Holographic Windows and Microsoft’s New Gaming Embrace

Leaving behind a few lackluster years, Microsoft unveiled in great fanfare yesterday its bold vision of the future. The Microsoft HoloLens, by far the most advanced augmented reality hardware solution to date, promises to dazzle the world.

Yesterday’s announcement could have easily been anticipated as another in a series of lukewarm “me-too” PR gatherings. After all, the Xbox One reveal fiasco is still in gaming journalists’ heads the world over. But something was in the air yesterday: a roaring sound coming from the Microsoft HoloLens development lab, located in an underground complex underneath Microsoft Campus’ cafeteria, which had kept its secrets well hidden from public scrutiny. And Microsoft is quite proud of their security achievement, but should be even more proud of their new hardware from the future. The Microsoft HoloLens seems to be everything promised, and then some…

This HoloLens, to most, will be compared to the soon-to-be-released Oculus Rift and even the already-released-but-hard-to-obtain Google Glass. Except its field of applications, coupled with Windows 10 far surpasses its direct competitors’ offering. From Skype to visiting Mars or playing Minecraft on your coffee table, the new hologram glasses promise a whole lot more than simply immersing you inside a game, it changes your immediate surroundings to display a myriad of applications on just about any surface you’d like. Holograms in our everyday homes is now a not so distant reality, or so promises Microsoft.

Of course, we would be wise to be cautious, and remind ourselves that Microsoft hasn’t revealed a release date yet. At least, nothing more precise than during the lifetime of Windows 10. This could be well into the lifetime of Windows…11 or 12 by then. And we’ll also remind ourselves that Project Natal - the original 2009 Kinect demo - promised features we have yet to see on a platform bound to be relegated to history books when HoloLens comes around. And the pricetag, also not mentioned, could propel these holographic glasses into a niche market even smaller than Google Glass’s market right now. But then again, it all depends on when this will come, not whether.

On a purely gaming note, it should also be noted that other announcements came from Microsoft yesterday. The first one, a huge business move, is to make Windows 10 free to all licensees of Windows 7 and 8, in the first year alone. Not unlike Apple’s decision to give Yosemite for free last year, this decision is another clear step into Microsoft and Apple becoming services companies as much as software and hardware ones. The new Windows 10 installed base will likely be consequential very fast which will only improve the PC gaming market after Windows 8, dubbed “this great sadness” by Valve and Steam’s Gabe Newell.

On another gaming note, gamers should welcome the names chosen by Microsoft for “Cortana”, its new vocal assistant, and “Spartan” the replacement to Internet Explorer to be released in 2015. Those names are of course generic enough that non gamers will never get their origin, but using Halo franchise hallmark names for widely used software is a great proof of trust and engagement on Microsoft’s part to the gaming market and its Xbox business in particular.

And no one would really question that engagement anymore; the use of Minecraft in its big reveal of the HoloLens is a strong message as well as the beginning of an answer to the questions asked in the wake of Microsoft’s 2.5 Billion dollars purchase of Minecraft last year.

Yesterday’s unveiling places Microsoft back on the forefront of the hardware race, after a few years of being perceived as a mere follower. That would be a huge success to any new company, but we should welcome this even more considering the company’s history and its unmatched installed base around the world.