PS4 VR: Smedley Confirms Sony Doing Oculus Competitor

Here's an unexpected PS4 VR update, as John Smedley confirmed that Sony is actually making an Oculus Rift competitor.

[GarrusVakarian]

Yes! I really want VR to catch on this gen, im all about that immersion. Hopefully they don't make it so expensive that it puts people off.

[TomShoe]

It's probably going to pretty high priced at the outset, so it will only be a niche item for the near future.

Hopefully it will become cheaper as development costs lower and computing power increases.

[Gazondaily]

Yeah but what's the point of VR if you're stuck playing with a controller? I think it defeats the point:

Ah wow Im in the game!! INSIDE THE FRIGGIN GAME!

press x to pick up apple...

I really want vr but the input method needs to evolve too. At least one that rivals the precision of a keyboard and mouse.

Power glove? Lol I dont know. I just dont think a few face buttons will cut it.

Who here used to watch that cartoon, Batman of the future (I think that's what it was called). In one episode these gamers were playing and they were suspended inside these bubbles. Now that would be cool! Also, it alleviates the problem of inadvertently drop kicking your grandmother in the face. Sony you should be making giant bubbles not VR headsets!

Anyway, just thinking out loud.VR is cool. Its the next step towards total immersion. It just seems so far away though. I haven't tried Occulus Rift but yeah, it even seems a bit intimidating.

[PoSTedUP]

@tomshoe- if VR is going to be the next big thing, they should want to compete with OcRift. im gonna say a little more than price of a PS4, thats obv just a wild guess. their current headsets are a luxury priced pretty high, VR is targeting gamers, devs arent going to make games for something that wont sell at a hgh price, there will be no point, itll just be a flop. maybe they dont need to compete tho...

@septic- Move controllers... holding a sword and shield... gun peripheral etc.

[frostypants]

@septic: Motion cameras and motion controllers, man. We already have that tech. VR could be what was needed to finally give it all a true purpose.

[tontontam0]

@septic
so narrow minded

[christrules0041]

More computing power and less development costs doesn't add up. On last gen consoles they ran sub hd resolutions. But since the games looked descent if the devs skimped on some corners they would blend into the game. But if you take a game like Killzone Shadowfall which looks fantastic and skimped over the corners they would stick out like a sore thumb. The more computing power lets devs make more detail in games but it also means they have to put that much more detail into every part of the game. Look at the detail in the division, The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt or Infamous Second Son.

On the other hand before someone says games like The Last of Us looked incredible and it did for 7 year old hardware but it wouldn't serve my example.

[Aurenar]

@Septic: I agree. The motion controllers could actually make a comeback with VR; they simply make much more sense in this context.

Move is quite precise, it should be enough for now.

[badz149]

@septic

I think VR tech like this goes just fine with controllers. to some extend, motion controls like PS MOVE integration will be nice too but whole body motion? come on...most people play games to relax not exhaust the hell out of their body while they are at it.

something like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

is both really exhausting and makes you look stupid! at the moment, motion controls like the MOVE and WiiMote just require you to move you arms and that's about it which is nice especially for FPS and adds VR to THAT, you'll get the immersion of being in the game. full body motion control like the Kinect on the other hands is still struggling to find its footing in the hardcore gaming scene due to control limitation without the buttons.

[gigoran]

@Septic
Right, because they totally didn't make any kind of move controllers that function in cooperation with the camera. Oh wait... the totally freaking did and now you look stupid. Awww darn it all.

[MetaReapre]

@septic

Sony is only doing this because the Oculus Rift was so great for the PC, the keyboard and mouse didn't seem to get in the way of the immersion there and thus it is very popular. A controller, while is something that doesn't do that great of a job putting you into a game, doesn't detract anymore than it normally would while not using a VR headset, but the VR headset is made to immerse you more than a normal play through of a game could.

I hope i said all that right so my point gets across.

Anyway the gist of it is that you can't detract immersion more than sitting in front of a TV with a controller, but you can add on to it to make it better.

[JohnnyTower]

The VR headset in the picture there is $1000. No motion tracking or anything. So I think it will be interesting what Sony pitches as a price point. The Oculus Dev kit is around $300. I don't k ow what the final price for this unit will be, but Rift has a good chance of coming in cheaper than Sony.

[Naga]

I will be completely shocked if this turns out to be less than $1,000.

[KakashiHotake]

Well that isn't actually a VR headset in the picture, it just looks like it. The reason that's $1000 is it's meant to be a High Def Television set that you can strap to your face for travels for example on the airplane. I'm sure the VR will be much different and will use different, more affordable technologies.

