Today, Microsoft announced Hololens, an ambitious new piece of hardware designed to make it so you can finally hang out IRL with Hatsune Miku. If that sounds familiar, that's because it totally is: turns out we've kinda known about this for three years now.
Way back in 2012, when everyone thought "Xbox One" meant the first Xbox, a 56-page document appeared on the web that alleged to be a roadmap for Microsoft's future plans. In this document—which turned out to be mostly correct—Microsoft outlined their scheme for something called Fortaleza, an augmented reality service designed for Xbox/PC.
To quote Owen at the time:
The document positions an "Xbox 720" releasing in 2013 as an all-in-one entertainment station serving content to multiple devices—tablet, PC or smartphone. More sophisticated pitches to developers, operators and original equipment manufacturers also are detailed.
Most intriguing, however, is the slide entitled "The Road to Fortaleza," the name for glasses that will serve augmented-reality and traditional video content from the new Xbox. The glasses are described as arriving after the new console's launch, at first being introduced as devices to enhance standard television viewing, then paired with mobile technologies, and finally serving content delivered by the new Xbox itself.
And now we're finally here. We made it. 2015, everyone! Good work all around.
You can reach the author of this post at jason@kotaku.com or on Twitter at @jasonschreier.