In 2012, Oculus VR breathed new life in the virtual reality scene with the Oculus Rift, a far cry from the gimmicky technology of the past few decades. After flooring audiences at trade shows, the Oculus team launched one of the most successful Kickstarter campaigns of all time. Scrambling to catch up, several other tech companies announced their intention to enter the market as well, and now Samsung is adding its name to that list. Engadget reports that Samsung is developing its own VR headset which it will reveal later this year.
Samsung wants to try to beat both the Oculus Rift and Sony’s Project Morpheus to market, which explains the impending reveal. In fact, some developers already have their hands on early versions of the headset, which are powered by current-gen flagship Galaxy devices. The consumer version will “require the power of next-gen, unannounced Galaxy phones and tablets.”
According to the report, the VR peripheral will feature an OLED screen “as good or better” than the most recent Oculus Rift developer model. There’s also plenty that isn’t known about the device, but it won’t feature Samsung’s Tizen OS, it will probably require a wired setup to avoid lag and it should cost less than either the Oculus Rift or Project Morpheus.
The primary function of the device will reportedly be playing games — more specifically, Android games. Considering how many mobile games implement some sort of tilt mechanic, there is plenty of room for interesting translations.
Samsung, as expected, wasn’t willing to comment on the report.
