VRFocus - A few weeks ago at Microsoft’s Windows 10 briefing the company finally showed off its own head-mounted display (HMD). The technology giant surprised many by not taking the virtual reality route, and instead introducing the 3D hologram based HoloLens. Setting itself apart from the virtual reality (VR) HMD Oculus Rift and Project Morpheus, the new device aims bring together peoples real and technological lives.
Despite Microsoft's experience in hardware manufacturing, I don't trust it not to fumble its first gaming handheld device which may eventually lead to a successor not getting released.
Unless it has some fature that really makes it standout I don't think someone who wants a handheld will pick it when the Switch 2 is just around the corner and the Steam Deck offers a huge library with much better prices worldwide
Especially since the existing PC handhelds (Steam Deck, ROG Ally, etc) can already run Gamepass. I don't have a Steam Deck yet, but I did see Forza Horizon 5 already running pretty well on it natively, so I'd imagine most XBox exclusives on Steam would run pretty well too. The most Microsoft could do is try to brute force a more expensive, higher power handheld. I doubt it would do well if that were the case.
This has been my point. It’s too little too late, and there are too many options out now that can already do the same thing with similar or better tech, in a similar price-range. A best case scenario for them is slightly above Steam-Deck performance at $100 less, but that’s not a huge selling point for anyone who has already jumped into the handheld PC market, and people still on the fence. Or go the other route of as cheap as possible but making it a streaming only device around $199.
It would do well and reach over 1m sold just because of the Xbox branding, but their consoles are already selling less and less (by the looks of it), so I don’t see a handheld being this great savior for them.
They simply need to rebrand one of the Surface tablets into the device with dedicated controls and more gaming focused, and call it a day instead of heavily investing in a handheld
I'm guessing Xbox Wireless will be a streaming system like PS Portal. And yes I fully expect their portable Xbox to be given a really stupid name like "Wireless." Maybe even a dumber name like the Xbox Series W.
Doesn't make much sense to have a handheld that is locked down to the Xbox ecosystem when the PC handheld can run everything. I'm sure the same people that bought the Xbox fridge will give Microsoft their free money though.
Microsoft handheld Qualcomm based... you will see it next year... and you will see it sink.
After having to prove itself for years, Xbox doubled down and pulled it off..
Yep Xbox absolutely knocked it out of the park with that stunning show, it was everything a gaming showcase should be, games games and games, well done team Xbox.
It really did. Like I came out of that with the hype for new games I haven’t felt since… well the better years of E3.
It was without a doubt one of the better showcases in years. There was plenty there that excited me. Something has been lacking in years on all platforms
It was an amazing showcase I loved everything about it. Can't wait to play some of those games.
What's going on. 4 comments & no negatives yet. Wow, what's going on with N4G.
Show was so good, it made me forget about that blue dragon rumor until the next day. Too many games to process.
Shahmeer from eXputer: "The new Xbox strategy to go multi-platform could eventually change console gaming as we know it, and I am concerned."
Can we stop pretending that Xbox has any great influence over the console market?
All they can do is try and steer their own Destiny. They have very little to do with what the other players in the console market are doing.
And yes, going 3rd party is pretty much their only option and is good for them.
Still whatever little direct competition they're offering against Sony ... that'd be gone, which is never good for consumers.
I know Sony will continue to apease the gamers but without any proper competition in same space, they might not work at the fullest efficiency.
(Taking into account, thats generally been agreed here, that Nintendo has long been not the direct competitor to either MS or Sony)
The " without any proper competition in same space, they (Sony) might not work at the fullest efficiency" narrative has been proven false for years. Let's stop pretending that, in terms of games, Xbox has been any competition to Playstation.
Sony had 0 competition for most of its playstation business, and they still succeeded, the only thing xbox introduced was paid online and dlc
Sony had little to no competition during the PS2 era and they have an iconic catalog.
I don't think Sony needs competition in the console space to still release great games. It would be the games that would be competing against each other.
Xbox does not need to exist for PlayStation to have competition.
They compete with Nintendo, PC, streaming and countless other devices.
Yes release games on other platforms
Your own gamers still get the games day one on GP. So GP will grow and stay stabilize
By releasing the games on PC,PlayStation and next switch they can get $70 for their games.
