A man plays a Sony Playstation virtual reality game at the annual Ani-Com show in Hong Kong on July 29, 2016. AFP Photo
TOKYO: Sony Interactive Entertainment on Thursday launched in Japan PlayStation VR, a goggle-type game gear, which enables users to enjoy virtual reality at home and have the experience of being in the world of the game, Japan’s Jiji Press reported.
“You can travel to UNESCO World Heritage sites while staying at home,” Atsushi Morita, an executive of SIE, a unit of Japanese electronics and entertainment giant Sony Corp said at an event in the posh Ginza district in Tokyo’s Chuo Ward.
“It’s like Dokodemo Door or a time machine,” he said. Dokodemo Door, which opens to any place users want to go, is one of the “secret items” of Doraemon, a cat robot in a decades-old popular Japanese manga series.
Players use the gear by connecting it to the PlayStation 4 home video game machine.
Kento Doi, a 25-year-old company employee from Tokyo’s Shinagawa Ward, who preordered a PSVR, received the gear from Morita. Doi said that he expects the headset will give him experiences beyond those offered by existing games.
PSVR also hit or will hit some 40 other markets on Thursday, including China, the United States and European nations.
The headset is priced at 44,980 yen in Japan, excluding consumption tax.
At the Ginza event, Japanese actor Takayuki Yamada played games using a PSVR, including one allowing him to enjoy the virtual experience of becoming a bird to fly over Paris. – Bernama