VR helmets have been a major topic of conversation for many years, and with Sony's latest investment in PS VR2, it's clear that PlayStation is pulling the heavy lifting when it comes to Virtual Reality on consoles.
Microsoft, on the other hand, has been much more hesitant on the matter, and we have yet to see any hint of a VR solution for those who prefer to play the Xbox format. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Xbox Game Studios' boss Matt Booty says that we shouldn't expect an Xbox helmet anytime soon, and the reason is simply that the company doesn't think there is a big enough demand or audience for the game mode in question.
"We have 10 games that have achieved over 10 million players life-to-date, which is a pretty big accomplishment, but that's the kind of scale that we need to see success for the game and it's just, it's not quite there yet with AR, VR."
If a player base of ten million users is what Xbox considers successful, there's a good chance we'll have to wait a very long time before we see Halo or Gears of War in a VR setting. The latest figures from PSVR sales indicate that Sony sold roughly 5 million PSVR sets for PlayStation 4, and in May this year Sony could also confirm that the new PS VR2 sold 600,000 copies during its first weeks on the market. These are not bad numbers in themselves, but they are far from the ten million that would obviously make Microsoft and Xbox want to invest in the concept.
Interstingly enough, the NPD analyst Mat Piscatella agrees with Booty's arguments, something he ackowledged on Twitter.
<social>https://twitter.com/MatPiscatella/status/1670807451770208259</social>