PlayStation

PlayStation VR has a new name and a 200-strong list of developers making games for it, yet launch dates and prices for the first wave of consumer virtual reality headsets, also dropping in the first half of 2016 from Oculus and HTC, still remain shrouded in mystery and non-committals.

Amid the kiosks and chaos of Paris Games Week, we caught up with Sony Worldwide Studios chief and friendly face of PlayStation VR, Shuhei Yoshida, to discuss when the countdown to VR actually starts, "collaborators" Oculus and Valve, and how the format's intensity is going to reboot the rating system.

Shuhei Yoshida

Many expected a release date or price for PlayStation VR at the Paris Games Week, but we at least have a press release from developer Rebellion that says Battlezone will be a launch title.

Shuhei Yoshida: [Laughs] "Waaay! Yaaah! We don't know the launch date or the launch titles yet – they're probably wrong, but maybe. Another announcement I saw was [Thomas Was Alone creator] Mike Bithell said that the Volume VR version is going to be the launch title. Of course he doesn't know because we don't know either. We'll know that next year. But it's great that almost every week we see some new announcement, it's hard to keep track of what's going on in the VR world now."

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Our personal pick for a lead launch title would be RIGS. A bit Rocket League, a bit Call of Duty, it seems ripe as a community builder.

SY: "I'm hoping RIGS is going to be one of the launch titles, but we haven't set the launch date. The developer has a certain date in mind for targeting release, because it's all so new that we can kind of scale the volume of contents after the launch, just as many games are doing. We haven't even decided the final volume of content, whether we release it on physical disc or download only. These kind of things need to happen… soon."[Laughs]

The trend right now seems to be marketing films in VR. You've been working with Sony Pictures and we've seen Paranormal Activity and John Wick get the VR treatment at Paris Games Week. Are you openly courting movie companies?

SY: "No, they've been doing it. When they create big budget movies, most have high-quality 3D graphics that they've found that they can repurpose for VR for promotion. So they've been doing it for Pacific Rim or, y'know, Game of Thrones using Oculus Rift. In terms of Sony Pictures, because they're a sister company, they approached us with their idea about The Walk and I understand they hired a game developer to create that.

"But when you try it, you see it's very, very high quality. I couldn't tell at first glance whether I was looking at video or CG – and you cannot verify now because that building's been gone. But it's a really scary experience. And these things can be considered as entertainment, like applications. I don't know about other filmmakers' plans but we will see a lot more usage of VR by these companies. I hope they release this content packaged up, and sell it like a digital download."

Have it on the PlayStation Store? It would be a regular source of VR material.

SY: "Yeah. It's an entertainment, you don't need gameplay. You just experience."

Have you settled on a price and release date for PlayStation VR internally?

SY: "We have an idea, but there are things we want to make sure. It's similar to any platform launch. So as far as hardware development is concerned, it's going great in terms of timing, everything going well. But the people working hard now are the system software people, with the SDK, the operating system and the functionality between PSVR and PS4.

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"That's why we're not showing the user interface or other functionality other than VR gaming yet, that is to come. There are still many things that have to be done right and verified, and also we need good content and game support. Then we can decide 'this is the date'."

With VR a fairly new concept to the average home, and with this particular piece of hardware plugging on to your face rather than into a TV, does it have to go through more vigorous checks than usual?

SY: "Absolutely. Especially about the comfort of the experience – it's not easy, because you really have to try it. The tricky part is that developers get used to it very quickly.

"This can be a good thing, as when 3D gaming came out with Doom, I couldn't play it on PC because it was too much, too intense, but these days I can. You get acclimatised. But the danger is that while developers working on VR every day have no problem playing their games, when a new person tries it, they're like, 'This is too much,' and feel sick or something.

"So developers always have to make sure they test their games with fresh eyes and that's a challenge. So as a platform holder, we're not just sharing the guidelines and developers' know-how, we're also talking about testing more before developers put their games on the store."

PlayStation

'Intense' is a word that has come up a lot around VR, particularly this week. Have you considered the possible impact of violence in VR?

SY: "Yes, because it's pretty much giving you an experience with other people that you'd otherwise not have. If you are lucky you won't have experienced getting a gun pointed at your head – it's scary, right? But that can be created easily in VR. It is intense. In one of our demos [Kitchen], you get yourself stabbed, and it's powerful.

"The power of the medium is so much so that, in the future, the industry will probably come up with slightly different ratings so that we can communicate to consumers what kind of contents are inside. It's early days but it's important, because we don't want to handcuff the creativity of developers. But it's a challenge for the future, as the media is so powerful, something could potentially cause trauma to people when they try that, because they've played something really awful.

"But on the other hand, [music video director] Chris Milk from the US is saying that 'VR is an empathy machine'. There are people around the world not as fortunate as us, but using VR we can let people experience what it's like to be abused, or live in poverty. We hope this will contribute to decision-makers making some good decisions."

Do you think VR will need its own unique rating system, away from games and films?

SY: "Mmm-hmm, something like that I hope we can work on."

You can imagine the media scare stories now. We've also seen it before when unusual technology enter the home – with the 3DS's screen and the Wii's motion sensing. Will PlayStation VR have on-screen warnings like the Wii, pointing out the possible pitfalls?

SY: [Laughs] "It's, you know, something that we have to do, but something we don't want to annoy people too much. So there's a balance, we have to find the right assurance."

You've said recently that five minutes is the preferred demo time for a VR experience. Have you considered a recommended time for VR in the home?

SY: "It's really up to the person. Some people have no problem trying VR for the first time, other people might get tired. But it's also up to the content, because with a game like RIGS, you are fine with an experience that can be played for a long time, it's an online battle. So while one session might be five or 10 minutes, it could be played again and again like Call of Duty, so it's up to the person. We are not thinking about forcing the system to shut down after a certain number of minutes or hours, but we need to communicate to consumers, that if you feel you are tired, take a break."

PlayStation VR does feel the most 'living room-ready' of the competing headsets, with Oculus and Vive a bit more specialist. Do you think Sony's history in that space is its biggest advantage?

SY: "We are bringing a console mentality and also making developers test it fully before using their content. We tend to price hardware not to make money from it but to get as many install base so that content can be sold. This is the same kind of thinking in the way we are approaching PlayStation VR. But then we are friends with the Valve guys and the Oculus guys, we know each other. At this point the tech people are very much competing, in a good way, but we feel as a company that we are collaborating to get as many people as interested and excited about VR.

"So at a show like Paris Games Week, all of us have demo kiosks, and it's very hard to get in because it's very popular. But it's fine – if people try HTC Vive or Oculus Rift and not PS VR, or vice versa, as long as the experience is great. We trust each other that what we tend to bring high-quality VR. So we win if a new person tries any of the three systems and gets excited. That's how we see it."

PlayStation VR for PS4 is out in the first half of 2016