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Phil Spencer: Quest 2 Offers Best VR Experience, Xbox Software On Headsets Possible

wafflebrain

wafflebrain

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Oct 27, 2017
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uploadvr.com

Phil Spencer: Quest 2 Offers Best VR Experience, Xbox Software On Headsets Possible

Xbox boss Phil Spencer has once again shot down any hopes for an Xbox VR headset in the near future, but hasn’t ruled out Xbox software appearing on other headsets. Appearing on the latest episode of the Kinda Funny Gamescast, Spencer said that Microsoft didn’t really have any
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Appearing on the latest episode of the Kinda Funny Gamescast, Spencer said that Microsoft didn't really have any plans for "bespoke accessories" like VR or AR headsets in the near future.

"As it relates to VR specifically, the best experience that I've seen is Quest 2. And I just think its untethered ease of use in its capability just doesn't to me require it being connected to an Xbox in any way," Spencer said. "So when I look at a scenario like that, I think of XCloud, I think of the Xbox Live community, I think of other things of how could we bring content to a screen like that.

"Whether we do something like that through first-party or third-party partnerships is kind of a second step to do we think the games that we currently have that we're able to run on our platform would work there."

But his mention of Xcloud here specifically is intriguing; could there be some appeal to using Quest 2 as another destination for Games Pass streaming? As Sony prepares to launch a VR headset for PS5, that could give Xbox some small way to remain in the conversation.
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I think using xcloud for VR is an awful idea unless they massively upgrade their streaming quality, though it would be cool if Oculus were somehow able to develop an Airlink equivalent app to be used on Series X/S that would then integrate with the Xbox UI kind of like how Steam VR's in-headset UI functions from which to launch games.

There are so many great IPs from MS that would be a perfect fit for getting a VR mode, and with studios like Bethesda, Ninja Theory, and Doublefine having experience with this it seems like a no brainer. Do it up Phil!
 
Lant_War

Lant_War

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If the Series X / S were able to be updated to support Quest 2 / 3 / etc it could be huge.
 
Garrison

Garrison

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Oct 27, 2017
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I remember sony had this headset in the past that you would put on and it was supposedly like being in a movie theater.

That by itself would be a cool implementation of just playing gamepass streaming games or just regular games in general over a vr headset if done right.
 
ghostcrew

ghostcrew

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Oct 27, 2017
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Lant_War said:
If the Series X / S were able to be updated to support Quest 2 / 3 / etc it could be huge.
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He specifically says that it's the best implementation because it doesn't have to be tethered to an Xbox Series X/S.

I think he's talking about the possibility of Xbox software on Quest external to any Xbox console. Like via streaming or the like.

The best experience that I've seen is Quest 2. And I just think its untethered ease of use in its capability just doesn't to me require it being connected to an Xbox in any way.
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OP
OP
wafflebrain

wafflebrain

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Oct 27, 2017
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Typhon said:
Like from a local PC? Not the same thing.
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To be fair you can use your Xbox (I've done this with my One X) to stream your library to a PC using the W10 Xbox app, so this would be the ideal route. I still think they should let Oculus be the ones to develop that specific streaming api like they have already done for Link/Airlink. A tethered option should be there too just as it works on PC.
 

Deleted member 68874

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Hope they eventually dip their toes into VR. It's the one thing I want MS to invest in this gen.

He's right about the Quest 2, I'll never have an interest in using a wired VR headset ever again.
 
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Mr.Deadshot

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Oct 27, 2017
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IMHO there is no "best" VR Experience.
Quest standalone is fantastic for less demanding games like Beat Saber, Pistol Whip etc. Even a bit more demanding games like Saints & Sinners and Vader Immortal can work rather well on it. But it won't offer you high-end VR gaming like Half-Life: Alyx, which is probably best experienced on a Valve Index. But then PCVR comes with its own share of problems. PlayStation VR is a good plug & play experience with great exclusives where everything just works (well, tracking can be sketchy ...) and is fluid, but the graphics are far behind of what a PC can offer. So, pick your poison.

The great thing about Quest is, that it is fully compatible to PC though. So you get both the standalone and PC experience through one product.
 
DarthBuzzard

DarthBuzzard

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Typhon said:
If he thinks you can stream VR games he's nuts.
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Some VR users are already happy doing this via Shadow cloud streaming. It's far from perfect, but there is a market that it could fit into.

There's also a whole slew of non-VR games you could stream to a virtual screen, and that would be a serious value add with a couple more generations of Quest.
 
hom3land

hom3land

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Oct 27, 2017
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Garrison said:
I remember sony had this headset in the past that you would put on and it was supposedly like being in a movie theater.

That by itself would be a cool implementation of just playing gamepass streaming games or just regular games in general over a vr headset if done right.
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Quest2 has that. Can play 3d movies and it feels like your at imax.
 
WhtR88t

WhtR88t

Member
May 14, 2018
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Garrison said:
I remember sony had this headset in the past that you would put on and it was supposedly like being in a movie theater.

That by itself would be a cool implementation of just playing gamepass streaming games or just regular games in general over a vr headset if done right.
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Yeah it's called PSVR. Works with 3D Blu-ray's too.
 
TheGhost

TheGhost

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Think he means putting games from Gamepass on it. Which is better than going out and buying a VR set connected to your console itself with wires and shit
 
BeI

BeI

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Dec 9, 2017
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It sounds like he's specifically referring to using VR "theater" modes to play flat Xbox games in a VR headset; something like this:

Rocket-League-VR.gif


I've tried it out on an Index and it could be surprisingly serviceable in terms of image quality for particular games, playing them on a virtual giant movie screen. However, I don't think it would be particularly great until we move to much higher resolution displays to minimize the screen door effect a lot more. So maybe Quest 3 or beyond would be the time to push Xcloud > VR headset streaming.
 
