Sony is jumping into the virtual-reality field, bringing its own system called "Project Morpheus" to the PlayStation 4.
Sony Worldwide Studios President Shuhei Yoshida announced Project Morpheus at a Tuesday evening session at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco.
"The game industry has grown by leverage experiences that people didn’t know they were expecting or think were possible. We push the boundaries of play," Yoshida said. "Nothing elevates the level of immersion better than VR. It delivers a sense of presence."
He added that Sony had been exploring virtual reality since 2010 at its research and development unit. Yoshida showed off pictures of prototypes from Sony Computer Entertainment America's Santa Monica Studios, which used a PlayStation Move controller strapped to the head for motion tracking.
Sony said it is already working with the following companies on virtual reality: Crytek, Epic Games, Autodesk, Havok, Criware, Unity and Wwise.
The company's current developer kit has 1080p display and a 90-degree field of view, according to Anton Mikhailov, a software engineer with Sony Computer Entertainment's research and development team. "It's not a final thing, but a good sweet spot for developers right now."
Mikhailov said the headset will work with the PlayStation Move controllers, the DualShock 4 and the PlayStation Move camera.
In the past year, virtual reality has become a crowded field for gaming, but no products are available yet for consumers. The Oculus Rift virtual-reality headset has been in developers’ hands for about a year. Yoshida said on Tuesday night that he had an “enormous amount of respect” for Oculus VR. The company declined to comment on Sony’s announcement.
Sony did not announce a price or timeline for consumer availability for Project Morpheus. Game developers will be able to view the headset starting Wednesday on the GDC show floor.