Virtual Reality

Known for its acclaimed The Room series, Fireproof Games has once again delivered a captivating experience with Ghost Town. Reviewed positively on Quest, we praised it as a standout atmospheric journey filled with mysterious environments, engaging puzzles, and a narrative steeped in sustained suspense and emotional depth.

In this game, you step into the shoes of Edith Penrose as she investigates the disappearance of her brother. Set against the backdrop of a ghost-hunting detective agency, you navigate a spirit-filled London while encountering supernatural mysteries that reveal themselves by solving intricate environmental and mechanical puzzles.

For fans of paranormal adventures, Ghost Town offers an unforgettable journey into the supernatural. Whether you play it on PC or Quest 3, be prepared for a thrilling and engaging experience that showcases Fireproof Games' commitment to quality and deep immersion.

In its latest report, Juro Osawa and Wayne Ma from The Information cite three sources as informing them ByteDance, Pico's parent company, is working on a “lightweight mixed reality device” resembling a pair of goggles.

Following its previous launch on Quest and Steam in April, we've known for months that GORN 2 would eventually follow on PlayStation VR2. Now live today on Sony's headset, this arena-based gladiatorial combat game sees you taking the fight to the afterlife, where you must battle the five sons of the God of the Afterlife across five heavenly realms.

Released on PC earlier this year, Grit and Valor – 1949 lets you command an elite squadron of tiny mechs, as you seek to topple the Evil Axis forces and liberate Europe from their legion mechanical minions.

Players pick their mech combat style, choose their pilots, and upgrade mechs with a variety of unlockable parts, like new cockpits, engines, bodies, legs, and weapons.

Original developer Milky Tea Studios says it worked with XR veteran studio nDreams to bring the game to VR, letting you go hands-on to command the battlefield, move your mechs, and choose your upgrades. Notably, the VR adaptation of Grit and Valor – 1949 is being developed and published nDreams.

In September of last year supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo claimed that the next Vision Pro would have an M5 chip and enter production in late 2025, and he reiterated this claim last week, stating that it would have no other changes besides the chip.

Gurman too referenced an M5 Vision Pro refresh in an April edition of his weekly newsletter, though said that Apple was "looking to go further" than just the chip upgrade, with a "cheaper and lighter" design.

Following 2021's Iron Guard by Xlab Digital, Iron Guard: Salvation is a direct sequel that tasks us with fending off a new threat years after defeating Akris. A new fight for survival ensues across the solar system. While a specific release date wasn't confirmed, it's arriving this August on Quest.

Xlab Digital confirmed that the Steam version will arrive “soon after” the Quest launch, while Salvation's Pico and PS VR2 editions target a launch closer to the end of this year. Cross-buy and cross-progression are not supported, and there's a limited time pre-order discount too.

The Invisible Hours' co-creator hopes to remaster the VR murder mystery game for modern headsets, and we interviewed Rob Yescombe to learn more.
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last year saw developer Tequila Works file for insolvency, and an auction then followed back in April with the rights to the studio's IP catalog. It's here where Yescombe found an opportunity.

Our series Inside XR Design examines specific examples of great XR design. Today we’re looking at the game Synapse and exploring the concept of embodiment and what makes it important to VR games.

So what the hell is embodiment and why am I boring you talking about it rather than just talking about all the cool shooting, and explosions, and smart design in the game? Well, it’s going to help us understand why certain design decisions in Synapse are so effective. So stick with me here for just a minute.

Embodiment is a term I use to describe the feeling of being physically present within a VR experience. Like you’re actually standing there in the world that’s around you.

And now your reasonable response is, “but don’t we already use the word immersion for that?”

Well colloquially people certainly do, but I want to make an important distinction between ‘immersion’ and ‘embodiment’.

‘Immersion’, for the purposes of our discussion, is when something has your complete attention. We all agree that a movie can be immersive, right? When the story or action is so engrossing it’s almost like nothing outside of the theater even exists at that moment. But has even the most immersive movie you’ve ever seen made you think you were physically inside the movie? Certainly not.

