The team behind the VR Games Showcase are putting on a new livestreamed games event today focusing on independent developers and studios “both big and small.” Just in time for what will certainly be a rush of XR news!
Meta shut down MARVEL Powers United VR (2018) back in 2021, the online co-op game released exclusively on Oculus Rift by Meta-owned studio Sanzuru Games. A recent fan project dedicated to reviving the game gave fans a glimmer of hope that they may even be able to play online again, but Meta has now shut that down too.
The Immersed IRL event, held yesterday in Austin, Texas was the company’s big moment to showcase its upcoming headset and build confidence that it was on track to deliver on the promise of an ambitious headset. But a botched demo may have done the opposite.
Meta is widely expected to reveal the Quest 3S headset next week during the Meta Connect event. The company aims to introduce a new headset with mixed reality capabilities similar to Quest 3, but at a cheaper price. An apparent leak suggests the headset could be its most affordable yet.
The fast approaching Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is landing on PC and Xbox consoles November 19th. While it wasn’t clear at its initial unveiling last summer whether Asobo’s next-gen flight sim would include VR support, the studio says it’s definitely coming, and even showed it off in action.
Tokyo Game Show (TGS), the annual video game trade fair and convention, is getting set to kick off next week, and with it comes its own digital event space: TGS Digital World, now available on Quest and PC VR headsets.
Anduril Industries, the defense tech company founded by Oculus founder Palmer Luckey, announced it’s partnering with Microsoft to boost the company’s militarized, HoloLens 2-based AR headset, which is currently under contract by the United States Army.
Meta and eyewear conglomerate EssilorLuxottica announced they’re expanding their smartglasses partnership into 2030, which promises to see further development of “multi-generational smart eyewear products” from the companies.
HTC today revealed its next standalone XR headset, the Vive Focus Vision. The company appears to be appealing again to enterprise and prosumers, packing in a mishmash of specs from Vive Focus 3 and Vive Elite XR—priced at $1,000.
Mojang, the Microsoft-owned studio behind Minecraft, announced it’s dropping support for the original PSVR next year, leaving any hope for PSVR 2 support firmly at (bed)rock bottom.
Today Snap Inc, the company behind Snapchat, announced the latest version of its Spectacles AR Glasses which the company is calling Spectacles ’24. The new device makes notable improvements to field-of-view, resolution, and hand-tracking, and overhauls its software stack. But it’s limited enough to remain targeted at developers. Spectacles ’24 is available starting today, and the company is selling it to developers for $100 per month on a one-year commitment (ultimately totalling $1,200).
