New rumors indicate that Sony will reveal an Oculus Rift-like headset for the PlayStation 4.
With the November 15 launch of the PlayStation 4 set in proper motion, it appears that Sony has other unconfirmed plans for their upcoming console, especially for virtual reality enthusiasts in mind; both the website CVG and Eurogamer have reported that the company is set on announcing a virtual reality set for the PS4.
Their multiple industry insiders detail that the device is quite similar to the Oculus Rift VR headset, which has attracted a lot of excitement amongst the gaming development community and has also astounded certain PlayStation executives on Twitter (including President of SCE Worldwide Studios, Shuhei Yoshida. He’s a big fan!)
Word has it that Sony was planning to introduce their own VR headset during last month’s Gamescom presser in Germany, but was left off the bullet list for undisclosed reasons. Although, if this rumor turn out correctly, there might be a future reveal either at the 2013 Tokyo Game Show in a couple weeks, or possibly in 2014 at the latest.
Sony’s interest in virtual reality tech isn’t a “Johnny come lately” interest though. The company has had numerous VR projects in the works for years. And in 2011, they even released the HMZ-T2 headset in Europe, a personal 3D viewer that could be used with 3D games and HD movies. Although, it was nowhere near as good as the Oculus Rift.
That might change big-time if Sony does indeed try to jump aggressively onto the VR bandwagon with a headset that’s compatible with their next-gen console. The company seems to have enlisted their first-party developer Evolution Studios – who have significant 3D-game programers amongst their group – to help demo the headset with the PS4 racer DriveClub.
All of this is yet to be confirmed by Sony though, so for now it’s purely scuttlebutt. I mean, it wouldn’t surprise me one bit if they did, honestly. Sony does love spending money in the R&D department, and from the amount of positive buzz the Oculus Rift headset has been getting, I’m darn sure they’d love some of that hype for the PlayStation 4 too.
Stay tuned on Walyou.com for more hot-off-the-presses geeky news, like the recent purchase of smartphone maker Nokia by Microsoft, and how gesture-based holograms could help make navigating UI’s easier.
