Sony's Project Morpheus becomes PlayStation VR

Sony has unveiled the official name for its virtual reality headset, previously known as Project Morpheus, and you can tell it was an agonising decision: it will launch as PlayStation VR.

Part of the growing industry interest in virtual reality technology, driven in no small part by the success of start-up Oculus VR and its Oculus Rift hardware, Sony announced Project Morpheus back in March last year. A VR headset add-on designed primarily with the company's PlayStation 4 console in mind, it's a project which has yet to receive a firm launch date. That hasn't stopped Sony ploughing money into Morpheus, though, most recently forming a UK-based Morpheus-specific games studio to exploit the device's capabilities.

Now, the company has confirmed that the Project Morpheus codename is being dropped in favour of an on-brand but somewhat uninspired new moniker: PlayStation VR. '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,' spouted Sony's Masayasu Ito during the announcement, which took place at the SCEJA Press Conference 2015 event in Tokyo. 'We will continue to refine the hardware from various aspects, while working alongside 3rd party developers and publishers and SCE Worldwide Studios, in order to bring content that deliver exciting experiences only made possible with VR.'

Sadly, Ito did not provide any further details on the pricing or launch schedule for the device, which is currently targeting a commercial release in the first half of next year - along with, it seems, every other VR device currently being shown off by manufacturers.