Microsoft held a special ‘Windows Mixed Reality’ event today in San Francisco, using to showcase to make several big announcements, all of which firmly cement the company’s ambitions for the virtual reality (VR) and mixed reality (MR) space. All with the intentions of making it more affordable, accessible and social for consumers. With a new Samsung headset, the acquisition of social VR platform AltspaceVR, developers now having access to a SteamVR preview, and a passing mention of a little experience called Halo: Recruit.
So where to start. Well the Samsung Odyssey headset wasn’t too much of a surprise with images of the device leaking last week and a Microsoft store page appearing earlier today that detailed specs, release date and a price. It features dual AMOLED displays which Samsung is known for, built-in spatial AKG headphones and dual microphones, 110 degree field of view (FoV) and inside-out tracking.
A surprise however came by way of AltspaceVR, with Microsoft announcing that it had acquired the VR social app that had closed its doors back in August. So not only will the platform comes to Windows Mixed Reality it’ll still support cross-platform compatibility with other headsets.
Adding another update to previously known news, Microsoft will be bringing SteamVR support to Windows Mixed Reality very soon. Starting today developers will be provided access to a SteamVR preview so they can tryout their experiences with consumers gaining access to the preview this holiday.
And what would a Microsoft event be like if it didn’t feature at least something Halo related. So the company unveiled Halo: Recruit which is due for release this month alongside the headsets. It might not be a full Halo experience but it certainly sounds like it’ll appeal to fans.
There’s were a few other morsels of info flying around this evening so check out VRFocus’ full rundown of the announcements in the below video.