[JohnnyTower]

itachi- its literally called the Sony VR headset. Its been on the market for over 2 years. Thats second gen and still $1000.

[sourav93]

The headset in the picture is NOT called Sony VR headset. You're talking out of your posterior. It's Sony's Head Mounted Display called the "Personal 3D Viewer", and never has been referred to as a "VR headset".

http://www.sony.co.uk/elect...

[TheGreatAndPowerful]

Oh but it does support head tracking. It'll be based on that tech and offered at a much lower price.

http://www.tomsguide.com/us...

[DeadIIIRed]

If Sony is going to be competing with Oculus head on, they already have the cost advantage due to their existing economies of scale. I imagine it will be released $50-$100 more than the Rift, but there will most likely be huge quality differences.

[Aurenar]

The HMZ is not a VR solution for gaming. The image has been put there just to gave an idea as to what it might look like, but the actual VR for PlayStation 4 will be different and much cheaper - clearly, no one would buy such an expensive device for a console.

[UltraNova]

Ok guys how many of you here would buy a peripheral that costs twice as much as your console(and even more when it will arrive in 2 years plus)?

Not many I'm sure...as game developers surely are too.

So dont get your hopes up, not this gen (xbox 1 and ps4)at least. VR tech need to get cheap and console power to increase even more.

Correct me if I' wrong but stereoscopic 3D needs almost half the fps of a system to run two pictures side by side.

Now I am sure nobody would want to go back to 720p 30ish fps games even in VR mode!

[C-H-E-F]

Sony.... will take all of my money this gen, Digital purchasing every exclusive as well. I'm doing my part to help get them out of Junk Status are you?

[Albie360]

Dreams becoming true!!!!!!

[Retroman]

@ the moment Sony VR GLASSES retail price 300.00

[MightyNoX]

Outlast + VR = Good

Fallout 4 + VR = Nirvana

[GarrusVakarian]

"Fallout 4 + VR = Nirvana"

Games like that are the exact reason im so excited for this tech and the reason i want it to succeed. You could lose yourself in games like that, even more so than you can already.

[THC CELL]

Day z vr hmmmmm

[Gazondaily]

Omg Fallout plus VR...say bye to thr gym. Time to make all kinds of gains....in my fingers!

[Arkardo]

Where do you leave the next Doom! ;)

[PickAShoe]

Alien Isolation + VR = Heart attack

[TetsujinFranky]

This is going to be quite interesting. I'm really curious to see what Sony is going to come up with.

[Alexious]

The most important aspect is preserving quality while not dropping performance.

Resolution might have to drop to 720 or 900P at least. Unfortunately, each image will have to be rendered twice, which is why VR is reliant on having a beefy hardware and PC is the best candidate.

[Festano]

I agree, it will be very hard Vr support by hardware Ps4.

[ginsunuva]

The resolution inside a tiny headgear won't even be noticeable as long as it's 720+

[DeadIIIRed]

My PS3 did just fine rendering 3D images on several games in HD, I think the PS4 will be just fine.

EDIT: My one concern would be input lag

[SpaghettiMonster]

It's not going to be on the Rift's level and will probably be expensive. I'm curious to see what they have cooking though.

[ginsunuva]

Well sony does already have a ton of VR stuff including their 3 models of HMDs

[Alexious]

Well, we should wait to see what the product really has in terms of features before making such a statement.

[kaiserfranz]

I have no doubt about the technology, but I agree that it will not be at the levels of the Rift.

[frostypants]

Sony is among the greatest hardware companies in history. Rift is being developed by a startup. Don't be so quick to pick winners.

[specialguest]

@frosty - Oculus rift started out by raising 18 mil thru kickstarter, but later secured 75 mil in funding through a named firm. John Carmack left ID soft to become a full time chief tech officer of Oculus. Many top PC devs and ethusiast putting effort for the sole purpose of providing feedback or improvements on VR. This isn't just a bunch of amatuers trying to put out a prototype. This is a full on collective effort to finally bring VR to the mainstream to make it work. I don't know what Sony has in stored if they are developing a VR headset, but. Oculus is the one and only chance for practical VR to be reality.

[OwnageDC650]

The PS4 is virtually unstoppable!

[Festano]

Are working well.

[Alexious]

They are certainly on a roll, that's for sure!

[karamsoul]

Competition always yields a better product. Can't wait to see what they have up their sleeves.

[Imp0ssibl3]

id said the Oculus could never be on consoles because they are not powerful enough.
Whatever Sony is preparing will be Oculus Lite at best.

