The head of Microsoft's Xbox division Phil Spencer has walked back on comments he made last year which dismissed virtual reality as too niche and that the tech was something consumers weren't after.

Speaking to the Gamertag Radio podcast, the Big M's games chief said that he was a perhaps a little overzealous in his previous remarks and that he meant no disrespect to the teams working on experiences for VR. 

"I probably overstated," he said.

"For the people who love VR and the experiences that are being built – no disrespect to any of the teams there. My main point was I wanted to be clear with our customers on where our focus was. If somebody was waiting for us to bring out a headset for Series X at launch, I was just trying to say, we're not going to do that."

Spencer also pointed out that VR is largely associated with Microsoft's Windows 10 platform, and that the Big M is not ignoring the burgeoning industry.

"We're never going to close our eyes to where things are going," he said. "I don't hope it goes away. I hope it gets bigger, I hope it's something that's just so important that it'd be a no brainer for us to support it. My main point wasn't to shade anyone who's working on VR or anything but really just about the stuff we're focused on and that's not part of the equation right now."