Platform: PS4
Developer: Sony
Release Date: Unknown, product has been in development for three years
Type: Video Output Accessory, Virtual Reality Headset
By Malefico
Is the future of entertainment all in your head?
Project Morpheus is Sony’s codename for one of its most ambitious ventures in recent history – a virtual reality headset for the PlayStation 4. Just unveiled to industry press, Morpheus is without a doubt a slick-looking piece of hardware. Sony hinted at technical specs that are just as impressive. As seen in the image below, Morpheus sports subtle blue LED lighting and a pleasing, curved design. Conceived and designed to take gamers to the next level of realism, it looks every bit the part of the futuristic (probably the wrong word as the future is now) VR accessory. But maybe “accessory” is the wrong word as well. Read on to find out why.
Sony seems to have embraced Virtual Reality as an important trend in not only gaming, but the delivery of other entertainment and educational content as well. In fact, during their presentation to journalists, Sony made it clear that they consider VR to be an entirely separate medium, not just a nifty peripheral to their PS4 platform.
Shuhei Yoshida, president of Sony Worldwide Studios and Richard Marks from Sony Magic Lab went on to say the defining factor of Morpheus would be its ability to create VR presence, a way of saying users will be immersed in the virtual world to an extent that it seems real, that the VR headset can simulate your actual presence in whatever world the developer creates.
Sony also espoused the viewpoint that VR is inclusive, saying it will be a “pervasive” element in society, and that it can be for everyone, not just a few. Some of the talking points included the fact that VR heightens the user’s emotional involvement in the experience, makes entertainment more social and that the use of the technology has widespread applications, not just games. As an example, they mentioned a virtual expedition to Mars as one project already underway in cooperation with NASA.
Regarding the actual device, Sony said it was designed for user comfort, and that it would put no weight on the nose or cheeks. It will work in conjunction with the existing Dual Shock controllers, the PlayStation Move accessory and the PS4 camera, which Marks remarked was “almost custom-built for VR”.
Internally, the headset contains an accelerometer and gyroscope sending signals to the display, and trading information with the other elements in the input/output system like the PlayStation Move input device, pictured below. It will utilize both HDMI and USB connections, and although the prototype shown yesterday had a single cable apparently carrying both data streams, the goal for the final consumer version will be wireless connectivity.
Morpheus will be able to broadcast the user’s appearance and position within the virtual environment to an HDTV screen. The 5” LCD display produces resolution of 1920 X 1280 (960 X 1280 per eye) and has a field of view of just over 90 degrees. The headset will feature binaural audio for what Sony describes as “true spatial sound”, but users can opt for their favorite headphones instead, and they will plug directly into the unit. The Morpheus prototype also has working volume and head movement tracking.
With Sony jumping headlong into Virtual Reality, and Microsoft to follow suit console gamers will have a real alternative to Oculus Rift. But how successful will the new medium be? Clearly, PC and console game hardware companies are going all in and betting that VR will be the next big thing in gaming and entertainment in general. Although past ventures into VR have failed, it’s clear that technology is finally catching up with the elusive, immersive virtual world that many are banking on.
Past devices, including Nintendo’s Virtual Boy, the never released Sega VR, Tiger Electronics R-Zone and a handful of arcade VR systems suffered from a host of problems. Among other things, they lacked the ability to realistically depict a virtual world- R-Zone had a small HUD that covered only one eye, and it and Virtual Boy only displayed images in red. Users complained of nausea and headaches during use of Virtual Boy. And neither of the devices attracted enough interest to make them worthwhile as commercial enterprises. Virtual Boy sold only 770,000 units in North America and Japan combined, remained on the market less than a year, and hosted a paltry 22 games (only 14 of which were available in North America). From what I remember about the arcade games, they commanded a high price per paly and had hordes of gamers in line to sample the virtual world, when they worked. Still, they proved to be an arcade fad at best, a feeble attempt to prop up an industry that was already giving way to home console entertainment.
While we finally have the tech to make Virtual Reality a real possibility, it remains to be seen if consumers will care enough to make them viable in the market. Will consumers embrace this new “medium”? Or will the additional expense and complexity of the devices limit their use to the rarefied few who are looking for the ultimate realistic experience? Only time will tell.
Morpheus does seem to have the support of major game studios, including Epic Games and Crytek. But in order to support this new technology, Sony, Microsoft and others will have to recruit many more developers in order to maintain a steady supply of new titles.
To me, VR seems to be on the gimmicky side. I liken it to 3D technologies. Cyclically, firms who manufacture video displays trot out 3D and herald it as the “must-have” technology, claiming it will revolutionize how people watch TV, etc. And just as predictably, consumers don’t really care enough to buy it. Although 3D HDTV’s have made slight headway into the market, most people either can’t afford the devices, or apparently don’t consider them worth the expense. Likewise movie studios keep releasing 3D movies, but does the optical effect really add that much to the experience?
The decision to pursue such projects is smart business. Third party hardware developers will most likely not be able to keep up with the technical advances that MS and Sony can roll out. So, VR will likely remain the exclusive purview of the OEM manufacturers. If enough people buy the new headsets, they will prove to be a gold mine.
