HoloLens Development Edition to launch next month

Next month will see developers finally get their hands on Microsoft’s augmented reality platform, HoloLens.

An announcement accidentally posted ahead of embargo on Fortune (since pulled, via Reddit) revealed that the HoloLens Development Edition will open for pre-orders later today (February 29th) ahead of a March 30th release date.

The glasses, which were demonstrated on-stage at last year’s E3, will set studios back $3,000 and be accompanied by a range of training videos, educational documents and details to help games creators get started.

Three new games will be bundled with the hardware to showcase its prospects for gaming: Young Conker (a spin-off of Rare’s foul-mouthed squirrel series developed by Asobo), crime drama investigation title Fragments (also produced by Asobo) and RoboRaid (pictured), a sci-fi first-person shooter which was previously shown off under the name project X-Ray.

Non-gaming apps will also be included, ranging from in-AR 3D creation tool HoloStudio and a version of Skype that uses holograms to communicate. HoloTour, a tourism app that allows users to walk around 360-degree projections of places such as Rome and Machu Picchu, completes the offering.

The Dev Edition will be added to later this year, when video creation package Actiongram will join thew software line-up.