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[CyberPanda]

Could Microsoft finally be ready to bring VR gaming to Xbox? That's the rumor, according to virtual reality podcast Coffee & VR, which made mention of a potential partnership on its latest episode.

"So we've heard through the grapevine, over on our Discord, actually, from someone we do trust that there may be a tie between Microsoft and Oculus and that they are going to bring the Rift S to the next-gen Xbox," the podcast said. "He's got some good inside sources."

The move would make a lot of sense, in terms of Microsoft finding a way to connect VR to its gaming hardware. While Microsoft has dabbled in augmented reality with products like Hololens, the company lacks a dedicated VR headset of its own. And many believed in the past that VR support could come to Microsoft's Xbox One X console. Microsoft's own trailer for what was then 'Project Scorpio' had a third-party developer touting its VR bona fides, but support never ultimately came to the box.

Project Scarlett, it appears, offers a better path forward.

This wouldn't be the first time Microsoft and Oculus have teamed up, either. When the Rift first started hitting store shelves, the headset actually came with an Xbox One controller included. And given that Microsoft — as far as anyone's aware — still has a stake in Facebook (which owns Oculus), the pairing doesn't sound all that crazy.

Microsoft needs a competitor to PlayStation VR, which Sony confirmed will be supported by its next-gen PlayStation. To get one, Microsoft could either develop its own headset, or team with a third party product that already has a ton of support. Given that Microsoft's Xbox division also wants to grow on PC, the Rift S seems like a logical choice. Whether this all holds true or Microsoft goes down some other road is anybody's guess.

We'll be keeping a close eye out for any more news on Microsoft's Project Scarlett and any steps toward VR the company might take. There's certainly no shortage of gamers who would love to play the next Halo in VR; we'll have to wait and see if Microsoft actually pushes into virtual reality this time around, or if the company is still content watching everything play out from afar.

Project Scarlett Rumored To Be Compatible With Oculus Rift S - SVG

Could Microsoft finally be ready to bring VR gaming to Xbox? That's the rumor, according to virtual reality podcast Coffee & VR, which made mention of a potential partnership on its latest episode.

www.svg.com

 

[JimiNutz]

Good idea.
I can understand MS not wanting to spend resource on developing their own hardware but with the ever increasing merge of Xbox and PC it makes a lot of sense to use the existing VR headsets that are compatible with PCs already.

 

[ResilientBanana]

Nice, looks like I should upgrade my Rift.

 

[Jagz]

"the company lacks a dedicated VR headset of its own."

They literally have several Windows mixed reality headsets on the market; terrible journalism to not even mention WMR.

 

[Zannegan]

"the company lacks a dedicated VR headset of its own."

They literally have several Windows mixed reality headsets on the market; terrible journalism to not even mention WMR.

I think they mean game system, not operating system. *shrug*

 

[Elenchus]

Bad news imo. MS’s studios need to be laser focused on making traditional games. Splitting resources to serve a headset that fewer than a quarter of your user base will own (and that’s being extremely generous) does not make much sense. Not worth it just to take away a talking point from Sony because no one cares about that point.

Truth is PSVR is going nowhere unless MS joins the VR race because no big AAA third party games will be made for PSVR unless MS also has a VR customer base to sell to. Sony is currently burdened with the R&D costs of VR and the obligation to split its studios. If MS were more shrewd they would decline VR outright and leave Sony holding the bag.

Jumping in is basically a bailout.

 

[Gavin Stevens]

Good news. Xbox need a VR headset. It’s odd they don’t have one at all. And the rift is a fantastic product, that they essentially don’t have to do anything for. Win win.

 

[fastest finger]

Why would they partner with Oculus when there have been WMR headsets out there for ages?

 

[Gavin Stevens]

Why would they partner with Oculus when there have been WMR headsets out there for ages?

Why would you play for Liverpool when you’ve been playing with your local weekend team for ages?

 

[Xenon]

This aligns with MS strategies thus far. It gives players options. If they make games play anywhere for Win and Xbox while picking up the port costs for older games. They can catch up in VR quickly for very little dev cost. Plus PC games are made for multiple devices so they could always come up with their own wireless device when they want or support multiple devices like Vive as well. Other than some fans of other vr formats whining about "exclusives" this would be a total win.

 

[Romulus]

Truth is PSVR is going nowhere unless MS joins the VR race because no big AAA third party games will be made for PSVR unless MS also has a VR customer base to sell to. Sony is currently burdened with the R&D costs of VR and the obligation to split its studios. If MS were more shrewd they would decline VR outright and leave Sony holding the bag.

