Over the course of the industry’s history, video games have grown from humble origins built on low-bit capabilities into full-fledged coded symphonies that are made up of myriad complex components. In truth, some people believe the next logical step in gaming’s evolution will move beyond what’s now considered to be traditional equipment, and involve VR and AR hardware like the Oculus Rift and Microsoft’s HoloLens. Although, as with almost anything related to technology, there will always be skeptics. For instance, Warren Spector—director of the original Deus Ex—believes virtual reality is a fad when it comes to gaming.
While the jury is still out on the matter, Microsoft’s extended goals for HoloLens will ultimately include the incorporation of video games. However, according to a lengthy interview with the business tech news website ZDNet, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella says that the earliest iteration of the company’s augmented reality technology will not focus on gaming. As a matter of fact, after being asked where he believed the initial demand for HoloLens would be, the Nadella says, “For sure in the first version, it’s going to be more about developers and enterprise scenarios.”
Bearing that in mind, the CEO goes on to explain that Microsoft’s $2.5 billion purchase of Minecraft was not made in vain, saying:
As we’ve seen with the Minecraft HoloLens Edition demo at E3 2015, the headset shows a lot of promise, especially with its ability to allow people to view and interact with holographic sets and surroundings. Nevertheless, as evidenced by our hands-on preview with the headset, the current build failed to live up to expectations, due to its inability to fully immerse users into its augmented environment.
“We bought Minecraft for many reasons: because it’s the number one PC app; it’s the number one console app; it’s the number one paid mobile app on iOS and Android. I wanted a hit game even for the new medium of mixed reality. And we will have that. Gaming will always be a scenario and there will be other entertainment broadly. But, with the V.1 of HoloLens, I want us to push a lot more of the enterprise usage.”
Since the HoloLens is still in its nascent stages, we all should expect a lot of kinks to be worked out of the system before anything concrete comes to pass. But with that being said, after Casey Hudson—director of the Mass Effect trilogy—departed from BioWare last year to now work for Microsoft in order to help develop their version of augmented reality, it’s a safe bet that gaming fans will eventually get to experience something special some time in the future.
HoloLens does not have a concrete release date yet, so make sure to check back in regularly with Game Rant for the latest updates on the system.
Source: ZDNet (via GameSpot)
