Microsoft abandons HoloLens 2 in a final break from mixed reality

Microsoft has discontinued production of the HoloLens 2, apparently ending its love affair with its augmented-reality headset and perhaps the metaverse in general.

UploadVR cited a Microsoft representative who told the outlet that Microsoft has stopped producing the HoloLens 2. While the company will support the headset until the end of 2027 with security updates, it will stop support in 2028.

Microsoft is making that decision as it ends support for Windows Mixed Reality devices in Windows 11’s 2024 Update, which has begun rolling out today. Microsoft’s list of deprecated Windows features notes that users who own a Windows Mixed Reality headset — the virtual reality counterpart to the HoloLens augmented-reality headset — should not update to the 2024 feature release if they wish to keep on using their headsets with Valve’s Steam service.

Microsoft’s HoloLens was surprisingly great, buoyed by a stable of games virtually no one saw.

But when Microsoft debuted the HoloLens 2, it quietly vanished into the enterprise market that Microsoft was courting at the time. Unfortunately, enterprises apparently didn’t really bite either, and even a shift into the metaverse — and then away from it yet again — didn’t help matters. Microsoft’s VR chief Alex Kipman left, and the HoloLens business suffered layoffs, UploadVR noted.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Army continues to test what’s known as the HoloLens IVAS as an assistive tool for soldiers, though it reportedly failed some early tests.

I still remember the amazing demonstrations Microsoft had of the HoloLens at its headquarters in Redmond, Wash. One still stands out in my mind: a living room where Minecraft used the space to create a level, viewed from the top down, as if you were a god overlooking the world. But today HoloLens is a pale shadow of Microsoft’s early vision, and a product that we’ll have to add to the Microsoft graveyard before long.