hands-on demos of various VR titles, the company's main E3 event went by with no new information about the device itself.
Price
PlayStation VR’s eventual retail price is yet to be announced, as its proposed release date draws ever closer. However, we’ve got a reasonable idea of what to expect already.
Project Morpheus release date, price, specs and games
As a device entering a largely untested market, PlayStation VR is likely to have its work cut out convincing the public to get on board with VR. A more affordable entry price would go a long way towards helping that. Sony worldwide studios boss Shuhei Yoshida told Gamespot that the price will be “as low as possibly can be done”.
However, SCE CEO Andrew House has indicated that the device will cost the same as 'a new gaming platform'. Given the pricing of the PlayStation 4 and its predecessor, this suggests that the eventual retail cost will be somewhere around £350 although this is not yet officially confirmed.
Features
As we’d expect from a modern VR device, PlayStation VR features full positional tracking, sensing where the user is in real time. This allows users to experience immersive 3D games in a full 360-degree environment.
Users can interact with their games via the standard Dualshock gamepad, which has certain motion-control functions built in. However, Sony has also opted to incorporate elements from its PlayStation Move products, a rival to Microsoft’s Kinect motion control system that never really caught on.
Using handheld batons, PlayStation VR can independently track players’ hands, allowing for a range of action such as manually reloading weapons and completing coordination challenges.
Project Morpheus release date, price, specs and games
Specs
PlayStation VR sports a 5.7in 1920 x 1080 OLED display. Since Morpheus uses stereoscopic 3D – using two screens with identical images for each eye - this translates into a resolution of around 960 x 1080 per eye. The choice of OLED over LCD means that Sony’s VR games will really pop, thanks to the increased colour saturation and brightness.
The head-tracking uses the PlayStation Camera, and Sony claims that it can capture the headset’s position up to 1000 times every second. If accurate, this would make PlayStation VR both incredibly smooth and fantastically accurate.
Improvements have also been made to the frame and refresh rates, bringing them down to 120fps and 120hz, respectively. This is critical to comfortable VR experiences, as it makes the visuals smoother and more immersive, with a latency of less than 18ms.
Although the PlayStation 4 is currently incapable of rendering games at such a high frame rate, Sony’s chief of PlayStation has stated that a software update will address this. It will also be aided by the small additional unit, which connects to the PS4 in order to handle some of the more demanding processing tasks.
Design
As one would expect, the power of Sony’s product design and prototyping departments mean that even the early developer versions look a lot closer to a finished product than anyone else’s headsets.
While the Oculus Rift is rather boxy-looking, PlayStation VR’s headset is made of rounded, matte-finish plastic that looks sleek and professional.
It has nine LEDs – the standard method of positional tracking for VR – which are spaced around the front, back and sides. However, rather than hiding them as some of its competitors do, Sony has opted to use the front-mounted LEDs as a design feature, dotting the visor with glowing colour segments.
Project Morpheus release date, price, specs and games
The headset is secured around the back of the head with a single solid headband, but rather than being elasticated, it pulls out and expands via a push-button system.
There’s also a button on the front, allowing the main visor to be moved closer or further away from the eyes. It’s a useful touch, as it makes it easier for those with glasses to use the device.
However, the device also features a strange flappy rubber fringe around the outside. This is to reduce the amount of light bleed from the outside, but unlike other VR devices, it doesn’t form a complete seal. Instead, it just sort of flaps there awkwardly, with light leaking in around the edges. I’m led to believe this is a deliberate effort to counteract the motion sickness that has intermittently plagued VR, but in reality it’s distracting and awkward.
There’s no integrated audio either, but the ability to connect your own earphones or speakers means gamers can be more flexible about what level of audio quality they require.
Given the high level of design sophistication already on show here, we would honestly be surprised to see PlayStation VR’s design change that much from a visual standpoint. What’s more likely is a continual series of tweaks and improvements to the headset’s various mechanisms and moving parts.
Name
At the 2015 Tokyo Game Show, Sony finally took the lid off Project Morpheus' official name - PlayStation VR.
While 'Morpheus' was always designed to be a temporary codename, the lack of official branding had previously led some to speculate that Sony would simply continue to brand the device as Project Morpheus.
However, the new name is much more straightforward and explanatory, and will presumably make the technology much more accessible to first-time users.
Games
Sony's PlayStation Experience conference saw the announcement of a new wave of PlayStation VR games. Physics-based indie titles were plentiful, with Job Simulator, The Modern Zombie Taxi Co. and 100ft Robot Golf all revealed.
Some classic franchises also saw VR revivals: Rez, Psychonauts and Ace Combat will all be getting new installments for PlayStation VR.
Earlier in the year, E3 2015 saw the unveiling of PlayStation VR's first multiplayer titles. Developed by UK-based studio Guerilla Cambridge, Rigs is a 3v3 multiplayer title in which players pilot huge combat mechs in eSports-style arena matches.
Effectively a cross between Titanfall and Monday Night Combat, Rigs eschews the dark brown and gunmetal grey palettes of other games. Instead, its aesthetic is based on the garish colour schemes and branded sponsorship of Nascar and NFL matches.
It looks like an innovative use of VR, and an ideal antidote to many of the 'dark and gritty' games that have saturated the industry. The announcement was also prefixed by a reel of various other titles, including Wayward Sky, World War Toons and Godling.
The lead-up to E3 also saw the reveal of one of PlayStation VR's first indie games. Deeply reminiscent of titles like Monument Valley and Fez, Gnog is an indie puzzle game developed by a four-person studio in Montreal. The action centers around giant monster heads, each with their own worlds inside them.
Project Morpheus release date, price, specs and games
The game promises “puzzles, adventures, cool art and chill music”, and is infused with a brain-melting neon and pastel colour palette that makes it immediately distinctive. Exactly how it’s going to utilise the virtual reality element is unclear, but we’re excited to find out.
While Gnog is the first title to be officially announced, there are numerous other games that are heavily rumoured to be appearing on the system. Along with ports of existing titles such as dino hunting sim Ark: Survival Evolved and horror game Among The Sleep, Sony is also pushing a number of first-party projects.
One of the more exciting-looking examples is cockney gangster-themed action title The London Heist. Although currently just a demo, it shows off the positional tracking and incorporation of motion control in a great way.
Honourable mention also goes to space sim Eve: Valkyrie, a spin-off from popular space-trading game Eve: Online. Putting the player in the shoes of a starfighter pilot, the cockpit based action is a perfect fit for PlayStation VR's capabilities, and it looks visually spectacular.
Ultimately, the fate of emerging platforms is decided by the breadth of its software library. Sony has acknowledged this, and Yoshida has said that PlayStation VR will not launch until it has a large enough selection of titles. This is encouraging and implies that the company has a good amount of revelations up its sleeve.
Other features
VR isn’t just a platform for games, however. Along with traditional games, Sony is sure to offer VR-ready content from its PlayStation Music and PlayStation Video arms, probably in the form of immersive music visualisation or virtual movie theatres.
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