From the beginning, Microsoft has tried to set its nascent augmented reality technology, dubbed HoloLens, apart from competing VR solutions. While VR companies like Oculus and Sony’s Playstation VR have focused on showcasing how virtual reality creates new opportunities to explore games and distant worlds, Microsoft’s AR demos have dedicated themselves to showing how augmented reality concepts can overlay and interact with real life. Now, the software giant has revealed the upcoming HoloLens developer edition — and its $3,000 price tag.


Reactions to the developer kit have been mixed so far. There’s no doubt that so-called “mixed reality” games can offer some interesting experiences; Microsoft’s own demo on the show floor showed robots breaking into a mocked-up living room and attacking a player. The spider bots are aware of the layout of furniture and other room objects as well as other creatures generated by the AR title — as a larger robot breaks into the room, the smaller robots scuttle to get out of its way. They can be destroyed by the player and can fire projectiles at him.

Unlike VR kits, which all require some additional device support (even if that’s just a mobile phone), the HoloLens is its own self-contained unit. Exactly which hardware components are used in the system is unclear, but we’ve heard rumors of an x86 processor, 60Hz refresh rate, and 2GB of RAM in total. Earlier this year, there were rumors that HoloLens used a custom Intel Cherry Trail processor — whether this is still true with the upcoming developer kits isn’t something Redmond is willing to tell the public just yet. Microsoft also claims to have developed its own holographic processor unit, or HPU, based on a custom silicon design.