You Really Need To Watch This Demo Of Microsoft's AR Gaming Technology

Microsoft is trying to get people excited about its "kind of virtual reality, more mixed reality" video headset again and you can forgive us for being dubious. After all, there's a good chance that the whole thing could just turn your living room into a giant Excel spreadsheet.

Their below demo basically went like this:

"Microsoft Hololens can turn every room of your house into a personalised video game level..."

Sure it can.

"...this demo is going to show Dan defending this stage from a mixed reality robot invasion..."

Whatever you say, Microsoft demonstrator man. This is going to be... wait, those are robots coming through the walls!? And where did Dan get a laser gun from?! This is awesome!

This is Project X-Ray, a proof of concept video game that hints at the big things Microsoft is hoping its HoloLens will be able to achieve when it arrives next year. 

Different to a VR headset, you can see through the HoloLens like glasses, rather than looking at a screen. The demo shown here is a touch fanciful: not many of us will have a living room with this amount of space (and if you do, where was our invite for film night?), and it's not clear if the HoloLens wearer will have an extended field of view to see everything that the camera operator above can "see". 

But think of this as a glimpse of the future - a clunky game of Pong that'll evolve into an unparalleled Call of Duty-like experience as the tech evolves. 

Best start tidying your living room.