Microsoft Job Posting Hints At VR MMO

sqorbit writes: Microsoft has posted a job opening for a Senior Design Manager for a mixed-reality team. The posting states they are "looking to build a massively social gaming and entertainment experience for both the PC and the console." It looks like they are targeting both PC and Xbox Platforms for a VR socially geared development project. The requirements: "The Xbox Mixed Reality team is looking for an experienced senior design manager with deep expertise and passion around crafting immersive social systems and experiences. [...] Here is an opportunity to join a fun and collaborative team that experiments with the latest toys, works with state of the art tech, and crafts the future of entertainment." Road to VR notes that the company says they're looking for someone who has "Shipped at least 3 AAA consumer entertainment products" and has 7+ years using design tools; bonus points if they've got experience in "NUI, VR, AR, game design, art direction, and video storytelling."

online, interactive chair dodging

[rogoshen1]

i really hope they get the physics right, in their previous iteration of balmer kong, the aero chairs had the exact same trajectory once airborne as a standard lawn chair, totally ruined the immersion.

Great

[Dunbal]

I'm sure all 500 owners of VR head sets will be thrilled! A new title will double the number of titles they can play!

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[JediJorgie]

That is quite a chip on your shoulder.

Even the Rift dev kits DK1 and DK2 accounted for more than 150,000 units.
The PSVR had nearly reached a million units back in Feb...
GearVR salse have surpassed 5 million.....

What was it you were saying? Oh yea, you were saying you don't know what the heck you are talking about.
 

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[Dutch Gun]

That is quite a chip on your shoulder.

Sounds like maybe he's wearing his VR headset wrong.

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[Dunbal]

It's called sarcasm. Perhaps the lowest form of wit, yet wit nonetheless. VR sales have been quite underwhelming - even according to VR gear manufacturers. While early adopters jumped on it quickly it seems that not everyone wants to pay $1000 or more (when you consider you probably need to improve your video card too) just to give yourself a migraine. Perhaps if and when the price comes down and more software gets written, but then it's a catch 22 isn't it? Prices would come down if they sold more units, s

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[mentil]

You can buy a Gear VR for $120, or a Daydream headset for $70, assuming you have a compatible phone. Daydream-compatible phones will be ubiquitous once Samsung no longer has a lock on the Snapdragon 835. The PSVR can be bought for $400, all you need is a PS4 and 60 million of those have been sold so far; about 1 million PSVR headsets have been sold so far.

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[Anonymous Coward]

Let's have a look at Frontier's Elite Dangerous (*), one of the leading VR games currently available:

The minimum (not recommended) specs demand at least an Intel Core i7-3770K or an AMD FX 4350 and 16GB of RAM. Again though, it’s the GPU recommendation that really makes us quake, as it’s demanding at least a GTX 980 with 4GB of RAM or better.

The lack of an AMD recommendation is bizarre, especially since there was one for the CPU. For comparable 980 performance though, you’re looking at a Fury card from AMD at least (thanks TechReport).

That means that if you don’t have one of these cards already, you’re looking at around a $500 spend on top of the purchase price of the game and any more upgrades you may need to do. They also show the big jump in performance required to run something like Elite Dangerous in VR. By comparison, its non-VR variant (available now, here) requires just a GTX 470 and a quad core CPU of any type to run.

The reason for the big jump in hardware requirements isn’t of course just to do with rendering two versions of the same content, but concerns the frame rate. Commercial VR will require frame rates in excess of 90 FPS at all times.

(Source [digitaltrends.com])

This game is about to be released on PlayStation too, from the FAQ [frontier.co.uk]:

Will Elite Dangerous support PlayStation®VR?

Elite Dangerous is a flagship VR game on PC so of course, VR is important to us. It’s definitely something we’re looking into, but we have nothing to announce for launch.

(*) The game that made waiting for Duke Nukem Forever seem like a twinkling: it was announced in 1998 (as Elite 4) [jades.org] and released in December 2014.

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[Ranbot]

At this moment in time, you're right of course. But, the companies making VR now are investing for the future. Today's VR is like open beta testing for the enthusiast niche. In a few years VR capable video cards will be much cheaper, such that "normal" PCs and consoles will be VR-ready taking away most of the Catch-22 you described. Then VR is only a matter of a peripheral for one's existing system. With a VR-version of a popular flagship franchise (e.g. Call of Duty, Halo, Half-Life, etc.) you have a marke

Yeah, whatever

[DontBeAMoran]

I'll only settle for furry tentacle sword-wielding, gun-shooting schoolgirl uniform hentai AI-powered interactive VR porn*.

* sorry if I missed any fetishes.

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[Ranbot]

Jokes aside, I kind of think big tech companies are leaving money on the table by not producing "VR adult entertainment." For better or worse, throughout history pornographers have always been at the forefront of new communication technologies, from the printing press to photography to the internet. VR will be no different.

This could work

[subanark]

Basically, take Pokemon Go, slap a VR headset, add enough social elements to make it into an MMO.

I think the biggest challenge is convincing people to walk outside with a VR headset on. But, who knows, maybe Microsoft is making the next Google Glass.

Or, maybe I'm totally wrong, and this is just VR game in your TV room as an MMO.

Obligatory Onion :)

[Anonymous Coward]

So this is a Virtual Reality MMO? May I now introduce to you the leader in Virtual Reality MMOs... The World of World of Warcraft ;)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rw8gE3lnpLQ

The Onion never disappoints :D