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[Danknugz]

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/microso...er-setback-on-army-goggles-1.1871783.amp.html

TLDR: MS took a gamble on AR and attempted to sell out hololens to the US army and the deal fell through, and now MS is cutting the hololens dept

 

[Ghost of Caelid]

Cool tech… thought it could have cool applications and was more practical than VR. I’m sure someone will benefit massively when holographic become more reasonable to be a consumer item.

 

[Crayon]

Reminds me of a story. My friend got bought by ms and after working there several years told me:

"The problem is that the guy who made hololens and the guy who made metro have to sit there and talk pretending one is not a genius and one is not an idiot."

 

[C2brixx]

Deal hasn't fallen through.
"The Army announced in December it had awarded Microsoft a “task order” to develop the 1.2 variant of IVAS. That came after the parties renegotiated the contract based on soldier feedback about the form factor of the device, according to comments Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology Douglas Bush made to Janes Defense in November.

Initially set to be fielded in 2021, incremental fielding of IVAS will begin in September 2023, the Army said in a release."
https://www.nationaldefensemagazine...set-program-needs-improvement-says-army-chief

 

[AndrewRyan]

That's too bad. They were always priced too high for me. The future looks exciting though with apple doing something this year and nreal just released a consumer device for $380.

 

[Trunx81]

I had the chance to try out HoloLens a few years ago and it was really a nice tech demo. The game where aliens came out of the walls and you had to shoot them with your fingers while dodging the shots was really nice. In another demo you could walk through Machu Picchu, although the monitor was way to small to feel “in it”, like on a real VR headset.

 

[iHaunter]

Even I feel bad for them at this point. They keep taking Ls.

 

[Danknugz]

Deal hasn't fallen through.
"The Army announced in December it had awarded Microsoft a “task order” to develop the 1.2 variant of IVAS. That came after the parties renegotiated the contract based on soldier feedback about the form factor of the device, according to comments Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology Douglas Bush made to Janes Defense in November.

Initially set to be fielded in 2021, incremental fielding of IVAS will begin in September 2023, the Army said in a release."
https://www.nationaldefensemagazine...set-program-needs-improvement-says-army-chief

This paragraph in particular caught my interest:

"Microsoft won’t be getting more orders for its combat goggles anytime soon after Congress earlier this month rejected the US Army’s request for $400 million to buy as many as 6,900 of them in the current fiscal year. The rejection of the request, in the $1.75 trillion government funding bill approved in December, reflects concern over field tests of the goggles, which are adapted from Microsoft’s HoloLens headsets. The tests disclosed “mission-affecting physical impairments,” including headaches, eyestrain and nausea. "

 

[M1chl]

Taking a loss, fucking maybe don't try to buy Activions for double the price and let people keep the work. Shit like this makes me angry, they are swimming in money and "gotta go plebs"

Also this not even counting their H1B "strategy", but keep boats about your friendly face MS.

 

[Kdad]

Wen

 

[Crayon]

The camera they made to fake up their bullshit demos was actually cooler than the hololens itself.

 

[ReBurn]

$400 million to buy as many as 6,900 of them

For like $58k apiece these things must be magical

 

[twilo99]

Apple is going to do it right, once again...

 

[YukiOnna]

Wasn't really in support of this deal to begin with so I hope that's the end of that. HoloLens 3 should have nothing to do with that side at least.

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

Apple is going to do it right, once again...

i think i have news for you:
https://www.theverge.com/2023/1/17/23560097/apple-ar-vr-glasses-headset-rumor-mixed-reality

 

[nemiroff]

Not exactly gaming related..

 

[jigglet]

I can see how this is going to go.

The US army could have let MS pour billions into R&D and just leveraged their desperation to make an ROI.

Instead, they'll DIY it at 10x the cost to the tax payer. This is how it usually goes

 

[Crayon]

Not exactly gaming related..

Oh sure it is go look at this forum when they trotted it out becasue they didn't have vr.

