I can confirm that the CES sickness is a thing, and unluckily it doesn’t disappear with the end of CES. But still, my willingness to inform you is stronger than this cold, so here you are a collection of XR news that you will love to read!
Top news of the week
The autumn of XR continues
This is not the best moment for immersive realities: the market is pretty static and it’s hard to make business. We are all convinced that in the future AR/VR will be very important technologies, but in the present, they are still pretty niche. I already talked about this in a previous article where I assess the current situation of our space.
This week we had many news confirming my previous impressions:
- The studio behind PowerWash Simulator VR announced the end of the updates to the game, just 14 months after the launch, because the development is costing more than the revenues.
- Soul Assembly, the studio behind Drop Dead: The Cabin and Just Dance VR, is laying off 15% of its staff.
- According to an analysis by Omdia and Sensor Tower, the downloads of the Meta Horizon app fell by 27% on Christmas Day 2024 when compared to 2023. This means that the peak of VR holiday purchases this year has been smaller than the past one. This may be for many reasons, including the fact that various users having a Quest 2 didn’t find compelling reasons to update to a 3 or 3S. The same negative trends regard the Black Friday sales on Amazon.
- Counterpoint research states that the global VR market slipped 4% in Q3 2024 when compared to the same quarter in 2023
- The former Sony executive Shuhei Yoshida declared in an interview that he is “sorry” for being “wrong” about PS VR2.
- The F.Reality podcast has come to an end, after 7 years of a glorious career.
- Considering all the previous news, Blair Renaud, the developer behind LOW-FI, went on X to vent about the current situation and all the uncertainty he feels about the future. He’s not the first developer that feels to be abandoned on an unstable ship in the middle of the sea, and he won’t be the last.
The situation is critical, but luckily we had also a bunch of positive pieces of news:
- On Forbes, I’ve found an article praising the metaverse and how the young generations prefer it to socialize instead of the (always-less-)social media.
- The same analysis by Counterpoint mentioned above stated that the Apple Vision Pro had more shipments than IDC initially estimated, especially if we consider the International ones. If shipments were comparable to sales, we would have a number of sold Vision Pro similar to the initial estimates by Apple.
- Beat Saber is allegedly going to sell soon 10 million copies on Quest alone.
I think we should all face the reality that the next couple of years are going to be hard. At CES I’ve seen nothing that made me think that the current technological trends of AR/VR may change, with the only exception of smartglasses. I added the positive tidbits to this article because I wanted to show you that there is hope and that eventually, things will get better. But it will take time, and we should all be aware of this. The only thing we can do now is survive.
More info (My analysis of XR in 2024)
More info (The end of development of Powerwash Simulator)
More info (Soul Assembly’s layoffs)
More info (Omdia’s analysis of Quest sales — Road To VR)
More info (Omdia’s analysis of Quest sales — LinkedIn)
More info (Counterpoint Research’s analysis on the XR market)
More info (Shuhei Yoshida being sorry about PSVR 2)
More info (The F.Reality podcast closes)
More info (Blair Renaud complaining about the VR space)
More info (A positive article about the metaverse on Forbes)
More info (Apple Vision Pro selling more than what IDC said)
More info (Beat Saber nearing 10M in sales)
Other relevant news
Microsoft is forcing the Windows 11 24H2 update
The time has come: whoever tried to escape the infamous 24H2 update for Windows 11 will have to surrender. Microsoft is now forcing the update on all the machines for which it has the power to decide on the updates, like the Home versions of the operating systems.
Why is this relevant for us XR people? This update removes the support for Mixed Reality from Windows 11, de facto transforming all Windows Mixed Reality headsets into paperweight. People still having a WMR device have delayed this update as much as they could, but now that Microsoft is forcing it is much harder to avoid it. As far as I’ve understood, there are ways to prevent the update if you have a pro version of the operating system or your PC is in an enterprise department, but it’s very hard if you have a Home edition.
I send a lot of virtual hugs to all the people still on WMR who are seeing their headsets suddenly become useless.
ASUS releases new trailer for AirVision M1 glasses
ASUS has recently released a pretty cool trailer for its AirVision M1 smart glasses. These glasses are not new (I’ve found articles about them from the CES in 2024), but I’ve just discovered them and so I wanted to tell you.
ASUS AirVision M1 are 3DOF glasses that lets you have a virtual screen in front of your eyes. They feature 1100 nits of brightness, 60% transparency of the lenses, TÜV Rheinland certification, and built-in speakers. The device is compatibile with Windows PCs and Rog Ally handheld consoles. The weight is only 87g. Thanks to their companion software app, you can have with them a virtual multi-screen setup for your computer.
The price for this device is $700, which is a bit more than the $600 of the XREAL One Pro.
