NEW YORK -- My descent from the boat, gliding through schools of fish and clouds of phosphorescent jellyfish, seemed to be going pretty smoothly. At least until the shark emerged from the deeper gloom and tried to tear its way into my protective cage.
Of course, it wasn't really a shark. And I wasn't really in a cage -- or underwater or even anywhere near the ocean. But it sure felt like I was.
At its best, this is exactly what you can expect from the much-hyped technology of virtual reality. All you have to do is put on a headset that blocks out the surrounding world and replaces it with one that's fake -- but often utterly realistic. Suddenly it's like you've stepped out of your life and into someone else's.
With the debut of new VR headsets from Facebook's Oculus unit, Samsung and Sony over the past few months, virtual reality hype has been off the charts. To its proponents, it's the Next Great Thing, a whole new way of "immersing" (a word you'll be hearing a lot) yourself in games, movies, even live music or sports.
Until a few weeks ago, though, the prospect left me cold. The first wave of VR entertainment consists largely of video games, which have never much interested me. Reports that VR can make you nauseous also put me off. Eventually, though, I had to try it, and my first brush with the technology was intriguing enough to keep me exploring.
Just not enough to plunk down more than a thousand dollars for a full-fledged VR system anytime soon. Current VR offerings have a lot of room for improvement; many of them get old quickly once the initial "wow" factor wears off. It's also hard not to feel self-conscious wearing goofy-looking headgear, especially when surrounded by strangers you can't see.
The experience, though, had its moments. Zombies and sharks pushed me uncomfortably close to real terror; a few contemplative moments lost in a blind man's virtual diary, by contrast, proved unexpectedly affecting. And there was another big plus: no queasiness. (For me, at least. Your experience may differ.)
Rollin' rollin' rollin'
My first plunge into VR involved a virtual roller coaster. Which is funny only because the real things scare me to death. If I ride them at all, I get on somewhere near the back and keep my eyes shut tight.
This Samsung demo, featuring the company's Gear VR system, got extra points for realism. Its VR video, shot at a Six Flags park, was synced to mechanical chairs that jerked around in time with the coaster's virtual movements. And of course, the video put me right in the first car.
For all that, the virtual ride proved sort of tame, at least for a coasterphobe like me. For once, I could keep my eyes open and enjoy gawking at fellow passengers or the trees below me. It may not have matched the adrenaline rush of the real thing, but that was just fine.
Going deep into Zombieland
A demo of Sony's PlayStation VR headset, due out in October, was mostly devoted to games ranging from space shoot-em-ups to family puzzle games. A lot of them were enjoyable, but few were as dramatic as "The Deep," which had me shaking alone in a dimly lit shark cage while what felt like the real thing circled outside.
I had a similar moment playing "Until Dawn: Rush of Blood," a horror game set in a zombie-infested amusement park. (Yes, it was a lot like the finale to "Zombieland," just like "The Deep" bore more than a passing resemblance to an up-close-and-personal version of "Jaws.") I knew the zombies weren't really rushing at me through the darkness, but I couldn't help ducking anyway.
A virtual film festival
Film festivals are starting to showcase VR films as directors explore the new medium. At New York's Tribeca Film Festival, which opened Wednesday, I watched "Allumette," a dreamy short based on the fairy tale "The Little Match Girl."
For 20 minutes, the story took me around a dollhouse-like town built in the clouds. It was charming to crane my neck to look at houses from different angles; at one point, I even stuck my head into a flying boat to see what was going on.
"Notes on Blindness: Into Darkness," meanwhile, translates the audio diary of man who'd gone blind into a virtual representation of his world. I found myself in a minimalist landscape in which sounds from a park formed ephemeral images -- laughing children, barking dogs -- that dissipated as their echoes faded.
Virtual conclusion
Bottom line: My VR experiences to date have mostly been interesting, but still not entirely compelling. It's clearly a medium in its infancy, and creators are still devising new storytelling techniques that can exploit the technology's power. But it's impossible to deny the technology's underlying potential.
Maybe it'll even help me lose my fear of roller coasters one day.
Friday, April 15, 2016
For your consideration at Tribeca Film Festival: VR
The Tribeca Film Festival is known as a showcase for upcoming independent movies. But, as we move towards an increasingly digital world, it's opening its doors to other forms of storytelling, including virtual reality (VR) technology.
