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Magic Leap's $2.3B secrets may start to spill this week

Developers now have access to the company's secretive tech -- and they'll probably spill the beans.

Sean Hollister Senior Editor / Reviews
When his parents denied him a Super NES, he got mad. When they traded a prize Sega Genesis for a 2400 baud modem, he got even. Years of Internet shareware, eBay'd possessions and video game testing jobs after that, he joined Engadget. He helped found The Verge, and later served as Gizmodo's reviews editor. When he's not madly testing laptops, apps, virtual reality experiences, and whatever new gadget will supposedly change the world, he likes to kick back with some games, a good Nerf blaster, and a bottle of Tejava.
Sean Hollister
2 min read
magic-leap-one
Magic Leap

Magic Leap, the super-hyped, incredibly secretive startup that's raised over $2 billion for augmented reality glasses you reportedly have to see to believe, is now telling developers its secrets. 

Today, the company opened up its Creator Studio, providing tools for devs to begin work on apps and games for the Magic Leap One headset. (Unity and Unreal Engine are both on board, as well as Mozilla's WebXR.) 

And though you've got to sign a nondisclosure agreement (read: don't tweet Magic Leap's secrets) before downloading those tools, I've got a strong suspicion that a bunch of Magic Leap's hush-hush details are about to leak out anyhow.

It's already begun:

Update: We removed one developer's screenshot at their request. They claim they were unaware of the NDA at the time they published, and our aim isn't to get people in trouble.

Are there any particularly intriguing revelations here? Not yet -- but give them time. There's a proud tradition of devs digging through SDKs like these to discover the inner workings of a new piece of hardware, and then sharing those secrets with the world. And that's before you consider that the documentation suggests these devs may have also been supplied with actual Magic Leap One hardware, too. 

I wouldn't be surprised if pictures of real-life Magic Leap One headsets (not just the company's renders) appear on the internet this week. (This week is the Game Developers Conference, by the way, where Magic Leap is giving talks.) And if you find anything intriguing yourself, maybe share it anonymously with me? Just address your email to sean [dot] hollister [at] cnet [dot] com.

Just know that -- while cool -- we already knew that Magic Leap had hand-tracking, eye-tracking, and room-scanning and meshing abilities. Those are super neat and we can't wait to try them, but they're not news.