VR gaming is quite divisive now eventually. While you will discover developers like Turtle Rock and CCP that happen to be already keen to experiment whenever possible, other big companies just like Take-Two tend to be more lukewarm towards this new market, with CEO Strauss Zelnick still not convinced it will be “powerful technology for entertainment”.
Microsoft is sitting somewhere in between. The 1st Windows Mixed Reality headsets are emerging soon and there will be a Halo experience to experience.
That said, they haven’t really pushed to use the technology in their core games on Xbox One or Windows 10 PC. Addressing Wired included in a bigger interview on the Xbox One X, Albert Penello (Senior Director of Product Management and Planning at Microsoft) said:
There’s still a tonne of experimentation in VR. That isn’t built to be described as a backhanded statement. You’ll find obviously consumer products. Moving the problem to the display to your goggles versus the limits in the TV was a outcome of most of the 3d tv challenges. But VR has a great deal of potential. Would it be a viable consumer product? To get a certain dimensions of audience.
We learned with Kinect along with the Wii that just translating a regular game experience to VR ‘s no winning strategy. This is the oddball VR-specific points that should make it sing. It had not been something we were going to distract developers with this particular year.
It certainly sounds like Microsoft has offers to invest more in VR gaming sometime soon, then. It’s just that this timing is actually not right, between launch of the new console (the Xbox One X, being released on November 7th for $499) a good deal developers will always be accepting the terms with designing games specifically for Virtual Reality.
We can say for sure that this Xbox One X supports VR, though, therefore it’s only one matter of time before it takes place. It’s far better to wait to get it right rather then produce half-baked content you should Kinect, anyway.
