While many saw Sony’s move to develop their Morpheus headset as a way to capitalize on the success the Oculus Rift had garnered, some wonder exactly what its future has in store.
Andrew House is CEO at Sony and stated in a recent interview that their commitment to the hardware involves long term plans (and won’t become just another Kinect knockoff). “It’s definitely more than an experiment. We’ve made some commitments; we’re putting significant investment into the product…We do now think that we can get to this point of delivering a magical sense of presence–where your brain tricks you into thinking you’re actually in this place. We think there’s something there that could be really, really interesting for a next frontier of game development.” House says.
While not in direct competition with the Oculus, Sony believes its counterpart serves as a useful benchmark in gauging the appeal of the industry. Howeve, a key ingredient crucial to success is developer support they feel. “… we saw this groundswell of game development that didn’t necessarily have a monetizable or a business option, but developers were so passionate about this space that they were doing this essentially in their spare time. It struck that me that if there’s a variety of game developers showing interest in this space then it’s probably time to jump in and see if we can play a part and give them the tools they’re looking for.” He states.
We’ll bring you more on Sony’s hardware developments, which include PlayStation TV and their upcoming streaming service (entitled Now).