Hands-on with Sony's VR headset, Project Morpheus

An admission: I was initially skeptical about Sony’s VR headset. But now that I’ve tried it out for myself, that’s no longer the case. I was surprised at how clear it was; usually, I find head-mounted displays to be a bit on the blurry side. That wasn’t the case here. When wearing the Morpheus, not only are you able to make plenty of adjustments to make a tight fit, but you can also move the optical block—the part you stare into—to accommodate for different eye shapes and glasses.

The set was a little heavy (comparable to the weight of the initial Oculus Rift dev kit), and it did push down on my nose more than I would’ve liked. But this was merely a prototype model. I suspect the eventual consumer version will be a more comfortable fit. Overall, I walked away feeling extremely positive about both Sony’s Morpheus and VR’s future.

The first demo I saw, titled The Deep (sorry, no images available), was an excellent display of the types of immersive experiences VR can provide. In it, I was suited up as a deep-sea diver, standing in a cage. When the demo booted up, I looked around to check out my surroundings. Up above, I could see the silhouette of my ship floating atop the ocean. To my left, a giant coral reef stretched out for miles. And below? Dark.

In one of my hands, which I could move in-game by using a DualShock 4 like a motion controller, I had a flare gun to help light up some of the blackness of the ocean as I descended in my cage. Marine creatures swam all around—until a massive great white shark came to give me a nice hello by ripping the front of my cage to shreds. Trust me: seeing that on a screen and experiencing it in virtual reality are two totally different things.

While Morpheus is a slick-looking device you wear over your dome, it only tracks the movement of your head. It can tell when you’re looking from side to side, or up and down--just like other Virtual Reality headsets on the market. What it can't do, however, is track the movement of the rest of your body. That’s where Sony’s PS Move and Camera come in.

Morpheus itself will give you the ability to look around and stuff, but you’ll have to use these devices to have a full virtual reality experience. Don’t own a Move or Camera yet? There’s a good chance a bundle will be coming once Morpheus is ready for market.

We’ve expressed concerns before that, in the event Sony prematurely rushes its VR headset to retail shelves, it could cripple virtual reality’s potential. But here’s something surprising: Sony said it won’t be launching Morpheus until it gets a ton of feedback from developers, acknowledging that a premature launch could hamper the public’s perception of the technology.

This is a good thing. Sony's not rushing this thing out the door, and is cognizant of the dangers that would come with doing so. The GDC showing was an unveiling, not an invitation to purchase, and that's good news for VR supporters.

Fun fact: Sony did not, in fact, happen to hear about the Oculus Rift, then put its own R&D division to work. The Morpheus has gone through prototyping for more than three years. Its earliest iterations were nothing more than a head-mounted display with a PS Move duct taped to it.

Thankfully, it has come a long way since then. While its earliest iterations looked like that helmet the Ghostbusters put on the Keymaster, the Morpheus shown off at the show is extremely sleek. It's obvious that this thing has been in the works for a while--and that it still has some time to go.

Sony said it’s nowhere near ready to launch a retail unit just yet, but representatives did share the specifications of the current development kit. As of now, it features a 1080p display with a 90+ degree field of view. It will be highly adjustable to accommodate various head sizes, and folks with glasses won’t have to remove them to comfortably use the device.

Finally, it supports custom headphones, as Morpheus features a 3.5mm headphone jack. As of now, the dev kit must be connected to the PS4 via a 5-meter wire, though Sony says it’s researching the possibility of a wireless retail unit.

Morpheus definitely exceeded our expectations so far, and we're definitely happy to see that Sony is entering into the VR arena. While the Oculus Rift is a high-quality piece of hardware--and might end up being the better of the two when all is said and done--having Sony on board the VR train means that more people will pay attention, and the more people involved, the better.

And if you're looking for more, check out why VR's future is being fast-tracked and the best Oculus Rift games and demos.