An interesting article was made recently by ‘steverulez’ outlining what Microsoft’s largest and smallest studios are currently working on. This information is obtained through employees LinkedIn profiles and many of them have been updated within the past two weeks with the announcement of Microsoft HoloLens. While before this, employees couldn’t discuss the device, now they can and additional information treacle’s out about the project every so often. (If you’re on the home page, click on read more to see what I’m on about).
Microsoft’s Alex Kipman, the man leading the innovation behind Microsoft Hololens.
The most interesting thing about this discovery is that nearly all of Microsoft’s recent studios are creating HoloLens projects. These studios are under Microsoft Studios like your AAA Xbox game studios like 343 Industries and Turn 10. However, these aren’t just experiences that require an Xbox device. HoloLens runs them itself with Windows 10 and Windows Holographic.
The HoloLens Studio Manager, Daniel McCulloch is leading game studios within Microsoft’s Xbox division working on consumer experiences for HoloLens. These include State of the Art who are working on the HoloLens on Mars experience which is called ‘Onsight’. LXP is another studio, working on HoloStudio where you build your own holographic creations through Windows Holographic. FIT, another studio are working on ‘Holobuilder’ which is the Minecraft experience for HoloLens and are probably working on close collaboration with Mojang on it. Good Science is another studio who are working on “secret stuff”. Good Science were the creators of Kinect Fun Labs on Xbox 360 which launched back in 2011. The studio has since been extremely quiet, however it seems they are about to step back into the light. Daniel is also working on another secret project which could involve any of Microsoft’s blockbuster studios or one we don’t even know about yet.
The ‘HoloStudio’ experience on Microsoft HoloLens being developed by LXP Studio.
Another studio called Microsoft Studio Victoria which Microsoft apparently shut down in 2013 was also working on a HoloLens related project. The person, called Edoardo De Martin was Studio Manager and apparently claims he’s still working there. This collides with the fact that Microsoft apparently closed the studio. It’s also possible he’s LinkedIn hasn’t been updated and he’s currently working elsewhere on a HoloLens project in another studio.
What about 343 Industries and Turn 10? They’ll also have HoloLens projects. There’s a good chance HoloLens is being integrated into Halo and Forza Motorsport in the near future. As for BigPark a studio Microsoft acquired in 2009, they made Kinect Joy Ride and apps for Xbox One, they’ve been very quiet recently with their website “under construction” for a long time now. Lionhead are currently focused on ‘Fable Legends’ for Xbox One and Windows 10. Rare are working on a new IP we don’t know yet but they always integrate innovative Microsoft technology into their games such as Kinect. A HoloLens Rare title is very possible in the future. Team Dakota are possibly working on a HoloLens experience for Project Spark. Press Play recently launched Kalimba and the studio seems to be having success with smaller titles, they also launched ‘Tenticles: Enter The Mind’ on Windows platforms.
The new Ford GT. The cover car for Forza Motorsport 6. Will we see HoloLens in this iteration of the franchise? Maybe in an update. Or maybe we’ll have to wait for Forza Motorsport 7.
Aaron Greenberg leads marketing for Microsoft Studios and Kudo Tsunoda who’s playing a huge role in Microsoft’s HoloLens is CVP on Xbox, Windows and HoloLens experiences. Kudo and Aaron visited studios in the UK this week including Press Play and Rare. You can almost guarantee that HoloLens played a big role in the meetings that happened.
It’s important to note that Microsoft HoloLens was initially only focused on gaming until recently Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella and I even heard more recently that Xbox Head Phil Spencer both agreed that the HoloLens team were wasting potential by focusing on gaming alone. HoloLens was a device that could re-invent productivity, entertainment, communication, creativity and so forth. We’ll be hearing much more about HoloLens at Build 2015 in April and we’ll keep you covered on all the news!
