An attendee tries out the new Sony Corp. Project Morpheus virtual-reality headset at an event during the 2015 Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco, California, U.S., on Tuesday, March 3, 2015. Sony will begin selling its virtual-reality headset in the first half of 2016, according to Shuhei Yoshida, president of Worldwide Studios at Sony Computer Entertainment. The device will have a 5.7-inch screen, he said. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg
It's becoming increasingly clear that the future of video games is likely to include some form of virtual reality. At least in the early going, that means virtual-reality headsets like the still-in-development Oculus Rift. But how quickly will these VR devices hit living rooms?
The question became a little easier to answer last week when Sony announced its "Project Morpheus" device will be out the first half of 2016. The company showed off a new prototype version at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. There, a new competitor emerged, a device called Vive from hardware maker HTC and game company Valve. That device could be out as early as the end of this year, HTC said.
And the Facebook-owned Oculus Rift? That device,which began as a Kickstarter project, continues to be developed, but there's be no firm release window. There's still hope we could see a consumer version of it this year.
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