Oculus Rift owners will be able to stream Xbox One games to their headsets starting December 12, giving them an immersive way to play. This makes a ton of sense, given the existing cooperation between the two companies, including the fact that every Oculus Rift sold ships with an Xbox One controller in the box. That means gamers with Rift, a Windows 10 PC to run it, and an Xbox One will need nothing more to dive right into playing their console collection in virtual reality.
If you haven’t yet tried one of the PC-based VR headsets, they generally offer some way to experience either Windows desktop software, videos (like Netflix) or other 2D, non-immersive media in a fully enclosed virtual reality digital environment. The Xbox One streaming version offers a simulation of big-screen gaming, set in one of three virtual environments called “Citadel,” “Retreat” and “Dome.” If all goes well, it should basically feel like you’re playing your Xbox One games on a huge, high-quality screen, with some options in terms of setting how ‘far away’ you’re sat from the virtual display.
PlayStation VR owners can already do this for PS4 games using the virtual reality accessory for their home consoles. Oculus owners will need to have not only the headset and the console, but also a beefy gaming PC, but chances are a decent percentage of Rift owners are also Xbox One gamers, too.