Sony Announces its Own Mixed Reality Headset for ‘Spatial Content Creation’

The Sony XR HMD

Announced today via their offices in Tokyo, Sony has officially unveiled the development of their new immersive spatial content creation system, which — a main part — includes an XR head-mounted display equipped with high-quality 4K OLED microdisplays and a video see-through function (similar to how the Apple Vision Pro works).

However, unique to this system is its matching set of controllers optimized for intuitive interaction with 3D objects and precise pointing. This “hands-on” system is aimed at supporting creators in sophisticated 3D content creation and is a bold step forward into the metaverse.

Sony has also announced that they’re collaborating with developers of a variety of 3D production softwares across the entertainment and design fields to expand this headset into a robust and fully-functional meta-ecosystem that should rival the Apple Vision Pro, which releases next month.

The Future of Spatial Content Creation

Revealed at CES 2024, Sony’s big message for this new headset is that it will be the perfect product for spatial content creators, which isn’t entirely a new term, but one that certainly hasn’t caught on just yet. So what makes this a spatial content creation system?

Well, for Sony that means that the XR head-mounted display with its 4K OLED microdisplays will use Sony’s proprietary rendering technology to enable real-time, high-definition and realistic rendering of textures of 3D objects, including facial expressions for human characters.

With the video see-through functionality and spatial recognition with six cameras and sensors in total, the system will utilize a ring controller that will allow users to intuitively manipulate objects in virtual space, as well as use a pointing controller to enable precise pointing to allow creators to craft in virtual space with all types of virtual tools like controllers and keyboards.

Furthermore, Sony reports that creators will not only be able to see real-scale 4D models in their extended reality (XR) environment, but they’ll also be able to create and modify these models as they see fit.

A Rival to the Apple Vision Pro?

Overall, this is a big step for Sony to go after what does look to be a budding and promising industry in 2024 and beyond. Of course Apple is expected to lead the way with the Vision Pro, but as the technology develops there obviously could be room for other brands to compete as well.

Sony isn’t entirely new to this space either as they’ve made major developments into motion capture systems in the past and have even dabbled in spatial reality displays before as well. However, the main focus for this new system does appear to be squarely aimed at these spatial content creators and could be a great future option for those that work in 3D design for movies, television, video games, etc…

There’s no word just yet on any details regarding price, specs or release date, however Sony has promised to share more details soon and that the system should be available sometime in later 2024.