Project morpheus...this time i totally want the red pill!

Evan Mckay

So Sony dropped a big, Yamato-cannon size bomb this week in San Francisco at the 2014 GDC(Game Developers Conference). They officially announced "Project Morpheus". Project Morpheus is Sony's version of a retail virtual reality head set. VR at first, always seems a little gimmicky but this thing looks like it might actually be pretty damn cool! 

When VR is talked about in games my stomach starts to turn. Do you guys remember the Virtual boy...dear god what a failure. It was awful. No ergonomic consideration. No content and it looked awful...a tripod? Really? Check it out. When people starting talking about Oculus Rift a couple years ago I tried not to roll my eyes. I was thinking "Not this shit again..." but after some research and a little urging I started to turn around. It looked like there were real developers and real talent behind it, so I atypically did not cast my usual hater judgement on it. However after Nintendo's debacle of an attempt at VR in '95 who could blame me.

Oculus rift is a VR headset that really popped off as a kickstarter venture, it pulled in 2.4 million. Thats a whole battle-cruiser of support. I had read that the first developer kit was plagued with motion blur and nausea. What good is a VR headset if you throw up every time you use it. The Morpheus project seems to have addressed this. At least according to some of the lucky bastards at the GDC that got to try it out. It is also, allegedly, more comfortable then the rift. That was a big concern I had for these headsets. Who cares how powerful and sophisticated a product is, if when I use it I want to throw up or my eyeballs are less then a micrometer from the lenses. If some of my friends and my self get these products we would aim to have a few 6-8 hour game sessions, so ergonomics and comfort I believe are paramount for all of these wearable devices. 

The bottom line on these products,as it is with all game products is the software. I believe, as with most of the game community, that if they just try to tack this crap on existing games its going to be about as successful as kinect or ps move. It will die as just a gimmick. They really need to make games and content for these VR headsets at the outset. A game has to start as a Morpheus game. I think that will be the hardest part with the Morpheus and Rift is how can you get development studios to sink millions of dollars and 10's of 1000's of man hours into building a game that can only be sold for this high-end piece of tech that no one has or cares about yet. If they cannot, then no one is going to buy it in the first place. Conundrum express bro's... ALL ABOARD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

---

More WBOB Blogs 

• local licks on the franchise
  
• Album Review: Young the Giant’s “Mind Over Matter”
  
• Scott Wilson Discusses The Walking Dead
  
• First Date Destination Guide - Providence RI
  
• Bradley Cooper as a talking racoon!!!