Whatever happened to the IllumiRoom?

Back in January, Microsoft revealed the initial concept for IllumiRoom, a piece of technology designed to "push the boundary of living room immersiveness entertainment by blending our virtual and physical worlds with projected visualizations." Basically, the environment and effects of the game you are playing would expand beyond the television to the walls of your room.

It's an intriguing (somewhat gimmicky) piece of technology that unfortunately will not be greenlit for Xbox One consumers, at least not any time soon.

"I wouldn't expect you'll see that," Albert Panello, head of product planning for Xbox One, told Ausgamers.

"It’s very, very cool tech but it’s, like, for a consumer, it requires projectors and things. It’s really super-neat if you’re in the lab and you’ve got Microsoft money and you could totally set up this awesome lab, but… we looked at it, but for an average customer it’s, like, thousands of dollars [for the set up]," he concluded.

Personally, I would have liked to see Microsoft find a way to make the IllumiRoom more affordable and include that with every Xbox One instead of the Kinect.