 

[Jennings]

I made a venn diagram about this situation:

 

[PSYGN]

I made a venn diagram about this situation:

when diagram

 

[Lasha]

I've used hololens in professional settings. The most interesting case was walkthroughs of installations while locked down during COVID. A local guy would wear the headset and I would pilot them through the environment. QR codes and other tags around the facility could be looked at and linked to artifacts in the back end. I really liked the concept.

 

[LordOfChaos]

Seems like this is always Microsoft's curse, early to good ideas but lacking in execution and later give up on it just before it becomes a big thing. Not that they've given up on this yet.

Though things have generally been better under Satya, clearly they're feeling the pressure to tighten right now.

 

[ZehDon]

This paragraph in particular caught my interest:

"Microsoft won’t be getting more orders for its combat goggles anytime soon after Congress earlier this month rejected the US Army’s request for $400 million to buy as many as 6,900 of them in the current fiscal year. The rejection of the request, in the $1.75 trillion government funding bill approved in December, reflects concern over field tests of the goggles, which are adapted from Microsoft’s HoloLens headsets. The tests disclosed “mission-affecting physical impairments,” including headaches, eyestrain and nausea. "

Lol, that feels like a little bit of a problem for combat hardware.

 

[Buggy Loop]

10 years ago.. damn

Was also very cool tech i wish had become something real..

 

[DeepEnigma]

Looking back at the HoloLens threads on here, especially vs VR (mainly PSVR) is well, ooooffff

 

[Ozriel]

Oh sure it is go look at this forum when they trotted it out becasue they didn't have vr.

They didn’t have VR?

 

[Iced Arcade]

Not going to lie, thought this shit died years ago.

 

[Crayon]

They didn’t have VR?

WMR sets were alright. I mean console war vr lol. It was during the pre-vr hype storm.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Hololens AR is another gimmicky gaming gadget. Maybe for the army, it would be good if it executed well and they used it for whatever battle tactic shit they'd do with it, but as a gamer I remember those old vids where put them on and pretend it's like VR in a way shooting aliens on your wall.

Werent the goggles $3000? LOL.

Personally, I dont even think they were serious launching it as a consumer device for the living room for whatever consumer price they'd get it down to. I think they just did that to get as much PR as possible hoping the commercial and military markets would be influenced and buy it.

 

[Crayon]

Hololens AR is another gimmicky gaming gadget. Maybe for the army, it would be good if it executed well and they used it for whatever battle tactic shit they'd do with it, but as a gamer I remember those old vids where put them on and pretend it's like VR in a way shooting aliens on your wall.

Werent the goggles $3000? LOL.

Personally, I dont even think they were serious launching it as a consumer device for the living room for whatever consumer price they'd get it down to. I think they just did that to get as much PR as possible hoping the commercial and military markets would be influenced and buy it.

It was never a gaming thing or consumer thing. They just strategically showed it with minecraft and that conker abomination lol. A lot of people understandably thought it was a gaming thing but that was intentional.

 

[Ozriel]

Hololens AR is another gimmicky gaming gadget. Maybe for the army, it would be good if it executed well and they used it for whatever battle tactic shit they'd do with it, but as a gamer I remember those old vids where put them on and pretend it's like VR in a way shooting aliens on your wall.

Werent the goggles $3000? LOL.

Personally, I dont even think they were serious launching it as a consumer device for the living room for whatever consumer price they'd get it down to. I think they just did that to get as much PR as possible hoping the commercial and military markets would be influenced and buy it.

They didn’t exactly bill it as a gaming device for the living room, though.

Not really sure why this thread is here, since Hololens has long since been exclusively enterprise. It’s also had no ties with Xbox and there’s never been any plans for Xbox or PC a gaming integration.

I guess if this was meant to be a general conversation about AR gaming this would make sense, but that would probably be a premature discussion while Apple hasnt released their much more powerful device.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

They didn’t exactly bill it as a gaming device for the living room, though.

