In the new issue of Edge Magazine, Phil Spencer spoke about the Xbox brand, Sony's "Project Morpheus" and how Microsoft will react to the eve of true virtual reality. Spencer made it clear that Microsoft has no plans – for now – to engagein the virtual reality arena.
Spencer began with a statement regarding Sony's Project Morpheus and how far off its release still is:
“It’s more of an announcement than anybody really having any VR stuff right now – and that’s not a shot at Sony. I mean, it’s hard tech, and I think it’s great what they’re doing with Morpheus. But they’ve announced [it for] the first half of 2016, so a little over a year from now.”
He then went on to say that there isn't anything keeping Microsoft from participating in the virtual reality fad, they're just choosing to stay away from it until they see that it will be successful:
“I look at VR as an interesting space. It’s certainly different to the mixed reality we do with HoloLens, but there’s nothing that precludes us from doing something in the VR space,”
Spencer then said that they are looking for ways to positively impact the Xbox One experience. He adds a disclaimer that says the company may one day try virtual reality out:
“As you say, there are partners out there, and while these guys are PC-based today, if we want to do something with Xbox… Right now, it’s just been about technologies and things that I think we need to do on Xbox One to make the experience better, and that’s where our focus has been. And I don’t think VR is a now thing. I’m not saying it’s five years from now, but it’s not really a now now thing. Valve’s got their VR thing, which I think is great; Samsung has GearVR, too.”
