When Microsoft announced the Xbox One X – formerly Project Scorpio – back in 2016 there was much excitement thanks to its 4K capabilities and the fact that the company said the console would support virtual reality (VR). As we now know that particular feature never came to pass, with Microsoft concentrating on HoloLens and Windows Mixed Reality (WMR) headset for PC. If you thought the company might be holding off until its next generation of consoles it seems you may be disappointed from what Tessera Studios has to say.
The Spanish studio has just released its first VR title for PlayStation VR, a psychological thriller called Intruders: Hide and Seek, involving a family attacked in their holiday home by three strangers, where you play a teenage boy who must help free his family.
In an interview with GamingBolt, Pablo Lafora, game designer at Tessera Studios discussed the fact that when it comes to VR and Xbox, Microsoft seems to have little interest. “No matter how much I ask, I never get any news on Microsoft VR,” Lafora told the website. “Just some rumours about HoloLens 2. It seems like they don’t have much interest in VR. On one hand, it looks like right now they won’t include VR features on their next console. On the other hand… that sounds really risky. Maybe the next Xbox will be HoloLens 2 compatible? It might be, but we don’t think the console/marketing will make HoloLens the core of it all.”
This has certainly been in stark contrast to Microsoft’s main rival in the console sphere, Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) and its PlayStation VR headset. SIE has continually shouted about how well both PlayStation 4 and PlayStation VR are doing, with the latter surpassing the three million mark last year.
Now just because Microsoft isn’t saying much about its next console doesn’t mean VR might not be a feature, usually, studios will get ample time to start developing content for a hardware launch. If no VR studios have been contacted then there’s a good likelihood VR isn’t happening.
If by some miracle Microsoft does decide to support the VR industry through Xbox, then VRFocus will let you know.