More info (ASUS AirVision M1 glasses trailer)
More info (ASUS AirVision M1 glasses shop page)
News worth a mention
Palmer Luckey says he’s announcing something in a few weeks
Answering the above-mentioned X post by Blair Renaud, Palmer Luckey said “Wait till you see what I am announcing in a few weeks and see if you still think I am out of the game”. This means he intends to announce something VR-related soon, probably the launch of the VR headset for military purposes that he teased at AWE. Or maybe the explosive Quest Pro of the picture above. In any case, I’m intrigued…
Somnium Space announces the new prices of its headset
After the realization of the complexity of manufacturing its high-quality headsets, Somnium Space has raised the prices of its headsets by €5–700, which is quite a lot. The new prices are so:
- Somnium VR1 Visionary Edition: €3000 + VAT
- Somnium VR1 Titan Edition: €3400 + VAT
- Somnium VR1 Ultimate Edition €4300 + VAT
Meta announces high-efficiency red MicroLED
Meta and Plessey have announced they’ve developed what they define as “the world’s brightest” red microLED display for AR glasses. The display features 6M nits with ultra-low power consumption: this is very important to be featured on augmented reality glasses that should be worn outdoors. The fact they managed to do it with a red display is even more important, because blue and green are more efficient and brighter. That’s why Dr. Keith Strickland, CEO of Plessey, calls it “a major breakthrough in the development of AR technology.”
Using Ray-Ban Meta to play Chess
Two very young developers, Caden Li and Eddy Xu used the Ray-Ban Meta glasses to give people superpowers when they are playing chess. The camera of the glasses can see the chess board, and stream it to an AI that plays chess, which suggests which moves to play, and these move are said to the user via the speakers of the device. This way, everyone can play chess as a master player…
I love this demo because it shows the power of smart glasses when they are connected with AI. We need open and programmable smart glasses so that more solutions like this one can be developed.
More info (Video of the solution)
More info (The devs advocating for more open smartglasses)
Jayden Daniels became a sports star thanks to Virtual Reality
American quarterback Jayden Daniels got a lot of attention lately, since he guided the Washington Commanders to their first playoff win in the National Football League (NFL) since 2006. He recently explained that he uses Virtual Reality (VR) headsets to train every day and prepare for matches. This is another proof that VR is a very effective technology for training.
Some news about content
- Rust-inspired survival game GRIM has entered early access this week for Quest and SteamVR
- Tablecraft promises a free “mad science” VR sandbox title where you can play with chemical elements, and it’s out this week in early access on Quest
- Lovesick, a VR puzzle game where you impersonate a burnt-out bassist of a band, will be available for the Meta Quest headsets on March 6
- Rogue Piñatas: VRmageddon reaches the Meta Quest platform on February 6, followed by a Steam release in spring
- PSVR 2 team shooter Firewall Ultra has got a surprise update even if the studio behind it got shut down at the end of last year
- Upload has written its usual XR News Round-Up post containing some minor XR news
More info (GRIM)
More info (TableCraft)
More info (Lovesick)
More info (Rogue Piñatas: VRmageddon)
More info (Firewall Ultra)
More info (XR News Round-Up)
Some reviews about content
- An article on Upload praised the mech emulation in Iron Rebellion for hitting exactly the right spot between usability and feeling inside a big clunky mech
- Arken Age delivers an interesting game with a vibrant presentation and rewarding combat
- Assetto Corsa EVO launched in Early Access but it is still full of problems
- The Thrill Of The Fight 2 offers an interesting take about boxing in multiplayer
- Human Within may be a quite bad example of how to do a branching story.
More info (Iron Rebellion)
More info (Arken Age)
More info (Assetto Corsa EVO)
More info (The Thrill Of The Fight 2)
More info (Human Within)
Other news
Meta removed the app to view your achievements inside the headset, making developers and users upset
The weird knowledge of the week is about the little LED close to the cameras of the Quest 3S
The unclear situation around the Visor headset continues, between enthusiastic reviews and people banned from Discord for asking about the release date of the device
Learn more (Enthusiastic review of Visor)
Learn more (People banned from Discord for having asked questions)
Michael Gschwandtner is having fun creating affordable AR glasses connected to his Nintendo Switch
News from partners (and friends)
Join a workshop on the musical metaverse!
During the IEEE International Symposium on the Internet of Sounds, which will be held in L’Aquila, Italy, from the 29th to the 31st of October, there will be a special workshop about the musical metaverse. This event, which will be held on October, 30, has the aim to “bring together academics and industry to investigate and advance the development of systems at the confluence of Musical XR and networking, as well as the understanding of human perception in immersive, networked contexts”. There is a call of paper that is currently open, so in case you are working on themes like for instance “Musical XR systems for networked interactions”, or “Digital twins for musical applications” submit your work and join this event to meet other people that are working on your same topics!
Learn more
Some XR fun
Meta hardware vs Meta software
Funny link
The perfect description of how it is making business in XR
Funny link
A new QA test is needed for the future Quest devices…
Funny link
Donate for good
Like last week, also this week in this final paragraph I won’t ask you to donate to my blog, but to the poor people who are facing the consequences of the war. Please donate to the Red Cross to handle the current humanitarian situation in Ukraine. I will leave you the link to do that below.
Let me take a moment before to thank anyway all my Patreon donors for the support they give to me:
- Alex Gonzalez VR
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- Eduardo Siman
- Jonn Fredericks
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And now here you are the link to donate:
Support The Red Cross in Ukraine
(Header image derived by a Microsoft image)
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