One thing is clear. Companies like Sony, Microsoft and Oculus VR intend to push the interactive entertainment experience to the next level. If they can bring products to market that deliver on the hype, and at a price that makes them accessible to the masses, they will change the face of video gaming forever. Is the future of entertainment to be found not in front of, but inside your favorite games and eventually beyond? We’ll find out soon enough.
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3DTV is closer than I realized. Several channels in other countries are already broadcasting in 3D. Sales of 3DTVs rose 700% between 2010 and 2012. More and more movies are released in 3D, despite everyone’s cries of ‘gimmick!’ So it’s not that 3DTV isn’t in demand, it’s that it costs too damn much right now.
It doesnt make TV viewing any better AND it costs too damn much. Shit gives people headaches. Plus there are different 3D technologies in the works so people dont need glasses.
Maybe 3D TV isnt a fad or a gimmick, but im still not convinced its going to ever “sweep the nation” but thats just my opinion.
Regarding pricing the Morpheus, yes sony would be dumb to charge more than $200, but considering that this technology is fairly new (sort of), i would legitimately feel like im not getting the full potential of the machine bc they had to downgrade it so much to be affordable. But if its too expensive, itll be like the 3DO, which was an awesome machine for its time
Well it might be a little different than the 3DO. It wasn’t really the technology that drove the price up, but the 3DO company’s stupid ass business model. When Nintendo or Sega sells (sold) a system, they pretty much do so at no profit, making up for this with software sales, licensing fees from developers, etc. What 3DO planned was to have a ridiculously low licensing rate for their games, and they made up for this by not producing their own console. So when 3DO gave their console specs to 3rd party developers (like Panasonic and Goldstar), the companies obviously wanted to make a profit, and since they weren’t going to be the ones reaping the benefits of software development, they went ahead and jacked up the price.
At least that’s my understanding of why the price was $599, sometimes cited as high as $699!
3DTV may not ever completely become the standard in the way that color replaced black and white or HD seems to be quickly overtaking SD. There will always be people who can’t tolerate the 3D (headaches, dizziness, whatever) but the TVs will likely include an option to “turn off 3D” rather than have 2 types of devices on shelves. I read up on it quite a bit the other day (mostly because my jaw dropped when you called it a fad!) and it looks like electronics companies everywhere are gearing up for it. They’ve even been working to establish standards to avoid a format war. What surprised me the most is that one of the hugest driving factors behind 3DTV-adoption is SPORTS. Seems like this is an area where 3DTV is really taking off and where a lot of professionals expect the largest initial growth.
But just think about it: If a company had the means to render games in actual 3D, there’s no way they’d sit on it for long. They’d bust their asses to make the technology cheaper because they know gamers everywhere would be clamoring to experience it. The bad taste of all those 90’s VR projects has firmly faded from public consciousness. 3D is really the next big step when it comes to existing gaming technology. And as augmented reality systems continue to improve it’ll be the perfect pairing. So even if most TV watchers aren’t wildly enthusiastic about 3DTV, they’ll eventually see the impact it’s having in the gaming world and eventually demand would snowball.
Do I want a 3DTV? Not really. I didn’t (read: don’t) care that much for HDTV. It’s cool, but I’m just fine with SD. I guess it’s like people who grew up with black and white TV. Whereas it makes shit nigh unwatchable for me, old folks don’t even mind. But once these gaming systems essentially demanded HD to be viewed as they were intended, I had to buy in.
Im not sure if id ever buy one, but im curious as hell about this thing. Ive been very attracted to VR since my friend had a Tiger R-Zone and let me play. And dude… was that thing AWESOME as a child!
But my real question is… how expensive is this thing gonna be? Think about how much 3D TVs cost in 2010. Absurd prices! I think this might be up there. But i knew in my head that 3D TVs were prob just a fad and thats why i never bought one. I think its safe to say that i was fairly accurate.
Hey man,
Yeah when I was writing the article I was thinking about how much it would cost to get it all together. 4 beans for the PS4, another $140 for Move and the camera, and then I’m guessing $150-$200 or more for the headset… That’s a good bit of change.
$140 for Move and Camera? Move was for the PS3, and none of that stuff works with PS4. The new camera for the PS4 is more like Kinect where your arms/hands/face/voice are used as opposed to the PS3 Move which was basically a copy of the Wii.
The PS3 camera was called “The Eye,” and the new one for the PS4 is just “PlayStation Camera,” $59.99 retail.
Looks like the mystery is solved…sort of. Although the old PS3 Eye will not work with PS4, the Move controllers can, or at least could. Sony had an official procedure outlined on their site about syncing the Move controllers with PS4, but for some reason the page has been taken down. I managed to access a cached copy, though I still don’t understand why Sony would remove this information…
Sony would be ridiculous to price it at any more than $200 unless they’re planning on waiting more than a couple of years to release it.
I’m not so sure if 3DTV can be written off just yet. OnDemand is popping up with an increasing number of 3D options for newer movies. Some people had HDTVs back in like what, 1999 or some shit? But it wasn’t really until 10 years ago that the price started dropping enough. Maybe it’s a stretch, but I think gaming helps drive the TV industry. With consoles becoming so much more than “toys for kids,” I think they’ll have even more of an impact on the future of television and 3D gaming is bound to happen in some form, sometime.