Jumping in is basically a bailout.

Not sure if you've played Astrobot or Blood and Truth but they are about as AAA as I've ever played. Not to mention RE7 VR which is exclusive to the unit. Looks of other exclusive games to the headset.

I don't think Sony needs MS at all, Much of the complaints with psvr from devs perspective is the ps4 itself and ps5 is confirmed to work with it.

Like another poster said, I think Microsoft should just focus in traditional gaming and build a solid library of games first, because imo psvr exclusives are better than xbox's atm as an accessory.

 

[VindicatorZ]

Bad news imo. MS’s studios need to be laser focused on making traditional games. Splitting resources to serve a headset that fewer than a quarter of your user base will own (and that’s being extremely generous) does not make much sense. Not worth it just to take away a talking point from Sony because no one cares about that point.

Truth is PSVR is going nowhere unless MS joins the VR race because no big AAA third party games will be made for PSVR unless MS also has a VR customer base to sell to. Sony is currently burdened with the R&D costs of VR and the obligation to split its studios. If MS were more shrewd they would decline VR outright and leave Sony holding the bag.

Jumping in is basically a bailout.

There's always a VR naysayer on here. ALWAYS. You make a point about VR being niche for now, but it will keep growing and it IS worth it.

 

[Jagz]

I think they mean game system, not operating system. *shrug*

Oculus Rift S is a PCVR headset for Windows as well, though.

Just strange that the article doesn't mention Windows MR headsets, or the fact that MS has an internal AR/VR division.

 

[mckmas8808]

It would be stupid for MS to NOT do this. It's very clear that VR will be a part of the future of video games forever in some way. So why delay the obvious?

 

[ResilientBanana]

The Rift S also has inside out tracking of the controllers, so a camera and sensors are completely unnecessary, This may also confirm DisplayPort on the console, which helps the odds of 120fps.

 

[Burrito Bandito]

pretty excited for this. I already have a Rift on the PC and have been looking for an excuse to get another headset to play with my daughter

 

[John117]

I would like a Headset by Microsoft.


The dream is a Headset theme Masterchief Helmet

 

[onQ123]

It's basically gonna be a standardized Windows device MS actually have to go out of their way for it not to work with it.

 

[Romulus]

It would be stupid for MS to NOT do this. It's very clear that VR will be a part of the future of video games forever in some way. So why delay the obvious?

I agree but I also think Microsoft has their hands full with traditional gaming and the idea of a peripheral added to mix seems like too much. Not counting exclusives, adding VR support to traditional games isn't easy either, so it would add to their already taxed pipeline. Phil also said he wasn't interested in VR until he had a wireless solution. That's a ways off on terms of making it affordable.

I'm thinking mid generation at best. But if I had to guess, I'd say even longer. The idea that something is plug and play VR sounds good but games have to built for Scarlett specifically. I don't see that for years to come.

Right now I see Microsoft as laser focused on regaining their gaming foothold in traditional gaming. VR as incredible as it is, it's not winning wars for them and they're fighting a losing war.

 

[UltimaKilo]

There's always a VR naysayer on here. ALWAYS. You make a point about VR being niche for now, but it will keep growing and it IS worth it.

Of course, because they have no foresight or vision of how the tech will improve.

If it turns out it’s Rift S only, I’ll be disappointed. The shitty FOV, refresh rate, crappy panels... They should make it open to all. Better yet, buy out Pimax.

 

[Codes 208]

Bad news imo. MS’s studios need to be laser focused on making traditional games. Splitting resources to serve a headset that fewer than a quarter of your user base will own (and that’s being extremely generous) does not make much sense. Not worth it just to take away a talking point from Sony because no one cares about that point.

Truth is PSVR is going nowhere unless MS joins the VR race because no big AAA third party games will be made for PSVR unless MS also has a VR customer base to sell to. Sony is currently burdened with the R&D costs of VR and the obligation to split its studios. If MS were more shrewd they would decline VR outright and leave Sony holding the bag.

Jumping in is basically a bailout.

This sounds more like a “we’ll let someone else do it” allowing to givethe option for devs to have VR on the platform but without actually having to do much with it themselves. Its not like having this option will make MS go “halo 7 will be VR only lol”

On top of that, being an already existing platform would open up the VR to much more apps than if MS made their own closed VR ecosystem, which is itself an advantage over the psvr.

