STRIVR, the immersive VR training company, announced a $16 million round of financing led by GreatPoint Ventures (GPV) that is said to advance the company’s further expansion into the enterprise market. With this investment, GPV Managing Partner Ray Lane also joined the company’s Board of Directors.
Two new PlayStation VR bundles announced last month are now available. The new PSVR bundles focus on different player tastes, each including two games for the same price as previous one-game bundles.
Vienna-based startup Cybershoes recently launched their much-awaited Kickstarter campaign, which seeks to commercialize the titular device that allows you to ‘walk’ in VR with your own two feet. Now, the Kickstarter has blasted past its initial funding goal and is full steam ahead.
VR Trivia Battle, a game show-style trivia game for Oculus Rift and HTC Vive, launched today on Viveport Subscription. The game, which pits online users in a battle of wits, will also be launching later this month on Steam and the Oculus Store, giving Viveport subscribers a first whack at the chance to win real prizes for a limited time.
HaptX (formerly AxonVR) today unveiled the HaptX Gloves Development Kit, an “industrial-grade” VR haptic glove that uses micro-pneumatics for detailed haptics and delivers force-feedback to the fingers.
Oculus Quest, the company’s newly announced high-end standalone headset, has a USB Type-C connector. VirtualLink, the new VR connector standard created by a consortium of prominent industry players, also uses USB Type-C. So if you happen to own a new flagship GPU with a dedicated VirtualLink port, will you technically be able to take a USB-C cable, plug in the Quest and play your favorite PCVR games? Oculus CTO John Carmack tweeted recently that although “it was debated a lot,” the team ultimately decided against adding in VirtualLink functionality.
I find roguelikes to be somewhat masochistic. You play as far as you can even when you know death will put an end to every ounce of hard work you put in—all of it with the knowledge that when you hit the restart button, that everything has changed and all of the challenges are rearranged; a true Sisyphean task that bears out just enough accomplishment to keep you going. This is In Death in a nutshell, a truly challenging VR bow-shooter set in a world where you’re given nearly zero respite, as you’re attacked by some of the most gruesome (and well-realized) goblins to creep out of the Necronomicon.
From the makers of FORM (2017), a well regarded indie VR puzzle game, comes Twilight Path. With an entirely new setting, Twilight Path attempts something more ambitious than its predecessor, but winds up feeling like a rushed followup.
The release of ASTRO BOT Rescue Mission, coming Tuesday, will be a genre-defining moment for VR platforming on PSVR. The game is expertly designed, animated, and rendered. Full of charm and the right amount of content, Astro Bot Rescue Mission is the first title we’ve scored 10 out of 10 since the launch of PSVR nearly two years ago.
For the first time, BANDAI NAMCO is bringing to the United States a number of popular VR experiences once only available in Japan and UK-based VR ZONE arcades. Included in the line-up is the much-awaited Mario Kart Arcade GP VR.
ILMxLAB, Lucasfilm’s immersive entertainment division, is bringing a Darth Vader-themed VR series to the recently announced Oculus Quest. With six main films dedicated to telling to Vader’s story though, you’d think there wouldn’t be much left to say about the franchise’s archetypal ‘dark father’. The developers behind the upcoming Vader Immortal however say in a blog post that there’s more to learn about Darth Vader, and it’s going to be canon to the series.
Feel Three, a 3DOF motion simulator for VR, went live on Kickstarter late last month. And owing to its vision in providing a relatively cost-effective solution among a sea of expensive motion platforms, the company not only blasted past their £50,000 funding goal within only five hours of launch, but have finished out their campaign today with an astounding £181,440 (~$237,000 USD).
Speaking on stage at Oculus Connect this morning, Oculus CTO John Carmack gave his signature unscripted talk, somehow going into depth despite covering a wide range of topics from Go to Quest to Rift, and plenty more. Part of his talk offered some insights into the relative power in the Quest headset and the expectations that developers and users should consider.
Legendary programmer and Oculus CTO John Carmack took the stage today at Oculus Connect to have another one of his famous off-script, stream-of-thought talks. Carmack was instrumental in architecting the company’s mobile VR platform, so when he talks about the 3DOF standalone headset Go, pretty much everyone listens. There’s a few sore spots in Oculus Go that Carmack thinks could be solved in the next generation of low-cost VR standalones.
There isn’t a list of launch titles for Oculus Quest yet, the company’s newly announced $400 high-end standalone VR headset. Polyarc, the minds behind Moss (2017), say that the super endearing platformer adventure is indeed going to be among the 50+ launch titles coming to Quest on day one.
