PlayStation VR, fleeting curiosity or revolution?

I’m sure many of you, like me, are wanting to know more about PlayStation VRthe virtual reality glasses formerly known as “Project Morpheus” and which should arrive, if there is no delay that prevents it, in the first half of 2016.

Virtual reality glasses They are not a new phenomenonSEGA already dared to do it in 1982 by launching Subroc-3D in arcades, and later with SEGA VR, Nintendo tried it with Famicom 3D Systems and of course Virtual Boy, even Sony launched itself after years of ostracism for the technology with PUD -J5A in 2002, but again the little support, the price and the low quality of its games meant a discreet success and did not leave Japan.

When it seemed that the idea of ​​​​the virtual reality headset had remained very hidden in the trunk of bad memories, an Oculus VR Kickstarter brought to the market Oculus Rift, asking for just over 250,000 dollars to finance itself and reaching more than 20 million and the support of a giant like Facebook. It was clear that Other companies were going to jump on the bandwagon and Sony was among them.

We don’t know much about PlayStation VR, we do know about what it will offer on a technical level, with a 5.7′ OLED screen‘which will offer up to 1920xRGBx1080with a refresh rate of 120Hz capable of moving games to 120fps and a very low latency (less than 18 ms), which together with the power of PlayStation 4 will allow us to get into games so realistic that It will seem like we are right thereat the controls of a racing car, dodging bullets in a shootout or being chased by a crazy man with a chainsaw in a horror game while the screams echo in the helmets.

By reviewing its characteristics one can let your imagination fly and expect the most from this device, believe that virtual reality will become a new standard in video games and that very soon we will all be playing with a helmet, forgetting about the old prehistoric technology that tied us to a television. Taking into account the interest that other companies such as Samsung or HTC have already shown, it seems legitimate to think that this time, unlike the previous ones, It is the moment when virtual reality is here to stay and does not die as soon as it is born.

But there will also be skepticsamong whom I include myself, to be cautious when it comes to predicting whether PlayStation VR, and all the others, will have the success that many expect or will remain that way again, a curiosity, an expensive curiosity.

And it is that the first impediment is that, the price. When Oculus VR announced that its headset would cost $600, many lowered the curtain on hype and condemned the technology prematurely. It’s not that either, but there is no doubt that it is a very high figure, and few players would be willing to spend almost double what a console costs just to see it differently. The price of PlayStation VR is not yet known, but Whether they are 600, 500 or 450 dollars, these are important figures that not everyone will be willing to spend, especially when it is not known whether the technology will succeed or not.

Another issue that worries me is its actual use. It is clear that Sony wanted to promote it with very specific games that seek amazement, which reinforce the sensation of pure immersion that is so far from what has been experienced until now without the helmet. An example is ‘Kitchen’, which we were able to play at the last Madrid Games Week and which left you 5 minutes in a kitchen tied to a chair contemplating a nightmare scene, unable to move, with a corpse in front of you and a few scares prepared.

In ‘Kitchen‘The sensation of being inside the game is impressive, the feeling that we are in that kitchen, that we do not see it from the comfort of our sofa or our bed, that we are there and we are in danger, everything around is dark and the brain secretes adrenaline in much more than what a game on television usually offers.

But, beyond the impact, which is great, we are left with a game in which we can barely interactjust move with the Dualshock, rotate the camera, interact with some object in a very basic way… After all, many of us bought the PlayStation 4 to play video games, not to watch moviesand not to feel that we are inside one.

It is clear that some genres will benefit more than others when it comes to immersion with a virtual reality headset, and surely many shooters and horror games join the bandwagon, but many other genres – sports, role-playing, platforms, fighting – are more reluctant to adapt, for the simple reason that VR wouldn’t add much to the final experience.

All this leads me to think that PlayStation VR has a lot to prove to me so that I dedicate a good chunk of my salary to its purchase, starting with real and continued support from the great developers, offering the market great ideas that really contribute something to the industry and that make me want to have that technology in my hands, or in this case in my head.

There have been many revolutionary devices that promised and promised and have remained an anecdoteamong the latest examples we find Kinectstandard on the first Xbox One and totally ignored, or PlayStation Movewhich I’m sure many of you have collecting dust although now, precisely with PlayStation VR, it may be used again.

But I don’t want to sound negative, quite the opposite, I hope Sony knows how to do things well supporting your virtual reality as it should, both at the marketing level and with its internal studios developing quality games and encouraging other companies to develop for VR and the results are not “trash games.” A reasonable price would also help so that sales are important and that encourages studios to launch into the virtual world. The enormous sales success that PlayStation 4 is achieving will surely help achieve a difficult but possible goal.

There’s less to know when, how and how much. It’s less time to put on our helmet and feel like we’re inside a spaceship, climbing mountains with our arms outstretched while the ground below becomes smaller and smaller, less time before a whisper makes our hair stand on end and we turn our heads in fear.

And you, do you feel like virtual reality?