Xbox Believes VR Gaming Is Not Big Enough For Investments

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Abiyan

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Since Sony has been heavily invested in the VR market, many have been looking forward to competition from Xbox. However, the gaming giant does not appear to be interested in this genre of gaming.

According to the Head of Xbox Game Studios, VR is a very small market for investments, and it will take time for it to become worthwhile.

Why it Matters: PlayStation has recently released the PS VR2. The headset boasts innovations like an OLED display and 120Hz support. Recent titles like Gran Turismo 7 VR have also been received very well.

In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Matt Booty was asked about a potential push for VR. He stated:

“I think for us, it’s just a bit of wait until there’s an audience there.”

While talking about Microsoft’s metric for success, Matt Booty stated that games are required to reach over 10 million players. Xbox currently has ten games achieving these figures, but this may not be possible with VR. He further said:

“it’s just, it’s not quite there yet with AR/VR.”

Compared to PlayStation, Xbox is not the market leader. This means the gaming giant has less room for risks and experiments like VR headsets. Since Xbox is looking to achieve over ten million players in games, a VR push would not make much sense.

While VR gaming has benefits, it is a very niche market for now. A recent report suggested that the Meta Quest 2 had sold over 20 million units, and PSVR sold over 5 million units.

With the limited number of users having VR headsets, it is difficult for games to reach the massive audiences that Xbox is looking for.

Xbox is currently focused on releasing more first-party titles and bringing users to its subscription service. Xbox Game Pass has already become popular for a value-oriented subscription, and future releases like Starfield will add to this value further.

Therefore, Microsoft will likely continue to avoid the VR market for several years.

Abiyan

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