Microsoft started E3 by building a special version of Minecraft for its HoloLens headset, and now the company has shifted its attention to Halo. Guests at E3 can line up and experience a brief glimpse of the HoloLens augmented reality headset thanks to a Halo 5 demo. While you can’t actually play Halo 5 with HoloLens, the demo is designed as a briefing ahead of an early look at Halo 5 gameplay.
Microsoft created a hologram of the UNSC Infinity ship
Microsoft has created holograms for the UNSC Infinity ship and Commander Palmer which walk through the various enemies you’ll face in the new Warzone mode in Halo 5. All of the various elements are projected onto a table in a special custom-built Halo stand at Microsoft’s E3 booth. Like previous HoloLens demonstrations, Microsoft isn’t allowing anyone to take photos or videos of their experience, but the headset remains largely the same as the near-final unit we looked at back in April.
Minecraft feels like a perfect fit for HoloLens, but it’s clear Halo will require some adjustments before a version is suitable for the headset. That might not ever happen, and Microsoft’s E3 demo right now is just a teaser for guests to play the game with a traditional Xbox controller. Microsoft’s HoloLens demonstrations have been largely constrained to environments where small and precise interactions can take place with voice and gestures, instead of a multiplayer game involving more than 20 players. It’s possible we’ll see some first-person shooter scenarios with HoloLens in future, but for now Microsoft is clearly just experimenting.