And that’s where ’embodiment’ comes in. For the sake of specificity, I’m defining immersion as being about attention. On the other hand, embodiment is about your sense of physical presence and how it relates to the world around you.

Resolute Games launched a crowdfunding campaign late last month to kickstart a VRMMO called Eldramoor: Haven in the Mist. Now the campaign has officially crossed the $100,000 mark, and it’s not showing any signs of stopping.

Launched on June 24th, the Eldramoor campaign is hoping to revive some of the fun of recently shuttered VR MMO Orbus VR.

Founded by ex-Orbus players, Resolute Games celebrated some early success with the Kickstarter. Within just 1.5 hours of going live last month, the project had already crossed its “all or nothing” minimum funding goal of $25,000.

Apple's decision to call its first headset "Vision Pro" strongly hints that it plans a more affordable product line in the future. Kuo, The Information, Mark Gurman, and other sources have claimed to have knowledge of these plans in recent years, though some of these reports have contradicted each other. Kuo's latest report claims that mass production of a headset he calls Apple Vision Air should begin in the second half of 2027, a changed position from his November report where he suggested it was delayed "beyond 2027". According to Kuo, Apple Vision Air will be over 40% lighter than today's Vision Pro, and have a "significantly lower price point". He claims that this weight and price reduction will be achieved, at least partially, by using A-series chipset (specifically, the one also set to be used in the iPhone 19 Pro), fewer sensors, plastic instead of glass, and magnesium instead of aluminum.

A Humble Bundle for The UploadVR Showcase gathers together some of VR's best games for an extremely low price.

The bundle benefits Safe In Our World through the PayPal Giving Fund. The $18 minimum nets Steam codes for nine total games in the bundle,

including:

Vertigo 2

Hard Bullet

Until You Fall

The Light Brigade

Pirates VR: Jolly Roger

Moss II

Mothergunship: Forge

Townsmen VR

50% discount code for Metro Awakening

Apple is apparently working on at least seven head-mounted devices, with one set to arrive later this year. Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo shared an updated forecast roadmap for the company’s headset and smart glasses market, which includes three products for the Vision series and four smart glasses variants. Additionally, five of these devices already have confirmed development timelines.

According to Kuo, an upgraded version of the Apple Vision Pro which uses an M5 processor is scheduled for mass production in the third quarter of 2025. He also stated that aside from the chip upgrade, the device specifications will remain unchanged. Shipments of the product are estimated to be between 150,000 and 200,000 by the end of the year.

Meanwhile, a cheaper version of the Vision Pro, the Vision Air, will reportedly only enter mass production in Q3 2027. The headset will weigh 40% lighter than the original, use plastic and a magnesium alloy instead of glass and titanium alloy, as well as feature fewer sensors. Kuo also mentioned that it will be equipped with the company’s latest flagship iPhone processor.

"We're excited to announce that we've started shipping the very first Bigscreen Beyond 2 production units to customers around the world. We expect to ship more headsets in the next 7 weeks than our typical annual shipment volume, and we are prepared to ship 5X more product this year than we shipped in 2023 or 2024." - Bigscreen Beyond Team

Rob Yescombe, co-creator of immersive VR mystery game The Invisible Hours (2017), recently regained the rights to the game, which he says could led to a remaster across modern VR headsets, as well as TV and film.

As confirmed by Hollywood Reporter, Yescombe is currently looking for partners for a potential film or TV adaptation of The Invisible Hours—probably one of the most unique takes on the VR mystery genre.

Seemingly inspired by Agatha Christie classics and the board game Clue, The Invisible Hours lets you observe unnoticed as you try to piece together a mysterious murder that takes place in a massive mansion on a remote island.

You’re not a player character as such, but rather an impartial viewer who can rewind and fast-forward time, effectively letting you trail the game’s seven suspects, and unravel the thread of who killed world-renowned engineer and physicist Nikola Tesla.

In case you thought that the Quest 3S Xbox Limited Edition launch was the only surprise news drop today, think again. Announced on PlayStation's X (formerly Twitter) account, PS VR2 is getting four new titles, with many arriving later this year. Each game has a featured post on the PlayStation Blog.