The 15th annual New York film festival, which will run from the April 13 through 24, will feature 28 VR experiences. While most of them require the solitary activity of putting on a headset and watching the 360-degree film, much of the VR content will experiment with techniques that filmmakers hope will catch on with the mainstream.
"I don't think it's necessary for VR to become a mass participatory event, but I think it is definitely expanding to be more palatable to the masses," said Loren Hammons, an interactive programmer at the Tribeca Film Festival.
As the popularity of virtual reality technology grows, more artists and filmmakers are experimenting with the medium's potential for interactive storytelling. Still, for it to be a game changer, it needs to be adopted by a broad audience.
A new report from Greenlight VR and Road to VR estimated that 2.3 million VR headset will sell this year in the U.S., which is less than 1 percent of the population. The companies do expect sales to grow to 136 million in 2025. The Wall Street Journal reported that another firm, SuperData Research, recently readjusted its global VR sales projections to $2.86 billion, down 22 percent from figures released in early March.
Nick DiCarlo, vice president and general manager of immersive products and virtual reality at Samsung Electronics America, said it sees a lot of potential in VR given consumer response, but understands its still not there.
"Our vision is that VR can become a mainstream technology," DiCarlo said.
To further bolster adoption, the technology company is actively working to introduce VR to more people through events at places like South by Southwest, the NBA all-star weekend and the Tribeca Film Festival. It also kept its Samsung Gear VR headset price at $99, and made it compatible with six of its Samsung Galaxy phones.
"VR is in early days, but products like Gear VR are ideally suited because they are simple to use, and self-contained, and powered by a smartphone millions of people already have," DiCarlo said.
At Tribeca's Virtual Arcade, 13 VR exhibitors have booths where attendees can chat with the filmmakers and view their VR work, as well as head to two lounge areas to chat with other festivalgoers about what they saw. The experience mimics going to a movie theater, except instead of sitting for one movie people can bounce around to a bunch of short films.
VR content ranges from Penrose Studio's "Allumette," a 20-minute story about an orphan girl living in a cloud city, to Wevr's "Old Friend," where the viewer stands in the middle of an animated psychedelic dance party. Creator Tyler Hurd said he was trying to capture the experience of going to a dance party with friends.
Hurd added that while the experience is for one person right now, the team may make it "multiplayer" in the future. That said, there's also something for people standing around waiting for their turn with the headset — viewing the person doing the VR experience themselves.
"It's basically a music video, and you're in the center of it, and there are lot of fun characters that come and go and do these synchronized dance routines," Hurd said. "It's more of a linear experience that is trying to get the viewer dance… When (the user) gets in there and does it themselves, people can watch from the outside."
Other experiences include Félix Lajeunesse and Paul Raphaël of Felix and Paul Studios hosting a simultaneous VR viewing, where everyone in the audience will be able to watch the content at the same time. Lajeunesse and Raphaël will "tour" them through the worlds they have created by talking them through the experience.
Chris Milk, co-founder and CEO of VR production company Vrse, said that VR is still in its nascent stages, but there's no reason why it won't evolve in the future. Vrse will have several projects at Tribeca this year, including "The Click Effect," an immersive journalism project about click communication between dolphins and sperm whales as well as "My Mother's Wing," which documents a mother coping with the death of her two children during Gaza war.
Milk, who started his career as a director working with artists like Kanye West, The Chemical Brothers and Arcade Fire, compared the potential development of VR to the emergence of moving picture and sound in the 1800s. From that technology came movies, radio, television and even the telephone, he pointed out.
"I think that with enough people having regular access to the technology, and there being experiences that people want to engage with, (it can be adopted by the masses)," Milk said.
At Tribeca, this little VR match girl put Penrose on the map
"Our initial idea is that it's not just Allumette; it's about her town," says Penrose studio founder, Eugene Chung. "It's about this big, expansive space. ... And that's actually part of what's coming."
The 20-minute experience, which follows the titular character to her eventual demise, hews closely to the studio's recent tradition of mining inspiration from literature's past. For its first VR short, The Rose and I, the San Francisco-based studio lifted elements from The Little Prince. But a reinterpretation of classic short stories isn't quite Penrose's aim. Those truncated tales simply fit the bite-sized, serialized format of current VR experiences. In fact, the small studio -- which is made up of Oculus VR, Dreamworks and Pixar veterans, among others -- is intent on building "persistent worlds" that viewers can revisit to eavesdrop on the drama of inhabitants. It's a way for Penrose to successively build out a story's larger narrative in VR. It's also a clever content play.