Fisty

Fisty

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Oct 25, 2017
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Yeah specifically calling out XCloud for a wireless headset makes me very skeptical of what he's saying here
 
SaberVS7

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Oct 25, 2017
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Hasn't someone said before that Phil (or Microsoft in general) is quite shy about doing anything remotely untraditional with Xbox after getting egg on their face with the XB1 forced-Kinect?
 
TheYanger

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Oct 25, 2017
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Mr.Deadshot said:
IMHO there is no "best" VR Experience.
Quest standalone is fantastic for less demanding games like Beat Saber, Pistol Whip etc. Even a bit more demanding games like Saints & Sinners and Vader Immortal can work rather well on it. But it won't offer you high-end VR gaming like Half-Life: Alyx, which is probably best experienced on a Valve Index. But then PCVR comes with its own share of problems. PlayStation VR is a good plug & play experience with great exclusives where everything just works (well, tracking can be sketchy ...) and is fluid, but the graphics are far behind of what a PC can offer. So, pick your poison.

The great thing about Quest is, that it is fully compatible to PC though. So you get both the standalone and PC experience through one product.
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PCVR doesn't come with any real problems hwen the built in streaming with quest 2 is flawless like it is.

It's only flaw is Facebook being involved tbh.
 
SlipperyMoose

SlipperyMoose

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Oct 28, 2017
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I've been wanting to jump into VR for awhile but the right options hasn't presented itself to me. I don't have a desktop computer so I can't really do it via PC. The oculus quest 2 seems like a great option but I'm not thrilled about all the Facebook connection stuff. PSVR2 seems like it will be the most enticing but it's not out yet and I'm sure it will be hard to get. And then there's the Xbox which doesn't offer an option at all.
 

GaussianMultivariate

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Jul 26, 2018
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ghostcrew said:
He specifically says that it's the best implementation because it doesn't have to be tethered to an Xbox Series X/S.

I think he's talking about the possibility of Xbox software on Quest external to any Xbox console. Like via streaming or the like.
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This is what I got from reading this, and it's effing disappointing 😥 I was really hoping MS would cook up some kind of support for a third party VR device, but no it seems the best could be like "you can play MGS games on PCVR or Quest 2 natively" and "your PC and native VR games can log in xbox live and have cloud games and have your friend list yadda yadda yadda". So sad
 
Incite

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First thing I did when I started trying out Gamepass streaming was to see if I could play it on a giant screen in the Oculus browser. Not supported however.

I would love that, yes please.
 
Iwao

Iwao

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GaussianMultivariate said:
This is what I got from reading this, and it's effing disappointing 😥 I was really hoping MS would cook up some kind of support for a third party VR device, but no it seems the best could be like "you can play MGS games on PCVR or Quest 2 natively" and "your PC and native VR games can log in xbox live and have cloud games and have your friend list yadda yadda yadda". So sad
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I was personally hoping for them to support at least something like this, to provide strong competition, make VR games that many of their studios have the credentials to make and help the market grow faster because VR is incredible and it deserves a bigger push, sooner. Based on this interview, what is clear is that it's obviously only happening within the confines of Xbox's business strategy - they're really serious about cloud streaming, but unfortunately this means they're leaving behind native support, for VR anyway.
 
Remark

Remark

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Oct 27, 2017
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Yeah I would like a way to connect the Quest 2 to the Series X / S via local streaming and have games played that way. Also offer a tethered connected for options but I don't know how that would work out. The amount of bandwidth you need for a tethered connection is a lot and I don't even know if the USB 3 ports on the Series X are enough. Really with the Series X had Type-C ports on them.
 
brawndolicious

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Oct 27, 2017
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For these VR headsets, the expensive part has to be all the tracking tech right? I assume the screen is similar to what smartphones use.

Tobor said:
Any device requiring a Facebook account is disqualified as "best experience".
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Yeah I think that's the main reason he's not gung-ho about any of the current VR headsets. The only headset that's cheap enough for a mass market price is also probably a ticking time bomb for privacy/advertising bullshit. PSVR might come in at the same price as the Quest 2 though so it'll be interesting to see how well the Quest 2 can survive against that. That will probably inform HP and Valve on whether it's worth pursuing a price below $500.

Remark said:
Yeah I would like a way to connect the Quest 2 to the Series X / S via local streaming and have games played that way. Also offer a tethered connected for options but I don't know how that would work out. The amount of bandwidth you need for a tethered connection is a lot and I don't even know if the USB 3 ports on the Series X are enough. Really with the Series X had Type-C ports on them.
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They should have plenty of bandwidth but they'll need a separate cable for power or just rely on the internal battery.
 

GaussianMultivariate

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Iwao said:
I was personally hoping for them to support at least something like this, to provide strong competition, make VR games that many of their studios have the credentials to make and help the market grow faster because VR is incredible and it deserves a bigger push, sooner. Based on this interview, what is clear is that it's obviously only happening within the confines of Xbox's business strategy - they're really serious about cloud streaming, but unfortunately this means they're leaving behind native support, for VR anyway.
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I hear you. I guess the silver lining is that they're dead focused on Game Pass and the cloud, which is great cause we don't want MS to be all over the place trying to be anyway but actually getting nowhere.
 
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