It’s been a long while coming, but Google has finally launched a YouTube VR app on PC. The app is now available on Steam, officially for the Vive (but also functional with Rift and Windows VR headsets). Google expects YouTube VR to remain in Early Access through 2018 as they continue to develop it based on feedback.
Alongside today’s launch of the new iMac Pro, which the company is pitching as an ideal machine for VR creators, Apple has updated its widely used video editing software, Final Cut Pro X, with what it calls a “complete toolset for importing, editing, and delivering both monoscopic and stereoscopic 360 video.”
Google and the NFL today announced season two of Immersed, the multi-episode docuseries following NFL players on and off the field. The first three episodes are available today on Daydream through YouTube VR and the NFL’s YouTube channel.
Interactive VR short film Asteroids!, the follow-up to Emmy award-winning VR short Invasion! (2016) is now available for Gear VR, Daydream, and Windows MR headsets. From the director of the Madagascar franchise, the full 11-minute cut continues the journey of aliens Mac and Cheez (and robot sidekick Peas) on their deep space mission.
The Lost Bear (2017), Odd Bug Studio’s cinematic 2D VR platformer for PSVR, is making its way to Oculus Rift headsets in time for Christmas.
If you’ve been eyeing a PlayStation VR but missed out on Black Friday deals, you’re in luck—the PlayStation VR Skyrim bundle is available on B&H Photo Video for $335, saving you $115 off the MSRP. The bundle has also re-appeared at a number of major retailers at the same $350 price point as it was during Black Friday.
HTC has now published the Modigliani VR experience, The Ochre Atelier, on Viveport. As a focal point at the Modigliani exhibition currently still in rotation at Tate Modern in London, the experience takes you to the early 20th century Parisian studio of famous painter and sculptor Amedeo Modigliani.
Wolves in the Walls, the terrifying children’s book from Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean, is getting its own VR experience. Created as one of the last projects of the now-defunct Oculus Story Studio, Wolves in the Walls VR is making its debut at Sundance Film Festival this year.
Microsoft is cutting prices even lower than their Black Friday and Cyber Monday deal with their one day-only sale that reduces the price of two of their least expensive headsets, Acer and Lenovo, to just $200.
Stereo camera company Stereolabs has launched pre-orders for the ZED Mini, a smaller version of their stereo depth-mapping camera which fits on a mount made to attach to VR headsets like the Rift and Vive. When attached, the camera provides stereo pass-through video and real-time depth and environment mapping, turning the headsets into dev kits emulating the capabilities of high-end AR headsets of the future. The ZED Mini will launch in November.
Following the Vive’s price cut from $800 to $600 earlier this year, HTC is now offering a bundle of Vive hardware and an Nvidia GTX 1070 Founders Edition GPU to US customers for $800. The offer is available on the official Vive website while stocks last—and yes, it also includes a free copy of Fallout 4 VR.
Back at WWDC 2017 Apple finally embraced VR, announcing that it had been working with Valve to bring SteamVR and the HTC Vive to MacOS, along with a number of other announcements about how the company would support VR as part of its ecosystem. With the anticipated iMac Pro due to launch on Thursday, the company is positioning its most powerful computer yet as an ideal machine for VR development.
CCP may have shuttered their VR game-producing branches, but EVE: Valkyrie (2016), the studio’s multiplayer arcade dogfighter set in the EVE universe, lives on with the addition of support for traditional monitors. Launched today across all platforms including PSVR, Oculus Rift and HTC Vive comes the Winter Update which includes custom matches, spectator mode, a new map, and support for TrackIR and Tobii for non-VR players.
