The XR Week Peek (2023.12.19): Vision Pro is slated for January, Quest 2 is selling incredibly well, and more!
In this crazy end of the year, here I am, on Friday, the 22nd, writing a roundup with the date of Tuesday, the 19th. The fact is, I had a crazily busy week, so I did not have time to write anything… but this roundup I prepared on Tuesday was so rich that I could not skip it, so I’m just writing it for you now… a bit late, but better late than never. Since it’s very late, I’m also making it a bit shorter than usual, but you will still find here all the news you need to know. And you will also find here a fantastic giveaway of SAM&MAX, which you will discover in the Friends section of this article.
If you are wondering why I was so busy… well, as you can read on Forbes and on Mixed, on Christmas Day, at 8 pm CET (11 am PT) there will be on our VRROOM platform a special concert for the 400 years of the Versailles Palace, featuring Jean-Michel Jarre. And for that occasion, we are also publishing a new cool update to our platform. I hope we will meet there and have fun together!
Top news of the week
Apple Vision Pro may be out in January
According to the latest report on Bloomberg, Apple is still on track to release the Apple Vision Pro at the beginning of this year. The company is preparing the training for Apple Store employees for mid-January, still hoping for a launch the same month, even if all of us are convinced that January may be a bit optimistic. But even if it is in February, it is still in line with what they promised during the launch event. Good job Tim Cook on this side!
More info (Vision Pro launching in January — Road To VR)
More info (Vision Pro launching in January — Upload VR)
Other relevant news
Quest 2 is the king of these Holidays sales
All the market statistics point to the fact that with its new price point, the Quest 2 is selling like hotcakes. The device is selling much more than Quest 3 and its stocks on the Meta website are becoming very limited. This is very good news for the whole VR ecosystem: according to the market research firm GfK, the Black Friday week in the UK was the “biggest ever revenue week for VR”.
PSVR 2 is instead showing all its limits. We all knew that it would have sold less than the Quest, but the first numbers that have been shown are pretty brutal: in a graph shared by Brad Lynch that represents the sales of device units for the past month, the Quest 2 128GB sits at 100K units, while PSVR 2 only at 5K. The proportion is 20:1… and this only considers one specific Quest SKU. Tethered VR has definitely lost its battle against standalone.
More info (Quest 2 mosly out of stock)
More info (VR had a great Black Friday in UK)
More info (Quest 2 selling much better than PSVR 2)
Pico 5 has been canceled, Pico 4 Plus not
After last month’s layoffs, it seems that Bytedance is totally changing its plans related to virtual reality. Since the sales of Pico 4 have been fewer than expected, the rumors say that the plans for a consumer Pico 5 have been scrapped and they have been substituted with the work on a high-end device that may compete with the Apple Vision Pro. This is a pity because the rumored specs on the Pico 5 were very good. Some rumors say that anyway a refresh of the Pico 4, which I personally call “Pico 4 Plus”, may come in the next months because it was already in the pipeline. The upgraded Pico 4 should bring ringless controllers and maybe some refresh of the specifications.
I’m personally a bit confused by Bytedance’s strategy. If making a mainstream VR headset was easy, Meta wouldn’t burn $10B a year and still target a niche. It was clear since the beginning that Pico 4 couldn’t compete with Quest 2 yet… these things need time, and Bytedance should have planned for a Pico 6 to compete with Quest 4. Plus I find it bizarre that since it can’t succeed against Meta, now Bytedance tries to compete against Apple, which is 100 times more complicated. Outstanding move. Good luck with that.
More info (Pico 5 canceled — Road To VR)
More info (Pico 5 canceled — Upload VR)
More info (A refresh to Pico 4 is in the works)
XBOX Cloud gaming comes to Quest
After a long wait, finally, XBOX Cloud Gaming has arrived on Meta Quest devices. You just need an Xbox Cloud Pass, a compatible gamepad and then you can play your favorite console games on a huge virtual screen on your Meta Quest. This means that now you can also play Fortnite on your Quest!
This is great news for Quest owners because they have more content to play with, but a bit less happy piece of news for us XR developers because now our XR apps have to compete also with console games for the Quest time of our potential users…
More info (XBOX Gaming on Quest — Road To VR)
More info (You can now play Fortnite on your Quest)
Asgard’s Wrath 2 has been released and it is a fantastic VR game
Meta and Sanzaru Games have just released Asgard’s Wrath 2 and the game has been an immediate success. It shows how to do an AAA game for a standalone headset: it features something like 60 hours of playtime, fantastic graphics, an interesting story, and a lot of side quests. It is a massive game, and it is getting very positive reviews… even a 10/10 on IGN! This is the kind of content that makes the whole VR ecosystem make a step forward.
