I still remember that demonstration with the Oculus Rift, and people where dead silent at first,

then at the end laughing at how poorly the VR worked with the xbox one.

Phil at the end of it goes, "did she crash? is that why people laughed?".

Was painfull to watch.

At that point it was kinda clear, if VR takes off, MS doesnt have any counter play to fight it off with.

[x] continue downplaying VR while praising AR
someone has to say it.

I'm not sure what MS can do that isn't already being done.
Sony is already going the route of the external box to help with a cheap VR headset.
Hololens is far from ready to be a consumer device capable for games.

Reliable eye tracking at a reasonable cost is not available yet. MS could buy Fove, yet Samsung is already investing there too, might get messy. Plus it's another expensive device. Foveated rendering is the future of VR though, but it's still in early development and not that easy to put in existing graphics engines I bet. For now the system specs for Fove are that of quite a beefy pc. (A computer with dedicated graphics card with display port output capable of running modern, graphics intensive games at WQHD (2560x1440) at 100FPS or greater is recommended)

Would it make sense to launch it in 3 years for XBox One when Sony is already starting to get ready for the ps5 and their next gen VR headset? The current route seems more logical, promote windows 10 and cross-buy, play former xbox one exclusives in Occulus rift VR on windows 10.

Yet with the short term success they had with Kinect revitalizing 360 sales, an eye tracking headset for XBox One in 3 years is a possibility. If they make it compatible with PC and their next box it could even be the best move. I guess MS will wait and see how Fove does first.

It dies because some would want it to of course.

imo they are likely to do some projects with OR and go about PC VR for a time (likely exclusive to their store and 10, good luck selling absolute millions with that mindset MS) and then by the time they launch XB2, they will likely have their own VR if not partnering with OR to have it work on their next system. I would also imagine by then they would have an AR device which Sony will not have, giving MS two devices which are likely to then be used on two different platforms.

Its going to be exactly like 3D gaming. It will appeal to a few but not mainstream and then fizzle largely out.

With VR you can usually just strait up convert a normal game to VR. Its just head movement = camra movement.

Because of that, its going to get tons of support. Ofc its still going to get VR only games, where you useing move controllers and other stuff.

But AR? AR is very differnt from normal games. Im guessing more or less all of them, will need to be tailored for it.

You think MS is going to support both a VR device and a AR device with tons of games? I dont think MS can pull that off, unless they suddenly open up tons of new game studios.

Also said it before but... AR is not really great for gameing.

Its goal is smart phones, cheap glasses that you can hook up to your phone is the dream.

It already feels different.  I don't remember the media talking about 3D gaming the way they are talking about VR.  Sure, there was a lot of talk about 3D TV themselves, but in the end, the cost and content were the main barriers.  You could say that the Rift and Vive already seem especially prohibitive on top of the PC requirements, but we still have to wait and see for the PSVR which will surely have the lowest entry price. 

You know, your post really got me thinking. What does PSVR 2.0 look like? We already know that Sony has had some pretty advanced eye tracking prototypes since early 2014, even having a version of Infamous SS that used eye tracking to control the camera. So I think it's safe to say PSVR 2 has eye tracking, as well as more advanced head and hand tracking...but maybe this is a topic for another time...

Anyways, I think if VR ends up being big, MS will likely just make the next Xbox Rift compatible. I just don't see how MS could be successful with making their own device in what could honestly be the waning years of it's console buisiness.

Fanboys will fanboy and nothing is going to stop that.  But I do feel that the mass of people who do own a Xbox aren't going to sit by and troll.  I think if people are interested in VR, no matter what they game on, they will find a way.  My guess is that they would by a PC most likely because of the price wormhole that PC VR is heading to right now. 

There are many reports that predict that next gen is still 3 or 4 years off.  You don't want PlayStation to get a chokehold on the market if it takes off.  I think if it is an instant hit, Microsoft will retaliate with a year.  They could even include a external GPU for good measure although I know this sounds a bit much. 

Becase most people will nto want to own more than one headset.

If oculus works on PC and XBOX, then the choice of VR will be to go with that combo.

Then all Micrososft has to do is make great exclusives forit and it will sell conoles.