Back at the 2014 Game Developers Conference, Sony became the first major console manufacturer to declare its intention to dive into the revived, post-Oculus world of virtual reality. If the competition is worried about being left behind by any potential head-mounted gaming revolution, though, they're doing a good job of hiding it.

Talking to Ars at E3 last week, both Microsoft and Nintendo took aloof, purely observational stances toward the world of virtual reality, essentially saying that they're watching the space but are in no hurry to jump in face-first the way Sony has.

Rumors that Microsoft was working on its own virtual/augmented reality headset or glasses gained new life in March, when the Wall Street Journal's sources confirmed many ideas found in the Project Fortaleza leaks of 2012. But Microsoft's official stance hasn't changed much since Xbox Group Program Manager David Dennis told Ars back in March that the company would wait and "see how the VR space evolves."

"Things like Project Morpheus, to me, just highlight what an awesomely cool time it is in games," Microsoft General Manager for Redmond Game Studios and Platforms Matt Booty told Ars at E3. "There's so much going on. Microsoft, as I'm sure you know, has got a lot of teams focused on R&D, a lot of teams focused on innovation. We don't have anything today to talk about on that front, but we've got a lot of teams focused on looking forward to what we can deliver in the future."

It's the kind of intentionally vague statement that can be read as brushing off the idea or hinting at an impending announcement, depending on your predisposition. When pressed on whether Microsoft thought the VR train might be leaving the station without it, though, Booty's response indicated that Microsoft is looking for some actual consumer uptake of what are, for now, still prototype VR devices.

"I think everything that's going on with [virtual reality] right now is really exciting, and I think a lot of it will come down to fans and players and what they gravitate to, and really how it connects and resonates with the fans," he said. "I try to stay on top of those things, and there's so much stuff going on right now it's sometimes overwhelming. There's a lot of stuff moving quick and new content all the time and new devices... We have a lot of teams looking ahead to the future."

For its part, Nintendo is the only console maker with previous experience making a 3D eye-mounted display specifically for gaming, and you could argue that the two-decades-old Virtual Boy did more to set the VR space back than any other single device. With that memory still in mind, perhaps, Nintendo seems even less eager to leap into the virtual reality space than Microsoft.

"Anything that would help increase the gameplay and make it more entertaining we'd certainly think about, and we're always looking at new technologies, but we just don't have anything to announce on this topic at this show," Nintendo Senior Director of Corporate Communications Charlie Scibetta told Ars bluntly. "We're always certainly looking at what's happening in the industry, but we try to innovate on our own and not necessarily follow what others have done just for the sake of doing that."

Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime was even more direct about the current standing of VR at Nintendo. In an interview with the AP, he expressed Nintendo's position that "the technology [for VR] isn't quite there yet, in our view" and that "when it's there and enables a fun experience, we'll be there too." It's worth mentioning that Nintendo has said similar things about features like HDTV support and robust, cross-game online features on its consoles, neither of which showed up on its systems until the Wii U in 2012. In other words, don't expect a VR headset from Nintendo until and unless it's been a proven market force in the console space for five or six years.

Sony’s cautiously optimistic stance

Despite Project Morpheus garnering only a brief mention at Sony's pre-E3 press conference, the company seems cautiously optimistic about virtual reality eventually having a large role in the gaming landscape. Still, the PlayStation-maker isn't betting on devices like Project Morpheus causing an immediate revolution in gaming.

"I think that [virtual reality] has potential to be very big," Scott Rohde, PlayStation Head of Worldwide Studios America, told Ars. "I think that just like any new technology, it's going to take a while for it to reach a broader market. No matter what the technology is in gaming, you're always going to have a group of early adopters. If they like what they see, it's going to be evangelized, and it's going to spread.

"I think that these first new generation of VR headsets that are coming out in the near future, I don't necessarily believe that's what the technology will look like five or 10 years from now," he continued. "But that's why it's great to experiment, that's why it's great to be part of a hardware company that has the resources to experiment in this space. Because we don't know where the industry is going to go, but we want to influence that, and we certainly want to be part of a wave if it indeed becomes a wave."

Rohde's comments track closely with those of Oculus CEO Brendan Iribe, who recently told Ars that he thinks it's the second version of the Rift headset, coming a year or two after the still-pending first consumer unit, that will "get many millions of people into VR" and really reach the console-level scale he's hoping for. Sony seems to agree that it may take a few iterations before VR tech is at the point where it can reach more than the tech nerds out there.

All that said, Rohde added that the Morpheus development kit is in the hands of a lot of Sony partners already ("more than dozens" is the closest he'd come to a number) and that the developers' "over the moon excitement" for VR is "a very, very good sign" for the future of the concept. "If you come out with a new technology and the dev community is like 'OK, I'll think about it,' or if they say 'Not interested,' you know you're in trouble," he said. "But when the entire dev community is embracing it, saying 'Gimme, gimme, gimme, I want more,' I think you're on to something."