[DJMarty]

Imp0ssibl3 - Disagree.

Sony has had OR dev kits from the start. Sony might have licensed the tech for use on PS4.

http://www.engadget.com/201...

[porkChop]

This doesn't actually confirm a new headset or anything like that. It just confirms that Everquest Next will support a VR headset from Sony, and Sony has already released VR headsets.

[Alexious]

You are mistaken. Read more carefully. He has been asked for VR solutions alternative to Oculus Rift, and Smedley himself mentioned two competitors, one "coming from Sony".

The HMZ is NOT a gaming focused product and competitor to Oculus. Not at all; besides, he could have simply said "we're going to support HMZ" if that was the case, but it isn't.

He couldn't say any name because there likely is no final name yet.

[porkChop]

Ah ok, I see what you're saying. Fair point.

[ginsunuva]

HMZ is for 3D.

Not really VR. It doesn't have a gyroscope or anything. It's just a screen.

[gamer_]

VR will probably never pick up, at least not like this. Both oculus and this will be extremely niche.

[Alexious]

As they say, "never" is a really long time and I wouldn't want to state something like that.

VR will absolutely pick up, but will it become ready for mass consumption any time soon? Doubtful.

[twinspectre]

that's great

[XiSasukeUchiha]

Sweet greatness is Sony VR

[Festano]

I'm very happy with how Sony is investing his money.

[Aurenar]

I hope you're right.

[WeAreLegion]

I wouldn't call it a competitor. Sony and the Oculus team seem to have a few working relationships. The Oculus guys welcome more VR headsets.

[Obscure_Observer]

It´s a GREAT move from Sony! Invest and rely on their own tec is far more better than licence a similar from other company.

Hopping that it´s not turn out to be expensive for gamers.

[Pinkdolphinyfg]

Virtual reality requires 1080p/60 fps for each eye MINIMUM to be functional and usually 120 fps each eye at a high hz for an exceptional experience. I'm all for vr as much as the next guy but im not holding my breath either.....

[BG11579]

Agreed. It's going to be hard, even for the PS4 to actain that.
Occulus rift will definitly bomb in PC/Steam games.
I don't know what Sony's version is going to be like.

[Scatpants]

Oculus is not 1080 in each eye. It uses 1 1080p screen that is split in half so it is half 1080 in each eye.

[CrossingEden]

Time for yet another peripheral that will eventually be abandoned...Sony always does these things.

[SpideySpeakz]

Just like that Kinect sitting uselessly in your living room?

[TristanPR77]

"you have to remind that graphics quality itself might have to be reduced"

No problem at all. The media and Xbox community has been saying that resolution doesn't matter, visuals doesn't matter, that we shouldn't care about resolution and frames per second.

So I hope not to hear the media or people who said resolution doesn't matter saying anything contradicting their position.

[Ulf]

I think you don't grasp the extent to which graphics rez needs to be reduced. It's literally 2x the work to render a true stereo scene, and less than solid 60 fps has been shown to make people ill with VR tech. The only AAA game this gen that has held a solid 60 fps at 1080p is Forza 5. Both KZ:SF and Tomb Raider dip below 60 a significant portion of the time.

You're basically asking for a game to be rendered at the equivalent of 1080p and 120 Hz -- how many games do you think can accomplish that without upscaling, and reduction in shader/texture quality to the point where it looks "last gen"? On top of that, the CPU framerate *also* needs to be a solid 60 Hz. Again, no small feat, except in a select couple of genres.

[Ulf]

More journalism trickery, folks. Smed's comment is taken out of context.

He said that he had heard good things about 2 competing devices, then he said "one of which came from Sony". He didn't mean one of the devices, however -- he meant one of the good things he had heard came from a Sony team. Smed is not so dumb as to let slip random news on Sony VR tech.

There are at least 2 serious competing VR techs on the horizon -- one is Oculus, one is CastAR. Sony, and another company (I forget the name -- their device is based on micromirror tech) have head-mounted displays, but these displays do not have head tracking/gyroscope/acceleromet er/magnometer tech (yet). Sony has actually had these headset displays for a few years, and they cost a fortune (recently reduced to ~$1000 USD), so I wouldn't expect them to make a direct transition to low-cost devices for the PS4 anytime soon.

The Oculus and CastAR devices are considered to be at-cost, and extremely cheap at $300-$400. How many PS4 owners do you think will plunk down that kind of cash for a new, unproven tech, with support in like, 1-2 low budget games? Sony is smarter than that, folks. They'll wait for some developer support, first. Don't get me wrong -- VR headsets are amazing (I own an Oculus devkit myself), but they are too expensive to be a console accessory at this point. People balked at $100 for a Move + PSEye Camera, or $150 for a Kinect, remember?

