Xbox Series S/X: Thread 02

[Lebowski]

Haha... No.

The rumour mill is going nuts though:

- Half-Life Alyx with Valve VR support announced
- Steam App on Xbox to run all your Steam back catalogue
- Left 4 Dead 3 exclusive to Xbox

Place your bets now please...

I always wondered why they didn't set it up so Windows mixed reality headsets worked on Xbox. They went to all the trouble of selling games for it on the Microsoft store and also put out a WMR plug in for steam but never added xbox support.

The series x output is supposed to be equivalent to high spec pc with a 2080 in it isnt it? so Half-Life Alyx would fly on the Series X. If I where Microsoft id relaunch WMR as VR series X an xbox/pc compatible headset.

if Facebook can put out a headset with inside out tracking 65gig of memory and the guts of a top end android phone for £300 microsoft should be able to offer an xbox series x headset for around the £200 mark

[Neon Ignition]

For MS I think it comes down simply to expense. They (correctly) assumed VR wouldn't be profitable enough to warrant their interest and that's even more the case now than it was with XBO. It's actually quietly astounding we're potentially going to even see PSVR2.

[Cassius_Smoke]

For MS I think it comes down simply to expense. They (correctly) assumed VR wouldn't be profitable enough to warrant their interest and that's even more the case now than it was with XBO. It's actually quietly astounding we're potentially going to even see PSVR2.

I think VR needed psvr to introduce people to the idea of VR. Now we are beginning to see VR being used by the fire service, NHS and even if you get your kitchen done by Wren they stick a VR headset on you. VR is starting to enter in to normal life, and with it I think VR gaming will increase. Its a slow grower because its so alien to people.

[Lebowski]

For MS I think it comes down simply to expense. They (correctly) assumed VR wouldn't be profitable enough to warrant their interest and that's even more the case now than it was with XBO. It's actually quietly astounding we're potentially going to even see PSVR2.

PSVR is the biggest selling Vr headset in the industry with 5 million units sold as of jan this year how is that not viable?

If Microsoft thought Vr wasn't profitable then why did they make Windows Mixed reality? the puzzling thing about it was that we had a Microsoft headset that plays pretty much the entire steam VR catalogue but it never got xbox compatibility

[nonny]

I don't think it has anything to do with expense. Microsoft got burned with the Kinect and TV approach at the beginning of Xbox One and any large scale peripheral project internally now surely comes with a hard sell to execs.

I know when they were beginning the holo-lens roll out they were asked about VR and Spencer said something along the lines of "it isn't what people want right now" and basically a wait and see approach.

If MS ever decided it was time to go into VR I'm sure it wouldn't be using their own headset. They're more likely to leverage the main ones in the market as it's more straightforward.

I'd still like to see it happen to be quite honest. I feel it's something the PlayStation has with no competition right now and a real strength, even if it is niche.

I'll bet right now MS will support VR on Series X before this generation ends.

[Digfox]

The Orange Box collection was superb on Xbox 360 - Valve clearly spent a lot of time getting that right for consoles. There hasn't been anything else since then on consoles because other than HL Alyx (VR Exclusive) they haven't done anything for PC either.

Apart from L4D series, Alien Swarm, CS:GO, Portal 2, DOTA 2, Artifact and DOTA Underlords. Along with VR stuff and some co-labs with Nexon (for the Asian market). Valve were one of the forerunners at transitioning to services and that meant largely abandoning single player offline games (which is often what the 'Valve don't do anything' means). L4D 1/2 & Portal 2 were consoles games too, but as Neon mentioned they don't really care about consoles, and aren't alone in that (i.e. Riot etc.).

They also don't have shareholders pressure.

[Neon Ignition]

PSVR has sold 5m after years on the market for a system that has sold north of 100m, it's not a huge market item for Sony and doesn't receive core focus from them as a result. For a company like Microsoft who's user base is much smaller than Sony's that sales margin shrinks rapidly for an item with high R&D costs. The continued development of VR for Sony will be exactly for those non-gaming implementations and why WMR was conceptualised.

This isn't in any way a reflection of the experience, but PSVR alone was announced six years ago, it's been out for four. There's no revolution wave of demand incoming for VR, it's akin to 3D screens where any buzz has passed and isn't coming back for generations.

It is a shame, don't get me wrong, the times that something clicks with the tech are times that can't be recreated outside of VR but it's a nice peripheral to console gaming and won't become more than that at best. It's easily, easily one of the safest feeling predictions to make of the coming gen that by generations end Sony will move away from PSVR (barring a major, major cost reduction for a new model to £100 est I'd wager it sells less than PSVR1) and MS will never touch it (it doesn't really fit their game plan at all).

[wakka]

I do see people wonder often why MS doesn't support VR headsets on Xbox. To me the answer is pretty simple - there isn't really any advantage in them doing so. Supporting third party headsets and driving Xbox VR software development would require huge investment, and wouldn't shift many Xboxs nor generate much extra software sales/Game Pass revenue.

I'd honestly see a standalone Quest-like Xbox headset as more likely (still unlikely, but more likely). Priced aggressively, at least it might bring new Game Pass subscribers. I don't think it will happen either though.

[cutmymilk]

If the headsets are made for both the PC and Xbox market (same as the controllers and games) it would make sense. There are also hundreds of "oven ready" games too.

[Lebowski]

YOU LOT NEED TO DO YOUR RESEARCH

I don't know how many times i need to say this but Microsoft are heavily invested in VR already on PC with gen two WMR headsets on the horizon

Take the HP reverb a partnership between Valve and Microsoft and seen as a fantastic piece of kit with some cracking early reviews, https://www8.hp.com/us/en/vr/reverb-g2-vr-headset.html its not even out yet with nov dec being the touted date for it.


Why wouldn't Microsoft use there own platform for xbox vr when they have headsets like the above? it would make zero sense to port over a Vive or an oculus when WMR's second gen headsets are all on the horizon.

[Cassius_Smoke]

I think VR is coming. I don't think it'll die off like Neon thinks it will. Its entering in to the public domain and consciousness.
I think the Holo-lens was an excellent bit of kit. I saw a tech demo of a Doctor using one to overlay a patient with their CT scan live.

[Brad]

I used holo lens to (fake) fix a compressor on a John Deere tractor. It was a brilliant example of the tech I thought. We also put a scale model of a Star Destroyer in the middle of the room. The tracking is so good that I was able to leave the room and when I came back in it was still in the right position; no glitching at all.

[nonny]

I know MS is heavily invested in VR and AR in the PC space, but not for gaming, not for Xbox.

I think they'd just partner up with known players for hardware though. That's just my guess but who knows for sure... All I do know is VR is pretty much here to stay simply because I see the PC space rapidly improving the tech and it find more usage in real world scenarios.

Here's a piece about haptics from yesterday: https://www.engadget.com/microsoft-h...l?guccounter=1

It wouldn't be a huge leap to have MS enter the gaming space either with their own hardware or as a partnership but it needs a killer app.

On PC I guess that app is HL Alyx. On PS4 I am not sure but I know Resident Evil 7 and Atrobot were held in high regard.

[hudson]

Does Xbox cloud work on iOS?

[nonny]

Does Xbox cloud work on iOS?

Nope not currently, thank Apple.