Google is shutting down Spotlight Stories, the group tasked not only with pushing forward virtual reality as a storytelling medium, but creating a number of highly polished and thoughtful VR pieces in the process.
HTC today announced that Viveport Infinity, the upcoming Netflix-style VR game & app subscription service, will be available for $13 a month, or $99 annually starting on April 2nd. If you subscribe now though, it could be a lot cheaper than that.
Zero Latency, creator of a leading VR attraction platform, is now deploying their ‘gen 2’ VR hardware. The revamp includes newer HP VR backpacks, Windows VR headsets, and Windows VR peripheral tracking for a more modern VR experience that’s easier to set up & operate, and offers an improved player experience, the company says.
Facebook Reality Labs (FRL) chief scientist Michael Abrash believes AR and VR will be the primary way people work, play, and connect in the future. Abrash regularly speaks about when he expects these fundamental milestones in technology to occur, but in a new year-long blog series he wants to drill down to exactly how it’ll happen.
Vertigo Games, the developers behind Arizona Sunshine (2016), today announced their PC VR strategy game Skyworld (2017) is finally making its way to PlayStation VR this month.
VR ‘rhythm shooter’ Audica from legendary rhythm game studio Harmonix is now available in Early Access on Steam and the Oculus Store. The studio has already pushed a v0.1.1 patch addressing early player feedback. The studio has also revealed some of what’s in store for an eventual full release.
Nearly a year ago a debilitating software error occurred that rendered every Rift on Earth basically inoperable for about a day. As recompense, Oculus handed out $15 in Store credit (or regional equivalent) to pretty much anyone that used Rift in the month of February in 2018 leading up to the service outage.
On the build up to a larger reveal at GDC next week, Oculus has been teasing some of the combat mechanics in Asgard’s Wrath, the latest upcoming Oculus Studios title. The game’s physics-based combat will include the ability to finish opponents with brutal dismembering kills.
Several reports over the past two years have suggested Apple is getting ready to manufacture an AR headset, and possibly ship it sometime in 2020—something that’s so far unsubstantiated by the company itself. Now highly respected industry analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, someone Business Insider called “the most accurate Apple analyst in the world,” is offering up his predictions for the fabled device, and they seem to support the view that an Apple AR headset is just over the horizon.
At GDC 2019 later this month, Valve’s Principal Experimental Psychologist, Mike Ambinder will present the latest research pertaining to brain-computer interfaces—using signals from the brain as computer input. Ambinder says that BCI is still “speculative technology,” but could play an important role in the way players interact with the games of the future.
Tactical Haptics has been working on a unique haptic controller design since its founding in 2013. While we’ve seen a number of prototypes over the years, the company is getting ready to show what it calls a “production-ready” version of its Reactive Grip VR controller, set to debut later this month at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco, California.
Borderlands 2 VR (2018) launched on PSVR late last year with support for DualShock 4 and PS Move, and while it also seemed to be a perfect fit for the platform’s dedicated gun controller, PS Aim, users just had to make do. Now developers Gearbox Software and 2K Games have announced they’ve officially added PS Aim support including a few other shooting specific improvements that should keep you happily blasting bandits and looting vaults with greater ease regardless of your chosen controller.
Valve today confirmed that the company laid off 13 full-time employees and an unspecified number of contractors. The layoffs are believed to have largely impacted the company’s VR hardware group.
