Looks like Sony is already off to a decent start with its own VR headset, Project Morpheus. The Game Developers Conference (GDC) is in full swing at San Francisco, and it was there that Sony demoed the headset with a first person version of its signature God of War franchise. As VR Focus described, "a violent demonstration of what was possible in VR then followed on, with the hero slashing up enemies in a typically gory fashion."
Sony President Shuhei Yoshida was the first to don the headset and step into Kratos' blades, saying, "When I looked down, I saw my body was that of Kratos. It was an empowering experience."
No word on what Yoshida thought of that threesome in the Rhodesian baths.
Despite that Sony had a model ready to demo, it's early yet, and several details remain unknown. Like exactly how Morpheus will cost, but Sony has described it as "affordable." Yoshida made mention of it during another presentation at GDC when asked about the possibility of the headset being used as a teaching tool in schools.
"One of the great things about something being consumer electronics... is that it's affordable." Of course, "affordable" is an ambiguous term, but with the Oculus Rift consumer model to come in at $350, Sony's Morpheus will have to be around the same price point.
While Sony has a number of exclusive properties it could develop for Morpheus, and a number of PC games now supported for the Rift, it remains to be seen what third party companies would develop for VR. With all the talk about VR lately, Ubisoft stepped forward and gave its own requirements before it would consider development.
As it always does, it comes down to numbers. During GDC, Ubisoft VP Lionel Raynaud said "VR would need to sell at least 1 million units to be viable for development." Given the Rift had the support of big industry names like Gabe Newell, and John Carmack now on staff, not to mention the Rift managing to rake in close to $2.5 million on Kickstarter, the peripheral certainly has a future, and a million sales for the Rift alone is more than likely.
But when that'll happen? Hard to say, as a despite all that's been said about the device, an actual release date has not yet been given, and with Sony and Microsoft only just announcing their own VR headsets, they'll likely hit store shelves long after the Rift.
