“Ten years from now, we will be living in a more multi-layered world where physical and virtual realities overlap without boundaries,” says the entertainment and hardware company. With the number of pies they’ve got their fingers in (you remember they even announced a car a few years ago?), it makes sense for Sony to operate not one but ten steps ahead to make sure they’re leaders in every single industry they’re in. That even means condensing a home theater to a size small enough to fit around your neck). Today, the company unveiled their Creative Entertainment Vision, a demonstration or visualization of what Sony wants the future to look like. It’s a practice that a lot of companies do, helping consumers, investors, and even competitors understand what direction technology and innovation are going to go in. Sony doubles down on mixed reality and spatial entertainment in this segment (they aren’t, after all, an enterprise or productivity company), showcasing a few unique concepts that feature holographic floating screens, absurdly futuristic gaming controllers, and super-slim spectacles that transform into AR eyewear.
Designer: Sony
Somewhere around the 1-minute and 12-second mark, Sony reveals a few very interesting concepts. One of them is what looks like a futuristic PlayStation controller with its own holographic screen. The controller itself looks familiar yet nothing like any controller we’ve seen. It features a hollow center with two grips on each end. The center is supposedly where the holograph projects out of, while thumb-pads on the left and right come with unusual controls to help maneuver the game. The controller is also space-aware and can be tilted as a means of input.
Another concept was a tablet that looks like, as Apple likes to call their iPad, a slab of magic glass. Except, this does feel like glass and the experience is tantamount to magic. There are no bezels, no cameras, not even any perceived electronics. The glass is transparent when the screen is off, and translucent when you’re watching stuff, so you can still see through it.
The third is an extension of Sony’s tablet vision, but in the form of a smartphone. According to Sony, the future of phones isn’t rectangular slabs of glass, it’s capsule-shaped oval slabs of glass. I don’t know what that says for the future of videos and TikTok, but this new form of screen real estate feels unique for sure. Sony displays a music interface on this mobile device, with album art practically existing from edge to edge. The games, videos, and music in all the concepts above are connected to Sony’s hit PlayStation game Horizon Zero Dawn.
These concepts are also coupled with a set of AR glasses that completely immerse you in a virtual world. As slim as a pair of sunglasses albeit with ski goggle-style eyepieces, this concept piece offers a kind of immersion even the Vision Pro can’t promise. You’re turned into a full-body AI avatar, immersed in a virtual world that exists separate from reality. Made more for entertainment, it lets you play games, interact with people, or even see movies in a way that you never have before. Sony even previews a scene where the city’s streets are filled with ghosts and a giant Pillsbury Dough Boy trods across buildings, lifted right out of the Ghostbusters movie.
While these concepts don’t specifically confirm what Sony plans to release in the near future, it’s important to understand their ‘vision’ of what’s to come. Ideas change based on consumer feedback and technological innovation, but in an ideal world, Sony believes the future will be about crafting new and wonderful realities, and living in stories instead of watching or playing them.
