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Sony's ​Project Morpheus is now PlayStation VR

The virtual reality headset for gaming has been renamed as it prepares for launch with games such as Final Fantasy XIV.

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Richard Trenholm Former Movie and TV Senior Editor
Richard Trenholm was CNET's film and TV editor, covering the big screen, small screen and streaming. A member of the Film Critic's Circle, he's covered technology and culture from London's tech scene to Europe's refugee camps to the Sundance film festival.
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Richard Trenholm
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Sony's PlayStation VR headset promises an immersive experience. Sony

Project Morpheus is now PlayStation VR. Sony's virtual reality headset has been renamed as it gets closer to going on sale.

Virtual reality could be the next big thing in entertainment, with interactive 360-degree gaming leading the way. Since the crowdfunded Oculus Rift headset revived interest in virtual reality, we've seen HTC make its own helmet and Google produce a jokey cardboard visor for your phone to immerse you into games and short films. But although there's no release date yet, Sony is set to be the first of the gaming giants to bring out a VR helmet that will connect to its games console.

Sony confirmed the new name on Twitter after announcing it at the Tokyo Game Show today with a video of people enjoying new virtual reality games. Boys fight in mecha-tastic RIGS and in UK-set gangster game London Heist, in which you point the Move hand controllers to aim your weapons; while girls dance in a dancing game or cower before sharks in watery diving game The Deep.

A scene from another game sees a coy male player approached by an attractive woman in what looks like a beachside paradise and invited to choose "yes" or "no".

The massively multiplayer online roleplaying game Final Fantasy XIV, originally released in 2010, will also be available in immersive virtual reality form.

Project Morpheus was originally named for the Ancient Greek god of dreams. It's not the first fun codename to be ditched in favour of something blander for mainstream release, but occasionally cool codenames do stick around: Microsoft's Siri-rivalling voice-activated personal assistant is named Cortana after the voice that guides players in Xbox game Halo , the name having stuck when the service was released in Windows and Windows Phone.

Aside from PlayStation VR, other virtual reality helmets include the Oculus Rift, now owned by Facebook and on sale in 2016, and the HTC Vive, which has yet to be released. Meanwhile Xbox manufacturer Microsoft has its own, slightly different HoloLens system.

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Watch this: Here's exactly what it's like to play Project Morpheus