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Xbox chief Phil Spencer has said that he hopes virtual reality doesn’t become the only way people experience games in the future, due to the way the technology blocks players out from the social aspect of gaming.
Talking to GameSpot about whether he believed VR and AR would form the future of gaming, Spencer said: “Well, now it’s just my opinion. I’ll say, obviously we have relationships with Valve, we have a relationship with Oculus around the VR work that they’re doing, but I’m going to say I kind of hope not.
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“It doesn’t mean I don’t think VR has great experiences to offer. I think it does, and we’ll find those, and people will love playing those. I love playing games in my family room with my kids. I love people coming together and watching what’s happening on screen and laughing, and the kind of fun of what video games were always about. That doesn’t mean that can’t happen in a kind of socially connected VR environment, but to me it would be too bad if all gaming became people with head mounted displays on, headphones on, kind of blocked out from everything that happens.”
Spencer acknowledges the benefits of VR, however, adding that he does believe “there’ll be great experiences there, but just kind of for the sake of what gaming is, I don’t think that should be the only way people play.”
“I think there will be certain experiences where that’s perfect,” he said. “I don’t know necessarily if it will be genre based, but I just love me watching you play Mario and giving you ideas about where things might be, and we laugh, and we can kind of sit around and eat chips, and do things that people do. I think that’s kind of the basis of what gaming is about.”
Microsoft has not yet announced plans to launch a virtual-reality headset on Xbox One, but has partnered with Valve and Oculus to support the technology on Windows 10. It will also bundle an Xbox One controller with every Oculus Rift headset.
Xbox One games can be streamed directly to a virtual cinema within Oculus Rift, too.
Microsoft’s own technology, however, Microsoft HoloLens, is focussed on glasses-based holograms and augmented reality, allowing users to overlay projections into the real-world environment.
PlayStation VR, a virtual reality headset for PS4, meanwhile, launches in 2016.
Source: gamespot.com
