Image Credit: Sony Computer Entertainment
Sony hardware R&D engineer Dennis Castleman has revealed that the company’s Project Morpheus, the virtual reality headset that is being pitched as the PS4’s answer to the Oculus Rift, is ready to launch but that it needs more games before it is released.
In a Facebook post which was reposted on Reddit, Castleman wrote: “I’ve been working on Sony’s project Morpheus for 3 years, it’s going to go to market in 2016. It’s a bit different for things like cell phones or established technologies. When I was designing televisions it was usually 18 months to get a new model into production. A VR HMD is a bit different it also takes time for the component vendors to rampup for million unit volumes.”
He added: “In our case the HMD hardware is ready to go, we’re just waiting for the game titles to catch up with the hardware. Oculus on the other hand faces a tougher battle getting the rift to market. They are relying on a contract manufacture in china to produce their units. They are a new company with out any volume manufacturing experience, they do have lots of cash and of course thier parent company has deep pockets so captiol isn’t going to be a problem. They have alot of work ahead to successfully pull of the Riff introduction. No one on thier executive team has any experience bringing high volume consumer devices to market. So at this point only time will tell, I do expect lots of tech demos and announcements to keep the anticipation high. Until then it’s all vaporware as far as a consumer product is conserned [sic].”
In regards to Castleman’s statement regarding the Rift, he is incorrect – the China-based manufacturing is being overseen by Jack McCauley, the developer of the Oculus Rift’s first and second development kits, so the company should have no problem in this department. However, his comments that Sony are waiting for the software to coincide with the launch of the Morpheus is encouraging, given that the last two peripherals Sony have released – the PlayStation Move and PlayStation Camera – launched with barely any games to convince consumers to take a gamble with them.
The Morpheus is being pitched as the underdog in comparison with the more powerful Oculus Rift, but if it releases at the right price point it could convince many PS4 owners to dip their toes in the water of virtual reality for the first time. For those hoping that VR will finally break the mainstream this time around, it’d be preferable if both the Morpheus and the Rift pulled in solid numbers so that there would be a guaranteed future for these devices.
