The Oculus Rift was the first piece of hardware to make virtual reality cool. The only problem is that it’s not coming to consoles any time soon. That won’t be a problem for the PS4 as Sony is making its own virtual reality headset.

At the Game Developers Conference, Sony announced its next big hardware project – Project Morpheus. In short, it’s a VR headset that’s very similar to the Oculus Rift. The only difference is that Sony’s hardware is way ahead of where the Rift was when it was first revealed. Project Morpheus features a 1080p display, a 90 degree field of view, accelerometer and gyroscope sensors, and head tracking via the PlayStation Camera.

Project Morpheus is currently a prototype, but Sony has a number of tech demos already available for the hardware. The most interesting one by far is a God of War demo that has players take control of Kratos from a first person perspective. Players will see Kratos’ arms and legs as if they were an extension of their own body. Another demo, from Square Enix Montreal, reworked certain areas from the recent Thief reboot to work with the prototype hardware.

Of course, Project Morpheus won’t work by itself. Players will still have to interact with the world in some way. The hardware supports both the DualShock 4 and PlayStation Move. It seems like Sony prefers the Move as it allows players to further immerse themselves in the world through virtual reality and motion control. It could be interesting in a game like God of War, but it could also prove tiring after a while.

Sony has made some gambles in the past, like Blu-ray, that have become standards. The company believes virtual reality will be the next big thing in games and is banking on that belief with Project Morpheus. Will it work out for them? If the price is right and the software is there, it just might. Gamers are already in love with the idea of the Oculus Rift and those who have played a game on one already know it to be pretty magical. With Project Morpheus, Sony might just be able to take VR mainstream.

Image via PlayStation Blog