Xbox One X Ignored VR—Just Like Everyone Else

Microsoft’s press event at gaming conference E3 this week drew the massive attention you’d expect from one of the big three console makers. The substance of that attention, though, wasn’t on new exclusive titles, or even the kludgy branding of the company’s new high-powered Xbox One X console. In fact, Microsoft garnered the most attention for what it didn’t say: what form, if any, its vision for console-based virtual reality will take.

The absence of VR at least shouldn’t have come as a surprise. That’s in part because the company warned a few days earlier that it wouldn’t dive into “mixed reality,” Microsoft's umbrella term for virtual and augmented reality experiences. But it’s also because of a simple truth. The console VR experience isn’t yet good enough to be a must-have feature. If and when it finally is, the Xbox One X will be more than ready for it.

In October of last year, Sony released Playstation VR, a virtual reality headset for its Playstation 4 console. It’s good! It can’t compete with HTC Vive or Oculus Rift powerhouse rigs, but it occupies a comfortable middle ground between those high-end VR experiences and the more casual, smartphone-based approach offered by Samsung’s Gear VR and Google Daydream.

But while Playstation VR has found critical success, its sales indicate that virtual reality only tops the wish lists of a small percentage of console gamers. Sony has moved a million Playstation VR units since October. That sounds impressive, but less so in the context of the the PS4 install base of at least 55 million, according to recent figures from research company SuperData. That puts Playstation VR adoption at about 1.8 percent of its potential market.

That’s not at all intended as a knock on what Playstation VR has achieved so far. But it’s a reminder that for all the promise of virtual and augmented reality, the market for it hasn’t quite materialized.

Why not? Expense, for one. A Playstation VR headset costs $400—the same as a top-end PS4 Pro. (The pricing on either may well change at Sony’s E3 press conference Monday night.) Microsoft appears to have placed a bet, though, that the bigger hiccup is experiential. Specifically, that supporting a console-level quality of VR experience requires a hardline connection between headset and home base. Which means, in practice, an unsightly, inconvenient cord stretching across the living room.