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Microsoft Closes Door on Console VR ....for now!

kevinw729
Honored Visionary

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https://uploadvr.com/phil-spencer-quest-2/

https://vrawards.aixr.org/ "The Out-of-Home Immersive Entertainment Frontier: Expanding Interactive Boundaries in Leisure Facilities" https://www.amazon.co.uk/Out-Home-Immersive-Entertainment-Frontier/dp/1472426959
13 REPLIES 13

OmegaM4N
Expert Trustee

FH4 is on the W10 store and Steam, so they could add VR support for all the present HMDs for PCVR, and i would be up for that. 🙂

CV1/Vive-knuckles)/Dell Vr Visor/Go/Quest II/ PSVR.

It's more likely that they're looking at the possibility of an xbox streaming service with an app for Quests in stand-alone mode.

 

They're introducing streaming for Office 365, at first for business users, giving the ability to have their Windows PC on any connected device with a browser.

 

Wouldn't surprise me if MS and FB are looking to partner, may even be something that's in development. Just depends on getting latency low enough for VR gaming.

 

Just my guess of course.

I think that is a plausible speculation - as we know Microsoft has been involved in some software projects with Oculus a few years back, and obviously the whole seated only CV1 gamepads, and console discussions. Would be a strong move to have a streaming capability linked to quest2, though we have to temper this speculation as we saw with the claims that Rift-S was going to support XBoneX - it eventually amounted to nothing.

https://vrawards.aixr.org/ "The Out-of-Home Immersive Entertainment Frontier: Expanding Interactive Boundaries in Leisure Facilities" https://www.amazon.co.uk/Out-Home-Immersive-Entertainment-Frontier/dp/1472426959


@kevinw729 wrote:

 though we have to temper this speculation as we saw with the claims that Rift-S was going to support XBoneX - it eventually amounted to nothing.


 

This claim, which is usually stated once a year, remains untrue.

 

As pointed out each time this is brought up, those who actually owned the Rift were able to stream XBox games to their Rift directly via the official Rift App:

https://www.oculus.com/experiences/rift/1266881563371842/?locale=en_US

 

Microsoft continues to play their role in supporting VR, such as partnering with Oculus Studios to build out the Bladerunner VR experience, which I personally loved.

 

But when it comes to tempering speculation, I would say that it applies more to all the wishful thinking around LBE and OOH eventually making a comeback, especially when we consider how successful Microsoft has been with the HoloLens. They landed a multimillion dollar deal with the U.S. Military to build out HoloLens technology. That alone far exceeds all the speculation around LBE and OOH one day becoming profitable.

 

Personally, I think that all the speculation around VR is better viewed as fun and uplifting. The goal of the speculation is to imagine all the great things to come. There's no reason to twist the otherwise fun nature of future tech speculation in to a situation of... "keeping a scorecard" to see who was right vs wrong.

 

I suppose keeping score can be fun too, but it only works when everyone admits when they were wrong! 😉

Yep I think it's easy to mistake speculation for wishful thinking if you're outside of the consumer VR community looking in or are in some way invested in the promotion of other areas of VR.

Speculation for most of us is is just that, speculation, not promotion.

 

I'm not wishing for Xbox inclusion, although I can see the benefits for some, particularly Microsoft and if they're making noises about the Quest being the best VR experience, that could be a pointer. For me, the Quest stands on it's own merits having been using it regularly since launch.

 

The benefit for Microsoft would be that they dont have to invest in developing a VR headset that would end up competing against a competitor like the Quest. Better option for them is to partner, if the technical hurdles can be met. Streaming Xbox pancake games onto the Rift via an app is a thing but it's limited in appeal. Streaming VR games would be a sensible next step.

 

This also doesn't have to be limited to the Quest, a streaming app could be made to work on any headset. It depends how much input is needed from the headset manufacturer in terms of the app development or support.

kevinw729
Honored Visionary

Thank you as always for your unique perspective.
I understand you have attempted in the past to state that it may be difficult to comprehend the situation from "inside" the community or "outside". I understand that this is a continuance of your unhappiness of those that work in the sector commenting on this forum, but as previous moderators have informed you this is not an issue. I am sorry that you feel it needs to be repeated after failing to find agreement the last times.

