New name, same tech, PlayStation VR is now official

Sep 15, 2015 14:08 GMT  ·  By

Sony's Project Morpheus has been a work in progress for a while, and given that its launch date is drawing near, Sony has finally chosen to give it an official name.

Project Morpheus is now called PlayStation VR, something akin to Valve's Steam VR, becoming PlayStation 4's official virtual reality headset. Although an eventual name change was to be expected from Sony, there wasn't any clue on how exactly the new headset would be named. Now we know its new name and it lost pretty much everything that made it exciting.

Apparently, besides the name change, not much else is known about the virtual reality headset, since there are no final technical specifications for it, although things should be pretty much permanent by now. Additionally, there is no release date either, although the headset is expected to hit the market in exactly one year.

Sony barely starts grazing the surface of VR entertainment

Now that things are clear regarding its moniker, all Sony and its partners have to do is prepare a strong portfolio of titles for the new device, while the company’s marketing departments will start churning ideas on how to better sell it and make it unique among the other VR headsets coming out from HTC and Oculus.

Another very important thing to take care of is to get developers on board to better optimize the device for PlayStation 4 titles and beat Oculus at its own game, as currently it is lagging behind both in initiative and development.

Overall, it's clear that 2016 will be the year of Virtual Reality, when all the major players in this niche market will start launching their products once they have the software ready for them. At the moment, Oculus has a major head start with lots of games, developers and studios receiving a sample of the device long before Sony and Valve started to send theirs to developers.

Valve, on the other hand, has the massive Steam brand that has hordes of developers under its supervising umbrella, and through the association with Steamboxes, the Steam VR will be part of a larger Steam home entertainment reinvention process.