[N311V]

I'd say Ulf is right. I don't really follow VR tech at all but I'm always interested in new hardware from Sony, when I was reading this article I thought it was very strange of Sony to make an announcement this way. Thanks for the clarification.

[odderz]

Do you actually follow the games industry? Half confirmations, leaks, rumors etc. are the bread and meat of everyday's news.

It's not an announcement but it's the first official confirmation from a Sony employee that the long rumored gaming VR is indeed coming. I'd say that's worth something.

[odderz]

Dude, you should try improving your reading comprehension.

First of all, CastAR is, as the name itself implies, for AR - not VR, so you're completely wrong about that. Also, he mentioned two competitors to Oculus, one of which actually comes from Sony - and there have been rumors for almost a year about a Sony VR solution for PlayStation 4.

HMZ is NOT to be taken as an example for the cost of this gaming focused solution. Clearly Sony knows what it's doing and they will come up with a lower price, just as they are offering a powerful console at an extremely low cost ($399) per performance.

Try your "journalism sucks yay" card next time, you might be more lucky.

[vlashyr]

Great can not wait to arrive.

[odderz]

Hopefully soon.

[GUYwhoPLAYSvideoGAME]

uhhh, smedley gonna get in trouble for this?

[Ulf]

He won't. The journalist is taking the quote out of context.

[yewles1]

Seriously, people getting excited over old news. This kind of stuff from Sony has been done since before Occulous Rift was heard of. Here's Sony's Prototype-SR working on VR 'movies', let alone gaming...

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

[kingduqc]

Ultimate vr experience is around 4k res and 90 fps. No matter how sony try it wont match rift not even close. Ps4 is just too week plus you cant adapt older games so library gonna be real small compare to pc

[Hicken]

Who's talking about PC?

Oh. You. As always...

Marked for trolling. Moving on.

[lemoncake]

It would have been better to work togeather than go off solo for financial gain, last thing this tech needs is the market being over split. Especially considering the long bumpy ride this tech has taken already to finnally reach a point where it might finnally make it.

[LaserEyeKitty]

VR is like 3D, it's a fun idea but it's ultimately just a passing trend and a novelty. If VR, like 3D, was going to be successful, VR-like visors would've replaced TV sets LONG ago. There's a reason why we still game on TVs instead of on headsets.

People like idea of VR because it's one step closer to a holodeck or a nervegear. But since it isn't a holodeck or a nervegear, things like VR and Motion Sensing are all just gimmicks reserved for those willing to spend huge amount of cash.

[N311V]

What I find odd is that many people disliked 3D TV because you had to wear glasses yet there is a lot of excitement about strapping a 3D display to your face. I too cannot see VR going mainstream anytime soon.

[mochachino]

Wouldn't they need to release a "VR PS4" or equivalent that could play the games in 3d without the hit framerate and resolution.

Rift games require a lot of power.

[purp13m0nk3y]

Not necessarily. The PS3 handled 3d fine. Games took a small performance hit. Mostly a slight drop in resolution. But both UC3 and GT5 (the two games I spent a lot of time playing in 3d) looked awesome in 3d.

The VR viewer (if it happens) will probably display native 720p anyway for two reasons. One to reduce the cost, and two to allow for the extra processing overheads to not affect the games performance.

[ibrake4naps]

I hope it's a good deal better than my sony 3d viewer, which looked like a huge far away screen with screen door effect...

[tontontam0]

I hope it has two oled screen shaped like the lenses in the occulus rift.

[kingPoS]

Give me a VR headset, Gran Turismo 7 & a T500 RS wheel and I'm all set!

Gateway MT6706 2008

[DivineAssault]

It would kill the need for me to buy a 3D TV & the eyewear would make the screen size as big as anyone can see.. Still, id have to see it in action 1st but im not opposed to getting one if it makes games more immersive

[purp13m0nk3y]

DriveClub would be the perfect title to showcase this tech (if it happens) being able to look around a virtual car interior would be amazing. And it would appeal to a much wider demographic than say a FPS.

This headset combined with a good force feedback wheel and pedal combo!! OMG.... words cannot express my excitment.

I have my fingers crossed that the eighth generation will be defined by the emergence of VR into the main stream.

[link2Dpast]

Does this affect purple with vision problems, near sighted far sighted cock eyed. I gotta freind that is cock eyed and can't watch 3D pretty crazy. So will this have issues????

[Advanxed]

Shouldnt be too difficult to beat Oculus.