Mass Effect's Casey Hudson Joins Microsoft's "HoloLens" Team

Casey Hudson is a pretty big name in gaming, having served as creative director for incredibly popular titles such as Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and the original Mass Effect trilogy. Unfortunately, the end of his tenure at Bioware was marred a bit by the controversy surrounding Mass Effect 3‘s ending, but his overall contributions to the RPG genre cannot be understated.

Hudson left Bioware last year after helping shepherd (pun intended) development of Mass Effect 4. Some thought his departure was due to Mass Effect 3‘s backlash, but it turns out he was moving up in the world.

So, he went to Microsoft?

Indeed he did. In fact, he isn’t working on a game but instead the company’s new virtual reality project code named “HoloLens,” which will most likely be aiming to take on the surge of upcoming virtual reality headsets such as the Oculus Rift. In a recent interview, Hudson made the following statement about his hiring,

“As creative director at Microsoft Studios, my primary focus will be the creative direction of HoloLens Experiences. I am extremely passionate about the potential of this kind of technology, as anyone who’s talked with me over the last couple of years can attest. I feel that the work being done at Microsoft on mixed reality and holographic computing will have a tremendous impact on how all of us interact with technology in the coming years. It’s an honor to be able to join such an incredibly talented team, and to work on something that will fundamentally advance the role computers play in our daily lives.”

What is HoloLens?

HoloLens is a virtual reality headset, but different from the Oculus Rift and its competitors. Rather than virtual reality that immerses you in a completely digital world, HoloLens puts its focus on “augmented reality,” which essentially uses a visual apparatus (in this case a headset) to project three dimensional images in the real world. Instead of playing Minecraft in a randomly generated setting, HoloLens wants you to play Minecraft using your living room as the world. There’s a cool demonstration video at the official site.