Hololens on Xbox? We have the conversations says Phil Spencer

Microsoft’s HoloLens headset may well be making waves with its potential uses with Windows 10 and games such as Minecraft, but what of a possible future marriage with Xbox One? Xbox division and Microsoft studios head Phil Spencer has revealed the idea of bringing HoloLens to Microsoft’s current-gen console is still very much a consideration.

The Xbox division boss commented that while an Xbox One/HoloLens union could happen somewhere down the line, the real aim was to make the device a viable piece of tech in its own right. “The tethered scenarios around VR I think are interesting, but we were going for something different. Not being tethered to either a PC, Xbox or a phone as part of the solution was one of our design challenges for HoloLens, and we did that.”

“Well, we haven’t announced it as an Xbox accessory, but it sits within one team, and we have the conversations,” said Spencer in a recent interview with Edge. “Right now, we want to focus on a standalone, untethered device and make sure that we can prove out that scenario.”

Spencer added that should HoloLens come to Xbox, developers will definitely see the benefits of using the VR tech in certain scenarios. “Now we can say, ‘Well, OK, if I do have an Xbox or a PC, what are those scenarios?’ We haven’t publicly talked about what those are, but you can imagine, as we continue to drive and get success with HoloLens, those scenarios will become obvious and developers will take advantage of them.”

Find out more about the future of HoloLens and Phil Spencer's vision for the future of Xbox One in the latest issue of Edge magazine. Download it here or subscribe to future issues.