Microsoft Shows $299 Windows 10 VR Headset Solution

It is no secret that Microsoft is betting big on augmented and mixed reality and they have shown their AR headset and its capabilities multiple times. But it seems Microsoft isn’t just betting on the mixed reality while the competition has all the fun with virtual reality – especially now that Sony has released their PS4 VR headset. During their large Surface press conference yesterday, Microsoft showed us their take on a VR headset and while we didn’t get any real specifications or details on it, we got a price.

Price is a really relevant factor and the costs of the Vive or Rift might be too much for quite a few people who barely scraped together enough money for their system itself. Microsoft’s new VR headset will speak to those people as it was announced with a $299 price tag. That’s quite cheap and it will surely allow a lot more people to try the virtual possibilities as well as secure some customers.

The Microsoft VR experience will also be a lot easier to set up than other ones that require sensors around the room where as this one is said to rely on built-in sensors alone. That reduces the need for a dedicated and pre-setup area for your VR experience.

The new VR headset is marketed together with Windows 10, but I would be very much surprised if it wouldn’t work with the Xbox One or Scorpio too. There are even those speculating that it might be bundled with the Scorpio, but that might be more of a wish than anything else. Whether Microsoft will make the new VR headsets themselves is unclear, but they announced “several standalone VR headsets” from partners such as Dell, HP, Lenovo, ASUS, and Acer. So it could be that Microsoft just came up with the tech and that those partners will design and build the actual headsets.

I’m sure we’ll learn a lot more about these new VR headsets very soon and I for one am looking forward to it.