Welp, sounds like Microsoft isn’t bringing VR to the Xbox One any time soon

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Microsoft has decided not to bring mixed reality (MR) experiences to the company’s Xbox consoles. Instead, it plans on focusing on MR for PCs instead, according to TNW.

It was in March 2017 when Microsoft announced at the Game Developer’s Conference that it would bring MR and VR gaming to Xbox consoles in 2018. However, at last week’s E3, Microsoft Chief Marketing Officer Mike Nichols said:

We don’t have any plans specific to Xbox consoles in virtual reality or mixed reality. Our perspective on it has been and continues to be that the PC is probably the best platform for more immersive VR and MR.

As TNW rightly explains:

It’s disappointing to learn that a high-end console like the Xbox One X won’t be of any use to folks who want to try VR games, and will instead have to rely on a beefy gaming PC to do so instead. It’s also odd to hear, because Microsoft has been keen on developing and delivering games that run on both Xbox and Windows platforms, and it stands to reason that customers will want that experience to extend to VR content as well.

It wasn’t always this way.

In June 2016, Xbox chief Phil Spencer said the Xbox One X console, then known as Project Scorpio, was ideally suited for VR, explaining, “This is hardware built specifically to lead the console industry into true 4K gaming and high-fidelity VR.”

As CNET explained:

But Spencer told CNET’s sister site Giant Bomb something different in June 2017. In a candid interview with Giant Bomb’s Jeff Gerstmann, Spencer admitted he had misgivings about whether VR was ready, saying he was merely “long-term bullish” about the tech. “I worry that a couple years ago, we had maybe an over-exuberance around VR which put more interest in it than maybe the tech and experiences could deliver,” he said.

There’s still hope VR and MR could come to a Microsoft console, eventually. Earlier this month, it was reported the Xbox One successor, known as Project Scarlett, would be revealed in 2020.

Do you wish Microsoft would bring VR and MR to Xbox? Let us know down below in the comments.

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