While Virtual Reality may not have taken off like many hoped and expected, it’s slowly itching its way to carving its own niche thanks to extended efforts from companies like Sony and Oculus. Augmented Reality hasn’t been quite as hyped up, but we’re still seeing it carve out its own little niche as well with the likes of Minecraft Earth and Pokemon GO. Now it seems that Apple wants to combine the two with a new project.

According to Bloomberg, the new headset will combine elements of VR and AR. While gaming won’t be the only focus for the device, since it will also have capabilities for watching videos and having virtual meetings, that would be one of the biggest uses for it. Apparently, the company had hoped to have the technology ready by this year, but it has been pushed back internally.

While it’s definitely interesting to think what such a device would be like, it seems it could be a decent while before we see it. Right now Apple isn’t planning to launch it until 2021 or 2022, meaning it could be two years before we could potentially see whatever this is.

While most of the industry seems fascinated by virtual reality, with Valve jumping into it on the high end and Nintendo on the low end, Microsoft is seemingly going down an alternate route with augmented reality, or AR. While we haven’t seen a lot of what they are planning for commercial release (especially compared to others in the VR realm), we do know they plan to use the cultural phenomena, Minecraft, to catapult AR forward- and now it seems we have a solid date for when we can expect to see something related to that.

At their annual Build conference, the room in attendance got a bit of a tease. At the very end of the video below, we got a skit that featured someone using a phone with Minecraft playing, and the various characters popping out into the real world with a message telling everyone to tune in on May 17^th to Minecraft.net. Whether this will be an official reveal about Microsoft’s Minecraft AR project is anyone’s guess, but we’ve known for a while that Microsoft is cooking up something with AR and Minecraft, so it’s possible we’ll finally get a peek.

Either way, stay tuned, and we’ll keep you updated on any new info that comes our way.

While virtual reality is widely expected to bring about the next major paradigm shift in video games, there are a whole lot, including many from within the industry itself, who aren’t quite sold on it yet. For instance, take Nintendo, who have famously disavowed the current VR revolution.

But Nintendo are not the only ones not convinced by VR yet either. The developers of The Witcher 3, CD Projekt RED, will apparently take a wait and watch stance on the format, too. That’s according to what Co-Founder Marcin Iwiński said at the studio’s recent financial briefing (transcribed by DualShockers).

The studio will wait and see if the format can add anything to gaming, also cautioning that it could end up a lot like stereoscopic 3D eventually did. Iwiński himself personally seems to be more intrigued by the possibilities of augmented reality, spearheaded by Microsoft’s HoloLens.

Of course, CD Projekt RED may not see the potential, but I personally would love to adventure through Skellige in VR…

VR is great and all, but let’s not forget Microsoft’s incredible looking HoloLens either. The augmented reality (AR) headset from Microsoft is basically a new wearable computer that projects holograms into the real world, essentially creating an all new paradigm for computing- if this is done right.

With Microsoft getting serious about HoloLens, some more information about the headset has started to leak out- according to Microsoft’s Bruce Harris, who was speaking at a conference, HoloLens will have a battery life of up to 5 hours at a time, though it could theoretically go as low as 2.5 hours, based on usage. That is a bit of a bummer, but it is also no different than the battery life on handhelds like the Nintendo 3DS or the PlayStation Vita.

The question of the field of view on the HoloLens has also been a long asked one, and one that Microsoft have admittedly been cagey about answering so far. However, it now appears as though the field of view in which holograms will be projected will be 15 inches, as viewed from a couple of feet away. It’s… honestly a little disappointing, I’ll be honest, but as long as the HoloLens actually works as advertised within that FoV, I can see it still having a market.

HoloLens development kits are now being sent out, for a charge of $3,000. No word yet on its consumer release.

So I’m one of those people who firmly believe that this new wave of virtual reality is a fad, and the gimmick will die down soon (hey guys, remember the 3D gaming wave from a few years ago?). Having said that, it exists right now, with Oculus Rift leading the way, and Sony getting in on the action with its Morpheus headset, planned for the PlayStation 4.

Obviously, Microsoft wants in on some of that action, but it’s going a totally different route entirely. You see, instead of doing another Virtual Reality headset, this project that Microsoft’s research team has floated is an augmented reality concept, that turns your entire living room into a video game. It’s called RoomAlive, and you can see it above.

There are a few things to keep in mind as you watch this video- that this is not a product developed for the end consumer (even though it seems to have been designed for ease of use and scaleability), that this is probably still very early in development, and that this isn’t even an Xbox product, it’s something Microsoft’s research team did on the side.

Still, though, it looks suitably cool. What do you think?

A chart has also been compiled which showcases the amount of search queries and interest generated for the Xbox 360 versus Sony’s Playstation 4. The chart looks at the number of information searches in Google (y-axis, in millions) over the last 11 months (x-axis). As can be seen, the Xbox 720 outstrips the Playstation 4 greatly.

Of course, we won’t know the true state of demand worldwide until both consoles are released, since the PS3 has consistently outperformed the Xbox 360 in Japan. Will this trend continue into the next generation? We’ll see when E3 2013 approaches.

Source: SeekingAlpha

Check out the cool new AR Suite demonstration of PS Vita. It looks really amazing, and looks like the Augmented Reality Tech will pick up soon. The 3DS supports this feature as well, and we have to say it works rather well. Sony has been pushing this feature a lot, so it remains to be seen whether the Vita significantly does it better than the 3DS or not.

Three games will be free to download once you get your hands on a Vita. It seems to be a fully working functionality with a lot of possibilities. Tell us what you think in the comments section below.

The video shows plenty of games:

• Pulse AR
• Table Top Sports Diving
• Pocket Garden
• Fireworks
• Pocket War
• Flickball