Yoshida: Very Hard To Communicate VR Experience

In a video interview published yesterday by GameReactor, the President of Sony Worldwide Studios Shuhei Yoshida clarified why so little space was given to Project Morpheus during the E3 2014 Press Conference.

After acknowledging that they could have spent less time talking about Powers (a TV series based on the comic books with the same name, the first episode will be free on PS4, PS3 and PS Vita), he explained that it’s very hard to communicate the VR experience in the same way, as it has to be experienced in person.

For Project Morpheus we knew there would be lots of people interested and excited to come to try it, so we just needed to announce that there would be new demos. It is very difficult to communicate what the VR experience really is unless you try it, so that’s a challenge we have, that’s a challenge the Oculus guys have as well. We are very friendly with Oculus people, they’ve been bringing new demos, we’ve been bringing new demos and the more people we can get to either try Oculus or Morpheus, the more people become excited about virtual reality.

He also revealed that his personal favorite demo right now is the one called “The Deep” (which is set in the ocean’s depths).

My personal favorite has been the demo we called “The Deep”. People call it “The Shark” demo, it’s really, really scary and it’s a great feeling to be under the water. You see the reflection of sunshine on the water surface, it’s really beautiful.

One differentiator that Project Morpheus has against the Oculus Rift is PlayStation Move.

Yes, once you try Project Morpheus you have the 3D world around you, and you want to interact with it. In order for you to do that, you need some very robust 3D input device that is PS Move. We have a demo called “The Castle” where you can see and use your hands by using two PS Move controllers, and you can move the fingers by using the trigger, you can pick up the sword and throw it with one hand while catching it with the other. It’s a really robust experience by using PS Move.

However, Oculus VR recently acquired Carbon Design Team, which worked on the Xbox 360 controller. This makes it pretty clear that they want to have an input device of their own.

Stay tuned for more on VR.