"I’ll say, obviously we have relationships with Valve, we have a relationship with Oculus around the VR work that they’re doing, but I’m going to say I kind of hope not. It doesn’t mean I don’t think VR has great experiences to offer. I think it does, and we’ll find those, and people will love playing those. I love playing games in my family room with my kids. I love people coming together and watching what’s happening on screen and laughing, and the kind of fun of what video games were always about. That doesn’t mean that can’t happen in a kind of socially connected VR environment, but to me it would be too bad if all gaming became people with head mounted displays on, headphones on, kind of blocked out from everything that happens. I do think there’ll be great experiences there, but just kind of for the sake of what gaming is, I don’t think that should be the only way people play."

Is he serious here? Gaming has been moving away from the whole playing/enjoying games together with other people that are physically in the same place for years now and Xbox has been on the forefront of that movement with Xbox Live.

Regarding on VR, I'm not sold on it (then again I haven't tried it) but I know people that are highly anticipating that stuff, we'll see how it goes. I think it's a huge question of price.

Whether Spencer has hidden agenda in this or not, I agree with him. And no, I don't think VR has any chance of breaking big with this current setup. Make it like normal glasses with entry level model at $99, integrate the VR experience with all types of media and devices. Then it will blow up all over the world like smartphones.

Yeah, i don't think VR was ever intended to be 'the future of gaming', just a part of it. As Phil even says here, it can provide a great experience. Given that the primary point of gaming is to provide enjoyably experiences, i think VR being a success within the spaces it excels at is inevitable. It's mostly just a matter of when the tech, form factor, and price will find the perfect balance (which might be what we have now, or it might be what we have in 5, 10, or 20+ years).

I keep hearing people say this, but I never quite got what it means. Could you explain? Is it because they're heavy? Because they really aren't, the Rift and PSVR  both weigh less than a pound and most of the weight is put on the back of your head.

VR won't be a future of gaming for very long time. At least until it becomes viable under 150$.

Shut up bitch.... VR is MY FUTURE. Where I will have VR friends and hopefully a VR lover and we can have a VR life... 💗💖💕

I agree with him and I am happy that developers like 343i has a lot of freedom in their choices, but I would like Phil to force them to have split screen in Halo 5!

..
I can soothe your fears mister Spencer, VR will very very veeeeery likely never become the only way games are played, but it will be the most immersive one in the coming years

maybe in general but halo splitscreen is still one of the most played and iconic couch co-op experiences.

"Microsoft is in a unique position in the virtual reality (VR) space at the moment. The company seemingly doesn’t have its own head-mounted display (HMD) in the works.."

OT - the article really could have stopped right there.

Oh I see that's why Xbox is the hub of local multiplayer.