Unlike PlayStation, Xbox hasn’t made any concrete moves in the VR space, and that’s apparently because it doesn’t think the audience is there just yet.
There’s a bit of a debate to be had about how successful VR is or is not at this point in time, and it seems like Xbox might also be a bit uncertain about it too. In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Xbox Game Studios head Matt Booty shared his thoughts on VR, and the way that Xbox is approaching the medium. “I think for us, it’s just a bit of wait until there’s an audience there,” said Booty. “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.” By the sounds of things, Microsoft is looking for that big of a playerbase to be achieved with a VR or AR title before it moves into the space.
According to a report from The Verge earlier this year, the Meta Quest 2 had apparently sold around 20 million units at the time, so with such a small user base, there isn’t much room for any one game to have anything close to 10 million players. While we don’t have any figures since then, Sony shared in May that the PSVR2 sold around 600,000 units during its first six weeks on sale, and predictions that it will outsell Sony’s first headset (the original PSVR sold five million units by the end of 2019).
Xbox head Phil Spencer did say in 2019 that Xbox players weren’t asking for VR, though did later express hope that the company will support it at some point. Seeing as we’re a few years on from those comments, I wouldn’t hold my breath for an Xbox VR headset (they should absolutely call it the Xbox 360 for the fun of it, though).
Oisin Kuhnke
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