Sony plans to support virtual reality on the PlayStation 4 using proprietary headsets, multiple unnamed sources tell Eurogamer. The company reportedly intends to reveal its VR device sometime in 2014. You can likely expect to see something modeled after the form factor of Sony’s line of head-mounted HMZ “personal 3D viewers.”
Eurogamer’s sources indicate that a work-in-progress version of the device has been demoed internally at Sony using Evolution Studios’ PlayStation 4 racing game, Driveclub. Evolution’s studio in Liverpool, U.K., is also home to Sony’s Worldwide Studios Stereoscopic 3D team. That’s the crew responsible for driving 3D initiatives on PlayStation, and it’s likely the bunch working on this VR support, provided the report is accurate.
Sony Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida refused to comment on the company’s VR plans when asked about it at the recently concluded Gamescom industry show. There was allegedly some plan to reveal the headset at the Germany show, but the debut was later pushed to 2014.
A Sony-developed VR headset would compete directly with Oculus VR’s own Oculus Rift headset, which continues to excites members of the game development community. The most recent example is CCP Games’ newly confirmed EVE: Valkyrie, a dressed-up version of the Iceland developer’s multiplayer space dogfighting tech demo, EVR.
Stay tuned for additional updates as we hear them, but don’t expect to gain much clarity on this development until Sony makes it official with an announcement. If the report is true and it really is happening in 2014, we’ve got a lengthy wait ahead.
