Microsoft Corp.’s augmented reality headset the HoloLens is just about here, at least for developers, with news over the weekend that it’s about to go on pre-order sale this Monday.

According to a post from Forbes published before the embargo but since withdrawn, the HoloLens will be offered on pre-order from February 29 for $3000, with the device itself being available for from March 30.

As part of the rollout Microsoft will be providing tutorial videos, documentation, and information to assist companies in developing Windows 10 apps for the platform, and apparently part of that assistance is coming in the form of three playable HoloLens games developed by Microsoft itself.

The games are called Fragments, Young Conker, and RoboRaid and will showcase the gaming capabilities that the Hololens platform can provide.

Fragments is said to put gamers in the middle of an augmented reality crime drama that unfolds in their living room, allowing them to investigate clues and solve crimes by interacting with characters that sit on their couch and talk directly to them.

Young Conker apparently involves a “popular squirrel” from developer Rare being taken from platform gaming and into the real world, while RoboRaid is a first-person shooter that “has invading aliens literally ripping through the walls of the room you’re in…you use the Clicker to shoot at the waves of alien robots as they fly into the room shooting lasers.”

Other features

The Developer Edition of the Hololens will also ship with a number of non-gaming apps, including HoloStudio, an app that is said to allow developers to easily create 3D in 3D—at real-world scale, while also teaching developers how to use the HoloLens interaction model of gaze, gesture, and voice within games and other applications; an enhanced version of Skype that allows people running Skype on any Windows device to interact in the holographic world; and HoloTour, which offers users 360-degree panoramic displays of places like Rome and Machu Picchu.

Of the three the coolest is potentially the holographic version of Skype; although details are not clear, potentially it could allow you to hold a conference call with the device overlaying the people you’re speaking to in seats in a conference or lounge room for example.

“This type of communication has enormous potential in both the consumer and business world,” Microsoft Corporate Vice President Kudo Tsunoda is alleged to be saying in a blog post to be published February 29. “It will allow developers to communicate with each other using the holographic medium to share development methods and seek the advice of others. With Skype, you can see the holograms the other person is seeing and you can use holograms to illustrate helpful techniques or development approaches. It is our hope that the holographic development community will be just that—a community.”

Undoubtedly this will all be confirmed Monday U.S. time when the embargo eventually hits; we’ll update the post when it does with any appropriate links.

Update: the news is now official.

Image credit: microsoftsweden/Flickr/CC by 2.0