Shuhei Yoshida, President of Sony’s Worldwide Studios, recently revealed that Sony won’t be producing or funding any first-party “non-gaming content” for Project Morpheus.

Sony's Morpheus VR Headset Being Revealed at GDC 2014
Shuhei Yoshida reveals Sony Morpheus to the world at GDC 2014

In a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Yoshida revealed his thoughts on 360 videos, and their place within the Project Morpheus platform.

When asked whether Sony will be producing any premium content outside the realm of gaming for Morpheus themselves, Yoshida replied that Sony wants to “make sure we are providing enough technical support for [third parties to publish content] but we don’t feel the need to make non-gaming content by ourselves or fund them.”

According to Yoshida, third-party studios like VRSE, known for their VR videos like Clouds Over Sidra, will be responsible for generating Morpheus’ non-gaming content.

“I want companies like VRSE to be able to recoup from as many platforms as possible, and that’s their business plan as well,” said Yoshida. “We just want to make sure that their content and other companies content works really really well on Morpheus.”

Whether “non-gaming content” for Yoshida also entails story-driven experiences like Oculus Story Studios’ Henry, a real-time made-for-VR short that will be available on Oculus’ consumer version Rift, is still unclear at this time.

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Scott Hayden
Well before the first modern XR products hit the market, Scott recognized the potential of the technology and set out to understand and document its growth. He has been professionally reporting on the space for nearly a decade as Editor at Road to VR, authoring more than 4,000 articles on the topic. Scott brings that seasoned insight to his reporting from major industry events across the globe.
  • Don Gateley

    I wonder if these folks will ever figure out that gaming is but the tip of the tip of the iceberg of VR application. When people can tour the Temple in Jerusalem in Jesus’ time with some interactivity (as just one example that would appeal to the historian in me) then there will be a mass market for VR.

    • kalqlate

      The key to understanding a position is to, as best as possible, put yourself in the shoes of the actor and ask, “Why would I say or do this?” The answer: Indeed… gaming is but the tip of the tip of the iceberg of VR applications. Playstation has been very successfully marketed as a GAMING MACHINE! It would now cost much too much to try to market it as a GENERAL VR EXPERIENCE MACHINE. Instead, this position, PERHAPS, signals that Sony intends to introduce a new GENERAL VR platform for GENERAL VR EXPERIENCES. Again, you are correct… VR is gonna be HYOOOOOOOJ (huge), and MAYBE, Sony is keeping the marketing path clear for the MOST-LIKELY non-Playstation-compatible Sony VR MAN.

      • kalqlate

        To be clear: While VR on Playstation will certainly be a value-add for the Playstation platform, VR will be a revolution in communications and media consumption. As such, it will have appeal to a much wider audience than that of gaming. If shoehorned into a gaming machine, much of that non-gaming audience will presume VR to be for gamers and not buy into it. Note how Microsoft does not in any way tie HoloLens to XBox. Likewise Sony’s general VR would be limited if tied to PlayStation. I’d say then that the possible new VR platform from Sony will be a completely self-contained VR headset based on Morpheus but with compute guts built in as with HoloLens.

        • kalqlate

          It would then be for this new VR platform that Sony would support non-gaming VR experiences. Certainly, gaming would be a part of the new platform as well, but only a part and only marketed as such.

          • kalqlate

            I’ve gone this far, I might as well keep going. :D My guess is also that Sony’s possible new self-contained VR platform will have VR and AR capability. VR is definitely going to be big for relatively short escape-like immersive experiences, but AR, though more expensive to properly implement and to acquire as a consumer, will be the functionality that will be used for many hours of the day for both business and leisure. Sony will avoid having to eventually market THREE devices (Morpheus, VR MAN, AR MAN), and work innovatively to combine AR and VR into one device. Microsoft has done a lot of the heavy AR lifting by making Windows Holographic an integral and accessible part of Windows 10. Sony would certainly make their device Holo-compatible. Sure… all that I’ve written is speculative, but it makes much more sense than the apparent shunning of non-gaming VR apps from their yet-to-be-released Playstation VR platform.