Magic Leap today launched a refresh of their official website which includes a new teaser stating that the company wants to “[take] you with us on this journey to launch. More to come…”.

Magic Leap is the secretive startup apparently building an AR headset based on novel display technology which they call Digital Lightfield. The company has raised more than a billion dollars from some of the world’s leading investment organizations. Last we heard the company is in the process of raising another $500 million, apparently on the way to launching their first product.

A refresh of the company’s website and social media channels today suggests that Magic Leap is indeed nearing a reveal of what it’s been working on so secretly for the last several years.

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Gone from the homepage is the ‘flying whale in the gym’, and now greeting us is a 3D version of the company’s little robot mascot (should we call it Leapy?) with the word “hello.” Underneath, a new snippet of teaser text reads:

A group of engineers, artists, pioneers, poets, explorers, and [sometimes] robots. We’re hard at work building the ins and outs of our Mixed Reality Digital Lightfield technology, and we’re taking you with us on this journey to launch. More to come…

One of the only things you can do right now on the website is sign up for the company’s mailing list via the ‘Keep in touch’ button. Upon doing so, the confirmation email teases still further:

We have lots of news to share and we’re happy you connected with us. So happy that our email team just high-fived. Stay tuned.

The one other thing you can do on the site presently is browse the company’s Careers page, which advertises more than 250 job openings. I guess they have to spend all that money somehow.

Magic Leap’s social media channels have similarly been updated with the newly simplified flat Leapy logo, including new header images touting the phrase “Hello there.”

Image courtesy Magic Leap

A few months back the company quietly opened a developer portal on their site, though access is of course restricted.

What happens next is anyone’s guess, though the latest reports suggest the company’s first product could ship in next six months in limited quantities with a premium price.

Thanks to u/Malkmus1979 and u/Noah_A_S for the tip!

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Ben Lang
Ben is the world's most senior professional analyst solely dedicated to the XR industry, having founded Road to VR in 2011—a year before the Oculus Kickstarter sparked a resurgence that led to the modern XR landscape. He has authored more than 3,000 articles chronicling the evolution of the XR industry over more than a decade. With that unique perspective, Ben has been consistently recognized as one of the most influential voices in XR, giving keynotes and joining panel and podcast discussions at key industry events. He is a self-described "journalist and analyst, not evangelist."
  • dk

    basically a hololens with something like 60 degrees fov and variable focus and a bit more hands tracking ….all for about 1500$…………greeeeeat
    and it will be pretty cool …….but not quite a magic leap …..at least not for a lot of people

    • Daemon Hunt

      I see everyone’s an expert. Careful or you might be eating your hat :D

      • dk

        what is there to eat my hat about ……that’s exactly what it will be like …..the fov can be +/- 15 degrees and there might be 2 versions $1200 and $1500…..and hopefully leap motion level interaction……and it will be powered by a box in your pocket……but that is it

        the variable focus of the light field lens tech is the really cool part but in 15 min the average stupid consumer will be whining about it not being 110 degrees
        and if they r smart it will have a mode where it is wired and powered by a pc but most likely not……and there was some talk about it doing vr but it’s doubtful for various reasons

        • Dr. Dietrich Davidstein

          Hey since you know a lot about the technical details – could you post a link to an actual design of the headset? i’ve seen a lot of concepts, but would really like to know which one is likely gonna be used for their commercial devices (i mean excluding developer devices). Thanks!

          • dk

            the things I am mentioning r not details in any way…. it’s just obvious general stuff from everything they and people that have tried it r saying

            I have seen all their patent drawings as u have….. and they want to go for the best form factor….. so minimum size and weight means box in your pocket also that’s easy to produce and deal with heat and battery …….beyond that anything about the design is irrelevant

            there is some chance that they couldn’t crack the latency with a cable to your pocket with the first generation…… in that case the design can be something like odg/hololens…… but I am betting on glasses + box

          • Daemon Hunt

            I’ve read a lot of stuff too, but I’m actually a little more open minded and can just wait for the experience before jumping to any conclusions. Speculation is rife.

