Gaming Not The Primary Focus For HoloLens

In the month of February, Microsoft announced its augmented reality headset, named HoloLens. The hardware will eventually be largely used for gaming but w ith V.1 of HoloLens, Microsoft wants to encourage enterprise usage as well. At the Electronics Entertainment Expo 2015 (E3) in Los Angeles, Microsoft released a special version of Minecraft for its HoloLens headset. The guests all experienced a glimpse of the augmented reality headset through the demonstration of Halo 5. Microsoft acquired Mojang, creators of Minecraft, in a $2.5 billion deal in 2014.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella confirms in an interview with ZDNet that the first version of HoloLens would not be aimed at gamers. Rather, the company will focus on "developers and enterprise scenarios." He clarified that Microsoft did buy Minecraft to create a new genre of gaming for a mixed reality. According to TechFrag, Nadella opined that the game is the top seller for mobiles (both iOS and Android), consoles and PC. Hence, it is the best option for the new platform. With HoloLens, gaming will always be a scenario but other forms of entertainment are considered as well.

“In general, Microsoft's approach will be always this dual-use focus, or this multi-focus,” Nadella said. Thus, HoloLens is being built as an enterprise device – focusing more on medical, office and retail uses rather than home and entertainment, reports IGN.

Augmented Reality (AR) is a form of "mediated perception." An AR headset overlaps the virtual world with the real world. It takes live video feeds from the external world and supplements it with computer generated input. AR exaggerates the real world to make it more fun and informative. Virtual reality entirely replaces the external world with the virtual world.

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