Sony’s Shuhei Yoshida made a comment on Twitter that seemed directed at Phil Spencer’s suggestion that nobody is asking for VR, in relation to Microsoft’s upcoming Xbox, codenamed Scarlett.
Microsoft’s Head of Xbox Phil Spencer suggested that VR support for the next generation of Xbox was unlikely in a recent comment. “I have some issues with VR — it’s isolating and I think of games as a communal, kind of together experience,” Spencer explained. “We’re responding to what our customers are asking for and… nobody’s asking for VR. The vast majority of our customers know if they want a VR experience, there’s places to go get those. We see the volumes of those on PC and other places.”
“I think we might get there [eventually],” Spencer concluded. “But yeah, that’s not where our focus is.”
Following the comments from Spencer, Sony’s Shuhei Yoshida posted a comment on Twitter that seemed to respond to Spencer’s assertion that ‘nobody’s asking for VR.’
On Twitter, Yoshida wrote the following:
“（´-`）.｡oO（we oftentimes work hard to make things that no customers are asking for them.”
We should note that as of March this year, Sony had sold over 4.2 million PSVR headsets – making it very clear that there is an audience for VR support on consoles.
Yoshida, who was Head of Sony Worldwide Studios until a recent change, has been a long supporter and proponent of VR and Sony’s PSVR offerings in particular. He most recently made comments in September that he feels better hardware will improve the VR experience, but that VR as a platform still has ‘a lot to learn’ overall.
In contrast to Xbox Scarlett, Sony’s next console, the PlayStation 5, will support VR – that being said, at launch it will only support the current generation of PSVR, and the next generation, PSVR 2, probably won’t launch alongside the PS5.
How do you feel about Shuhei Yoshida and Phil Spencer’s comments on VR? Let us know down below.
