In early 2020, it seems quite sure that VR isn’t going anywhere, at least for the next few years. It may not have left the gates yet, but Microsoft’s horse is still very much in this race.Īll that is too say that I’m confident Xbox VR will still happen and that Microsoft is shrewd not to be gunning for it too early. Microsoft owns studios with VR expertise already it wouldn’t take too long to establish an enviable stable of games to compete with Sony and Facebook.
VR HEADSET FOR XBOX SERIES
make it a headset that supports both Xbox One Series X and PCs.
VR HEADSET FOR XBOX FULL
Let PSVR and Quest continue to work out VR’s kinks and then, when a path to explosive profit is clear, come out swinging with, say, a full Halo VR game.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see a similar situation here. True, there was some catch up to play in the first generation of Xbox but the follow-up 360 console saw it comfortably lead in front of Sony for a good portion of that generation. Microsoft didn’t jump into the console business until Nintendo and Sony were on their second 3D gaming machines. Not to mention that Xbox, as a brand, has a history of biding its time. Quest’s standalone nature shows that wires and external trackers need to go two things that Microsoft itself already knows. Until then, what is there to really be gained from jumping into the game this early? Certainly not much money, and the lessons VR is learning are very public. Microsoft can operate comfortably in the knowledge that Sony, Facebook and Valve will keep VR in its increasingly healthy incubation stage until it is ready to go a step further. Its mission to reverse fortunes is one of brute force ambition, but the uncertain waters of VR might prove a little too stormy for this experimental phase. Especially as it finds itself on the back foot at the tail end of a console generation. No doubt, there is uncertainty ahead for Microsoft’s gaming business. Would we see another generation of held-back games suffering from release parity clauses across consoles?
VR HEADSET FOR XBOX PRO
What, too, would become of VR on two tiers of Xbox consoles? The gap between the base PS4 and PS4 Pro is often a pain point for developers, with the latter far more capable of maintaining the quality of the original PC titles. Adding VR on top of that requires performance even beyond the base standards we’d expect now. The question of when traditional game streaming, for example, will be good enough for prime time remains unanswered even after the release of Google’s Stadia platform. VR threatens to throw an awkward wrench into that multitude of focuses.
Join gaming leaders live this October 25-26 in San Francisco to examine the next big opportunities within the gaming industry. Though there’s a lot of risk involved with taking these chances, collectively they paint an optimistic picture of greater accessibility in an industry that struggled to expand its demographics in the past few decades. The future of Xbox is the incredible value in its Games Pass lineup, the accessibility of its Project xCloud streaming platform, and a careful balancing act of multiple tiers of console that, presumably, will range from an affordable 4K console for the masses and a more demanding machine for enthusiasts wanting to inspect every blade of grass and water droplet falling from the sky.
But it is also true that Xbox’s vision for the future of gaming - and to put the brand back on top of the industry wars - has filled its plate with enough short and long-term goals, with little room left for VR on the side. The company has previous iterations to build from, and the library of quality of VR content is slowly but surely growing into a worthwhile proposition (no doubt set to be greatly bolstered by next month’s release of Half-Life: Alyx). Microsoft could release an amazing VR headset for its Xbox Series X console, of that I have no doubt.
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