ILMxLAB, the immersive entertainment studio from Lucasfilms, is bringing the final installment of its Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge VR game. The in-app paid DLC comes exclusively to Oculus Quest starting today.
Apple is hosting what promises to be its big iPhone 13 event today. While we’re once again holding out hope for that ‘one more thing’ to see if the company reveals anything about its upcoming AR or VR wearables, it seems a supply chain rumor contends that Apple’s alleged VR headset may be gearing up to sport a microOLED display with a pretty high pixel density.
Chinese tech giant Xiaomi unveiled its first pair of smart glasses today, sensibly called Xiaomi Smart Glasses. They aren’t a product you can buy for now, as the company calls the concept device “an engineer’s look into an advanced future.” With the world’s largest smartphone manufacture expressing interest though, it may mean we’ll be hearing a lot more about consumer smart glasses in the years to come.
Facebook’s Horizon Workrooms connects both VR and video chat users together in the same space. Although it’s still in beta, the company says that it’s gearing up to integrate Workrooms with popular video chat platform Zoom.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg spoke about the idea of a ‘Quest Pro’ headset back in May, saying that it could include sensors for both face and eye tracking. The v32 firmware release for Oculus Quest last month ostensibly confirms that the company is moving forward with the device, as it contains hidden reference to an “Oculus Quest Pro” headset along with text mentioning both eye and face-tracking.
French startup Lynx announced its Lynx R-1 mixed reality headset last year. The standalone headset, which is capable of both VR and pass-through AR, was previously said to launch for business somewhere around the $1,500 price point. Lynx previously said it was pivoting to target both enterprise and consumers however, now adding that the headset will start at $500 when it hits Kickstarter sometime in late September.
I Expect You To Die 2: The Spy and the Liar (2021) launched in late August across all major VR headsets, bringing fans of the original game a fresh taste of spy-flavored puzzles and adventure. Now developers Schell Games say it’s done so well that the sequel has broken past the $1 million revenue milestone only a few days after launch.
Facebook and Ray-Ban today unveiled Stories, a new line of tech-forward glasses the companies hope will pave the way for a future of smart and stylish AR devices. Stories appear to fit in the same category as the first three generations of Snap’s Spectacles, but also include integrated audio like Bose Frames, making them a little less smart than we had initially hoped—but a lot smarter than most.
Eye of the Temple impressed us with its unique room-scale gameplay and inventive locomotion style back in its free demo last year. Now indie developer Rune Skovbo Johansen announced the full game is coming to PC VR headsets starting next month, and it’s bringing the bullwhip, hat, treasure, and plenty of ancient temples to explore.
Facebook and Ray-Ban are collaborating on what promises to be a pair of smartglasses, something that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in July would “let you do some pretty neat things.” Well, the companies are getting ready to reveal the device on September 9th, 2021, so we’re sure to learn more then.
Rebellion’s Sniper Elite VR (2021) has offered up some satisfying sniping with a bevy of comfort and gameplay options to boot. Now the studio is dialing in even further with a new update for Quest, PSVR, PC VR that promises more customization to the sniping experience.
17-BIT, the studio behind Galak-Z: The Virtual (2018), had previously mentioned that its upcoming VR survival adventure game Song in the Smoke was coming to Oculus Quest, Oculus Rift, and PSVR on September 18th. Now the studio says that date wasn’t correct, and that it will release a little later than planned.
Like pretty much all big shows in 2020, the Tokyo Game Show (TGS) gaming expo was basically cancelled last year, instead offering up online coverage to bridge the gap. Although the show will be missing a physical component again this year, in addition to online coverage TGS 2021 is tossing out a virtual event for VR headset users that could be new territory for a show of its size.
