Magic Leap, a startup which is working on wearable augmented reality tech with games applications -- and which has also been invested in, by Google, to the tune of $500 million dollars -- has hired author Neal Stephenson as its chief futurist.

In a new blog post, Stephenson hints at the potential for the tech, particularly vis-a-vis games.

"I sometimes feel that the creative minds who make games have done about as much as is possible in two dimensions," he writes. "It feels like the right time to give those people a new medium: one in which three-dimensionality is a reality and not just an illusion laboriously cooked up by your brain, and in which itas possible to get up off the couch and move -- not only around your living room, but wherever on the face of the earth the story might take you."

The company has recruited game industry veterans including 7th Guest creator Graeme Devine, and is currently recruiting for game projects involving Devine and Weta Workshop (Lord Of The Rings) concept designer Greg Broadmore - Weta's Sir Richard Taylor is an advisor to the firm.

Stephenson's latest game-related project was a Kickstarter-funded prototype called Clang aimed at creating realistic swordplay for games, which ran out of money before getting picked up for production; the project was ultimately killed.