Sony announces the release of their virtual reality headset at 2016 GDC
On March 15, 2016, Japanese entertainment giant Sony announced the price and release date for their highly anticipated foray into virtual reality technology. The Playstation VR, codenamed Project Morpheus during its extensive development process, will launch worldwide in October, and will retail for US$399.
The US$399 price tag, however, will not be mirrored north of the border, given the current exchange rate. Upon release, the Playstation VR will retail at $549.99 in Canada.
[pullquote align=”left” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]…there are currently 230 developers creating content for the VR…[/pullquote]
Virtual reality gaming allows players to explore three-dimensional environments and interact with their surroundings, creating an immersive gameplay experience. Although virtual reality headsets have been in production since the 1990s, limitations in technology caused early attempts such as Nintendo’s Virtual Boy to be commercial failures.
The Playstation VR represents the first venture into the realm of modern virtual reality gaming for a major console, and will find its main competition with the Oculus Rift and the HTC Vive. Sony is no stranger to immersive gameplay however, with previous endeavours arriving in the form of 2003’s EyeToy, and 2010’s Playstation Move.
Sony hosted a special event at the 2016 Game Developers Conference to not only announce the launch date and price of the VR, but to also boast some of the device’s impressive specs.
The PlayStation VR has a 5.7 inch OLED screen at 1920 x 1080 resolution, and offers latency of less than 18 ms. The VR has a refresh rate of either 120 Hz or 90 Hz, notably superior to the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive, which both feature rates of only 90 Hz. The headset offers a field-of-view of approximately 100 degrees, and will feature 360-degree tracking.
Included in the standard Playstation VR package is the headset, the processor unit, stereo headphones, headset connection cable, HDMI cable, USB cable, AC adaptor, and a power cable. This package does not include the Playstation Camera that is required for gameplay, and also omits Playstation Move controllers, which are not required, but greatly enhance the gaming experience.
Following the Game Developers Conference, Sony announced the Playstation VR launch bundle pre-order, beginning March 22, 2016. In addition to everything in the standard package, this includes the Playstation Camera, two Playstation Move controllers, and their Playstation VR Worlds disc. The pre-order bundle will retail for $699.99.
Sony says that there are currently 230 developers creating content for the VR, ranging from industry giants to independent teams, and that there would be over 50 titles available between the launch in October 2016 and the end of the year. The games in development seem to have a refreshingly diverse range—from the captivating Adrift, which allows players to control an astronaut floating through the wreckage of a space station with no memory of the incident, to the ridiculous 100FT Robot Golf, where players not only golf as massive robots, but are also able to destroy their surroundings and even attack other players attempting to save par.
The most ambitious game that players can expect to see by the end of 2016 is EVE: Valkyrie, a multiplayer dogfighting shooter set in the Eve Online universe, specifically designed for virtual reality headsets. Current visual markups look stunning, and the game could become a benchmark for virtual reality gaming if it can be run at a smooth framerate.
Sony is also working to develop more familiar franchises for the VR, including a new version of Playstation’s highest-selling game franchise, Gran Turismo. Details of the game haven’t been specified, but if developers can harness the graphics of previous Gran Turismo games, this could be the most realistic console racing experience yet. Sony also announced that Lucasfilm and Dice are currently working on a Playstation VR exclusive Star Wars Battlefront game, which is an extremely exciting prospect for fans of the galaxy far, far away.
Many gamers are still skeptical about virtual reality technology, and previous efforts have generally fallen short in terms of immersion and overall gameplay. The Sony VR and its contemporaries look to be a step in the right direction, but only time will tell if this iteration of virtual reality technology will be revered as revolutionary or renounced as gimmicky.
Sony’s announcement is intriguing at the very least, and with the exponential improvements in technology over the last generation of virtual reality headsets, the implications could be limitless. Many will be apprehensive when the product launches in October, but if Sony’s Playstation VR can successfully immerse gamers into a beautifully constructed Star Wars universe, it may just be the droid we’re looking for.