14 DAY TRIAL // Oculus CEO Palmer Luckey has talked a bit about the Project Morpheus virtual reality headset from Sony and confirmed that, seeing as how it's tied to the PS4 console, the two devices will lose the battle for power over time.
The Oculus Rift virtual reality headset has heralded a new interest in VR overall and Sony was quick to present its own headset last month at the Game Developers Conference of 2014, in the form of Project Morpheus.
The new peripheral is coming to the PlayStation 4 in the near future, according to Sony, and Oculus boss Palmer Luckey certainly welcomes the competition, at least according an interview he had with GameWatch, via DualShockers.
"I think that if Sony pours enough effort in it, it’ll be a very good solution for the present time. There’s also the combination with the PlayStation Move, and PS4 is like a powerful PC now. However, I think there’s reason for concern for the long term," he said.
More specifically, Luckey warns that the PS4 hardware configuration won't change in the following years and, while it's certainly a powerful platform right now, it will still get overtaken by most PCs and even mobile platforms over time, just like the PS3 currently.
"That’s because in two to three years almost everyone will have a PC more powerful than the PS4. In five to seven years even mobile platforms will surpass the PS4. The PS3 generation has passed its eighth years, but it’s still going. And because the PS4 generation should be very long as well, there’s no telling whether it can keep up with virtual reality on PC and mobile in the future or not," he explained.
Even so, Luckey is quite thankful for the interest the virtual reality market is enjoying nowadays, as Sony is bringing its own headset, while Valve is investing in research in this area.
"Still, I definitely welcome the fact that large companies like Sony or Valve are focusing on VR, as they deliver a powerful message to customers. Hopefully this will enhance the VR market and help it turn from a gimmick to the real thing."
Oculus has recently been acquired by Facebook, guaranteeing its major role in the virtual reality revolution. It will debut this summer the Dev Kit 2 prototype and should be able to launch the consumer edition of the Rift next year. Sony is expected to launch Morpheus in 2015 as well.