Microsoft’s Windows Insider survey wants to know all about your virtual reality plans.
The survey is directed specifically at PC gamers and asks, among other questions, what type of setup you have, how many hours you spend playing games every week, and from which stores you buy your PC games. It also asks if you have a VR headset and, if you don’t, how likely you are to buy one within the next year. If you express interest in picking one up, then it will also ask what types of VR experiences interest you. You can select from a list of Games, Movies, TV, Sporting Events, Business, Non-gaming experiences, 4D experiences, and Education.
Some of those categories overlap somewhat; we’re not exactly sure how many people are going to click that ‘4D experiences’ box.
Ironically, we’d like to know all about Microsoft’s VR plans too. While Windows PCs continue to power both the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive, last month Microsoft also announced plans to launch a much more powerful Xbox One console that will support VR, code-named Project Scorpio. What the company didn’t announce, however, was what headset would be compatible with the device, though it won’t be one made by the company itself. Instead it’s thought the console, which launches in late 2017, might integrate either the Rift or Vive, if not both.
Could the questions on this survey have any effect on Project Scorpio? It seems unlikely, given its skew toward PC gamers. Microsoft is likely using the survey to predict when VR will break into the mainstream and grow its install base. On the Windows front, the company recently revealed plans to integrate VR into its Windows Holographic platform, allowing for cross-platform communication between people using these devices and those working with its own HoloLens mixed reality headset.
Microsoft remains coy on VR, but let’s use this survey to let them know it’s coming.
