The head of Xbox Game Studios believes that the VR games market is too small to be actively involved in it

By: Dmitro Koval | 20.06.2023, 07:23
The head of Xbox Game Studios believes that the VR games market is too small to be actively involved in it

Matt Booty, the head of Xbox Game Studios, considers the virtual and augmented reality market to be too small to be actively involved in it, as he told The Holywood Reporter.

Here's What We Know

Boothy noted that Xbox games need to reach an audience of approximately 10 million players to be considered successful:

"I think we just need to wait a little bit for the right audience to come along," he said, "We're very fortunate to have such popular game franchises with large communities of fans. We currently have 10 games that have attracted over 10 million players, which is a great achievement, but we have not yet achieved the scale of success with AR and VR that we need to."

In March, Sony president Hiroki Totoki said that PlayStation VR2 has a "good chance" of surpassing the sales of its predecessor, which sold five million units by the end of 2019. According to Sony, the PS VR2 was released in February and sold about 600,000 units in the first six weeks, which is more than the original version.

Meta (formerly Facebook) reported that almost 20 million Quest VR headsets have been sold to date.

Xbox CEO Phil Spencer received criticism in November 2019 for his comments on VR, which some perceived as a dismissive attitude towards the technology. He described VR as a niche and "isolating" format that does not fit his vision of gaming as a "shared" experience, adding that "no one is asking for VR" from the perspective of Xbox customers. The Xbox executive later clarified his comments, stating that he "appreciates" the gaming industry as a pioneer in various fields, but VR "is simply not our priority".

Source: VGC