If you don’t have a 3D monitor, stay in 3D mode, but choose “no glasses” and then “left eye only”.
First, watch the video to see how Sony is positioning this product. I’m honestly stunned.
Why am I stunned?
While I don’t wish to be mean and I don’t like bashing new immersive technology products, I have great difficulty believing for an instant that this is the HMD Sony plans or is thinking of going head to head with against Oculus. Maybe it was the hype train suggesting this – I can’t explain it.
My insider contacts have told me to wait for GDC. Others have said that Sony is indeed showing their latest HMD on the show floor, and their stuff is very much competitive to Oculus. I’m not seeing it.
The device closely resembles the earlier generations with the exception of the head tracker. The latency is sky high for 2D source material; and they shouldn’t have been running on a mobile device – not for something like this!
In my humble opinion, I think Sony has something else planned, and this is just fog and mirrors to throw people off. Sony has filed patents for technology that wasn’t showcased here, and maybe they knew Oculus was making a splash and they just wanted to throw something in the ring. Unless I’m not yet seeing the real action, this definitely isn’t the one-two punch Sony needs to break into this space.
If it is, my advice is for Sony to put their energies into working with Oculus or going back to the drawing board. This is NOT the technology that will usher in VR gaming from the Sony camp. I just don’t see it. It has potential with VR 3D broadcasting content, but I haven’t seen any yet (YET!).
I’m going to be at CES until Friday. If Sony is reading this, and they have something really exciting for us to see, we want to be impressed. I don’t want to share the wrong impression for something that is actually much better. Please email us to see if something else can be scheduled. If what I saw is just intended as a personal entertainment player – OK. If it’s intended as something more…the offering needs to be much stronger.