Sony just announced its new Android XR-powered headset geared towards creators

New year, new headset. Sony just launched its latest virtual reality headset, XYN, alongside software applications of the same name, the Japanese brand announced on Monday at the Consumer Electronics Show. The headset is made for creatives seeking to build a new frontier of spatial content. 

The XYN headset will take real-world objects, motion, and backgrounds and recreate them in virtual reality using 3D graphics, according to the press release. Headsets like XYN are how creative industries get one step closer to streamlining the creation and product development process through digital twins, which are virtual versions of physical products, or creating 3D and XR entertainment, such as movies and games.  

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Sony’s headset includes 4K OLED microdisplays and a video see-through function, designed for creative work in the spatial content realm. 3D production software applications will be supported in the headset for animation character modeling, among other operations. Sony mentioned that a proof-of-concept experiment using the prototype is in the works with Sony Pictures Animation, suggesting a new dawn of VR-created entertainment could be coming soon. 

“As the fusion of real and virtual worlds accelerates and the demand for 3D CG production in film, animation, games, and industrial design continues to grow, XYN will support intuitive and efficient spatial content creation for a diverse range of creators,” according to Sony’s press release.

Sony also unveiled XYN Motion Studio, a PC application that supports mocopi, Sony’s proprietary motion capture system that performs body tracking. The application connects to 12 mocopi sensors and uses algorithms to bring motion data to life. 

You can expect more precise mocopi through XYN Motion Studio.  Sony says Motion Studio offers features that make motion capture “more affordable and accessible to creators.” The application will be available in late March.  

The Android XR-powered XYN headset announcement comes weeks after Google announced its Android XR software platform. 

With AR headset launches expected from Google, Samsung, and others, 2025 could be a critical year for spatial computing.  

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When ZDNET’s Jason Hiner got to try out the first-generation enterprise XR headset Sony announced with Siemens at last year’s CES, he was impressed by the fidelity and resolution and suggested Apple could learn a thing or two from Sony’s willingness to accommodate creative professionals. 

Apple Vision Pro sales struggled in 2024, which could open the door for others to step into spatial computing with a better product — or, it could mean XR headsets are still struggling to attract enough interest.  

We haven’t tried out this new Sony headset for ourselves yet, but we will give you a rundown when that happens with more thoughts and analysis.