Sony Corp. announced Tuesday that it will begin shipping its virtual reality (VR) headset, codenamed Project Morpheus, in the first half of 2016.

First announced in March 2014, the company also announced a range of new specs for the device, including a new look (see picture right.)

According to reports, Sony Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida told an audience at a Game Developers Conference event that Morpheus will offer a 120 Hz refresh rate and a key display update, that included a an OLED display offering 1920×1080 HD viewing. The screens inside the device are now 5.7 inches (up from 5 inches) allowing for a 100-degree field of view and includes nine LED trackers to provide a 360-degree view.  Latency with the device is now down to 18 milliseconds.

“Our goal with VR is to deliver a sense of presence, making the player feel as though they’ve steppedi nside the world of a game” Shuhei Yoshida said on the PlayStation Blog. “The new Project Morpheus prototype brings us closer to that goal, as it improves the visual experience and tracking accuracy, both of which are critical to achieving sense of presence.”

The company didn’t have any games available for the headset during its demonstration, saying that they would be forthcoming at the E3 conference later this year, but they did demo a range of concepts that highlighted the technical strength of what they are building.

A worthy Oculus Rift competitor

Based on the specs available today, combined with the fact that Morpheus will work with the PlayStation 4, see it being a worthy competitor to the much more hyped, and Facebook Inc. owned Oculus Rift.

Of particular note is that the Oculus Rift is still not on sale; users can order a Development Kit but that’s the extent of the offering, and there’s still no official word when it will be finally releaed to the general public.

There are other players out there now as well, with VR products coming from the likes of HTC and Samsung with the Samsung Gear, but the key to winning this space is always going to be software support, which places Sony well when the market takes off in a big way in 2016 and beyond.

Image credit: Sony.