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Last June at E3 Microsoft announced Project Scorpio, its updated version of the Xbox One that promises 4K gaming and support for VR. While the company hasn’t shied away from its ambitions in the virtual – and mixed – reality space when it comes to Windows, the company has kept pretty schtum about VR on Xbox and that looks set to continue at this year’s event.
Speaking to Polygon, Microsoft technical fellow Alex Kipman said that the tech giant’s "primary focus is making our mixed reality experiences a success on Windows 10 PCs.
“We believe that right now a Windows PC is the best platform for mixed reality as its open ecosystem and enormous installed base offer the best opportunity for developers, and Windows offers the most choices for consumers.”
While this may be disappointing to those who were looking at Microsoft to produce a console competetor to the PlaySation VR, the silver lining is that when virtual reality does eventually come to Microsoft’s console it will likely be wireless.
“Windows has been the birthplace of a variety of technologies, and we believe this will hold for mixed reality too," Kipman continued. "Given the efforts we have underway on Windows for mixed reality, and our belief that console VR should be wireless, right now we are focused on developing mixed reality experiences for the PC, not on the console.”
Wireless VR is one of the biggest challenges facing the growing technology, with issues surrounding lag and responsiveness having proved to be problems for companies like HTC and Oculus. As a result, it could be a while before the tech actually gets to the stage where it’s actually possible to cut the cord on the VR headset. Indeed, the company wouldn’t answer on whether we’d actually see an Xbox VR headset before the end of 2018.
So this is all to say that when you tune into Microsoft’s E3 press conference this coming Sunday don’t expect to see any headsets. That is unless this is all a giant swerve…
