36 PCWorld JULY 2020NEWS HP REVERB G2 UPGR ADES WINDOWS MIXED REALIT Y
That’s equally worrisome to me. Valve’s
been pretty good about cross-headset
compatibility so far. The Index will work
with first-gen Vive hardware, so you could
upgrade just the headset or just the
controllers and save some cash. But HP
doesn’t even seem sure whether its new
controllers will be standard for the Windows
MR platform going forward, and that’s a bit
odd. The last thing VR needs is a more
fractured landscape.A PROMISING FUTURE
Even with some unknowns, the HP Reverb G2is a promising development for the
beleaguered Windows MR ecosystem.
Windows MR has been a distant third-place
contender for a long time now, behind
Oculus and Valve/HTC. The Reverb G2
doesn’t solve all of the problems with
Windows MR, but it at least solves some of
the biggest.
The HP Reverb G2 releases this fall,
and preorders are open now. I’m looking
forward to giving it a try at some point. VR
is still young, and there’s definitely a rising-
tide aspect to competition. The more the
better.