Microsoft trademarks Direct Reality for gaming

Yesterday, Microsoft said that virtual reality won’t be part of their E3 2017 press conference. However, a few days beforehand, they filed a trademark for a service called Direct Reality which is related to gaming. According to the trademark filing, it covers computer game software for holographic applications. We have no idea whether it’s related to HoloLens or mixed reality devices. We also can’t be sure that it has anything to do with console gaming. The timing—right before E3 2017—is definitely suspicious though.

Over the past few months, Microsoft has demonstrated a multitude of mixed reality devices like HoloLens which can stream Xbox One games and Windows Mixed Reality which is a budget version anyone can afford. For all we know, this might be virtual reality in the most traditional sense. Hopefully Microsoft will reveal what this is on Sunday during their E3 briefing. Considering that no form of virtual reality is going to hit the Xbox One family of devices until 2018, there really isn’t need for so much deception and secrecy. Microsoft needs to make their plans clear.