But… there are three little negative things about it:
- The game has been released with no special graphical upgrade for Quest 3, meaning that all graphics are at Quest 2 level. It has been stupidly review-bombed for it, so now the team is working on an upgrade
- In the beginning, it explains too many things, and it becomes more interesting after the first 6 hours of playtime
- The game is cool, but not a turning point for VR as Half-Life Alyx has been. It’s a big cool AAA VR game, but not a legendary game.
More info (Asgard’s Wrath has been released)
More info (Asgard’s Wrath 2 review — Upload VR)
More info (Asgard’s Wrath 2 review — Road To VR)
More info (Asgard’s Wrath 2 — Links to the most important reviews)
More info (The game review-bombed for lack of Quest 3 upgrades)
More info (The team promising an update for Quest 3)
News worth a mention
Ray-Ban Meta glasses are getting AI superpowers
Meta announced a few weeks ago the Ray-Ban Meta smartglasses, which are an evolution of the previous Ray-Ban Stories. It seems that Meta is pushing on these glasses, and in fact now some TikTok influencers are making stories with them.
These smartglasses are now getting an update that gives them the ability to recognize the objects that you have in front of you thanks to artificial intelligence. You will be able for instance to look at a plant and ask the glasses what is its species. This is all very cool and useful, but it also poses some privacy concerns, of course, and that’s why for now it is being rolled out only in the US.
More info (AI-powered Ray-Ban Meta — Road To VR)
More info (AI-powered Ray-Ban Meta — Upload VR)
More info (TikTok influencers are using Meta smartglasses)
The Samsung headset may be revealed soon
According to a new rumor, the XR headset that Samsung is building with Google and Qualcomm may be revealed at the beginning of the new year. The past rumors talked about the end of 2024, but it seems that lately that development has been accelerated.
Are you ready for Wi-Fi 7?
Wi-Fi 7 specifications will be finalized by the end of the first quarter of 2024. This is relevant for us because Wi-Fi 7 is going to offer impressive speeds like 40 Gbit/s, a 4.8x improvement over the already fast Wi-Fi 6. XR devices will be able to connect wirelessly with better performance with phones and PCs.
Photorealistic graphics are not fundamental to having a good VR experience
A new study has revealed that to make the user feel part of a VR world and feel connected with it, it is not fundamental to have AAA graphics, but it is more important to create agency for the user in the world and to foster emotions in him.
In a piece of separate news, a study revealed that the water is wet and the fire is hot.
Vive discontinues Facial Tracker
HTC has discontinued the Facial Tracker, the face-tracking device that worked with various PC VR headsets. It’s interesting, though, that its support service claims that the company is going to launch a Face and Eye tracker for the Vive XR Elite. May it be something that HTC is going to announce at CES?
RIP E3
The E3, which was one of the most important gaming exhibitions of the world, is no more. It’s such sad news.
Latest Quest SDK adds body tracking and MR occlusion
The latest Quest SDK, version 60, is going to add two very interesting features for developers to play with:
- Full body reconstruction of the pose of the user via AI
- Occlusion of virtual objects performed by real objects in MR.
As a developer I am very intrigued by them… especially I find cool the full body estimation.
Some news about content
- FitXR has added a new cool mixed reality training mode
- Stunt Racer ‘Micro Machines’ is Coming to Quest & PC VR in January
- Into The Radius 2 is coming in 2024, at first for PC VR
- Demeter is a mixed reality platformer for Quest
- Resident Evil 4 VR Mode has been launched for PSVR 2. A free demo is also available on the store
- Free-to-play hero shooter Shootout has been launched for Quest
- The CookieRun franchise has arrived on Quest with CookieRun: The Darkest Night
More info (FitXR)
More info (Micro Machines)
More info (Into The Radius 2)
More info (Demeter)
More info (Resident Evil 4 VR)
More info (Shootout)
More info (CookieRun)
Some reviews about content
- Arizona Sunshine 2 got a good score on Road To VR, which praised the co-op mode and the doggo companion buddy
- Racket Club has been praised by Upload, because it reinvented Tennis in a way that works very well in VR
- Wallace & Gromit: The Grand Getaway is not the best VR experience ever, but it is able to deliver well the humor and the spirit of the series
- Neko Atsume Purrfect is a very cute game full of adorable kitties that is great for VR newcomers and cat lovers
- Track Craft is a promising indie game that lets you construct racing tracks in mixed-reality
- Upload defined the VR mode of Resident Evil 4 Remake as the best VR version of Resident Evil ever and gave it 5 stars!
