HTC Brings OpenXR Public Beta to Vive Focus 3
HTC announced this week it is making available an OpenXR public beta for the Vive Focus 3. OpenXR is designed to make it easier for developers to create a single app that’s cross-compatible with multiple OpenXR-supporting headsets.
Apple Says Steep ‘Horizon Worlds’ Creator Fees Show Meta’s “Hypocrisy”
Earlier this week Meta announced that it would begin testing tools to let creators sell things for real money in Horizon Worlds and would charge a fee of 47.5% of their earnings. The fee structure seemed at odds with prior comments from Meta which have criticized app store fees from the likes of Apple and Google. Now Apple is accusing the company of hypocrisy.
Genies Secures $150M Series C to Expand Development on Metaverse Avatars
Virtual Social Platform ‘Rec Room’ Hits 3 Million Monthly Active VR Users
Rec Room, a social VR game which also supports non-VR devices like PC, console, and mobile phones, has reached an impressive 3 million monthly active VR users, which the company says is just a fraction of its total monthly active usership.
‘Pokémon Go’ Studio’s New Game, ‘Peridot’, Leans Further into AR Gameplay
‘Pokémon Go’ studio Niantic announced Peridot today, its latest game which the company says leans further into AR than prior projects.
PSVR Shooter ‘Fracked’ is Coming to PC VR in May
Fracked (2021), the action adventure game from veteran VR studio nDreams, is set to leave PSVR exclusivity in May, as it’s landing on PC VR headsets via Steam and Viveport.
Meta Plans to Take Nearly 50% of Creator’s Earnings in ‘Horizon Worlds’
This week Meta announced that it was beginning to test selling tools so that creators can sell things inside of Horizon Worlds and earn real money. Now the company has offered up more detail about how that will work, including the fees creators will pay on earnings made through the platform.
Report: Meta Quest 2 Pro Said to Feature Higher-Res Mini-LED & Pancake Lenses, Arriving in 2022
Tech analyst Ming-Chi Kuo is known for making predictions based on Apple supply chain leaks, but this time Kuo alleges Meta is getting ready to release a ‘Pro’ branded follow-up to its most popular VR headset to date, Quest 2. We aren’t able to independently verify these claims, however it sounds a lot like Kuo is describing Meta’s Project Cambria.
Meta Begins Testing Selling Tools in ‘Horizon Worlds’ With the Long Term Goal of Enabling People to “earn a living”
Meta announced today it is enabling new in-world monetization tools for a “handful” of creators in Horizon Worlds. The tools will allow them to sell access to items and experiences inside of the app. Eventually, Meta says, it hopes people can “earn a living” in the metaverse.
Meta: 124 Quest Apps Have Earned More Than $1M, 8 Have Earned More Than $20M
At GDC last month, Meta shared the clearest look yet at the number of apps reaching various revenue milestones on the Quest platform. So far, 124 apps have earned $1 million in revenue or more, while 8 have exceeded $20 million.
‘TO THE TOP’ Studio Reveal Sequel ‘SUPER KIT’, Coming to PSVR in 2022
Electric Hat Games, the studio behind VR platforming pioneer TO THE TOP (2017), announced they have a sequel in the works called Super Kit: To The Top.
Quest ‘Invite Links’ Are the Easiest Way to Invite Friends to VR, But Few Seem to Know They Exist
Last year Meta added the ability to send simple invite links to your friends which would bring you together into the same place in VR. It’s a great way to easily join up with friends in VR, but it seems very few people know the feature exists.
Unofficial Render Purports to Show Production Model of Meta’s Next-gen Headset, Project Cambria
YouTuber SadlyItsBradley claims to have seen actual photos of the production model of Meta’s next-gen mixed reality headset, Project Cambria. Though they aren’t sharing the source photos, they worked with a 3D modeler to create a detailed rendering of what the photos showed.
Long-Time Oculus Exclusive ‘Lucky’s Tale’ Finally Releases on PSVR
Lucky’s Tale (2016), the plucky little 3D platformer that launched on Rift back in 2016, has finally made its way to PlayStation VR.
It’s been a long road for Lucky’s Tale. After being remastered for Quest 2 in November 2021, and SteamVR headsets a month later, it’s finally come to PSVR.
Playful today released Lucky’s Tale on PSVR, priced at $20. The game only supports DualShock 4 controllers, as it combines traditional platforming with a more immersive view of the world (re: no PS Move). The game’s store page (linked above) also shows it’s been enhanced for PS4 Pro.
To learn more about its history and launch on Quest 2 late last year, continue on to the article below:
Playful today announced during the Upload VR showcase that Lucky’s Tale is finally leaving Oculus exclusivity as it makes its way to PSVR and SteamVR headsets, releasing on the PlayStation Store, Steam and Viveport sometime “soon”.
The studio also threw out a new trailer to show off some of the game’s updated visuals. The original article announcing Quest 2 availability follows below.
Now Quest 2 users can hop around the bright and colorful world as series protagonist Lucky Swiftail, a young fox on a quest to save his best friend Piggy from a tentacular monster named Glorp.
It launches on the Oculus Store for $20 today, coming exclusively to Quest 2 (re: not original Oculus Quest). It hasn’t been confirmed whether Lucky’s Tale is a cross-buy title with Rift, however we’ll update this article once we know.
Playful says Lucky’s Tale has been remastered for Quest 2, bringing updated lighting, rendering, and remixed audio to the game. It’s also refined character movement, and imported the updated character model seen in New Super Lucky’s Tale (2020), the game’s non-VR sequel which is still only available for flatscreen consoles and PC.
Lucky’s Tale is a fun little game which serves up a few hours of pretty standard platforming fare, albeit in an immersive 3D world that sort of drags yours point of view behind the titular Lucky as you move through different worlds and encounter the evil Glorp at every turn. It’s one of those ‘fun for everyone’ games that basically everyone can enjoy.
Lucky’s Tale was developed around a limitation that sounds positively ancient; it was first meant to be played with the Xbox controller, which was Rift’s only input method for the first few months after launch—a few months before Touch was even a thing. Granted, Touch controllers have all the same buttons as an Xbox gamepad, although it goes to show just how much VR games have changed in the past few years in terms of direct user interaction and immersion.
