14 DAY TRIAL // Sony's upcoming Project Morpheus virtual reality headset will deliver social experiences similar to those seen on the Wii U from Nintendo, as more than one player can interact in the future titles and take part in the fun.
Virtual reality is slowly but surely evolving this year to a new stage, as the first final products and headsets are already set to launch later in 2015, such as the HTC Vive from Valve and HTC, or the possible final Oculus Rift consumer edition.
A social virtual reality experience is coming via Morpheus to PS4
Sony's own Project Morpheus is now targeting a 2016 debut for the PS4 console and Shuhei Yoshida, the boss of Sony's Worldwide Studios, confirms that the extra time is essential, as it will enable the company and its vast array of developers to perfect the social experiences planned for the virtual reality headset.
According to Yoshida, who talks with Digital Foundry, Morpheus and its games are going to deliver a social virtual reality experience, with the living room in mind. As such, while the wearer of the headset will get to be the main entertainment target, the TV screen will still portray interesting elements so that others are entertained, at least somewhat, until they get their turn to wear the headset.
Yoshida explains that this goal came from Nintendo's approach to social gaming with the Wii U, as its Japanese rival allowed more people to interact with the game, not just the person holding the GamePad.
"Our teams wanted to create social game not unlike something similar Nintendo is doing with Wii U. So one person might be wearing the headset, while another person might be participating, watching on the large-screen TV. So that idea came from the game teams and the hardware team implemented it," he explains.
As such, while other headsets might appear until Morpheus debuts, it seems that Sony wants to use its internal studios to bring alongside it some very compelling games and applications.