VR App Store WEARVR Launches Paid Storefront with 75% Revenue Share
Cross-platform VR app store WEARVR has taken the wraps off of several new features including a self-submission system and storefront functionality for developers to sell their apps.
Vrse Immerses 1,200 TED Attendees in Simultaneous VR Experience
On stage at TED 2016, Vrse founder Chris Milk conducted what the company is calling “the largest simultaneous virtual reality experience in history.” Using a dedicated app and Cardboard VR viewers handed out at the session, 1,200 attendees peer into the virtual world together.
Kaleidoscope VR Film Festival Heading to 10 Cities Worldwide
Kaleidoscope, the virtual reality and immersive film festival, is on the road again in 2016 – this time hitting 10 cities in 9 countries around the world to show case 30 VR works which demonstrate the power of the medium’s storytelling potential.
Oculus to Preview the Rift’s “Latest Titles” at Special Pre-GDC Event
Oculus has announced an invite only event to coincide with GDC which promises a preview of the games new owners will be able to get their hands on after launch.
Acer to Introduce VR Tech “to surprise everyone” at MWC
Acer has announced its plans to release a VR device in the first half of this year. While Acer is staying mum on the details, we could be seeing prototypes at next week’s Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona.
Independent ‘Orion’ Video Shows Massive Improvements in Leap Motion Hand Tracking
This week Leap Motion released ‘Orion’ a brand new made-for-VR hand tracking engine which works with their existing devices. Time and again we’ve seen promo videos from the company showing great tracking performance but then found it to be less than ideal across the broad range of real-world conditions. Now, an independent video showing the Orion engine in action demonstrates Leap Motion’s impressive mastery of computer vision.
Robert Scoble’s Mind was Blown by the Meta AR Glasses Demo
Robert Scoble is veteran tech journalist who has seen thousands of demos, but last Thursday he saw a demo of the Meta Two AR galsses and it blew his mind. So much so that he told me that his life can now be separated into the two categories of “life before the Meta demo” and “life after the Meta demo.’ Robert hinted to me that he’s going to be making some significant changes over the next couple of months to put more of his focus into covering what’s happening in AR and VR space, and he decided at the last minute to fly out to Unity’s AR/VR Vision Summit to network with attendees. So what was it about the Meta Two demo that was so mind blowing for him, even more so than his first experience with the Oculus Crescent Bay prototype? I caught up with him at the vision summit where he talked about the Meta demo where he could place TV screens around the room, talk to holograms, and use natural gestures to have interactions with virtual objects that made him feel like he was living in Tony Stark’s futuristic lab.
FOX Sports and NextVR Sign Five Year VR Broadcasting Deal
NextVR has been forging ahead with their plans to make immersive, live VR broadcasting a reality. Today, the company has announced a multi-year deal with FOX Sports to bring “virtual reality coverage of the nation’s top sporting events” to VR headsets.
Meta Shows Off Their Next-gen AR Glasses on Stage at TED
Meta has remained relatively silent about the future of their hardware after raising a $23 million Series A early last year. But today at TED 2016 the company showed what they’ve been doing with the cash—crafting what appears to be a vastly improved next-generation AR headset.
Steven Spielberg Tries The VOID: “Woah, that was a great adventure!”
Steve Spielberg headed into The VOID’s unique brand of free-roaming, mixed-reality VR experience at TED 2016, and it seems he was pleasantly surprised.
This is Why it’s Time for VR Audio to Shine
Les Borsai from Dysonics, specialists in spatial audio, ponders whether spatial, 3D audio’s time has finally come with the advent of consumer ready virtual reality and what more needs to be done to keep it evolving.
Leap Motion Launches Overhauled Hand Tracking Engine That’s Made for VR
Leap Motion formed prior to the VR craze, but it turns out that their goal of allowing you to use your own hands as a way to interact with computers jived quite nicely with virtual reality. In recent years the company has made a major pivot toward VR and it culminates today with ‘Orion’, an overhauled hand tracking engine built from the ground up for VR.
MindMaze Raises $100 Million with $1B Valuation for “Neural Virtual Reality Platform”
MindMaze today announced closing a $100 million seed investment led by Hinduja Group which company says values them in excess of $1 billion.
Harrison Ford Enters The VOID’s VR Experience at TED 2016
As we reported a little while back, The VOID team scored a spot at TED 2016 this week where they demo’d a special made-for-TED. Among the exclusive clientèle to experience the free-roaming, VR attraction was one, mildly famous, Harrison Ford.
Playful’s Paul Bettner on Defining the VR Platformer with Lucky’s Tale
Paul Bettner is anxiously waiting for the Oculus Rift to launch so that he can finally see how real people react to what he’s been pouring his heart into over the past three years. Playful Corp’s Lucky’s Tale is going to be bundled with every Oculus Rift, and he’s biting his nails waiting to see how it will be received. The early indications are that it’s going to be a beloved platformer game that people associate as one of their earliest VR gaming experiences, which is why a lot of people have been saying that it’s the The Super Mario Brothers of VR. It’s a surprisingly immersive, incredibly compelling, and just a super fun game to play, and helps to define the genre of a VR platformer, which is why Oculus wanted to bundle it for free to everyone who buys a Rift.
I had the chance to catch up with Paul during the Sundance Film Festival to talk about the finishing polish on Lucky’s Tale & tuning the sweet spot of VR, what they’re working on next with the $25 million dollars they’ve raised, reflections on this moment leading up to the launch of the Rift, how far they’ve come over the past 3.5 years, and how this journey of the VR revolution all started for him.