The little prince of Penrose Studios' first VR project, The Rose and I.
"We definitely have other projects in the pipeline that [are] not living in Allumette's world," says Chung. "But we definitely think ofAllumette's world as a much bigger thing; a much bigger platform to do a lot more."
While the Tribeca Film Festival in New York serves as Allumette's official long-form premiere -- prior to this, it'd been demo-ed in preview form -- work on the project is still underway. Chung was able to demo only a portion of its planned interactivity, which puts the "matchstick" (via the Oculus Rift or HTC Vive controllers), in the viewer's hand as a sort of torchlight with which to explore the town and light up nearby clouds.
That said, a preview version, Allumette - Chapter 1, will be released "in coming days" to Steam VR and the Oculus storefront as a free limited-time preview. Its final 20-minute festival form, however, won't be made available until later this year. A version for PlayStation VR is also on deck.
"We definitely think of Allumette's world as a much bigger thing; a much bigger platform to do a lot more."
Eugene Chung, Penrose Studios
WIth its Tribeca debut barely under Penrose's belt, already the studio is considering ways to expand upon Allumette's world of "Wake," a codename that pays homage to James Joyce's novel Finnegans Wake.
"The way we categorize our projects internally is by worlds, [rather] than by stories within those worlds," says Chung. The idea behind this thinking is that it'll allow Penrose to get VR viewers familiar with its characters and worlds, and then invite them back to experience new installments featuring characters old and new.
It also doesn't hurt that this approach builds upon existing assets -- much of which were created within VR -- and dispenses with the time-intensive effort of creating entirely new worlds and engines from scratch each time. Of the five planned "worlds" on Penrose's slate, Allumette's world of Wake counts as the third. The studio's next project will focus on world five, the details of which Chung wouldn't reveal except to say it'd stray from the classic short story format.
It's not by accident that Penrose parallels Oculus VR's own animated VR storytelling studio. Chung, who previously worked in venture capital, and as a producer at Pixar before that, most recently hails from Oculus VR. In 2014, after an enthusiastic visit to the company's headquarters for a VR demo, Chung was asked to join in the newly created role of head of film and media. That role led to the creation of Story Studio, the company's in-house animation department. There, with a cherry-picked group of eager animators, artists, programmers and developers, Chung set the vision for Story Studio and executive produced its first VR short,Lost, which debuted at the Sundance Film Festival. The Oculus stint, however, was short-lived, as Chung departed a year later to form Penrose.
Despite the studio's current public focus on VR, Chung's ambitions for Penrose extend beyond the medium. Its recent round ofseed funding, totaling $8.5 million, is proof. He prefers to describe the studio as more of a "tech company" than VR animation house. And rightly so, as augmented reality is listed as one of the studio's main areas of focus. It's still early days for those in-development holographic projects, and Chung isn't willing to discuss specifics, but he does highlight proprietary VR creation tools similar to the ones used to create Allumette, and extensions of existing VR projects as possibilities.
"Some of the next things you're going to see from us are going to be quite a bit different," he says.Image credits: Penrose Studios
The 20-minute experience, which follows the titular character to her eventual demise, hews closely to the studio's recent tradition of mining inspiration from literature's past. For its first VR short, The Rose and I, the San Francisco-based studio lifted elements from The Little Prince. But a reinterpretation of classic short stories isn't quite Penrose's aim. Those truncated tales simply fit the bite-sized, serialized format of current VR experiences. In fact, the small studio -- which is made up of Oculus VR, Dreamworks and Pixar veterans, among others -- is intent on building "persistent worlds" that viewers can revisit to eavesdrop on the drama of inhabitants. It's a way for Penrose to successively build out a story's larger narrative in VR. It's also a clever content play.
The little prince of Penrose Studios' first VR project, The Rose and I.
"We definitely have other projects in the pipeline that [are] not living in Allumette's world," says Chung. "But we definitely think ofAllumette's world as a much bigger thing; a much bigger platform to do a lot more."
While the Tribeca Film Festival in New York serves as Allumette's official long-form premiere -- prior to this, it'd been demo-ed in preview form -- work on the project is still underway. Chung was able to demo only a portion of its planned interactivity, which puts the "matchstick" (via the Oculus Rift or HTC Vive controllers), in the viewer's hand as a sort of torchlight with which to explore the town and light up nearby clouds.
