Microsoft took down a web page promoting a cheap cardboard virtual reality headset

It looks like Microsoft is the latest to get into the virtual reality game, reports tech news site Thurrott.

In a page promoting a Russian "hackathon" programming contest, Microsoft included pictures of a "Microsoft VR Kit."

It looks like a simple cardboard box that lets you mount a Nokia Lumia phone running Windows Phone and use it as a virtual reality headset. The top developers who participated in that contest will theoretically get one to take home. 

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That page has since been taken down. But some enterprising users got screenshots:

 As that tweet points out, it looks a lot like Google Cardboard, which lets you slot in an iPhone or Android phone to use it as a virtual reality headset: 

Matt Weinberger

The author demonstrating Google Cardboard.

Additionally, it seems that Microsoft still hasn't solved a real problem with this: You will probably still look like a doofus with either a Google Cardboard or Microsoft VR Kit.

It's possible that Microsoft will officially announce the Microsoft VR Kit at its big Windows 10 hardware event next week.

This is especially interesting given that Microsoft has, to date, focused more on its HoloLens holographic computer, which projects three-dimensional images into your otherwise normal range of vision, rather than the virtual reality market exemplified by the likes of Facebook's Oculus Rift.

And that's not to mention the relatively small base of Windows Phone owners who would apparently be able to use this - or the small number of Windows Phone developers who would be writing apps to take advantage.