More info (Arizona Sunshine 2)
More info (Racket Club VR)
More info (Wallace and Gromit)
More info (Purrfect)
More info (Track Craft)
More info (Resident Evil 4 VR)
Other news
Meta resumes Quest 3 Elite Battery Strap orders
Sensorium Galaxy is proposing a new show featuring Carl Cox
This commercial for VR is just A M A Z I N G
Squid Game installation in Sandbox VR venues generated more than 4M in two months
This looks like a nice tool to do 3D animations in VR
This is the roadmap for the Open USD format for the next times
News from partners (and friends)
SAM&MAX GIVEAWAY!
The amazing team behind Sam&Max: This Time It’s Virtual is offering 7 free physical copies of the game for PSVR (NOT PSVR 2) to people living in North America. These copies are specifically dedicated to the followers of my blog, so the chances of winning them are pretty high. What are you waiting for… participate in the raffle and get an amazing VR game!
Flipside just got an update!
Flipside, the famous VR tool through which you can record people performing in VR just got a big update that empowers creators and lets them connect better with their communities.
Discover Discqualified
Discqualified is an indie game that lets you play with a virtual frisbee against a local opponent in mixed reality. Who scores the most points wins. You can discover more about it in the links below.
Learn more (Gameplay video)
Learn more (Meta Store page)
There’s a new advisor for AVIAR
AVIAR is a startup focused on offering virtual reality training to specialists in the aviation field. From the past week, it can count on a new special advisor: Chris Koomen, who previously was doing XR innovation inside KLM. I’m very happy for my friend Chris, and I wish him the best of luck for this new adventure!
Watch me speaking with Artur Sychov!
Artur Sychov is the CEO of Somnium Space, the social VR platform that is now also building a very interesting PC VR headset. He also has a cool podcast (together with Shodah) called Pixel Slaves and I’ve been there for an episode where we talked about XR in general. It has been a very nice chat, and if you have some time, I invite you to watch it.
A local course about VR
If you are in the Turin (Italy) area, and you know some people that may be interested in entering the XR field, you can suggest them a free course subsidized by local institutions to become Virtual Reality Specialist.
Some XR fun
People are sniffing Steamdecks… for real…
Funny link
PCVR in 2023 in a nutshell
Funny link
Donate for good
Like last week, also this week in this final paragraph I won’t ask you to donate for my blog, but to the poor people that 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
- DeoVR
- GenVR
- Eduardo Siman
- Jonn Fredericks
- Jean-Marc Duyckaerts
- Reynaldo T Zabala
- Richard Penny
- Terry xR. Schussler
- Ilias Kapouranis
- Paolo Leoncini
- Immersive.international
- Nikk Mitchell and the great FXG team
- Jake Rubin
- Alexis Huille
- Raghu Bathina
- Chris Koomen
- Cognitive3D
- Wisear (Yacine Achiakh)
- Masterpiece X
- Jennifer Granger
- Jason Moore
- Steve Biggs
- Julio Cesar Bolivar
- Jan Schroeder
- Kai Curtis
- Francesco Strada
- Sikaar Keita
- Ramin Assadollahi
- Juan Sotelo
- Andrew Sheldon
- Chris Madsen
- Horacio Torrendell
- Andrew Deutsch
- Fabien Benetou
- Tatiana Kartashova
- Marco “BeyondTheCastle” Arena
- Eloi Gerard
- Adam Boyd
- Jeremy Dalton
- Joel Ward
- Alex P
- Lynn Eades
- Donald P
- Casie Lane
- Catherine Henry
- Qcreator
- Ristband (Anne McKinnon & Roman Rappak)
- Stephen Robnett
- KaihatsuJai
- Christopher Boyd
- Sb
- Pieter Siekerman
- Enrico Poli
- Vooiage Technologies
- Caroline
- Liam James O’Malley
- Hillary Charnas
- Wil Stevens
- Brian Peiris
- Francesco Salizzoni
- Dimo Pepelyashev
- Alan Smithson
- Steve R
- Brentwahn
- Matt Cool
- Simplex
- Gregory F Gorsuch
- Matias Nassi
And now here you are the link to donate:
Support The Red Cross in Ukraine
(Header image by Meta)
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