Xbox head Phil Spencer was in the news earlier this week for being a little bit too critical of VR in a recent interview with Stevivor. Stating that "nobody’s asking for VR" and commenting on how isolating the experience can be, he drew some flack from the virtual reality community and even PlayStation executive Shuhei Yoshida, who responded in a lowkey fashion on Twitter. However, the Microsoft employee has now walked back his comments to a degree.
Responding to a tweet, Spencer says: "For us, it's about focus on our innovations right now. I've played some great VR games, I got to play HL:Alyx in the summer, amazing. It's just not our focus with Scarlett."
It now becomes even clearer that PlayStation VR won't receive any competition from Xbox in the console VR space, with Spencer stating that the firm's next-generation system won't be focusing on virtual reality. That is despite the fact that the Xbox One X's original pitch talked about delivering "high fidelity VR" -- something that clearly hasn't come to fruition. PSVR will continue to battle it out with PC-centric headsets, but it's a space that it is almost dominating in. We'll see if Half-Life: Alyx changes that.
What do you make of Phil Spencer's latest comments? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
[source twitter.com]
Comments 21
No battle...psvr won. Lol. Economical pricing (compared) and good 1st and decent 3rd partt support
So it's not 4k talk anymore now but 4kS. It's all about marketing
Not surprised they aren't focusing on VR. Remember their last big Peripheral? It made the console $100 more expensive and had a TV application that never materialized.
@Flopsy lol. Gotta walk back comments when a legend like Shu calls you out. Phil seems so just not know where gaming is right now. He wants the whole brand to be a service...thats just not it. I think he is genuine in his believe. I also think just because he wears a battle toads T and not a 3 piece suit doesnt give him a free pass for the decisions he has made
@Flopsy an awful man?
Watching him on the Bungie live stream last month made me switch off, I honestly dont know how they didnt smack him.
Cannot stand that guy. Never have been able to and never will. I'm so glad he doesnt work at sony.
Phil’s got such a smug face, I wonder if that’s why I can’t warm to him?
@Shepherd_Tallon it’s hard not to be fond of him? Lol i find it very hard to like him at all!
Also how exactly has he turned around Xbox? They are nowhere near as good as their peak during the original Xbox and I can’t believe he still has a job after being in charge for a whole generation with next to no exclusive games...
@Shepherd_Tallon Phil is just a businessman, he is not a nerd at all and has no gaming or tech background. His nervousness is disingenuous as you can tell that he is lying thtough his teeth. Just look up his China interviews to see the real Phil Spencer.
@Dodoo Phil was brought in to sell a service and every move he made has shown that. Nadella put him in charge for that reason.
Classic shady business. Tell customers what they want to hear, no matter how false it is lol.
The guy is a total idiot, and will say literally anything to try and pull people to the Xbox brand. He got flack so he U-turned. The guy cannot be trusted and I'm so glad he is in the Xbox and not Sony camp. Going into the next generation is going to be super tough for Microsoft, given how badly they dropped the ball, and it's going to be a big test to see if Phil can gain traction with Xbox. With all the Playstation franchises now, backwards compatibility, 100 million+ players all almost certainly going for PS5 unless Microsoft does some super crazy discount or something to make Xbox somehow more appealing.....yeah, good luck Phil.
@3Above
Here's the thing though, nobody ever even thought they would focus on VR. It's a mind trick to swallow the pill. When they announced VR for xb1x, it was not a focus either. Just support. I don't know who would have thought otherwise.
It's a bit like Sony would say 8k isn't their focus for people to cheer. Yea duh.
@Shepherd_Tallon it’s probably sold about half of what the PS4 has sold. Minimized damage from a terrible start maybe, but hardly turned around from any perspective.
Phil must have played Astrobot in between tweets.
@BorderlineJon I wouldn't say "hey we're still not doing VR" as a U-turn. If he says he likes VR games that's fine. Literally nothing changed. Just fanciful words to soften the blow to Xbox fans looking for VR at best.
@GodGamer What do you mean? He started as a programmer at Microsoft. Sounds pretty technical to me. I think Phil has the appearance of gaming competence vs. people that Microsoft could have put in his position. Hell, Satya probably wanted to cut Xbox altogether but Phil is making Xbox rake in the money. In the end, Xbox has been turned into a bunch of sell-out subscriptions and games-as-a-service instead of the pure gaming experience and consoles they were known for. I'm still interested to see how next gen goes. Microsoft is the underdog going in so they have nothing to lose which means they might do some crazy/bad stuff.
Phil is
I just dont like how he acts its just a act. 😆
Somehow all the things he says make me hate him even more. Nothing personal just what he stands for and his remarks. Singeplayer, people want liveservice garbage, fake niceness, acting that they want crossplatform its only because they were getting destroyed.
The guy works in the industry, and right now the industry isn't being driven by VR, its being driven by 3D video fidelity & access speeds. While there are a TON of games and software out for VR the market penetration for it has been quite slim, and often even where it has been adopted it has not become a daily use device. It just isn't better than using a non VR screen yet.
He made a flippant off the cuff remark that should have been better phrased, but he's not wrong. Yes, there are people who want it, but VR isn't a market driver yet.
Can he possibly squint his eyes even more. Dude really needs to go get an eye test.
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