Analysts generally agree that Sony's best placed to take advantage of the imminent virtual reality explosion, but PlayStation VR may yet meet fierce competition from Apple. Financial Times reports that the tech giant is secretly beavering away on prototype headsets, and it has "hundreds" of staff dedicated to the endeavour.
Apparently it's been poaching employees from companies like Microsoft and Lytro, so it seems relatively serious. Of course, whether the division actually spits out a consumer product remains to be seen, but with other manufacturers shipping this year, it's going to be ever so slightly behind the curve regardless. Virtual reality from Apple would be a big deal, though.
Sony's still yet to actually date its solution, but the window it's officially sticking with is the first half of 2016. Personally, we can't see its headset arriving before June, but we're confident that it will be out in time for Christmas. Are you starting to get excited for VR yet, or are you still sceptical? Enter a different dimension in the comments section below.
[source ft.com]
Comments 36
This is just going to end up like motion controls like the Move, and Kinect. Everyone is going to jump on the bandwagon and a year or two later it will be dead and no one will talk about it again until the next fad comes.
@Tasuki Maybe in games. I think VR has potential outside of games, though, personally. Either way, we're about to find out...
The main reason I got a PS4 is for PSVR, can't wait!
Apple will release a Virtual Boy clone and claim it's the future of computer entertainment
@Tasuki
I also remember when the Wii U was shown, and MS was talking SmartGlass and Sony was talking about using the Vita as the second screen in games, foreseeing another Wii style success. Since Wii U did not catch on, then the other two dropped them.
If it is not affordable it won't go mainstream, if it does not go mainstream it will not be the future.
WOW!!!! Where is @Kirk !!!!!???? I thought he'd be climaxing all over this by now! Haha.
It has a future. Just not in games.
Commercial applications, yes. Eventually, a long time down the road when the hardware improves. I'm more impressed with Microsoft's venture.
@Tasuki exactly
@get2sammyb I agree. I really cannot see VR being integrated into gaming except for a small niche for a finite run until it is not financially viable. Like every attempt in the last.
The quality of the experience improves every time, but each time, at the time, it was ground breaking and nothing like anything before so that point is moot as it is a matter of relativity, not viability.
The reason VR fails in gaming everytime is because it 100% removes you from the world around you. It closes you off from the world and is no longer a form social of social entertainment, it is very insular and anti-social.
It is sensory-depriving and can be very I enjoyable for a lot of people. It does deliver a very integrating experience to a high standard I have no doubt, but the overall dynamic does not fit the social ethos of why people are motivated to play video games.
Apply this to simulators, architectural modelling, medical application and mental health applications for the blind (before anybody laughs at this read this that happened recently http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1372912/Pictured-Moment-blind-grandfather-grandson-time-futuristic-glasses-connected-electrodes-eye.html ) creating a virtual world for visual rehabilitation would be a phenomenal use of this technology. Turning on a PS5 for a 5 hour stint on warcraft? Won't happen and it WILL screw your eyes.
@DESS-M-8 I think you underestimate how many people play games solo besides the point of video games is to take you away to different world's. A lot people prefer to play games by themselves myself included. Anyway PS VR allows second screen experiences for friends to watch.
Apple release VR headset costs 3x times as much as other products in the market. People wait for hours in line when it is released. Apple are also working on an electric car apparently
@adf86 your friend would "watch" you play a game from a second screen!!!??? That sounds......... God awful boring and about as appealing as a turd milkshake.
Most play on their own or online with others. I don't mean social with the other players I mean social with the world immediately around you. Somebody else walks in the room talking to you while you're "in you're world" that would be weird and disorientation, II want to take a drink or quick snack while you play, how the hell to do that? You need a whizz, that ain't happening and your eyes having to jump in and out to that extreme while you are always involved in your immediate environment is awful.
A demo session where you are prepared and settle in, play for 30 minutes, remove the helmet discuss with the people in the booth about your experience and leave; that's amazing.
Contemplating he logistics of how you would actually use this equipment permanently for the long term; it isn't happening. Seriously.
As a show piece it is stunning.
Common use domestic application. It's flat.
If Apple takes off because of VR, so be it. Competition means Sony has to step up their game, which only leads to better games for us!
What people forget when it comes to comparing VR to motion controls is that motion controls don't suit core games in the slightest, 7 years of the Wii proved this. What VR does is free up the camera and changes the dynamic on how a game plays in both immersion and mechanics. The Wii was a massive fluke and that led others to chase the dollar where's VR has devices coming out closer together with far more compelling games then motion games ever had.
@DESS-M-8 It depends on the games your playing. Keep Talking And Nobody Explodes is a good example of that working. Games like Rez and Ace Combat 7 will be boosted by been VR because it changes what would normally be a run of the mill flight game into something else entirely.
I wonder why Sony is so quiet about PS VR when it's supposed to ship within 5 months.
All the talk about VR failing if it's not affordable might be right, that's why I don't understand why there isn't a subscription model: PS VR and Plus with a 2 year contract for $20 a month. I know Apple would sell it like that, just like they do with their phones.
If it's secret then how do we know about it?
@Boerewors Because it's not the business the industry adopts. Plus it's a good thing that Sony are taking there time, it's pointless launching it without any games on it and I think Sony were waiting on Oculus and HTC to reveal there prices because it might make there own price more favourable by comparison.