Towards the actual topic, the reality for Microsoft will be if they change their position towards pivoting back to VR. The operation has already investment in VR through its WindowMR platform, and supported reference designs for a number of VR headsets. That Oculus chose not to be part of this initiative was telling after previously being closely associated with MS.

The compromise of quest2 support as a streaming VR target too the console would be a simple compromise, and offer the "best of both worlds". However for PaulS to have doubled down so hard on his feeling about VR would make this a difficult pivot. This could be something that could be aimed at a Quest3 launch - and would support speculation that Q3 will have extended wireless capability.

https://vrawards.aixr.org/ "The Out-of-Home Immersive Entertainment Frontier: Expanding Interactive Boundaries in Leisure Facilities" https://www.amazon.co.uk/Out-Home-Immersive-Entertainment-Frontier/dp/1472426959

Thank you for your unique views also kevin, it's debatable which of our respective views are the most unique (undemocratic? bringing the VR community down 🙄 ). Not sure what I was told, could you be more specific? I tend to keep copies of conversations but I can't find reference to the telling that you refer.

 

Anyway, as you say, back to the subject, I think the problem is that you're often looking 'pivots' or 'telling' decisions as if companies are personalities with 'positions'. I think that makes things easier to comment on but probably not really representative of how industry decisions are made. They're much more impersonal, continually adapting to developments, economy, performance analytics etc etc.

 

For MS, WMR is a platform rather than a hardware opportunity (except within the military and industrial sectors where hardware is very much part of the platform development). WMR in the consumer sector isn't the same, it's a platform which is available for any headset manufacturer to use if they choose. As you say, some are using it but it hasn't really gained traction there. What would have been the argument for Oculus to use WMR? I can't think of one even though you describe it as an initiative. It isn't, it's MS's VR/AR platform.

 

OpenXR is an initiative, which MS, Oculus and the others use. Software devs us it if cross-platform, single-route development is what they prefer, in lieu or the possible performance gains when using a manufacturer specific SDK route.

 

So previous and future partnerships shouldn't be seen in the context of whether MS and Oculus have worked together or not, I think that's way too simplistic.

 

I agree that an xbox VR app on the Quest platform wouldn't be around the corner, if indeed it's on the cards. Headset manufacturers look 2 headsets ahead developing 3 or 4 years into the future, So decisions made by MS would be similar long-term. Even if this is a Quest 4 thing, that could be sufficient for MS to say it's not worth developing a VR headset that would be superseded by a Quest app in 2 or 3 years. They may think that  the VR market isn't giving the necessary returns for a relatively short period to justify the outlay.

Okay, once again thank you for your opinion.
I think I will need to **bleep** this in the bud or it will turn into a discussion about your interpretation of my perception which is wrong, and as you are moving on from moderation duties as we now have a community moderator, its best we focus.

Just to clarify - I do not really appreciate the use of labeling terms such as "haters", or "insiders" or "outsiders" - I know you have not always used them, but the tone is feeling grating. The excessive use of "I think" kind of illustrates my feeling that you are "interpreting  to try and prove a point", rather than giving your own view on the topic.

This is all I have to say on this, as I do not want to encourage more toxic discussion and feel we can avoid derailing this and get back on track. I appreciate our interchange, but would prefer the avoidance of interpretation and just give us your view.

To the crux of your point - the personalization of a companies position is not the intent of my opinion - it was to point to the direction and focus that a company has associated itself with - a direction selected. As we saw with Oculus, for many it was a surprise when the company focused on a seated only experience with Microsoft - but eventually pivoted to Room Scale. The same way to pivot away from a partnership on CV1 / Xbone as many though the direction had been suggested.

This may be more about the drip feed of "official" information, against confirmed statements. An artificially created situation to allow some ambiguity and also confuse competition, (some corporations employ this more than others). 

https://vrawards.aixr.org/ "The Out-of-Home Immersive Entertainment Frontier: Expanding Interactive Boundaries in Leisure Facilities" https://www.amazon.co.uk/Out-Home-Immersive-Entertainment-Frontier/dp/1472426959

kevinw729
Honored Visionary

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I am sorry - the word "**bleep**" is not offensive, the automated algorithm may need to be addressed here.

https://vrawards.aixr.org/ "The Out-of-Home Immersive Entertainment Frontier: Expanding Interactive Boundaries in Leisure Facilities" https://www.amazon.co.uk/Out-Home-Immersive-Entertainment-Frontier/dp/1472426959