That said, a preview version, Allumette - Chapter 1, will be released "in coming days" to Steam VR and the Oculus storefront as a free limited-time preview. Its final 20-minute festival form, however, won't be made available until later this year. A version for PlayStation VR is also on deck.
"We definitely think of Allumette's world as a much bigger thing; a much bigger platform to do a lot more."
Eugene Chung, Penrose Studios
WIth its Tribeca debut barely under Penrose's belt, already the studio is considering ways to expand upon Allumette's world of "Wake," a codename that pays homage to James Joyce's novel Finnegans Wake.
"The way we categorize our projects internally is by worlds, [rather] than by stories within those worlds," says Chung. The idea behind this thinking is that it'll allow Penrose to get VR viewers familiar with its characters and worlds, and then invite them back to experience new installments featuring characters old and new.
The floating world of Allumette's cloud city.
It also doesn't hurt that this approach builds upon existing assets -- much of which were created within VR -- and dispenses with the time-intensive effort of creating entirely new worlds and engines from scratch each time. Of the five planned "worlds" on Penrose's slate, Allumette's world of Wake counts as the third. The studio's next project will focus on world five, the details of which Chung wouldn't reveal except to say it'd stray from the classic short story format.
It's not by accident that Penrose parallels Oculus VR's own animated VR storytelling studio. Chung, who previously worked in venture capital, and as a producer at Pixar before that, most recently hails from Oculus VR. In 2014, after an enthusiastic visit to the company's headquarters for a VR demo, Chung was asked to join in the newly created role of head of film and media. That role led to the creation of Story Studio, the company's in-house animation department. There, with a cherry-picked group of eager animators, artists, programmers and developers, Chung set the vision for Story Studio and executive produced its first VR short,Lost, which debuted at the Sundance Film Festival. The Oculus stint, however, was short-lived, as Chung departed a year later to form Penrose.
Despite the studio's current public focus on VR, Chung's ambitions for Penrose extend beyond the medium. Its recent round ofseed funding, totaling $8.5 million, is proof. He prefers to describe the studio as more of a "tech company" than VR animation house. And rightly so, as augmented reality is listed as one of the studio's main areas of focus. It's still early days for those in-development holographic projects, and Chung isn't willing to discuss specifics, but he does highlight proprietary VR creation tools similar to the ones used to create Allumette, and extensions of existing VR projects as possibilities.
"Some of the next things you're going to see from us are going to be quite a bit different," he says.Image credits: Penrose Studios
Tuesday, March 1, 2016
COULD HIGH VOLTAGE SOFTWARE BE PLANNING A GEAR VR VERSION OF DRAGON FRONT?
On Friday last week VRFocus reported on Oculus VR and High Voltage Software announcing a collectible card game (CCG) built for virtual reality (VR) called Dragon Front. The videogame is an exclusive for the Oculus Rift head-mounted display (HMD), but a recent listing of the title on the developers website initially indicated a possible Samsung Gear VR version as well
Spotted by eagle eyed Reddit users, the description read as follows: “Available only in virtual reality on Oculus Rift and GearVR, Dragon Front is an immersive collectible card game battler running at 90 frames per second (60 fps on GearVR) with a full 360-degree stereoscopic view. Construct your deck and challenge online opponents. The entire 4×4 grid battlefield is alive with mobile squads, rampaging giants, intimidating war machines, soaring projectiles, and fire-breathing bombing runs. Mobilize atop your stronghold and launch your forces across the frontlines — history is about to won!”
This has now been amended on High Voltages website, deleting the sections which list the Gear VR. Now it could have been a typing error, but that fact that the mobile HMD was mentioned twice really negates that idea. It’s more possible that a separate version is being worked on but the studio isn’t yet ready to make an announcement regarding it. This is all conjecture at this point until High Voltage or Oculus VR confirm or deny the rumour.
Dragon Front is a fantasy strategic card game where players create a deck of 30 cards before battling on a 4 x 4 grid in both single and multiplayer matches. Players will be able to choose a faction out of a reported four, each with its own unique card attributes, gameplay mechanics, and strategies. The title will feature 280 characters, 80 different encampments, and more than 100 spells for players to battle with.
VRFocus will continue its coverage of Dragon Front, reporting back with any further updates to the title.
Wednesday, February 17, 2016
PlayStation VR price and compatibility to trump over Oculus Rift, HTC Vive?
