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Oculus Rift On Xbox One? Microsoft’s ‘Scorpio’ May Be Planning To Rival PlayStation Neo By Supporting PC Peripheral, 4K Visuals

By Patrick Frye
Published on: 06:32 PST, May 25, 2016

Will Oculus Rift be an Xbox One peripheral soon? The possibility is staggering, as the Oculus Rift is only compatible with the most high-end gaming PC systems today, and Microsoft appears to be attempting to bridge the gap between console “peasants” and the PC “master race” in 2017.

The Xbox One will also reportedly be made compatible with 4K visuals. This might not mean we’ll finally see Xbox games rival PC for visual and GPU prowess, but much like PlayStation 4’s upcoming upgrade, Neo, it might boost current games to run more smoothly and hit that 1080p 60fps more readily.

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This will allegedly be the second major upgrade Microsoft is planning on for their current generation console, the first of which will be the Xbox One Slim. Not Oculus Rift compatible yet, the Slim is expected to be more compact and sport a lower price, with the second upgrade allegedly coming with a higher-capacity hard drive.

The PlayStation 4 upgrade coming later this year might not come with the larger hard drive, but the current version already gives you the option to upgrade to a 4TB drive using the same method as before. This is one of many software updates that the PS4 has received since its inception in 2013. It’s likely that Microsoft is putting a higher-capacity hard drive in the Xbox One because they are avoiding letting the users swap it out themselves like they could with the Xbox 360.

The addition of Oculus Rift support in 2017 could mean the PlayStation Neo is already in trouble, as the Xbox One “Scorpio” (the current codename) will need at least PC capability to use it. The PlayStation 4 VR headset may be impressive, but statistically nowhere near the Rift. On the bright side, it means that Sony won’t have gamers needing to empty their bank accounts and take out a loan just to use VR games.

This possible result of a partnership between Microsoft and Oculus Rift may just drop the price of the Rift to compete with the PS4, meaning Xbox One “Scorpio” could still potentially be pricier than its Sony counterpart, but the processing power would be worth it.

With Xbox One possibly getting hardware upgrades every few months, it appears Microsoft is taking on the classic Apple business model. They could be releasing a new version of the console instead of new consoles like in previous cycles, much like Sony has said they would do.

Some gamers might not like the idea of upgraded consoles being released periodically, though. Despite the possible Oculus Rift support on Xbox One, many feel it’s just too early in the current generation’s cycle to buy what is essentially the same console over and over just to get the best possible performance.

Again, this is mostly a rumor, so you might want to wait until Microsoft officially confirms it before taking out that loan for a shiny new upgraded version of what you already have. For those who haven’t made the leap from the last generation, this is a sign that waiting to upgrade will be worth it. Instead of having the frame rate potentially drop to almost unplayable levels, their first experience may be just as smooth as the developers intended.

Would you buy an Oculus Rift compatible Xbox One with 4K visual support?

[Image via Kiko Jimenez/Shutterstock.com]

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