The Xbox Game Studios head Matt Booty stated that the market for VR and AR is currently too small for Xbox. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Matt Booty suggested that Xbox games need to reach around 10 million players to be successful.
“I think for us it’s about wait for an audiencehe said. “We are very fortunate to have these large IPs that have grown into franchises with great communities. We have 10 games that have surpassed 10 million players, which is a pretty big accomplishment, but that’s the kind of scale we need to consider the game a success, and it’s not there yet with AR and VR.”
In the console arena, only Sony PlayStation has focused strongly on virtual reality. In March, Sony chairman Hiroki Totoki said he believed that Playstation VR2 has a “good chance” to outsell its predecessor, which sold five million units by the end of 2019. PS VR2 was released in February and sold around 600,000 units in its first six weeks, outselling the original during the its launch window, according to Sony.
The most successful company in the VR arena for the moment is Half which has sold nearly 20 million Quest VRs to date, the company reported earlier this year.
However, it is not new that Microsoft is not interested in VR. Already in 2019 Phil Spencer-head of Xbox-had shared his ideas on VR, defining it as niche and able to isolate the player, which is contrary to the idea of video games as a social pastime. He also added that no Xbox gamer was asking Microsoft for VR. These words annoyed some and Spencer later pointed out that he appreciated seeing new ideas in the gaming industry, but that VR was not the focus of the Xbox anyway.
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