Back in August we uncovered what appeared to be an updated version of Samsung’s Odyssey Windows VR headset. Now a listing on Samsung’s official website confirms the Odyssey+ and its price, suggesting that a launch is soon at hand.
Oculus co-founder Brendan Iribe is leaving Facebook. Citing “a source close to the matter,” a report from TechCrunch indicates his departure is related to the cancellation of a Rift 2 headset, though Facebook has denied that element of the report.
Oculus announced it’s shutting down movie rentals and purchases through its Oculus Rift video app, effective today.
CCP Games, the Icelandic studio known for their long-running MMO Eve: Online (2003), shuttered their VR production studios in a surprise move last year, selling off their Newcastle-based branch behind their multiplayer space dogfighter EVE: Valkyrie (2016), and completely shutting down their Atlanta studio behind sports game Sparc (2017). Now, CEO Hilmar Veigar Pétursson speaks out in an interview with Destructoid about the studio’s reconsolidation back to traditional desktop gaming, and his thoughts about the VR landscape. In short, he thought VR would be bigger by now, and more capable of supporting a healthy multiplayer userbase.
Fraunhofer, Europe’s largest application-oriented R&D organization, recently unveiled a new VR headset prototype at the Augmented World Expo (AWE) in Munich this past week that aims to reduce the size and weight of VR headsets by using high-resolution microdisplays.
Viveport’s annual Halloween sale is here, offering deals on popular horror titles from now until November 4th.
Today at the the World Conference on VR Industry in China, HTC announced plans to bring hand & finger tracking to Vive Pro via the headset’s front-facing cameras.
HTC today announced a 6DOF controller tracking add-on for Vive Focus. The add-on, which includes a pair of new controllers, is being released as a development kit.
Starting today, the North American PlayStation Store is seeing some discounts on horror games, and while the majority are predictably non-VR titles, there’s a handful of spooky PSVR games out there that are seeing some love too, hovering around 20-30% off the sticker price.
In my years covering VR, I’ve seen several attempts at public speaking simulators, but Ovation, a new app released this week supporting the Rift and Vive, is by far the most comprehensive. It offers up not just an immersive public speaking simulator, but also a backend suite of tools designed for post-speech analysis and feedback.
Apollo 11 VR (2016) is an educational experience that takes you on a breathtaking trip to the Moon, virtually recreating the July 24, 1969 mission that has inspired so many. The creators Immersive VR Education are taking Apollo 11 VR’s commitment to realism one step further though with their newly remastered version, dubbed Apollo 11 VR HD, which is now set to launch on Steam November 7th for Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and Windows VR headsets.
Stress Level Zero’s Hover Junkers (2016) was one of the first room-scale multiplayer shooters to land on the HTC Vive. Now, the studio is hosting a free access weekend to celebrate the long-awaited addition of the game’s single player campaign.
There’s no more befitting place or time for a roll-out of Godzilla VR, Bandai Namco’s latest addition to their Japan-based VR ZONE arcades. After all, November 3rd is Japan’s unofficial ‘Godzilla Day’, annually commemorating the giant lizard’s premiere on the silver screens in Japan back in 1954.
Lenovo Mirage Solo, the Google Daydream standalone VR headset, just passed an important milestone that could mean commercialization in mainland China isn’t far away.
