Project Morpheus Takes Center-Stage at New Sony First-Party Studio

Sony Computer Entertainment has established a new PlayStation developer in North West England with the sole purpose of working on games for Project Morpheus, Sony’s virtual reality headset, which is slated for release in 2016.

The first rumblings of such a studio began when Sony began advertising on its PlayStation jobs website with several listings for a studio in North West England.

The Project Morpheus-focused studio will be a part of Sony Computer Entertainment’s Worldwide Studios, which is currently managed by Shuhei Yoshida.

"We are still in the early planning phase with this studio, and are currently focused on hiring the right team," a Sony rep told Eurogamer. "We look forward to sharing more news and formal announcements in the near future."

Eurogamer also reports that the new studio will be located in Manchester, England and will contain former staff from Evolution Studios, which recently cut staff in order to “focus on Driveclub as a service.” Evolution Studios was said to have been working on prototypes for Project Morpheus before the corporate restructuring.

First announced at The 2014 Game Developers Conference, Project Morpheus will be Sony’s attempt to corner a rising interest in virtual reality video games, a main competitor of which is the Oculus Rift, developed by Oculus VR. Whether or not this interest in virtual reality gameplay is something that will catch on in the consumer market is yet to be seen, but that hasn’t stopped others from giving it a shot outside of the use of video games, such as the Samsung Gear.