XR Industry News
The latest news on the XR industry. Covering AR, VR, MR, spatial computing, and the most important companies and platforms in the field.
Report: Apple Could Release an AR Headset as Early as 2020
With the release of iOS 11, hundreds of millions of Apple devices gained the ability to perform basic augmented reality functions, albeit viewed through the screens of iPhones and iPads. While capable of providing some pretty useful and interesting apps, the next logical...
Amazon Brings Augmented Reality Product Previews to iOS App
'Try it before you buy it', the old adage goes. Well, an AR preview might not exactly be 'trying it', but Amazon's new 'AR View' function aims to help you figure out if a crock-pot clashes with your marble counters,...
Vive is Hanging onto Steam Majority Market Share By a Thread
According to the just-released October figures from Steam’s Hardware & Software Survey, the Oculus Rift has picked up an additional 0.71%, totalling 47.61% of the market share of VR headsets on Steam. With the price of the Rift dropping permanently to $400...
Acer Takes Majority Control of StarVR with $5M Capital Injection
Starbreeze and Acer announced a new capitalization plan for StarVR, the upcoming high field of view (FOV) VR headset, that will see Acer inject $5 million into the project and take a 66 percent majority control of the joint venture.
Starbreeze made quite...
Community Fallout from UploadVR’s Harassment Settlement, and Bearing Witness to Testimony
The sexual harassment lawsuit against UploadVR was reported to be settled via Tech Crunch on September 6th, and a week later the New York Times followed with more details about how Upload had been barely dented. The case was...
Magic Leap Raises Another $502 Million, Now Totalling Nearly $2 Billion in Funding
Rumors from back in September of Magic Leap raising a Series D investment were confirmed today as the company revealed an additional $502 million in venture funding, led by a Singaporean investment firm Temasek, with participation from strategic and financial investors.
The...
World’s Largest Cinema Chain, AMC, Leads $30M Investment to Bring VR to Movie Theaters
AMC Theaters, the largest cinema chain worldwide, and largest in the United States, has announced a strategic investment in Dreamscape Immersive, a firm developing multi-user out-of-home VR attractions. AMC is leading a $20 million investment in the company—aimed at...
‘Raw Data’ Devs Share Player Metrics & Insights Ahead of October’s v1.0 Launch
Raw Data (2016) launched more than a year ago in Early Access. Following a number of major updates including the addition of a PVP mode, the game is set to hit version 1.0 and launch out of Early Access on October 5th...
HTC Leads $4M Series A Investment in Social VR Platform ‘VRChat’
VRChat, one of the earliest social VR apps, announced that they've completed a $4 million Series A investment round lead by HTC's Vive group. Joining HTC are venture capital firms Brightstone VC, GVR Fund and Rothenberg Ventures.
The Series A funding round...
ManoMotion Brings Hand Gesture Input to Apple’s ARKit
ManoMotion, a computer-vision and machine learning company, today announced they're integrated their company's smartphone-based gesture control with Apple’s augmented reality developer tool ARKit, making it possible to bring basic hand-tracking into AR with only the use of the smartphone's onboard processors and...
Rift Summer Sale Drives Record Gains, Highest Steam Market Share Yet
According to the latest figures from Valve’s Hardware & Software Survey, the Oculus Rift has set a new record for its highest historical market share on Steam, almost certainly driven by a major sale which has also brought the...
Oculus Details ‘Buffered Haptics’ for Advanced Haptics on Touch Controllers
Oculus has added new documentation to their developer knowledge base detailing the 'buffered haptics' feature of the Oculus SDK, a method for programming more advanced haptic feedback from the company's Touch controllers.
Oculus Touch uses linear actuators to provide feedback,...
Oculus to Talk “Breakthroughs in Spatial Audio Technologies” at Connect Conference
Oculus Connect 4, the company's fourth annual developer conference, is set for October 11th and 12th in San Jose, California. There, Oculus will share with developers some of its latest research and developments, including what's coming to the company's VR Audio...
Valve Sends ‘Knuckles’ Controller Dev Kit to Revive Developer
Valve isn't being shy about their support for Jules "LibreVR" Blok, the developer behind Revive, a hack which allows the Vive to play games from the Oculus store. Having patched SteamVR on more than one occasion to ensure Revive's...
Inception Raises $15 Million Series A Funding Led By EU Media Conglomerate RTL Group
Inception’s ambitions to become the ‘Netflix of VR’ have just received a major boost, with the Tel Aviv-based company closing a $15 million Series A funding round led by media and broadcast giant RTL Group. Launched in October 2016,...



















