Psychic VR Lab Raises $8.5 Million to Grow Browser-based XR Development Platform
Japan-based Psychic VR Lab has announced the close of an $8.5 million investment to grow its cloud-based XR development platform, STYLY.
‘Blade & Sorcery’ Update 9 Makes Combat Even More Brutal
As if shanking someone in the face wasn’t brutal enough, Early Access battle simulator Blade & Sorcery just got a little more gory with the new U9 update which landed on Friday.
‘STRIDE’ Story Mode to Arrive in Q3 2021, Studio Releases First Teaser
STRIDE, the high-flying VR action game inspired by Mirror’s Edge, is getting its much anticipated story mode later this year. Now developer Joy Way has released the story mode’s first teaser.
‘Virtual Desktop’ Can Now Stream PC VR Games to Quest, Without the Sideloading Workaround
Virtual Desktop, an Oculus Quest app which allows users to control their Windows PCs from inside the headset, now officially offers the ability to stream PC VR games wirelessly to the headset. Facebook had previously not allowed the feature to be included with the app, restricting it to a complicated sideloading process.
VR’s 2021 Outlook: 14 Indicators in One Place
Hard data on the VR market is often difficult to come by, while broad ‘industry reports’ are often so general that it’s difficult to see what things look like ‘on the ground’. To get a sense of VR’s outlook in 2021, we’ve collected 14 of the most recent and concrete indicators for your perusal.
You Can Now Activate Quest Voice Commands Hands-free, But You’ll Have to Say “Hey Facebook”
Oculus today announced that it’s rolling out a small but welcomed change to Quest’s voice commands feature: the ability to activate it with a wake phrase—”Hey Facebook.”
‘Superhot VR’ on Quest Surpasses 1 Million Units Sold, Quest 2 Sales Outperform All Platforms
Superhot VR (2016) has long been held up as one of the ‘must-have’ VR games. Now the studio announced it’s just tipped the one million mark for units sold on the Oculus Quest platform.
SteamVR Update Brings Full Support for OpenXR 1.0, A Huge Step for the Open Standard
The latest update to SteamVR, version 1.16, now includes full support for OpenXR 1.0, the widely backed industry standard which aims to make cross-platform VR development easier by allowing developers to build around a single API rather than porting their apps to many different APIs for different headsets. SteamVR’s support for OpenXR 1.0 is a huge step forward for the adoption of the standard.
‘VRChat’ Can Now Import Free Customizable ‘Ready Player Me’ Avatars
Ready Play Me, the free avatar maker from Wolf3D, now supports exporting avatars to VRChat, making it quick and easy to get a customizable avatar into one of the most popular social VR applications.
Microsoft to Talk About the Future of XR in Ignite 2021 Keynote Hosted in ‘AltspaceVR’
Microsoft is looking to make good use of its social VR platform AltspaceVR next week as it hosts its first Ignite keynote in virtual reality.
One of Quest’s Best-rated Experiences, ‘ALTDEUS: Beyond Chronos’ Launches on SteamVR
Sci-fi anime VR visual novel experience ALTDEUS: Beyond Chronos launched on Oculus Quest in December and quickly rose to become one of the best rated titles on the headset. Now the app has launched on SteamVR for PC VR users to enjoy.
Hands-on: Impressive PS5 DualSense Haptics Bodes Well for Next-gen PSVR Controllers
The launch of PlayStation 5 brought backwards compatible support for PSVR, but with Sony confirming a new PSVR headset in the works we’d be lying if we said we weren’t most excited by what’s around the corner. A new VR headset is alluring in itself, but even more so given Sony’s confirmation that “key features” from its impressive PS5 DualSense controllers will be part of the next-gen PSVR controllers.
Crytek’s Long-awaited ‘The Climb 2’ Coming to Oculus Quest on March 4th
Crytek announced last year that The Climb (2016) would be getting its long-awaited sequel sometime during the holiday season 2020. Although that launch window has come and gone, The Climb 2 is now finally set for a March 4th release date.
Next-Gen VR Dev Kits for PS5 Shipping Soon with “completely new VR format”
Sony today announced that its next-generation VR headset is coming—not in 2021, but it’s definitely a thing. In an interview with GQ, Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan says dev kit headsets are close to landing in the hands of developers.
Sony Confirms Next-Gen PSVR is Coming, New Controllers to Feature DualSense Tech
Sony has been awfully quiet about the follow-up to its PSVR headset, which was initially released back in October 2016. Today the company publicly announced it is indeed working on its next-generation VR headset for PS5 consoles. There’s only a few scraps of info for now, but there should be plenty of time to tease out the specifics. In short: it’s looking to be a vastly improved piece of kit.