Not really sure why this thread is here, since Hololens has long since been exclusively enterprise. It’s also had no ties with Xbox and there’s never been any plans for Xbox or PC a gaming integration.

I guess if this was meant to be a general conversation about AR gaming this would make sense, but that would probably be a premature discussion while Apple hasnt released their much more powerful device.

I can only go on what I remember seeing back then. SO no doubt I didn't see all the PR videos. But I remember gamey kinds of Hololens videos.

Looking at wiki, they had a small number of games or demos: Minecraft, Conker, that alien shooter game and some kind of crime solving game made by Asobo. The list has a ton of commercial applications ranging from medical, military, 3D imaging, Cortana, Skype etc...

Maybe I missed those kinds of videos if they were there. I just remember the gamey ones.

 

[sinnergy]

HoloLens is pretty cool for for example remote service or repairs on complicated machines , if you need to explain from another part of the world . My company uses it with great success. It has its markets it can work in .

 

[nemiroff]

Oh sure it is go look at this forum when they trotted it out becasue they didn't have vr.

Not sure what you mean by that sentence, what's the "they"-speak about? Hololens has been more or less exclusively a business device (we have several in our UX lab), it is not a gaming device (only a few stupid demos). Anyway MS is heavily involved in VR, especially through WMR, including VR devices like the Reverb G2, just not on Xbox.

 

[Crayon]

Not sure what you mean by that sentence, what's the "they"-speak about? Hololens has been exclusively a business device (we have several in our UX lab), it is not a gaming device (only a few stupid demos). Anyway MS is heavily involved in VR, especially through WMR, including VR devices like the Reverb G2, just not on Xbox.

They is marketing. Go back to 2013 or whatever it was, around the time where people had been getting ahold of the prototype occulus stuff and the psvr and vive and cv1 were announced. Check out the conversations archived here and you'll see that the hololens gaming potential was massively overestimated by forum-goers. It was never true but that's what many wanted to believe.

 

[nemiroff]

They is marketing. Go back to 2013 or whatever it was, around the time where people had been getting ahold of the prototype occulus stuff and the psvr and vive and cv1 were announced. Check out the conversations archived here and you'll see that the hololens gaming potential was massively overestimated by forum-goers. It was never true but that's what many wanted to believe.

I'm not a big subscriber to forum drama. AR (and VR) has always been surrounded by all kinds of ideas, which is how it should be. But that's not a part of reality as it is today (AR for gaming). Hololens has never been a practical gaming device outside a few awkward demos. ...And neither has it been useful for much else.. Except sparking ideas for a future where AR had better technology to come into its own. It'll be interesting to see where Apple is taking AR in usability, if any, with their new device.

 

[Ozriel]

I can only go on what I remember seeing back then. SO no doubt I didn't see all the PR videos. But I remember gamey kinds of Hololens videos.

Looking at wiki, they had a small number of games or demos: Minecraft, Conker, that alien shooter game and some kind of crime solving game made by Asobo. The list has a ton of commercial applications ranging from medical, military, 3D imaging, Cortana, Skype etc...

Maybe I missed those kinds of videos if they were there. I just remember the gamey ones.

Every general purpose computing device has games demoed on it these days. But Hololens itself is not a consumer device, and isn’t being pitched as a living room gaming console or whatever.

They is marketing. Go back to 2013 or whatever it was, around the time where people had been getting ahold of the prototype occulus stuff and the psvr and vive and cv1 were announced. Check out the conversations archived here and you'll see that the hololens gaming potential was massively overestimated by forum-goers. It was never true but that's what many wanted to believe.

I’m not sure “forum gamers said XYZ in 2013” has to shape our conversations about an enterprise device in 2023.

 

[Ronin_7]

Even I feel bad for them at this point. They keep taking Ls.

They're trying everything to beat Google & Apple & Amazon but it's a lost cause.

iOS, Android & AWS are too Big & will only get bigger, Windows keeps getting smaller.

