UPDATED 16:37 EDT / SEPTEMBER 15 2015

Sony's Project Morpheus NEWS

Say goodbye to Project Morpheus and hello PlayStation VR

Sony Corporation’s virtual reality headset Project Morpheus is no more. The global gaming and hardware company has rebranded its VR headset, set to launch sometime in 2016, to PlayStation VR. Sony announced the change at the Tokyo Game Show this morning in Japan.

The name change shifts Sony’s offering from just a VR headset to something that better connects to gamers and the audience expected to first use the device: people who already own a PlayStation or plan to own console.

“The name ‘PlayStation VR’ not only directly expresses an entirely new experience from PlayStation that allows players to feel as if they are physically inside the virtual world of a game, but it also reflects our hopes that we want our users to feel a sense of familiarity as they enjoy this amazing experience,” said Sony business product president Masayasu Ito on the official PlayStation blog.

Project Morpheus was first announced at the 2014 Game Developers Conference as an expected competitor to the growing VR headset market. The now-named PlayStation VR must compete not only with the Facebook Inc. Oculus Rift, the Valve Corporation HTC Vive, and the Samsung Gear. Like the PlayStation VR, 2016 is the expected launch date for much of the market.

PlayStation VR demonstration blitz

Sony has planned a week-long set of demos and activities involved around the PlayStation VR with a number of video games that will support the device. Starting on Thursday at the Tokyo Game Show, users will be treated to a wide range of VR demos, including Danganronpa VR, Hatsune Miku, and Summer Lesson.

Danganronpa VR is known under its full name Cyber Danganronpa VR: Class Trial and is currently in development at Spike Chunsoft, the originators of the franchise. The VR game features the “class trial” portion of the original series, which portrays a surreal trial at a school where the player must expose a killer amid the students. Hatsune Miku is a Japanese idoru, a virtual idol and singer who has been covered on SiliconANGLE before as part of an augmented reality storySummer Lesson is an eerily creepy VR demo designed for Project Morpheus from the developers of Tekken fighter series that places the user in a traditional Japanese schoolgirl uniform.

Also on the schedule is a presentation of Square Enix’s (Square Enix Holdings Co., Ltd.) Final Fantasy XIV, a massively multiplayer online (MMO) game that the company claims had five million subscribers in July of this year–making the game the second most popular MMO after World of Warcraft.

PlayStation 4 price drop announced for Japan

Alongside the announcement of the rebranding of Project Morpheus to PlayStation VR, Sony has also announced a price drop on the PlayStation 4 for Japanese consumers.

The price drown will be brought down to ¥35,000 ($300) from ¥40,000.

The PlayStation VR headset is designed with the PlayStation 4 in mind. This drop could be designed to increase popularity for the console with the expectation that PS4 owners will be more likely to desire the VR headset once it releases.

While this price drop is Japan only at the moment, Sony has announced another large press conference at Paris Games Week at the end of October. Europe may be seeing similar news soon.

Featured image credit: Sony Corporation, Sony’s PlayStation VR

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