HoloLens gives up on gaming, goes after suits instead
When Microsoft first introduced its Hololens augmented reality headset, everybody thought that the device would bring a fresh breeze to the gaming world. The tech giant actually presented the concept by playing games on it, and this was a clear indication that Hololens would be also used for gaming purposes.
One year later, Microsoft has made a 180 degree change as Hololens is now being developed mainly as an enterprise-friendly product. Recently, a former Microsoft engineer confirmed that Hololens was not for gaming, although it has a lot of potential when it comes down to being a video game centric machine.
There is clearly a gaming potential there but they don’t want to put this out there as an Xbox extension, because then nobody will say, yes, we can use this in our conferences, in our warehouses, in our hospitals. It’s wise to limit gaming early on.
Microsoft has indeed confirmed the information revealed by the former engineer, as Hololens now supports Outlook Mail and Calendar.
The Redmond giant has never officially confirmed this change in its Hololens strategy, but the public suspected something had changed as Hololens was nowhere to be seen at this year’s E3 event. Instead, Microsoft brought its two new Xbox One consoles to the spotlight, the Xbox One S and Project Scorpio.
However, not all hope is lost, as many people, including Sébastien Motte, the former head of the Xbox first-party business development strongly believe that Microsoft is only trying to buy more time to make Hololens more consumer-friendly.
The HoloLens is focused on enterprise now. It’s not ready yet to be a consumer product. It will eventually be a consumer product but not now.
Collaboration with businesses will allow Microsoft to experiment more and at the same time, it will bring money to its treasury.
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