Apple's secret room, next to the people who have been working on a proper Apple TV or the past 10 years, whose release has been just around the corner for the past 5.
http://www.cnet.com/news/that-apple-tv-set-wait-till-the-year-after-next-year/
@adf86
You're kidding right? Occulus revealing its price has been headlining even the mainstream media for a couple of days. They know what they're up against, now it's their move.
Sony has a financial division that could set up a subscription model where even an entire PS4 + Plus + PS VR bundle could be offered for a fixed monthly price.
@Boerewors Yeah and was the press saying? That Occulus is too expensive, that was the big thing people took away from it. Your idea of a subscription model is interesting but there's no way Sony will go for it because it's just not how they do things.
I'm not sure this will take off like others above me have said already, but... I keep seeing people say that it will take away the social parts of gaming? That's what I want, f*** staying in the normal world. I don't want to talk to people whilst I'm playing a (Mostly solo) game, I want to be fully immersed in the game world however we know that won't happen because we will end up with gimmicky games and the mainstream won't pick it up due to the high price.
@adf86 I know they won't and that's why I'm still positive PSVR will be delayed, maybe even to 2017. There's just no way they will be able to bring a VR headset at a price most people are willing to pay. They're also focussing way too much on the gaming side of things, which is a totally different discussion, but that's something Apple would immediately do better than any of the current manufacturers.
Waiting a couple of months to launch could literally save the company millions because prices of these components are going down pretty fast, because although the PS4 is doing just fine, Sony isn't in a position to jumpstart an entirely new industry.
This is a bit out there perhaps, but I don't rule our that they're waiting for Nintendo to make a move and vice versa. We know by now Nintendo can always do some surprising things and Sony probably already knows what it is they're going to release. 2 big pieces of gaming related hardware a year is probably too much for most households, so it could be that Sony wants to be sure their price and launchdate is right. And then there's always the possibility Nintendo themselves are coming with some (partly) VR or AR contraption at a low price, which could directly compete with PSVR.
Well VR is already being used for porn, so I guess some people are rather excited.
VR is a totally different experience to anything that's has been on the market, & has the possibility to change the way we play games. When Sony release's there VR headset this year it'll be aimed at the hardcore gamers, depending how much it is. Sony isn't expecting there VR headset to go mainstream in the first few years, they know full well it has to be affordable before that happens. And by the time it's affordable everyone will know what it is and what it does etc, companies like Sony plan for the future if they didn't we wouldn't be seeing things like 4K,8K, Blu-Ray etc.
@Boerewors Why would I want another subscription to anything. I have my mobile, internet, tv the last thing i want is another one.
@Boerewors They did jumpstart a few things so i dont know why they cant do that. Mobile music walkman, Blu ray, CD based console.
@Flaming_Kaiser
Like I clearly said: they aren't in the position of kickstarting a new industry... That obviously means now, cause we're talking VR. That doesn't mean the 80s and 90s when Sony, and other Japanese companies, literally had money to burn....which they did. Some of those things became a succes, lots of it failed. Sony's financial position isn't in any way comparable with the position they were in back then and instead of losing lots of money on VR, they should better play it safe.
Sony has a huge advantage that they have some of the best engineers in the world working for them and that they already did a lot of R&D for them in the years they had more financial stability. It also helps they have other divisions that use the same components that are used in PS VR so they can buy/ produce in bulk.
Why would anyone want a PSplus + PS VR subscription? Do I really have to explain? For the same reason as people want a contract phone: so they can pay off the $800 phone in 24 terms so they can actually afford it. Surely you're gonna give us a lecture about how people should save money to buy it, but this isn't of Sony's concern; Sony wants to sell as many PSVRs as possible, something that will be extremely hard even at the inanely low price of $300. So if it turns out to be $500, they should try and offer a contractmodel which isn't considered an actual loan in most countries because they can combine it with a plus subscription.
Still couldn't give two craps about VR. If this is in fact the only way to game in the future, I'll have to miss out.
I bet it would be an $700 overpriced cardboard-type VR with Apple logo into which you need to insert another overpriced $700 iphone in order to use it :v
It will be great for a few months - then your brain will realise its only a screen positioned to fool your brain, that is after its given you poor eyesight and migraines for the rest of your life.
Bigger screens with a bigger vertical ratio is what I want. That way I can see the ball a bit quicker on Rocket League.
Yeah, still pretty skeptical - at least when it comes to video games. I do hope it doesn't catch on to become ubiquitous, to be honest, because I have zero interest in it.
Just a matter of time.
Apple is master of borrowing idea from others & draw their fans attention with marketing..
I don't want to look at a screen two inches in front of my eyes.Thats all.
Apple doesnt make anything the buy all big minds. Apple doesnt make anything they buy it and then copyright it.
Oh ye of little faith. The psvr will do just fine. It was never intended to sell 50 million units, it's purpose is to further the appeal of the ps4, and add more gamers to the mix. Sony is good with hardware and the psvr is by far the most consumer friendly, I could see them selling 1 to 2 million units in the first year alone, and plenty more after that.
@DESS-M-8 I think it will be gaming that makes vr mega successful!!!
@Lloydeeee and I think it will be a big deal, for 5 minutes and be minor and then gone within gaming inside of two to three years
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