According to industry inside sources, along with publications VR Focus and Tech Radar, that Microsoft will indeed be revealing its virtual reality HMD (Head Mounted Display) at the following Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in 2015. This information is riding off the heels of news reports last month that this peripheral was demonstrated in some capacity to Strauss Zelnick, CEO of Take Two Interactive of Grand Theft Auto fame. This VR headset has been in development for a few years according to Phil Spencer, head of the Xbox division at Microsoft.
Not only does this happen to be the case, but it has also been reported that Microsoft has already sent development units for the HMD to a few developers thus far, with the subsidiaries of Take Two being very probable candidates. There have been some several development studios that have confirmed this information.
A patent visual aid showing the auto-stereoscopic display of this to be formally announced VR HMD.
This may surprise gamers from the outset, but Microsoft has been heavily focused on augmented and/or virtual reality. This rings especially true when looking at the three patent documents Microsoft had filed in the span of time from April 2015 to July 2015. These documents detail features pertaining to grasping objects within an augmented reality (ability to manipulate that only exist within the visual display of a software program), a direct interaction system with mix environments (populated with both artificially rendered and real world objects/entities) and an auto-stereoscopic display system (possibly one that dynamically tracks the user’s eye movements).
A patent visual aid showing the interactivity within an augmented reality.
Looking at these documents shows quite a bit of insight into how the Project NATAL (a.k.a. Microsoft Kinect), Both with its development and critical response, has taught the company some valuable lessons in motion tracking and augmented reality development. This has doubtlessly had an impact on Microsoft’s efforts moving forward.
However, the notion that the Xbox One may have a virtual or augmented reality peripheral is particularly interesting when considering that the Oculus Rift VR set and Sony’s Project Morpheus are also knee deep in development for the PC and PS4 respectively. Competition is great for the consumer, but it is also necessary for a standard to be birthed from said competition. A VR HMD standard for all gaming platforms is hard to fathom, considering the fierce competition between the two current generation consoles. No release date or video game titles have been announced to take advantage of this hardware as of yet.
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The Solid State Gamer 