 

[Alexios]

Maybe they support Rift because they want the Oculus exclusives as they're some of the few VR games with high production values (as indie devs don't risk that without Oculus footing the bill to ensure they live through) and the deal includes porting those over. But yeah it makes little sense to not support WMR sets (and for the article to not mention them at all, lol?) in favor of the Rift unless they're actually about to end that initiative and admit defeat in the VR space or something, which would be weird to see so soon and when their MR platform is still trucking along with the AR stuff.

 

[Silent Viper]

Why would they partner with Oculus when there have been WMR headsets out there for ages?

They will partner with them now coz Oculus has wireless VR headset and MS always talked about wireless headsets being future. Teaming up with Oculus will give them access to wireless headset and all Oculus games without wasting their own money on R&D

 

[mckmas8808]

I agree but I also think Microsoft has their hands full with traditional gaming and the idea of a peripheral added to mix seems like too much. Not counting exclusives, adding VR support to traditional games isn't easy either, so it would add to their already taxed pipeline. Phil also said he wasn't interested in VR until he had a wireless solution. That's a ways off on terms of making it affordable.

I'm thinking mid generation at best. But if I had to guess, I'd say even longer. The idea that something is plug and play VR sounds good but games have to built for Scarlett specifically. I don't see that for years to come.

Right now I see Microsoft as laser focused on regaining their gaming foothold in traditional gaming. VR as incredible as it is, it's not winning wars for them and they're fighting a losing war.

Why not just allow 3rd party devs to make games for the Oculus Rift S on the MS Scarlett console? Why does MS need to make VR games at all?

 

[StreetsofBeige]

If MS can leech off Oculus support and get devs to make games work on Xbox I'm all for it for VR gamers.

Personally, no motion controls, Kinect, Cortana, VR for me. Don't want MS spending resources gunning for VR like they wasted time and money on all those Kinect games.

 

[Romulus]

Why not just allow 3rd party devs to make games for the Oculus Rift S on the MS Scarlett console? Why does MS need to make VR games at all?

They can. It's just you look at PS4's userbase at 100 million with 5 million PSVRs. That's pretty darn small. Mircosoft's fanbase is even smaller, much smaller, so resources devoted to that will be an even bigger risk. It'll get there, its just a slow burn. We're still at the phase to where people are watching YT videos of VR and they think they understand VR. Most still haven't tried it.

 

[Alexios]

They will partner with them now coz Oculus has wireless VR headset and MS always talked about wireless headsets being future. Teaming up with Oculus will give them access to wireless headset and all Oculus games without wasting their own money on R&D

They don't have a wireless set... Quest is a stand-alone set so the wires are all within. Just like Go was, but now with 6dof. It doesn't (officially) stream PC or other platform games wirelessly, nor is it built for that purpose (which would need custom wi-fi solution on both ends to be flawless).

Rift S is not much different to WMR in methodology, just with additional cameras with Oculus own tracking solution where current WMR sets have only 2 cameras. It really makes little sense if they ONLY support Rift S and not anything WMR. Unless they're killing WMR and gain Oculus games.

But, supporting both could be more hassle than it's worth as hand positions and gestures/features would need to be tweaked for both WMR and Rift S to feel right in both which would needlessly complicate things for the devs (unless their games already supported both on PC, but still, yeah).

 

[mckmas8808]

They don't have a wireless set... Quest is a stand-alone set so the wires are all within. Just like Go was, but now with 6dof. It doesn't (officially) stream PC or other platform games wirelessly, nor is it built for that purpose (which would need custom wi-fi solution on both ends to be flawless).

Good point.

 

[Slings and Arrows]

If MS can leech off Oculus support and get devs to make games work on Xbox I'm all for it for VR gamers.

Personally, no motion controls, Kinect, Cortana, VR for me. Don't want MS spending resources gunning for VR like they wasted time and money on all those Kinect games.

I agree but VR is a very different beast from Kinect, cortana, Wii and PSeye

 

[fastest finger]

They will partner with them now coz Oculus has wireless VR headset and MS always talked about wireless headsets being future. Teaming up with Oculus will give them access to wireless headset and all Oculus games without wasting their own money on R&D

Rift S isn’t wireless though.

 

[MiyazakiHatesKojima]

A fantastic move by Microsoft, if true.

 

[DESTROYA]

Truthfully I’m not into the VR scene but good for those that are.

 

[MrCunningham]

It makes perfect sense. This would be a way for Microsft to get into VR without having to commit to it. Also, it is just another platform for Oculus to get in on.