Scorpio and WMR, Why didn't they?

[Arkaign]

It's honestly not a terrible idea, but they would have had to make it a loss leader thing, maybe give it away with Scorpio/X1X during holiday seasons or whatever. Otherwise it'd be pretty hard to get publishers to support what would amount to an absolutely miniscule install base.

It kind of comes back to the problem with the X1X, and to a large extent, the PS4 Pro : they're selling to the hardcore fans of the platforms that ALREADY were invested. I'd wager that at least 80% if not much higher of the buyers of these mid-gen consoles are people that are replacing OG/Slim/S models. This is good if they turn around and sell their old consoles to help grow the market for the extreme value conscious buyers who don't buy in over $199. The staggering sales of the $189 S and $199 Slim show just how hungry that under-served market is.

But the other direction higher? I think it bleeds over far too easily into the extreme hobbyist, who is far more likely to go the PC route than a niche mid-gen console. The reason PSVR has any footprint at all is because it hit pretty early, for a pretty low price, for a MASSIVELY successful platform, and it was very heavily invested in by Sony. A pretty heady list of factors to help it succeed, and it's still pretty niche. An X1X-only VR thing .. would be pretty far up against the wall.

The only way I think it could really take off is if they made it :

$199 or less, and cross-compatible out of the box with X1X, X1S, and Windows 10. Bundle it with a decent game or two that isn't exactly lighting up the charts any more. Say bundle with Horizon 3 and Gears 4 VR mode. And as much as it's unlikely to happen, they'd have to make it work with one of the existing PC VR marketplaces like SteamVR, Oculus store, whatever. They'd miss out on way too many games if they didn't, unless they REALLY moneyhatted people into offering PC VR stuff on Windows store. That's a hell of an uphill battle though. Oh yeah, I said 'X1S' up there. Obviously X1S wouldn't work with the AAA style VR games, but there's no reason an S couldn't do VR movies/lighter indie games functionally. Lock out S users from purchasing games not compatible with the console, or warn them that it may run in severely cut-down modes, IDK.

But an X1X-only VR would be a niche within a niche, and destined for summary failure.