[Updated] VR Headsets on Steam Hit Record High Three Months Running
For the third month running, the number of VR headsets on Steam has reached a new record high of some 2.9 million, or 2.3% of Steam users.
Quest 2 May Be Selling Thrice as Fast as the Best Selling VR Headset, PSVR
While Facebook has yet to reveal official unit sales figures for Oculus Quest 2, various data points the company has offered, along with data from developers, has allowed us to hone in on a reasonable estimate. Compared to PSVR, the best selling VR headset to date, Quest 2 may be selling three times as fast.
‘Hand Physics Lab’ Review – Putting the Fun in Frustration
Hand Physics Lab is all about hand-tracking, and this over 80-level game aims to throw you head first into a whimsical series of seemingly simple tasks. Quest can offer mixed results when it comes to hand-tracking fidelity though, so if you’re not careful, it can be extremely frustrating for all the wrong reasons.
Grappling Shooter ‘Swarm’ Releasing on Quest & Rift April 8th, Trailer Here
SWARM is a high-flying arcade shooter from Greensky Games that gives you two grappling hooks and plenty of firepower to take down gads of enemy drones. Swarm has been in beta testing for the past year, but now Greensky says it’s coming to Quest and Rift on April 8th.
Microsoft Signs $22B Contract with US Army to Bring HoloLens 2 Tech to the Battlefield
Following a prototyping phase started in 2019, Microsoft and the United States Army have announced they are moving to a production phase of the Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS), based on HoloLens 2 technology, through a contract worth up to $22 billion.
Report: Snapchat Readying an AR Version of Its Spectacles Glasses
Hot on the tail of Niantic teasing a pair of AR glasses earlier this week, a new report from The Information says the company is readying a pair of its Spectacles glasses with proper AR functionality.
Facebook’s Bosworth: Quest 2 Has Outsold All Oculus Headsets Combined
During an interview with Bloomberg this week, Facebook Reality Labs VP, Andrew Bosworth, said that Quest 2 has outsold all Oculus headsets combined, a significant milestone for a headset which has only been available for five and a half months.
Case Study: The Design Behind ‘Cubism’s’ Hand-tracking
Hand tracking first became available on the Oculus Quest back in late 2019. Out of enthusiasm for this new input method, I published a demo of Cubism to SideQuest with experimental hand tracking support only a few days later. Needless to say, this initial demo had several flaws, and didn’t really take the limitations of the technology into account, which is why I decided to initially omit hand tracking support from the full release of Cubism on the Oculus Store. It took more development, leaning on lessons learned from the work of fellow developers, to build something I was happy to release in the recent Cubism hand-tracking update. Here’s an inside-look at the design process.
‘STRIDE’ Studio Reveals Work on Gritty Rhythm Game Prototype
Joy Way, the developers behind high-flying parkour shooter STRIDE (2020), released a new look at a game prototype that aims to fuse rhythm, shooting and slicing. If the studio intends on keeping the new aesthetic, it’s also going to feature some bloody cartoon violence too.
‘Pokémon GO’ Developer Niantic Teases a See-through Headset
Niantic, the studio behind the popular Pokémon GO, today teased some kind of see-through headset.
‘DOOM 3 VR Edition’ Releases Today on PSVR, Extended Gameplay Video Here
DOOM 3 VR Edition launches today on PlayStation consoles, bringing the 2004 classic horror-shooter to PSVR for the first time.
This ‘Fallout 4 VR’ Modpack Brings VR-native Overhaul to the Wasteland
There are a ton of Fallout 4 VR mods out there since it launched on the first generation of consumer VR headsets back in 2017, most of which you can find on NexusMods. If you’re looking for an all-in-one solution that makes the game less of a port and more of a native VR experience though, modder and streamer GingasVR just released a comprehensive modpack that is essentially a survivalist’s dream come true.
AWE 2021 Returns With In-person Conference Planned for November
With nearly all major XR events cancelled in 2020 due to the pandemic, it’s been a somewhat odd year for the industry. With vaccines starting to roll out in the US, AWE has set a hopeful November date as one of the first XR conferences to return to an in-person event—but offering a money-back guarantee in case things don’t pan out.
Sandbox VR Announces Las Vegas Location, 15 Locations to Open by 2022
Sandbox VR, the out-of-home virtual reality destination, went through a rough patch this past year as the company both filed and subsequently emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy following debt restructure. With the United States doing fairly well in terms of COVID-19 vaccinations now, the company appears confident in getting back to business as usual soon, as it plans to open a new location at the Grand Canal Shoppes inside The Venetian Resort, Las Vegas, in addition to operating 15 locations worldwide by the year’s end.