Dreams of Another

Meteora

Grit and Valor -1949

Hotel Infinity

Developed by Funny Tales, VRider SBK is a motorbike racing simulator that allows players to compete in various racing game modes for vehicular glory. Initially released on Quest last year, VRider SBK is now launching on PS VR2 and Steam at the end of June, bringing performance improvements and an upgraded grid with it.

The South Korean news outlet claims preorders will open at a Samsung Unpacked event in South Korea on September 29.

Samsung's Android XR headset will launch in South Korea on October 13, NewsPim reports, with a "sequential" global rollout.

The South Korean news outlet claims preorders will open at a Samsung Unpacked event in South Korea on September 29.

The report comes a week after a Samsung-focused leaker strongly hinted that the headset would launch in July at a New York Samsung Unpacked event, also saying it would ship to South Korea first. NewsPim says that the July event will feature prototype demos of the headset as well as "teaser video", but that it won't see the headset actually launched.

Anywhere Bungee VR is a location-based experience to let you try the sensation of doing Bungee Jumping. It consists of a (patent-pending) machine that can put your body upside-down, with fans blowing air to your face, and software that lets you experience the sensation of falling from a great height to being very close to a street in the city of Tokyo.

The biggest VR game of all time, Beat Saber, has sold countless virtual reality headsets over the years. Now owned by Meta’s Oculus Studios, the rhythm game juggernaut is on pretty much every VR platform, but the devs are now abandoning PSVR and PSVR 2.

In a statement to fans, Beat Studios confirmed end of support for PS4 and PS4 players. While the game will still be available to buy in its current state alongside DLC packs, no new updates will be coming to the game.

Onward (2020), the tactical mil-sim shooter from Meta-owned Downpour Interactive, got its big 2.0 update in March, bringing improved visuals and a host of new content to the game. Now, Downpour Interactive announced that Meta is shutting down the studio, effectively halting development and moving employees to sister studio Camouflaj.

XelerateVR is a treadmill that lets you walk in real life to walk in VR. I guess you are aware of products like Kat VR or Virtuix Omni: this is exactly in the same category. You are harnessed to a machine, and then you can walk on a concave surface to walk in VR. Since the surface is concave and lets your feet slip on it, when you take a step forward with a foot, the inclination makes that foot slowly return back to its initial position at the center of the platform, so that you can keep doing the walking movement by staying still in the same place. On paper, all seems great, but in practice, the truth is that when we walk, we do not have feet slipping on the floor, so on these devices, usually, you have the impression of “walking on ice”. For this reason, some people do not even call these products “treadmills”, but “slipmills”.

XelerateVR is a VR treadmill solution that lets you walk in real life to walk in VR. It is not a product that creates a new category, but it introduces an interesting innovation that is a floor that is very slippery and so it can guarantee you more control on your feet. Walking on it is not fully natural, but it’s enjoyable, and it is also very easy to learn. That’s why I’ve found it to be an interesting device.

Previously released last year on Steam Early Access, Le Mans Ultimate by Studio 397 will reach version 1.0 on July 22. Announced before this year's famous 24-hour race kicks off, this landmark update also introduces two free 2025 cars, the Aston Martin Valkyrie LMH and Mercedes-AMG LMGT3, alongside promised improvements to polish and performance. All 2025 official liveries will be included for free too.

Samsung Unpacked is expected to kick off next month with the usual slate of hardware announcements, which this year could include the company’s latest foldable smartphones, Galaxy Z Flip 7 and Fold 7, and its latest Galaxy Watch 8. Rumors suggest though the company is also looking to put its upcoming XR headset, Project Moohan, in the spotlight too.

Announced during the VR Game Spotlight at AWE USA, Ilysia is switching from a paid game to a free-to-play structure across Quest and Steam with a live launch of the level 11-20 content. Developer Team 21 Studio confirmed new players will be able to access the game's first full region, Lavea, for free, and existing owners can continue playing uninterrupted.