Hololens will not be games-centric at launch

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has said that the early days of Hololens will not be focused on the handset’s gaming credentials.

For sure in the first version, it’s going to be more about developers and enterprise scenarios,” he told ZDnet. Gaming will always be a scenario and there will be other entertainment broadly. But, with the v1 of HoloLens, I want us to push a lot more of the enterprise usage.

In general Microsoft’s approach will be always this dual-use focus, or this multi-focus. What we can uniquely do is bridge consumer to enterprise. That’s in our DNA. That’s why it’s even in our mission statement of empowering people and organizations. I want every technology of ours to seek that out. In the HoloLens case, when I look at the interest, it’s amazing how many are in hospitals, healthcare, retail. That’s where I’m seeing the interest and we’ll definitely go after it.”

Nadella did, however, emphasize that Hololens was front of mind when he acquired Minecraft.

I did buy Minecraft to create a new genre of gaming for mixed reality,” he insisted. We bought Minecraft for many reasons: because it’s the number one PC app; it’s the number one console app; it’s the number one paid mobile app on iOS and Android. I wanted a hit game even for the new medium of mixed reality. And we will have that.”

Microsoft’s E3 Minecraft Hololens demo was one of the standout moments of the show.