MS didn't invest 100 billion for nothing. This way Xbox generates way more revenue
I mean, yes, it was an Activision, Blizzard, Bethesda presentation, they just so happened to buy all of those publishers, nothing we would not have seen on any other award show if they had not bought developers that were and STILL are developing multiplatform games.
If you remove them you are left with Microsoft game studios, another Fable, Another Gears, Perfect Dark which for me didn't look all that great, Avowed, Age of mythology and south of midnight (might be missing something I guess)
No better than any other show. There weren't any major new announcements, which is what everyone has been complaining about. The bar shouldn't get lowered for a trillion dollar company.
"another Fable, another Gears, Perfect Dark"?
That's a lot of pretty great "anothers".
I could use a few of those "anothers" from Sony right now.
Yes it was a really great showcase that Xbox had. Multiplats and all. Overall it was really cool
Perfect Dark looked amazing! Wouldn't mind seeing something like that from Sony tbh.
anast,
"All these games are coming to PS5."
Very disingenuous statement... Some, but not all.
Oh, so that is the new narrative, "sub-show for Sony." lol, wow.
The sad part is that you are clearly and fully aware that it is very unlikely for any 1hr and 30min gaming presentation show to showcase ALL Exclusives, it just doesn't happen.
And don't you think it sad that MS had a better Sony showing than Sony? If I were you, I wouldn't consider that a flex, lol.?
They are coming to PS5, the ones that matter of course.
There is nothing sad here. You might need to start your argument without an emotive.
I don't think they had a better showing. Unless we lower the bar for only Xbox.
None of us really know how much they're going third party. They're still ACTING like they want to protect the platform - no mention of PS5 in their show, still marketing the console, still using the Xbox logo.
Yeah Phil acknowledged more is coming to PS5. But is that Indiana Jones? Perfect Dark? Gears?
If they keep those key properties in their stable it's not accurate to label them as simply 3rd party.
They may very well still be in the game after all...
@Coconut
Sony did the same in their last. They showed games that were already announced.
We need to stop pretending like Xbox matters and has any influence in the industry.
By entering the industry, Microsoft made it worst, everything bad in the industry can be tied to them (like paid online and DLCs). The industry would be better off if they had never been in it.
Before you say Sony would have no competition, they would still have PC and Nintendo. As they are right now, Microsoft are not competition, they don't actually matter.
I think you're mostly right. They've been failing on console and will most likely drop out.
But the concern a lot of us had was that they would use their $ to win monopolistically. They've already bought a huge number of big studios. Going multi-platform would alleviate that concern.
But they could still turn the screws, this game isn't over quite yet... They're sending mixed signals.
I think in Xbox’s direness it is, but let’s not pretend like they don’t understand the value of exclusiveness to their platform. Not every damn Xbox game is coming to PS5 and the stuff that has hit have either been GaaS games or games that didn’t exactly sell gamgbusters and are extremely niche.
When Halo, Gears, Forza, Perfect Dark, Fable, etc. start coming to PS5 then that’s pretty massive and also diminishes any reason to own an Xbox.
Doom isn't niche. It was heavily implied that all Bethesda games, outside of games with contractual agreements and the existing multiplayer games, would all be exclusive to Xbox.
Ok, sorry, Doom is the exception.
My point is Xbox is still keeping exclusives for their bigger games. What’s been released are GaaS: Sea of Thieves, Grounded aka Honey I Shrunk the Kids, and then niche stuff like Pentiment and Hi-Fi Rush. Then you got Doom coming out, which is an outlier, I suppose.
It's not niche but it's not everything.
MS has got a HUGE cache of IP and studios now
It's the only decision. Hardware sales are on a sharp decline and Game Pass growth has stagnated.
Thanks, interesting read!
Never been sure about AR/VR it needs to really come with the software to see were it takes off to.
So NONE of these Devs even got to try it out?! There are plenty of People who were at that conference who got to experience all 4 demos first hand and said it was exactly like the video MS showed lol. What a click bait article, let me know when you have an article on Devs who actually tried it out... there are a few out there.
I, like the last developer, am interested in what MS might do with full vr.
While I think Hololens is a cool idea, this lady sums up my feelings quite well.
“AR will be the new way to interact with technology which will be used by everyone. I don´t think it will be a big thing for gamers, who Always prefer a more immersive experience. And VR is the one for this."