14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft has been unwilling to offer too many details about its plans for the HoloLens augmented reality device, but despite some earlier statements, the company seems to have created three video game experiences designed to show off the unique capabilities of the technology.
The Development Edition of the platform is set to launch on March 30 for the price of 3,000 dollars, or Euro and pre-orders are open on February 29, and AllGameBeta has been able to preserve details from an article that has since been pulled.
The three video games for the HoloLens are called Young Conker, RoboRaid and Fragments and the plan is to use them to encourage other developers to try and create their own experiences that involved augmented reality.
Fragments is focused on a crime story that takes place in the player's living room and challenges them to investigate clues and then interact with characters who sit on their couch before deciding which of them committed a murder.
Kudo Tsunoda, corporate vice president at Microsoft, is quoted as saying that, "Fragments blends the line between the digital world and the real world more than any other experience we built. When your living room has been used as the set for a story, it generates memories for you of what digitally happened in your space like it was real. It is an experience that bridges the uncanny valley of your mind and delivers a new form of storytelling like never before."
Young Conker is built around the classic Rare characters and is designed to change based on the real world environment where the HoloLens is used while the core gameplay remains unchanged.
RoboRaid is a first-person shooter that challenges gamers to battle aliens that are invading through the surrounding world, with spatial sound used to drive player attention during combat.
HoloLens also comes with specialized apps
To make the Development Edition of the augmented reality tech more interesting, Microsoft also includes a HoloStudio program that gives teams an easy way to create 3D experiences that work with the device.
The HoloLens also has a special version of Skype that allows users to interact with the holographic world that the device can create, which the developers believe can enhance communication between teams and improve how they work on projects.
HoloTour is also offered, a way to experience 360-degree panoramic views of touristic attractions like Rome or Machu Pichu and Microsoft plans to offer an extra app called Actiongram during the summer, a storytelling program that allows developers to integrate holo content into real world settings.
According to the company, they are not planning to launch a consumer version of the HoloLens anytime soon, and they are more interested in improving the tech and in creating a complex app and video game environment for it.
Microsoft’s augmented reality tech was also demoed using Minecraft and Halo 5: Guardians and will have to compete with the Oculus Rift, the PlayStation VR for the PlayStation 4, and the Vive from Valve and HTC.