It’s come as a surprise to many that Xbox hasn’t jumped into the VR gaming market as Sony and others have done. Especially considering the Xbox brand’s reputation for being on the bleeding edge when it comes to hardware innovations, as well as its mission to bring Xbox to as many platforms as possible (as in with the Xbox app on mobile devices and PC).
Nevertheless it doesn’t look like that is set to change anytime soon. Or at least, now when going off recent comments made by Microsoft Studios head Matt Booty in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter.
When asked about the possibility of the Xbox brand expanding into VR, Booty had this to say.
I think for us, it’s just a bit of wait until there’s an audience there. We’re very fortunate that we have got these big IPs that have turned into ongoing franchises with big communities. We have 10 games that have achieved over 10 million players life-to-date, which is a pretty big accomplishment, but that’s the kind of scale that we need to see success for the game and it’s just, it’s not quite there yet with AR, VR.
This as many of Microsoft’s rivals are exploring the realm of VR/AR. Sony has its PlayStation VR2, and Valve is reportedly working on a successor to its Valve Index VR gaming headset. And most recently, Apple finally unveiled its Apple Vision Pro headset during this year’s WWDC event.
This isn’t the first time Xbox spokespersons have rejected rumors that the company may indeed be looking to at least experiment with VR gaming. In spite of this it was reported back in May that patent filings appearing online were for a device using eye-tracking technology, which would strongly suggest some type of headset device. Likely Microsoft is simply biding its time until VR begins to take off, if and when that happens.
Featured image via Polygon.