A new report has emerged to suggest that the virtual reality (VR) market might well have a new kingpin soon, and that kingpin may not be the Oculus Rift. While it was the first among us—at least in development kit form—the new reports suggest that Sony is actually out in front, with an 85 percent complete model. Yes, the Project Morpheus headset system is within striking distance of completion, and that might well shake up the market sooner than expected.

Naturally, Sony isn't saying just when Project Morpheus will be made available for purchase, but it is saying that the system's 85 percent of the way to a final product. Since the Morpheus uses smartphone parts, it's expected that the final price of the product will be within most users' budgets, keeping it in line with Oculus Rift's expected price, which Facebook has already noted should be easy on consumers' wallets.

This is excellent news for Sony, of course, who could desperately use a cash cow to help it reverse its chain of losses. The company recently announced that its loss forecast had been increased almost three-fold, going up from $460 million to $2.14 billion. Since the PlayStation has proved to be a major bright spot for Sony, augmenting the business with something like the Project Morpheus could be a very big step indeed.

This is also a disaster for Microsoft; it's going to be very difficult for the Xbox One, already flagging against the PlayStation 4 in terms of sales, to keep up the fight against not only superior numbers but also VR capability. Microsoft is going to have to match up, and in short order, lest it be permanently left in the dust this round. Earlier reports have put Microsoft as working on VR of its own, but reports have been thin on the ground of late as far as that market goes. That's likewise not a good sign for Microsoft, and something is going to have to change in short order lest Microsoft be completely swamped.

There's still quite a bit of time here, of course; with the holiday shopping season set to arrive in another few weeks, it's a safe bet Sony won't have its hardware ready for this go-round, so next year sometime is fairly likely. Still, this should be lighting some serious fires under not just Microsoft, but also Facebook; competitors are going to need to be ready, and soon, otherwise the first mover advantage is going to go right to Sony. Here, the first mover advantage will likely be all that's needed; after all, who's going to need two or three virtual reality headsets?