Microsoft Pulls the Plug on Windows Mixed Reality, Reportedly Downsizing VR Division

[btarunr]

Microsoft is discontinuing Windows Mixed Reality. This was discovered when the company added it to a list of deprecated Windows features. The Windows Mixed Reality platform, along with its accompanying Mixed Reality Portal app, and Mixed Reality for Steam VR, are on the list. For now it is deprecated, and Microsoft says that it will be removed in a future release of Windows. Mixed Reality was released in 2017, during the thick of the VR craze in the tech industry, a time when Facebook, having acquired Oculus, and betting big on the Metaverse, an endeavor that cost the company over $20 billion since. Mixed Reality served as a gateway to games and apps in the VR space. The company developed its own HoloLens Mixed Reality headset rivaling Oculus Rift, and got its OEM partners, such as Acer, Dell, Lenovo, ASUS, and HP, to invest in ones of their own. In all this, it doesn't look like Microsoft is winding down its enterprise-focused HoloLens 2 headset just yet.



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[theouto]

Not that I am surprised, but you'd think that after apple lit the fuse then perhaps they would be more encouraged to legitimize vr (or at least I encourage them, for all we know the vision pro might be a very expensive failure, but cmoooon, vr is cool!!!!!!!!!!)

 

[Assimilator]

Good riddance. VR, like "AI", is simply not ready for prime-time yet and won't be for a long while.

 

[Vayra86]

Finally lol. Utter waste of time, still inferior to a screen in every way after the gimmick factor wears off

I wonder when the memo arrives at Meta

 

[TechLurker]

I wonder if they're just going to focus on the corporate/military side of things now. I recall they still have a major deal with the US Military for AR systems that basically give soldiers the real-life version of game HUDs, and AR has become reasonably useful enough among large-scale production and modeling facilities (automotive, aircraft, etc).

 

[Squared]

When HoloLens was first shown all the tech sites described it as amazing. I thought a sci-fi technology had been invented, and I still think that, but it's remained a $3000 product after all these years, with its smartphone-class processor and little custom accelerator.

 

[CyberCT]

Stinks considering the HP Reverb G2 is part of the WMR space. I still use VR from time to time. It's especially awesome for Assetto Corsa and the motion rig. Hopefully the head unit keeps working on Windows with it.

 

[Zareek]

Wow, you'd figure with Apple jumping in with their Vision Pro, M$ would double down on HoloLens.

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
No worries MS has investments in meta/... so they'll let Zuck do the work for them and just throw him a bone.

 

[evernessince]

Good riddance. VR, like "AI", is simply not ready for prime-time yet and won't be for a long while.

At the end of the day this new just confirms the obvious to anyone that's into VR, Microsoft hasn't done anything with their mixed reality project in years and thus are closing it down. It has no impact on what the VR market has been doing.

 

[Vayra86]

Wow, you'd figure with Apple jumping in with their Vision Pro, M$ would double down on HoloLens.

That ain't going places either, I reckon.

When HoloLens was first shown all the tech sites described it as amazing. I thought a sci-fi technology had been invented, and I still think that, but it's remained a $3000 product after all these years, with its smartphone-class processor and little custom accelerator.

I played around with them a few times, it was impressive to see things work, but man was it also cumbersome, not quite accurate enough and in many other ways everything feels like 'Ok, it is functional, but why would I'. Waving your arms about in the air isn't exactly something great or anything. If you do it without those goggles on, most people think you've gone mad.

That's really what kills AR/VR interactivity in the end. Its a lot of effort for little gain, the latency is much higher, you ARE wearing a heavy headset. Not a positive balance imho. And then for cooperative purposes, you are wearing that headset too. Its not exactly great on the metric of face to face contact. Better than video call? Worse? I really can't say.

 

[JasBC]

There were some very nice headsets released as part of WMR, many of which became really nicely priced when the VR-craze dived down within like a year of release. If they stop working as simple HMDs compatible with SteamVR and OpenVR then it's very sad as crafty buyers who bought these-ones off Samsung, HP, ASUS, Acer and Lenovo instead of trusting startups like PIVR and DPVR are then being left stranded with e-waste.

 

[Ravenas]

Microsoft never had a compelling product, or any IP made for VR to drive purchases.

Index, Meta, and PSVR all have first party support with fairly big install bases for each.

 

[beedoo]

I'd bought an HP Reverb G2 for $1000 and literally used it twice, and one of those times was just to show a non-technical friend what it was like. It now sits in the cupboard alongside a PS5 VR2.

All the VR integration in Windows just seems clunky and, well, unfinished. Having to install other half-baked app's to 'help', is just not what I should expect to do, or find fun.