Now get ready for another one: Virtual reality. This technology, which plunges headset wearers into three-dimensional virtual worlds that
feel incredibly lifelike, is coming to consumers very soon, according to the two companies spearheading the charge. Oculus Rift and Sony have been developing prototypes for virtualreality headsets that immerse people in scenarios as mundane as a boardroom
or as fantastic as a medieval castlecomplete with dragons. But reps for both companies say the driving force behind the
success or failure of virtual-reality, or VR, will be not their devices but the games created for them. Sony announced ‘Project Morpheus’, a virtual-reality system for the PlayStation 4, in March. Oculus Rift CEO Brendan Iribe said his team of “the brightest minds of the industry” has come a long way
from two years ago, when a bulky
Oculus prototype held together by
duct tape was shown to selected
media at E3.
“We’ve tackled so many of
the hardest problems,” Iribe said
last week. “We have 30 or 40 of
these top talents all focusing on
delivering the best VR the world has
ever seen. This is really delivering
on something that people have
imagined for so many years and we
haven’t gotten there yet. Now we’re
starting to get there.”
Meanwhile Project Morpheus,
the code name for Sony’s rival
VR headset, was introduced in
March as the future of gaming on
the PlayStation system. Indeed,
the lightbar on the PlayStation 4’s
DualShock controller was designed
with the Morpheus headgear in
mind to allow the devices to be
tracked together.
