VR – the future, as usual, is hazy
One element of the future that Microsoft is not so certain on is virtual reality. Unlike Sony, the company has not developed its own headset, concentrating instead on augmented reality via its Hololens project. It has a partnership with Oculus, and we’ve seen the excellent virtual reality version of Minecraft that runs on Rift and Windows 10 PC. Furthermore, at E3 we saw Phil Spencer on stage saying, “The next step change for gamers and developers must deliver true 4K gaming and high-fidelity VR.”
So was VR support a key part of the Scorpio vision? “I think the capability in the consoles that are on the market today to play high-fidelity true console-like experiences in VR ... they’re just not powerful enough,” he says. “To deliver the experience that console gamers expect, that’s really a six-teraflop problem at least. You kind of need to get there.”
But there’s a problem here. Microsoft has said that there will be no Project Scorpio exclusives, that all games will be compatible across the whole range. But if publishers begin to create high-end virtual reality titles that will only run on Scorpio-level hardware – that’s market fragmentation, right? “I will say, we’re very focused on console games and what console gamers want, and I see VR as something different,” he says. “Like, other people might try to say, ‘VR is the future of console gaming.’ I’m not saying that. I’m saying if you’re an Xbox One console gamer, we are so focused on making your experience the best experience you’ve ever had with the best lineup of games. We’re not getting distracted.”
Perhaps then, we’re looking at a future market where Xbox One titles will feature VR modes and augmentations that will only be accessible to Scorpio owners – but not a future where we’ll see totally dedicated VR titles. If this at first seems limiting and appears to show a company attempting to sideline VR, there are interesting hints that this is not the case. When asked about the idea of multiplayer VR games and virtual social spaces like AltSpaceVR running on Xbox, Ybarra is unguardedly enthusiastic. “We’re focused right now on what we announced on Scorpio, but Xbox Live and VR opens a lot of doors that we’re looking into for sure,” he says. “The opportunity of VR and Xbox Live together is boundless – we’re just starting to consider what that will look like. We have teams looking at what’s coming and how we apply that.”
