Famed game designer, and former Microsoft executive, Peter Molyneux has offered his own opinions on the recently revealed Microsoft HoloLens holographic headset, stating that the company should be careful not to over-promise the capabilities of the device. Ironically, Molyneux has had a long history of doing that very same thing with many of his games.
Microsoft HoloLens was the biggest surprise that came out of the company's Windows 10 press event earlier this week. However, it's been in development for several years. Even though Molyneux left Microsoft in 2012 to start his current game studio 22Cans, he told GamesIndustry.biz that he saw an early version of HoloLens before he departed. He stated:
"It is, I have to say a magical experience, seeing these objects in the real world. The problem I think is to make it feel like it is in the real world and not projected into your eye. I think it's, for me, more exciting than even VR but it shares a similar problem as VR does and that is: what is the application going to be?"
Molyneux himself has been accused of over-hyping many of the games he helped to create, particularly Black and White and Fable, both of which didn't ship with many of the features that he promised in pre-release previews and interviews.
Molyneux admits that personally he will be "first in the queue" to get his hands on the hardware. However, he believes that for the technology to succeed, Microsoft must invest as much time and money in the software as they are apparently doing for the hardware. He stated:
"If you look at the cases where technology has worked well - touch is one of those, and Wii Sports and motion control; Nintendo didn't introduce motion control until they had Wii Sports. You weren't just playing a few demos. I just hope that for the Holo stuff that they really choose an application and make that sing. That is what transforms a piece of tech from awe inspiring gadget that you try a few times and show off to friends into something that you use as part of your life, and that's really what we want technology to be."
Source: GamesIndustry.biz
