Sony look to be planning a VR headset of their own for PS4, to be compatible with games such as DriveClub and rival the growing popularity found with the Oculus Rift headset.
Eurogamer are reporting that the headset will be revealed next year, and has been demonstrated internally, allowing players to look around the cockpit of their car in DriveClub, which is developed by Evolution Studios.
Evolution includes the Worldwide Studios Stereoscopic 3D team, which has previously worked on 3D game development and has remained relatively quiet since Sony’s 3D push never really kicked off.
Quite interestingly, it is also being reported that they were aiming to show the headset at their Gamescom conference but it was pulled, perhaps in favour of more development time and a release next year.
It’ll be interesting to see whether this takes off or is left behind like 3D and Move support arguably were with the PS3.
Jakster123x
I wonder if this means that the Oculus won’t be supported on PS4, or if Sony just wanted to add their own VR into the mix.
KeRaSh
Last I checked on the Oculus homepage they said that they are currently focusing on the PC but major console support is planned. However, I think I read somewhere else that they are not too optimistic about next gen support. :/
Jakster123x
I hope we see it on PS4 at some stage, and a little competition from Sony wouldn’t do them any harm.
Person678
I’d rather they just try to provide Oculus compatibility, assuming it’s doable technically. I plan on buying a Oculus but I ain’t buying one for each platform.
KeRaSh
I’m very interested in the Oculus but if Sony is pushing their own tech (they already have such a device on the market but it’s not meant to be used for games), I’d probably skip the Oculus in favor of Sony’s alternative.
Best case scenario would be for Sony to offer official drivers for their device so it could also be used for PC gaming. I was hoping that Sony would snatch up the Oculus team but they would close off the system from public tinkering and that would piss off the PC community, which wouldn’t be a great move.
cam the man
The info on the latest version of Sony’s headset (HMZ-T2 Personal 3D Viewer) does state it’s for movies and games. The VR headset will do doubt be an evolution it.
KeRaSh
Well yeah, it’s a head mounted screen, but there are no sensors built in that track and consider head movement, right? It can display games but is not a dedicated and optimized device for that scenario particularly.
TSBonyman
I’m still not sold on the concept but i guess it’s as much a natural evolution of the last VR visor thingy Sony brought out as it is stepping on Occulus Rift’s toes.
Galiophaurus
For almost 20 years now I’ve been eager for the VR comeback … we finally have technology for it… now is the time!
I’ll never forget this:
http://www.arcade-history.com/?n=dactyl-nightmare-2-race-for-the-eggs&page=detail&id=12494
ron_mcphatty
That looks amazing! But not quiet as amazing as the good old Sega R360, which I got to have a play on once at Thorp Park!!
hazelam
i had a go on one of those Virtuality machines, oh so many years ago.
except the one i played was a sort of hack and slash game with skeletons and giant spiders.
and you got this key to save your progress.
had some nice ideas in there, but the tech just wasn’t able to deliver at that time.
i’ve been waiting for VR to finally make it to the average user for a very long time too.
i remember there were rumours of a VR headset for the Megadrive, but nothing came of it.
then there was the Virtual Boy, which was by all accounts bloody awful, i’ve never gotten my hands on one so i don’t know, though i would love to.
and now, there’s the Oculus Rift, which i’d love to try, but it’s too expensive, for me anyway, and my pc has trouble outputting a single screen.
a console headset would be great, no worries about not having a powerful enough system and hopefully a competitive price.
and it’d be cool if you could watch 3d movies on it as well. ^_^
Jumping Monks
Very interesting, I’ve no doubt if Sony make a similar device to the Rift using similar tech, it’d be perhaps better than what Oculus can produce. Sony are a hardware giant, that screen manufacturers would take a little more seriously than small start-up company Oculus, with their manufacturing expertise this could be absolutely killer.
I’m certainly very interested in this indeed.
gazzagb
I’d rather they just support the Oculus Rift – save money on R&D for the hardware, plus there will be a much large development base for it, just look how little developers make stuff for Move.
Kennykazey
I just can’t see this whole VR business taking off. Maybe it’s because I haven’t tried it, but it all seems a bit silly to me.
HywelWJ
I’ve been waiting for a console to release a VR headset since Sega announced Sega VR at E3 in ’93.
The Von Braun
So, we’ve seen motion control, which was once dismissed as a passing fad, dug back out and marketed as the next big thing, it was’nt, so then they tried 3D, again and despite advances in technology,the fad seemed to pass as quickly as it arrived and now it’s Home V.R yet again….
So, Sega tried it on MD/Genesis, but scrapped project before it reached retail, Atari talked the talk, but stumbled on the walk with the Jaguar V.R headset, Hasbro sunk millions into developing a home V.r set up, before canning entire project and now it’s back on the fore front of cutting edge technology?.
In the early attempts, whilst a lot of projects fell by the wayside because the technology was’nt there to deliver the goods, espically not at an affordable price, far bigger concerns came from possibility of being sued for side effects of long term play.
Reports of tester coming away from a V.R session, opening can of drink and pouring it into their eye etc.
At rate companies are digging up old ideas, how long before Sony or MS annouce a hydraulic chair for their consoles? come on, if it was good enough for the Konix Multi-System….or why stop there…why not go right back and introduce tape loading? or since lens flare is now a key point of new game engines, lets see a return of colour clash, burst processing etc etc….
Oh and else where the PS4 VS Xbox One ‘pissing contest’ gets even more bizare as turns out PS4 only supports 4 controllers, Xbox One supports 8.
KeRaSh
Sounds like someone had a rough day. ;)