The virtual reality war in the gaming industry is heating up, with a number of big-name players already lining up their VR devices for release this year. Among the top-tier VR devices, it is said that the PlayStation VR will emerge as one of the top products in the VR headset category.
According to DualShockers, in terms of pricing, fans are looking forward to the PlayStation VR offering a competitive price tag. Reportedly, a poll taken by Japanese gaming magazine Weekly Famitsu showed that fans expect the PlayStation VR to be within the $353-$441 price range, evidently a lower price range compared to other big-name VR headsets like the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. While there is still no confirmed price tag for Sony's rebranded Project Morpheus gear, the mid-range price expectation among gamers and developers will be one key point for the PlayStation VR.
Meanwhile, Inquisitr places the PlayStation VR as a popular choice among gamers when it comes to compatibility requirements. While it can be said that the VR experiences with the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift are top-notch, gamers will need to shell out more cash in order to make their computers compatible with the VR products and optimize their VR experience. On the other hand, the industry follower said that players will only need a PS4 and the PlayStation VR – no other hardware and software updates required – in order to maximize VR gaming with the console.
Since there are only a few requirements to optimize virtual reality gaming with the PlayStation VR, Venture Beat reported that as many as 36 million players can already take advantage of VR gaming once PlayStation VR launches. As for its release date, rumor has it that gamers might see the PlayStation VR in April 2016.
Sony PlayStation VR won’t be out until fall, says GameStop CEO Paul Raines
An attendee demonstrates the Sony Corp. PlayStation virtual reality (VR) gaming headset during the 2016 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S., on Thursday, Jan. 7, 2016. CES is expected to bring a range of announcements from major names in tech showcasing new developments in virtual reality, self-driving cars, drones, wearables, and the Internet of Things. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg
An attendee demonstrates the Sony Corp. PlayStation virtual reality (VR) gaming headset during the 2016 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S., on Thursday, Jan. 7, 2016. CES is expected to bring a range of announcements from major names in tech showcasing new developments in virtual reality, self-driving cars, drones, wearables, and the Internet of Things. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg
(UPDATED AT 4:06 p.m.)
GameStop could use something new about now, but it will have to wait until this fall before Sony’s PlayStation VR hits its stores.
GameStop CEO Paul Raines was on Fox Business News today and mentioned that the Grapevine-based retailer is getting ready to start selling virtual reality head sets, but it won’t be this summer.
Raines said the company is preparing to sell Sony PlayStation VR this fall. VR Scout first picked up on the comment from the Fox News interview.
Asked about the size of the business, Raines said, the market size is hard to measure, “but all the estimates start with a “b” as in billions.”
Raines quoted a Goldman Sachs report that said virtual reality will be an $80 billion business by 2025.
GameStop didn’t stock Samsung Gear VR powered by Oculus during the holiday season. But Best Buy did and couldn’t keep it in stock. The Gear VR worked with Samsung smartphones.
Best Buy said on its blog today that it’s taking pre-orders for the Oculus Rift. To pre-order the Oculus Rift headset through Best Buy, you’ll need to choose one of seven Oculus-ready PCs to go with it.
When asked for an interview about PlayStation VR, GameStop backed off of Raines’ fall timing.
Joey Mooring responded in an email: “There is certainly a lot of excitement around virtual reality. To clarify, Sony has not officially announced a release date for PlayStation VR. Whenever it launches, we are excited about how the technology will change gaming.”
Twitter: @MariaHalkias
FILE - In this Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2016 file photo, Matthew Taylor paints in 3D virtual reality at the Intel booth using HTC Vive virtual reality goggles at CES International, in Las Vegas. Oculus founder Palmer Luckey and other pioneers of modern virtual reality technology from such companies as Google and Sony are gathering for a summit on Wednesday, Feb. 10, 2016, about the immersive medium in Hollywood. (AP Photo/John Locher, File)
FILE – In this Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2016 file photo, Matthew Taylor paints in 3D virtual reality at the Intel booth using HTC Vive virtual reality goggles at CES International, in Las Vegas. Oculus founder Palmer Luckey and other pioneers of modern virtual reality technology from such companies as Google and Sony are gathering for a summit on Wednesday, Feb. 10, 2016, about the immersive medium in Hollywood. (AP Photo/John Locher, File)
An attendee demonstrates the Sony Corp. PlayStation virtual reality (VR) gaming headset during the 2016 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S., on Thursday, Jan. 7, 2016. CES is expected to bring a range of announcements from major names in tech showcasing new developments in virtual reality, self-driving cars, drones, wearables, and the Internet of Things. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg
(UPDATED AT 4:06 p.m.)
