Seemingly confirming earlier speculation, reputable games publication Edge Online is reporting that Sony will indeed be revealing its long-rumoured virtual reality head-mounted display device during GDC 2014 in San Francisco next week.

Citing an anonymous third party developers as its source, Edge claims that several studios are already working with prototype hardware that eclipses the popular Oculus Rift dev kits:

A prototype is already in some thirdparty developers’ hands, who have told us that Sony’s VR headset is far superior to Oculus Rift’s first incarnation, though that is expected to even out a little with the arrival of Rift’s new, more advanced Crystal Cove devkit. They also said that there’s little software to speak of currently, but they expect to see something from one of Sony’s firstparty studios at GDC, even if it is just a tech demo.

There’s also no pressure on developers from platform holder Sony to adopt the tech; indeed, the studios we spoke to were excited by the technology, but questioned its viability as a platform. The cost of VR game development and its niche appeal means that many developers will wait and see how the Sony-authored experiences fare before committing to VR game development in earnest.

As previous speculation suggested, the reveal is expected to take place during Sony Computer Entertainment America's "Driving the Future of Innovation" presentation, which has been scheduled for Tuesday March 18th PST and will involve PlayStation Move and EyeToy creators Richard Marks and Anton Mikhailov, as well as PlayStation boss Shuhei Yoshida.