Xbox head Phil Spencer has said that VR is more of a Microsoft thing than an Xbox thing, expanding upon comments he initially made to Stevivor at X019 in London.
“I probably overstated,” Spencer told Gamertag Radio. “For the people who love VR and the experiences that are being built, no disrespect to any of the teams there. My main point was I wanted to be clear with our customers on where our focus was. If somebody was waiting for us to bring out a headset for Series X at launch, I was just trying to say, we’re not going to do that.”
Speaking with Stevivor, Spencer said that he had “some issues with VR — it’s isolating and I think of games as a communal, kind of together experience,” before concluding, “we’re responding to what our customers are asking for and… nobody’s asking for VR.
To further this, Spencer told Gamertag Radio that adding VR to a gaming console isn’t “as simple as just plugging a headset in,” stressing that, “our most precious resource is the team and their ability, I just have to focus on the things we’re doing right now.”
Ultimately, Spencer concluded that VR is more closely tied to Windows than Xbox, but that said, he will continue to investigate VR and its applications.
“We’re never going to close our eyes to where things are going,” Spencer said. “I don’t hope it goes away. I hope it gets bigger, I hope it’s something that’s just so important that it’d be a no brainer for us to support it.
“My main point wasn’t to shade anyone who’s working on VR or anything but really just about the stuff we’re focused on and that’s not part of the equation right now.”
What do you make of Spencer’s comments?
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