Project Morpheus

Virtual reality: a term historically laden with potential, yet mired in empty promises. It's hard to forget the hyperbolic gimmickry that almost completely swallowed the mid-90s, but it's equally hard not to get excited by the potential that the concept holds today – particularly following Sony's recent official unveiling of Project Morpheus at GDC. Assuming that this round of VR treatment is the real deal, then, how much is it likely to cost?

In an interview with EDGE magazine, software engineer Anton Mikhailov suggested that although VR is enjoying the media spotlight at the minute, the medium is largely untested within the wider consumer public. “I’m not a futurologist, but I do know that humans have a funny way of acclimatising to technology,” he said. “So that makes it very hard to predict what’s going to stick and what’s not. I think that it’s too early to tell.”

Shrewd in his response, Mikhailov couldn't speculate on price points at this early stage, but did suggest a consumer friendly price tag. "We wouldn’t be doing this if we didn’t know that we could make this for an affordable price,” he said. “Obviously, there’s a wide range of what people consider affordable, but this is going to be a consumer-grade device. The reason that we’re announcing this now is because before we couldn’t see a path to product, and now we can see some way to accomplish a product that’s valuable for the console market.”

From a financial point of view, recently acquired competitor Oculus VR has set the pace in the headset race, announcing that the latest edition of the Oculus Rift will retail for $350 (£209). Therefore, we wait with bated breath for Sony's next move. How much would you pay for a fancy pair of goggles? Strap yourself in courtesy of the comments section below.

[source edge-online.com]