Moss: Book II, a direct sequel to the lauded original, was finally announced earlier this month. And it hopes to answer what was perhaps the original game’s biggest problem: it was too short! In an interview with the game’s Design Director, Josh Stiksma, we learned that, this time around, the second ‘book’ in the series is set to be thicker indeed.
World War I dogfighting game Warplanes: WW1 Fighters has done fairly well for itself since it launched on Oculus’ App Lab platform earlier this year. Now Warplanes: WW1Fighters has made the leap to the official Oculus Store for Quest.
nDreams, the studio behind Phantom: Covert Ops (2020) and the upcoming PSVR exclusive Fracked, announced today it’s opening a second VR development studio called nDreams Studio Orbital, which will focus on creating games as a service for VR.
Synth Riders (2018), the VR rhythm game for PC VR and Oculus Quest, was supposed to launch on PSVR on July 27th. After a last-minute delay which could have seen the game pushed back by “several weeks,” developer Kluge Interactive now says the PSVR version’s launch will officially arrive August 10th.
By now it can be said that Varjo is making the world’s most high-end VR headsets, and not just because they’re slapping on a hefty price tag. With a core premise of ‘retina resolution’ that really delivers, Varjo’s headsets keep getting better even as they’re getting cheaper. Their visual performance offers an early glimpse of what mainstream VR headsets are unlikely to deliver for years to come.
Facebook Reality Labs, the company’s AR/VR research and development team, announced the creation of a special product group focused on developing its future vision for “the Metaverse.” Apparently Facebook is betting big on the idea too, as it hopes in the near future to be viewed more as “a metaverse company” than a social network.
Oculus is making hard shift away from its proprietary developer APIs in favor of OpenXR, an industry-backed project that aims to standardize the development of VR and AR applications. As of the latest SDK update, the company says OpenXR will become “the preferred API for all new applications going forward.”
Facebook announced today that it has paused the sale of Quest 2 globally while it works to include a silicone facepad cover with the headset going forward. The move was prompted by what the company says was a “very small percentage” of customers who reported skin irritation from the headset’s foam facepad. When Quest 2 goes back on sale in late August, the company will also introduce a 128GB model, replacing the current 64GB model at the same price.
Rezzil, a UK-based VR sports training and analytics startup, announced that its secured an investment round of over £2 million (~$2.75 million), which will be used to promote its new consumer-focused sports training platform, Player 22.
Facebook announced today that an upcoming update to the Quest development SDK will include experimental support for a Passthrough API which will allow Unity developers to build AR experiences and features into apps on Quest 2.
Two new Harry Potter VR experiences have launched at the Harry Potter New York retail location. Wizards Take Flight and Chaos at Hogwarts were developed in collaboration with Dreamscape, Wevr, and Keylight.
Carrier Command 2, a modern sequel to the 1988 game, puts players in control of a futuristic aircraft carrier, allowing up to nine players to manage the ship’s many systems from the bridge. Developer Geometa today announced the game will get full VR support, including cross-play with the non-VR version. Both versions will be bundled together and are expected to launch in early access later this year.
HaptX, the company building VR gloves with advanced haptics, this week announced that is has raised $12 million in a Series A-1 investment which will be used to open a new headquarters based in Redmond, WA, and expand its team.
