Phil Spencer hasn’t given up on Xbox VR, even if the technology isn’t in the company’s immediate plans. The Xbox boss has said that he hopes virtual reality will become a “no-brainer” for the company, even though it has yet to release its own VR headset like Sony’s PSVR.
Spencer previously made some divisive comments regarding Xbox’s plans for virtual reality, saying that “nobody was asking” for a VR headset to be released for the Xbox Series X. However, in a recent interview, Spencer provided a more diplomatic response, saying that he hopes VR becomes so big that Xbox can’t continue to ignore it.
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“There are a lot of people I know that are working on some good VR titles, great VR titles, and I’m not trying to not be supportive of that,” Spencer told Gamertag Radio. “My main point was, I wanted to be clear with our customers on where our focus was. So that if somebody was waiting for us to bring out a VR headset for Series X, at the launch or something — we’re not going to do that.”
Discussing his thoughts on the future of VR and Xbox’s potential involvement with it, Spencer continued: “I don’t hope it goes away – I hope it gets bigger. I hope it’s something that’s so important that it would be a no-brainer for us to go and support it.”
Microsoft previously teased that VR functionality would be coming to the Xbox One X, before withdrawing its plans to release a VR headset for the console. However, now that headsets such as the Oculus Quest are bringing virtual reality to the mainstream, it seems Spencer is more confident in Xbox eventually releasing a virtual reality headset of its own.
While a VR headset for the Xbox Series X is likely a long way off from happening, it’s at least interesting to note that Spencer is no longer completely dismissive of virtual reality.