Microsoft says developers can access Mixed Reality SteamVR preview and Halo: Recruit and other VR games are coming October 17
Update 10/3/17, 7 p.m. PT: A recording of our event from today is now available to watch on demand. — Mixed reality will unleash the creativity of every person and every organization on the planet.
Context & Ripple Effects
This is the payoff of a two-year platform build-out. In mid-2016 Microsoft opened Windows Holographic to hardware partners including Intel, AMD, HTC, and Acer, then folded mixed reality into the free Windows 10 Creators Update so any Windows 10 machine could be a mixed-reality host. Last month it confirmed that SteamVR, Minecraft, and Halo would come to Windows Mixed Reality alongside holiday-season headsets.
Today's move converts those promises into a working pipeline: developers get their hands on the Mixed Reality SteamVR preview ahead of launch, and Microsoft has pinned a date — October 17 — for Halo: Recruit and other first VR titles. The sequencing matters because content, not headset specs, is what makes or breaks a new device category at retail.
First-order effects
- Developers building for Windows Mixed Reality headsets can now validate existing SteamVR titles against Microsoft's platform before the October 17 launch, closing the compatibility gap that would otherwise hit at retail.
Second-order effects
- Acer, HP, Dell, and the other Holographic partners shipping holiday headsets inherit Steam's back catalog as a de facto launch library, letting them compete on price and comfort against Oculus and HTC without funding exclusive content.
Third-order effects
- If the SteamVR bridge holds, PC VR consolidates around Windows as the compatibility layer — headset makers differentiate on hardware while Valve's store supplies the content, eroding the closed-ecosystem model Oculus built its platform on.
The trend: PC virtual reality is splitting into an open Windows-plus-Steam stack that third-party headset makers ride, versus closed console-style ecosystems that must fund their own content.