Price at Time Of Review: Free
Comfort Rating: Green (No Movement)
Genre: Tool/App
Supported Platforms: Oculus Rift, Rift S
Supported Controllers: Gamepad
Best Playing Position: Standing, Sitting
Multi-Player: Yes
Age Rating: PG
Description: With the Xbox One Streaming app, you can play your Xbox One games directly on your Oculus Rift. Connect to your console via the app and watch your games come to life on a huge virtual screen in three immersive virtual theatres. Now you can expand your library of VR games with your favourite Xbox One titles, including Xbox 360 games that are playable on Xbox One. Xbox One Streaming requires your Xbox One console to be connected to the same network as your home PC.
Review: Every wondered why the Oculus Rift comes with an Xbox One controller? That is because Microsoft has been working with Oculus pretty much from the start. You might have noticed the similarities of the Xbox menu system and the Oculus one. Anyway, now is the time for Microsoft to cash in on their investment and it has come up with this Xbox One Streaming app which allows you to stream any Xbox One into the Rift headset. (You can also expect support for Windows 10 Desktop streaming, but many other apps already do this anyway.)
With 3 virtual environments to play your games in, one is a concrete box, the other is a church of sorts floating on water and the final one is what I can only describe as the Thunderdome. It was pretty easy to connect provided your Xbox is on the same network and you can do everything you would normally do on a 2D screen. Once connected you can manipulate the screen to best suit your viewing needs.
So, I expect you are wondering what are the real advantages of streaming from the Xbox One onto the Rift Vs playing them on your PC? First up you get a bigger screen, massive in fact and it looks amazing. Also better sound and altogether a better gaming immersion. But sadly the truth is not all games are cross network play which means your favourite one might not support PC play, so this would be the perfect app. Then again you would still need the Rift headset and a PC to run it. In short, there is no real advantage, other than playing it on a giant virtual screen which is sadly going to be a lower resolution than it would be running on your normal TV (without the screen door effect), but if you just so happen to own an Xbox anyway and you have never played games on a giant virtual screen before, you will find playing games with this app is simply mind blowing. It’s just a shame they are not fully VR supported. Now that would be amazing. Halo in VR? Yes, please!
