In a new interview at WSJ, Xbox’s Phil Spencer shared some interesting tidbits about Xbox’s view on VR. According to Spencer, Xbox is staying out of the VR hardware market. He applauds Sony for their venture into VR, but Xbox remains focused on software and games going forward. Here’s what he had to say (thanks, VGC):
“I think that when we think about immersion, we think about mixed reality, virtual reality, I’ll even take it to ‘metaverse’, which seems to be the buzzword of the day now.
We’re big believers in that software platform and the devices that will enable that. Absolutely. [But] we’re focused a lot more on the software side of that right now. When I think about immersive worlds and I think about the connection of a player and community, that’s something that’s very high on our investment list.
I think the devices that are out there now, we stay connected with a lot of the players that are out there. [With] people building hardware, a lot of that happens on Windows and we experiment and talk to a lot of the partners that are there.
I think that the hardware innovation that’s happening is great and it’s an important enabler, [but] right now I’m deciding to stay more in the software side of that enablement. I believe it will scale better in the long run.
And you know, I applaud what Sony‘s doing, I applaud what Oculus is doing, what Valve has done. I mean, there’s a lot of good players out there that have done some amazing VR work.
But yeah, we’re gonna stay as a company right now in the consumer space focused on software, and I think that’s a good bet.”
Spencer also states that Xbox is not done acquiring studios and says “there’s no quota” in regards to that. Xbox is bolstering their lineup of studios in preparation for large content offerings and games during the Xbox Series X|S generation. We can’t wait to see what comes next after Forza Horizon 5 and Halo Infinite release this fall.
In the meantime, stay tuned at Final Weapon for the latest gaming news and updates!
