Xbox One players will soon be able to strap on an Oculus Rift virtual reality headset to further immerse themselves in their games.
Microsoft announced today that a long-planned concept to stream Xbox One games on Rift headsets will debut Dec. 12. Gamers can download the Xbox One Streaming to Oculus Rift app from the Oculus store and then run the games on the virtual reality headsets via their home networks.
“Once connected, your console’s video output is streamed to your Rift headset and projected onto a massive screen in your choice of one of three immersive VR environments: Citadel, Retreat and Dome,” Kevin Unangst, senior director of global marketing at Xbox, wrote in a blog post Tuesday.
VR streaming is the next step in Microsoft’s quest to make it easier to game across multiple devices. Xbox previously made it possible stream games from the company’s home console to any Windows 10 PC or tablet.
Each Rift headset ships with an Xbox One controller, so game designers can design with that in mind. The Oculus runs natively on Windows 10, which Xbox says makes VR streaming easy to set up.
Microsoft has a partnership with Facebook-owned Oculus despite the fact that it is making its own headset, HoloLens. HoloLens, Microsoft has said, is a mixed reality device that doesn’t compete directly with virtual reality headsets like HTC Vive, Rift and others.
