Sony’s Project Morpheus VR headset out in first half 2016

If there’s a theme at this year’s Game Developers Conference, it’s undoubtedly virtual reality. Valve and HTC are getting into the headset game, AMD has started to natively support headsets, and Bjork’s next music video is even going to be made available in VR.

Sony, though, has perhaps the greatest shot at making VR a true mainstream success. Its Morpheus headset has been in development for almost as long as the Oculus Rift, while PlayStation 4 compatibility means that 20 million-plus people will be ready to plug and play once the headset is launched.

Today, Sony announced that people will be able to do just that once Morpheus launches in the first half of 2016. Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios President Shuhei Yoshida announced the release date at a press conference today, and also talked about a slew of new technical features for the headset.

The biggest improvements were on the Morpheus’ display, which is now a 5.7-inch OLED display with 1920 x 1080 resolution and RGB sub-pixels. In English? It’s a really high-quality display.

The biggest cheer came of the announcement came when Yoshida confirmed a 120Hz refresh rate for the headset, which is twice or even four times the refresh rate for most PS4 games. This is really important for VR, where fast refresh rates mean a smoother, more enjoyable experience. A new 100-degree field of view also means the display fills a greater proportion of your peripheral vision than before.

The headset itself also received a physical design overhaul. It’s now smaller (as pictured), with a new headband that distributes the weight of the device across the top of the head. There are now also three more LEDs on the headset for the PlayStation Camera to track, bringing the total to nine tracking LEDs. Again, this will increase the accuracy of the tracking on the headset, which should provide a smoother, more enjoyable experience.

There are no pricing or exact release date details as yet, but stay tuned to Stuff for more information as we have it.

StuffTV