 

[Crayon]

I'm not a big subscriber to forum drama. AR and VR has always been surrounded by all kinds of ideas, which is how it should be. But that's not a part of reality as it is today (AR for gaming). Hololens has never been a practical gaming device outside a few awkward demos. ...And neither has it been useful for much else.. Except sparking ideas for a future where AR had better technology to come into its own. It'll be interesting to see where Apple is taking AR in usability, if any, with their new device.

I am a connoisseur of forum drama and it was choice.

re:apple Idk if by usability you mean interface or applications. I am really wondering what kind of apps they have in mind. There has to be some equivalent of the iphone camera app. Maybe that's a big ask...

 

[Crayon]

I’m not sure “forum gamers said XYZ in 2013” has to shape our conversations about an enterprise device in 2023.

You're right, but here we are.

 

[Ozriel]

They're trying everything to beat Google & Apple & Amazon but it's a lost cause.

iOS, Android & AWS are too Big & will only get bigger, Windows keeps getting smaller.

And now I must hear your backstory. Did MS send Ninjas to your house to slay your dog? Because what does iOS, Android and AWS have to do with Hololens?

 

[Ronin_7]

And now I must hear your backstory. Did MS send Ninjas to your house to slay your dog?

They couldn't break the Windows.

 

[reksveks]

I am very confused around AWS eating into MS revenue especially when MS own Intelligent Cloud is much bigger than Windows Revenue

 

[Black_Stride]

Wrong forum?

 

[wolffy71]

Didn't the Pentagon just reorder these?

They had issues with soldiers getting motion sick if memory serves me correct. But that's always gonna be an issue with vr/ar.

 

[Slicker than your average]

I remember when they tried to show this off because Sony was doing VR while saying their customers don't want VR. Phil should be a comic.

 

[Slicker than your average]

They didn’t exactly bill it as a gaming device for the living room, though.

Not really sure why this thread is here, since Hololens has long since been exclusively enterprise. It’s also had no ties with Xbox and there’s never been any plans for Xbox or PC a gaming integration.

I guess if this was meant to be a general conversation about AR gaming this would make sense, but that would probably be a premature discussion while Apple hasnt released their much more powerful device.

Every general purpose computing device has games demoed on it these days. But Hololens itself is not a consumer device, and isn’t being pitched as a living room gaming console or whatever.



I’m not sure “forum gamers said XYZ in 2013” has to shape our conversations about an enterprise device in 2023.

Seriously do you ever stop with the astrosurfing? Seems you're working over time.

This gadget was presented and a gaming device at one point at E3 showing Minecraft, therefore it can be discussed on a gaming forum.

 

[UnNamed]

I've read somewhere Microsoft will receive 50M from US Army for fixing Hololens, so I wonder why they are shrinking the department.

 

[Reizo Ryuu]

Not gaming news

 

[Ozriel]

Seriously do you ever stop with the astrosurfing? Seems you're working over time.

This gadget was presented and a gaming device at one point at E3 showing Minecraft, therefore it can be discussed on a gaming forum.

Hololens 1 was discontinued years ago. Hololens 2 debuted 2019 as a purely enterprise device. The end of MS consumer AR aspirations happened in 2019. Nobody's fault if you don't follow tech news.

Dismissing attempts to educate you as 'astroturfing' is certainly a new low. As is your misuse of that term, since nobody's actually marketing Hololens, AR or even Microsoft in this thread.

From TheVerge, back in 2019:

There’s one more unremarkably remarkable thing: even though it was just a demo, I was playing the part of a worker because that’s who the HoloLens 2 is exclusively designed for — workers, not consumers.

The Microsoft HoloLens 2 is available for preorder today for $3,500, and it’s expected to ship later this year. However, Microsoft has decided that it is only going to sell to enterprise customers who want to deploy the headset to their workers. As of right now, Microsoft isn’t even announcing a developer kit version of the HoloLens 2.