Microsoft’s Hololens: Don’t Be Too Hasty

It may come as a shock, to some of you, that Microsoft’s Hololens will cost more than the Xbox One. Hold on, before everyone panics, this is the virtual reality market. The Oculus Rift costs about $350, which is already sizable heap of money, and Sony’s Morpheus may be following that same route. Don’t get me wrong, the idea of portable virtual reality tech is amazing. However, it will be not be as readily available to some.

This knowledge came about from the New York Times where a Microsoft executive said that the HoloLens would cost, ““significantly more than a games console.” The New York Times article also discussed how the HoloLens may help Microsoft evolve. Rather than being stuck with programming and gaming, Microsoft’s HoloLens would be a nice push in technology.

Paul Tassi, a contributor to Forbes, doesn’t hold high hopes for the HoloLens. He says, “Despite its gaming intentions, whenever the HoloLens is released, I don’t think it’s going to be a console competitor, even if gaming is one of its primary functions.”

“Honestly, there isn’t even much to compare it to other than also-not-wide-released VR headsets, so the market doesn’t really exist yet.” He also mentions that it’s too early to begin discussing prices of future VR tech. Tassi is right in saying there is not much to compare (there really isn’t). But, if products like the Oculus Rift have their set price, wouldn’t it be fair to to say that similar products would have similar prices?

It’s not like Microsoft expects all of it’s Xbox owners to buy the HoloLens right away. The high price makes it available to a select group of people. At the same time, this technology is relatively new. Don’t expect prices to drop for a long time (they’ll probably drop pending popularity, after all it didn’t take the Xbox One long to drop from $500). Also be prepared to see some demos at E3, especially involving Minecraft. That’ll definitely be an experience.