Sony lines up new games for Chinese gamers

A model poses with Project Morpheus HMD, Sony's latest virtual reality (VR) gear, during a press event held on July 29, 2015 in Shanghai. [Liu Zheng/chinadaily.com.cn]

Project Morpheus head-mounted display (HMD)

Shuhei Yoshida, president of Sony's Worldwide Studios, brought Project Morpheus HMD, the company's latest virtual reality (VR) gear, to the press event to demonstrate their Chinese strategies.

VR, also known as computer-simulated life, first appeared in science fiction in the1950's, and was developed for medical use, pilot simulation and military training in the 1990's.

The entire industry began to draw the public's attention as a developer kit named Oculus Rift, which was the first truly immersive VR headset for video games. It was initially mooted on the US crowd-funding platform Kickstarter by 9,522 backers who pledged more than $2 million.

Sony unveiled their bold VR gamble to the world at the Game Developers Conference in March 2014.

During the Electronic Entertainment Expo, or E3, held in Los Angeles this year, more than 20 demos designed for Project Morpheus were unveiled to the public.

"Summer Lesson", "The Deep", "The Playroom VR" and "Hatsune Miku Expo" will be demonstrated at the ChinaJoy PlayStation booth and visitors will have the chance to experience the Project Morpheus on the spot.

"Many people think that Project Morpheus is an accessory to PS4; the truth is that Project Morpheus is a new system, and both happen to work well together," Yoshida said during a group interview after the press event.

"Project Morpheus is still at version one, Sony is trying its best to bring the product to the fans, we are testing internationally, to make sure the product is improving," he said.

Sony announced at Game Developers Conference 2015 that Morpheus' consumer VR headset is due to ship in Q1 2016.

Yoshida said that the global launch time will the same, but he didn't give a specific date and he also mentioned that the device's price has not been confirmed.

According to Yoshida, PC games can be migrated to Project Morpheus. He noted one example, saying that after refined and optimized the code, a user migrated Oculus games to Project Morpheus within just two days.

Sony London Studios' Director Dave Ranyard, whose team is working heavily with the PS VR headset Project Morpheus, believes that VR HMDs could become the 'technological icon of the age', similar to Sony's Walkman in the 1980's and smartphones in today.