Xbox boss Phil Spencer doesn't think the world is ready for virtual reality yet.

Speaking with Edge magazine (as reported by its sister site Games Radar), Spencer said Microsoft is taking a wait-and-see approach to virtual reality even as other companies race to enter the space.

"Right now, it's just been about technologies and things that I think we need to do on Xbox One to make the experience better, and that's where our focus has been," Spencer said. "And I don't think VR is a now thing.

"I'm not saying it's five years from now, but it's not really a now now thing. Valve's got their VR thing, which I think is great; Samsung has GearVR, too... Funnily enough, they are very interested in Minecraft and how it could work in those VR spaces."

Spencer's views may come as no surprise given that Microsoft is investing in what many consider to be a competing technology, augmented reality. Microsoft's product is called HoloLens, which it describes as an augmented reality holographic computing platform. It comes with a set of APIs that will enable developers to create holograms in the real world.

The holograms will be visible through the lens, overlaying the user's normal vision, much like augmented reality.

Even so, Spencer doesn't see HoloLens as a "now thing" for Xbox, either.

"Well, we haven't announced it as an Xbox accessory," Spencer said. "But it sits within one team, and we have the conversations. Right now, we want to focus on a standalone, untethered device and make sure that we can prove out that scenario. That's where we started, and that's what we announced in January: the first fully self-contained headset.

"The tethered scenarios around VR I think are interesting, but we were going for something different. Not being tethered to either a PC, Xbox or a phone as part of the solution was one of our design challenges for HoloLens, and we did that. Now we can say, 'Well, OK, if I do have an Xbox or a PC, what are those scenarios?' We haven't publicly talked about what those are, but you can imagine, as we continue to drive and get success with HoloLens, those scenarios will become obvious and developers will take advantage of them."