The Xbox One X: Is VR Incoming?

The Xbox “Scorpio”, Microsoft’s answer to the higher-performance Playstation Pro, finally has an official name: the Xbox One X.

The jury is still out on what we should actually call this new machine from Microsoft. While the original has been lovingly dubbed the “Xbone” (despite mild protest) there still isn’t a cheeky name for this new console. Xbonx? XboX?

We like ‘XOX” for Xbox One X. It’s short and easy to remember. How to pronounce it? That’s easy, you just say “hugs and kisses”!

While the gaming press figure out what to call the thing (Scorpio was a fine name!) we in the more VR-focused part of the industry are still wondering if there will be a PSVR equivalent for the second-place gaming machine?

Flip-flopping

Getting a straight answer to this question seems easier said than done. First the Wall Street Journal reported that the Xbox would not support VR, but then just a little while later a mixed reality headset for the Xbox was officially confirmed.

Now, MR is of course not VR, but we still have scant details on what this headset would actually entail or even look like.

Holo-promises?

We know that for Microsoft as a company the future is very much in mixed reality. The Hololens, although not a consumer product yet, is a concrete example of what the company thinks will be the type of digital reality we’ll all use in future. It also seems unlikely that they would go to the trouble of making a Hololens version of Minecraft without some plan to roll those types of games out to the public.

So are we going to get a tethered, cheaper consumer version of the Hololens as an Xbox peripheral? Don’t bet against it,is all we’re saying.

Crowd-pleaser

For the part of Sony with their PSVR solution, the company had already sold over 900 000 units back in February of 2017, which is means about one PSVR for every 60 PS4s on the market. That may not seem like a big deal, but consider that the total premium HMD market has only sold about six million units and it’s clear Sony is clawing a strong foothold for itself.

It also means that there is clearly a market for console VR and doubtlessly Microsoft is keen to get into the game before Sony steals even more of its thunder in this console generation.

Sony has proven that there is definite interest in affordable, console-grade VR experiences and right now they are the only game in town providing for that niche. Now we know that something is coming for the Xbox, but only time will tell what form it will take.