Microsoft and Oculus just announced a new partnership which will see the two companies working together to bring Windows 10 and Xbox One customers the best virtual reality has to offer. Phil Spencer revealed numerous details about this exciting and groundbreaking partnership during today’s Oculus press briefing. The biggest news to emerge from the event was that Xbox One owners will be able to stream their console games to the Oculus Rift.
The event began with Oculus revealing that the Rift headset would ship to customers during the first quarter of 2016. Every Oculus Rift sold will also include an Xbox One controller and the newly announced wireless adapter. Since the launch of this console generation, the controller race has heated up. Sony, Valve and other companies have all announced different controllers. However, with this partnership, Microsoft has further solidified its position in the controller market. Virtual reality is a new market and becoming the default controller device for Oculus—the biggest name in virtual reality by far—is a masterstroke.
Following this reveal, Phil Spencer took to the stage and went deeper into how Windows 10, Xbox One and Oculus Rift would work together. The Oculus Rift will work natively with Windows 10 and utilize DirectX 12 to power its experiences. As stated earlier, Xbox One games can be streamed to the Oculus Rift but Phil gave even more details about these newly announced abilities. All you Xbox One gamers need to know right now is that titles like Forza Motorsport 6 and Halo 5: Guardians can be streamed to the headset through a Windows 10 machine. All Xbox One games should be streamable when Windows 10 releases on the console later this year. The wearer is placed in a virtual reality living room where their game is presented on a colossal screen. This feature is another great opportunity to generate more interest and increase sales of Windows 10 computers, the Oculus Rift headset and Xbox One consoles.
Over the past few days, many details about E3 have leaked on the Internet. The leaks suggest that many companies, including Valve and Sony, will reveal details about their virtual reality platforms during the conference. The announcement that Microsoft and Oculus have partnered together to make sure the Rift is a success will likely be cause for concern among competing devices.
What’s interesting about the Microsoft and Oculus partnership is that both companies benefit greatly from the alliance without competing against each other as was previously rumored. Microsoft’s HoloLens platform is an augmented reality device that provides users with a different experience than what a virtual reality headset does. By partnering with Oculus, Microsoft has ensured it can play a part in the virtual reality space at the same time avoiding a separate product that competes with the HoloLens. It also minimizes risk for Microsoft because the space is an untested market. The combined efforts of these two companies will bring new and exciting experiences to consumers and we can’t wait to see the results of this important collaboration.
Source: Xbox Wire
Asher Madan is a games journalist, former News Writer (Gaming) at Windows Central. They contributed 182 articles to ICXM in 2015, focused on Windows and PC, and Xbox news: joined Future plc’s Windows Central in 2017 covering Xbox news, hardware, and reviews.