          • dk

            open minded about what ….that is exactly what it will be like …..and I am not cynical…..I am pretty sure I will like the product and it will be pretty great …..especially if one day it runs windows mixed reality or android via the daydream home or both
            what I am not a fan of is their moronic secrecy strategy and pretending that they r doing something more than just a better version of the hololens with variable focus ….which is exactly what they r doing

        • Daemon Hunt

          well that’s a bit more than you said above. Sounds a little more factual. You’re a bit cynical, but hey, you might actually enjoy it. Who cares what other people think, it isn’t your product. Or is it?

      • Well, google has their AR phone so whats the point of this thing? To make it better?

    • ZeePee

      Tbh, put that in a reasonably small sleek headset like bulky sunglasses, and that would be phenomenal.

      60 deg for MR in particular would be huge.

      • Mei Ling

        Take whatever Internet Person says with a very fine grain of salt.

        • Daemon Hunt

          Agree. Internet person talk too much.

      • dk

        yep it could be a great product …..but it’s not quite magical like a lot of people r hyping it to be

        • crim3

          If what they claim is true (variable focus images blending naturally with the real environment, from the user perspective), then it will be quite a leap in display technology indeed. But we still have no way of knowing if it’s true or not.

          • dk

            yep that part is true

          • Michael

            We shall demo it then.

          • Daemon Hunt

            And so we wait…

        • Daemon Hunt

          That’s because everyone thinks they know what it will be. Ergo…

          • dk

            that doesn’t mean anything ……what r u even saying

            so I was answering crim3 ……so u do realize that that’s a fact right ….u know what a light field display means right …..variable focus is as much of a fact as Rony Abovitz is the ceo of the company

            literally every article and every explanation they give and everyone who tries it and every prototype ……it’s all about their light field display meaning variable focus ….and that is why everyone invested …..for that display and the pipeline rendering for that display ……everyone who invested don’t give any shit about the rest of it …….all they care about is the display tech

  • Zachary Scott Dickerson

    It’s hard to get hyped up about this thing after playing a ton of quality VR content. The hololens already seemed lame to me when I tried it after using VR.

    • Harmen

      I hope that for 1,5 billion, it’s quite a bit different than the vive and hololens.

      • dk

        well variable focus light field display and the pipeline to power it is quite a bit different …..but that’s it

  • David Herrington

    “and we’re taking you with us on this journey to launch.”

    I’m feeling more left behind than on a journey with them. They haven’t really shown anything so there isn’t a journey to even be on. But this company does one thing very well and that is be a tease with no actual content.

  • Christian W. Noetzli

    There’s actually one more thing you can do on their new website: make “leapy” roll his eyes and look after the mouse cursor. This might suggest that eye tracking is somehow part of their launch project? ;-)

  • Well, google has their AR phone so whats the point of this thing? To make it better?hnj

    • crim3

      Variable focus.

  • I finally got recognized for a tip I’ll have to tell Malkmus if he doesn’t know yet… can’t believe i’m seeing that just now. went to bed so early!

  • Lucidfeuer

    “Digital Lightfield”…what does it mean? Anyway any product that’s an AR glasses is a dead-end for at least the 5 coming years. If it manages to be an upgraded ODG-like form-factor set of glasses, it’ll be an interesting preview like all other current ARgs are, but a non-practical product anyway.

    Some people simply want to go too fast (when they actually have an actual product) without even having one single true virtual headset available on the market…

  • Surykaty

    Something tells me they will start with a crappy consumer product and will promise a much better 2nd or 3rd generation but they just have to “tweak some tech”.

    • Maciej Soinski

      Something tells me exactly the same. Their initial revolutionary idea failed, so they invented something similar to Avegant’s headset. As you said they will deliver mediocre product with lots of promisses.

    • dk

      their road map was something like dev kit in 4 to 6 months ……and actual product 2019…….and they were founded in freaking 2011……well at least microsoft and everyone else is working on cool displays too

      • Surykaty

        The glassdoor reviews from ex-employees are pretty damning. Especially when some of say that the there’s too much hype for basically nothing special and kind of show scepticism if the product will ever make it to the market. That’s pretty bad if you ask me.