Xbox’s Phil Spencer isn’t sold on VR but Project Scorpio is VR ready

Head of Xbox Phil Spencer is very vocal about the gaming industry. His likes and dislikes, his take on controversies, and more. He's also very open about the future of Xbox by talking about the upcoming Project Scorpio, speaking about future games, and features that are coming to the console in the future.

One of the biggest things in gaming right now is VR. Some people think its the future, some people think its a gimmick, and some think it has lots of potential but don't think it has found its place quite yet. Spencer is one of those people who sees the potential but knows its still very young. Speaking in an interview, Phil gave his thoughts on where VR is now and his hope for it both in general and with the Xbox brand.

“I don’t think the creators in the game space have yet found – well, they haven’t obviously perfected the craft of building VR games,” he said. “It’s so early, I think we’re a couple of years before we’ll really see that hit mainstream.

“I’ve seen great video uses of VR, like taking you to places you can never time travel, just the bottom of the Grand Canyon, or they simulate the surface of Mars, some really cool experiences users can see.”

He went on to mention that Project Scorpio will have VR support for when the new innovation moves beyond a "experimental" stage.

“I think VR will find its spot in gaming; I would make that bet,” he continued. “We designed Scorpio as a VR-capable console. Whether that happens this year, next year or the year after… like I said, I still think the creative community has to get its arms around what are these new tools, and this new feeling — this new immersion.

“What experiences do you put in people’s hands to have a long term engagement? Most of these things I’m playing now feel like demos and experiments, which I actually think it’s absolutely the right thing to have happened. That’s not a criticism at all, but should be happening. But I think it will take time.”

Spencer also hopes that VR will go beyond something a bulky headset that is tethered to a box somewhere in your room.

“If I think about the technology I would say the idea… that I’m going to put on a head-mounted display and have a wire hanging out the back of my head that connects to some box in a room [is wrong]. It’s gotta go away. Most non-core gaming people are not going to do that.

“Whether people are going to put something on their head, I think is actually a legitimate question. They’re definitely not going to walk around in a shielded environment with a cord at scale. That’s absolutely where VR has to be today.”

Project Scorpio is due out next holiday season and will be a much powerful console compared to the Xbox One, PS4, and potentially even the PS4 Pro. The console boasts 4K gaming, VR support, better performance on all games, and backward compatibility on Xbox One and Xbox 360 games. Spencer also recently mentioned Scorpio won't be held back by Xbox One thanks to developers already comfortable with PC development.

[Stevivor]