GameStop could use something new about now, but it will have to wait until this fall before Sony’s PlayStation VR hits its stores.
GameStop CEO Paul Raines was on Fox Business News today and mentioned that the Grapevine-based retailer is getting ready to start selling virtual reality head sets, but it won’t be this summer.
Raines said the company is preparing to sell Sony PlayStation VR this fall. VR Scout first picked up on the comment from the Fox News interview.
Asked about the size of the business, Raines said, the market size is hard to measure, “but all the estimates start with a “b” as in billions.”
Raines quoted a Goldman Sachs report that said virtual reality will be an $80 billion business by 2025.
GameStop didn’t stock Samsung Gear VR powered by Oculus during the holiday season. But Best Buy did and couldn’t keep it in stock. The Gear VR worked with Samsung smartphones.
Best Buy said on its blog today that it’s taking pre-orders for the Oculus Rift. To pre-order the Oculus Rift headset through Best Buy, you’ll need to choose one of seven Oculus-ready PCs to go with it.
When asked for an interview about PlayStation VR, GameStop backed off of Raines’ fall timing.
Joey Mooring responded in an email: “There is certainly a lot of excitement around virtual reality. To clarify, Sony has not officially announced a release date for PlayStation VR. Whenever it launches, we are excited about how the technology will change gaming.”
Twitter: @MariaHalkias
FILE - In this Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2016 file photo, Matthew Taylor paints in 3D virtual reality at the Intel booth using HTC Vive virtual reality goggles at CES International, in Las Vegas. Oculus founder Palmer Luckey and other pioneers of modern virtual reality technology from such companies as Google and Sony are gathering for a summit on Wednesday, Feb. 10, 2016, about the immersive medium in Hollywood. (AP Photo/John Locher, File)
FILE – In this Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2016 file photo, Matthew Taylor paints in 3D virtual reality at the Intel booth using HTC Vive virtual reality goggles at CES International, in Las Vegas. Oculus founder Palmer Luckey and other pioneers of modern virtual reality technology from such companies as Google and Sony are gathering for a summit on Wednesday, Feb. 10, 2016, about the immersive medium in Hollywood. (AP Photo/John Locher, File)
GAMESTOP CEO SAYS PLAYSTATION VR COMING THIS FALL
GAMESTOP CEO SAYS PLAYSTATION VR COMING THIS FALL
By Alex Osborn Update: GameStop has since replied to our request for comment, telling IGN: "To clarify, Sony has not officially announced a release date for PlayStation VR. Whenever it launches, we are excited about how the technology will change gaming."
Contrary to prior reports, it appears PlayStation VR may not launch within the first half of 2016, as a recent comment by GameStop CEO Paul Raines suggests the device will instead release this fall.
"We will launch the Sony product this fall," Raines said of PlayStation VR in an interview with Fox News, noting the company is also "in discussions with the other two players," those being Oculus Rift and HTC Vive.
We've reached out to GameStop for further details, and will update the story as soon as we receive a response.
In addition to remaining tight-lipped on PlayStation VR's launch date, Sony has yet to announce a price for its upcoming virtual reality device. According to Sony exec Andrew House, the headset will be priced as "new gaming platform."
Earlier this month, Sony VR studio head Dave Ranyard announced his departure from the company in order to pursue independent ventures.
By Alex Osborn Update: GameStop has since replied to our request for comment, telling IGN: "To clarify, Sony has not officially announced a release date for PlayStation VR. Whenever it launches, we are excited about how the technology will change gaming."
Contrary to prior reports, it appears PlayStation VR may not launch within the first half of 2016, as a recent comment by GameStop CEO Paul Raines suggests the device will instead release this fall.
"We will launch the Sony product this fall," Raines said of PlayStation VR in an interview with Fox News, noting the company is also "in discussions with the other two players," those being Oculus Rift and HTC Vive.
We've reached out to GameStop for further details, and will update the story as soon as we receive a response.
In addition to remaining tight-lipped on PlayStation VR's launch date, Sony has yet to announce a price for its upcoming virtual reality device. According to Sony exec Andrew House, the headset will be priced as "new gaming platform."
Earlier this month, Sony VR studio head Dave Ranyard announced his departure from the company in order to pursue independent ventures.
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