Xbox Boss Wants VR And Traditional Gaming To Co-Exist

In a recent interview with Gamespot, Spencer goes into detail about his views on the emerging technology and its potential to become the focus of video games, but his response may not be what you’d expect…

Phil Spencer, the overseer of the Xbox brand at Microsoft, believes the industry and its fans can benefit from discouraging the conflicts between platforms, games, or communities. He 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. I don’t think that’s a good place for our industry”, he explains. “We see the robustness of what Xbox Live is today and where people are playing across Xbox Live-you at your house, me at our house”.

Spencer was quoted as saying, “I love playing games in my family room with my kids”.

“Frankly, if I look at how Rare came out and Gears came out, and now Forza, I feel good that the teams all up have taken the lessons of last holiday of some teams missing the bar that they wanted to hit”, Spencer said.

He continued, noting that VR might be better for specific types of videogames: “I think there will be certain experiences where that’s flawless. I love what it can become”, Spencer told VentureBeat. I think that’s kind of the basis of what gaming is about. “I love the nostalgia of the couch co-op of what Halo did in the past, but I also know in the realities of the day with people’s busy lives, it’s not as easy to get everybody in the same physical place”. The latest in the company’s quest for the new-generation gaming experience has been their prototypes of reality headsets called the “Hololens”, wherein players can actually see and manipulate holograms via the device. In fact, it sounds more like Spencer is seeking to bring together those who are more partisan in their approach to gaming consoles, and wants to encourage them to speak up, to be excited for all consoles and games and the great things happening in the industry.

“…these were big entertainment moments, so we’re going to do the same thing here, because it is a franchise that I think can support that level of notoriety and exposure.”