Play For Dream MR's design is clearly heavily "inspired" by Apple Vision Pro. But unlike the cheap Chinese knockoff we tried at CES in January, this new headset actually has the specs (though likely not the software) to rival apple.

The XR2+ Gen 2 chipset, Qualcomm's most powerful XR chip yet, is paired with 16GB of LPDDR5X RAM and either 512GB or 1TB of UFS 3.1 storage, depending on the model you buy. The headset features dual 3840×3552 micro-OLED displays from BOE, higher resolution than Vision Pro's Sony panels, with a refresh rate of 90Hz and 92% DCI-P3 color gamut, the same as Vision Pro. Its pancake lenses offer a claimed field of view of 103°, and the headset has eye tracking for automatic IPD adjustment and foveated rendering.

Currently Horizon Worlds is only available in the USA, Canada, UK, France, Spain, Ireland, and Iceland. Now the platform is coming to the remaining Quest supported countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Sweden, South Korea, Switzerland, and Taiwan.

Meta says this "rollout" will begin this week and take a "few months" to complete, so it could be quite a while before users in these new countries actually get access.

We don't know exactly why VR studios are (almost) giving away their games. But one reason is obvious: they hope to get more visibility on social media and on the Quest Store.

RIVEN (1997), the sequel to iconic point-and-click puzzle-adventure MYST (1993), just got the VR treatment in its new remake. Unlike Myst, which felt a little too game-y and obtuse at times, Riven plays a lot more like a modern title, which thanks to Quest and SteamVR support, is true in every sense of the word now. Granted, you’ll need to look past some VR implementation issues which keep it from feeling like a ground-up VR native, although however you play, you’ll be exploring a fascinating world that’s both puzzle-dense and undeniably beautiful at every turn.

The new Meta Quest Software Update Tool is a webpage that uses the WebUSB API to sideload the latest update to your USB-connected Quest headset.

WebUSB works on Windows, Mac, Linux, ChromeOS, and even Android via Chromium browsers such as Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Opera, and Samsung Internet. That means you can use the Meta Quest Software Update Tool on almost any host device except an iPhone or iPad, and if you're using a Mac you'll need to use a browser other than Safari.

The rumors come from Nicolas Sutrich of Android Central:

"Sources close to Android Central have revealed that Sony is making deep cuts to funding for VR games. While I'll paraphrase for anonymity, my source was told that there will be very few opportunities for VR game development at Sony going forward," Sutrich writes.

"To back that up, another source informed me that only two PSVR 2 games are in development at Sony."

Somnium is a Czech startup previously solely focused on its social VR platform Somnium Space. But in late 2021 it announced the Somnium VR1 headset with a monster spec sheet for the time, in partnership with VRgineers - known for its ultra-high end XTAL headsets for enterprise. Originally Somnium VR1 was pitched as a hybrid headset with standalone capabilities via an onboard Snapdragon XR2 chipset, but that idea was ditched in 2022 to focus on making it a solely PC VR headset instead.

Supporting five players in online 2v3 matches, Mannequin sees two Agents hunting down shape-shifting aliens. As the aliens, you can freeze to blend in with your surroundings by striking a pose. Following last month's launch on App Lab, it's now arriving on Steam, and the Quest version also received a new patch enabling cross-platform multiplayer and new UI changes.

XR enthusiast and serial data miner Luna uncovered existence of the tool, which is said to allow users the ability to update Quest’s operating system over USB via the “Sideload Update” option in the recovery menu.

The Radio Research Agency (RRA), a South Korean certification body for radio and communication devices, has apparently certified a new Pico headset. A certification usually indicates an imminent launch.

The model name A9210 is identical to a Pico headset that recently appeared in a public CPU benchmark (see UploadVR in the sources). According to this benchmark, the headset could use the same chipset as Quest 3 in combination with 12 GB RAM.

I tried a brief hands-on with the headset and its unusual controllers at the Augmented World Expo conference in Long Beach. The demo software, connected to PC, showed a workflow for arranging virtual cameras and changing scenes – the types of tools directors or animators might use to visualize their upcoming movie using a VR headset.

The field of view seemed somewhere under 100 degrees diagonal, narrower than most headsets. In the brief demo, I struggled with getting the ring's touch sensor correctly oriented on my finger so it could recognize a pinch allowing me to grasp virtual objects. I also struggled with the other controller selecting a virtual button at my wrist. Both interactions seemed less reliable and intuitive than the pinch gesture on Apple Vision Pro and Meta Quest headsets. While those gestures have to be emulated on PC hardware for creatives, I'm still left wondering why a creative would pick this headset and a workflow with this hardware rather than opting for a Quest 3 and Logitech MX Ink stylus or Apple Vision Pro.

Meta CTO and head of Reality Labs Andrew ‘Boz’ Bosworth announced the reorg in an internal memo to employees, stating that all teams in Reality Labs are being merged into either a central ‘Metaverse’ organization, responsible for Quest, and a new ‘Wearables’ organization to dedicated to other hardware, including its Ray-Ban Meta smartglasses.

[…] Bosworth says the company’s smartglasses were “a much bigger success than we expected,” spurring the XR division to put more focus on the product.

Of course, the lack of tracked controllers means Apple Vision Pro isn't a practical way to play the majority of SteamVR games out of the box. […] Even without controllers though, Vision Pro could still prove an excellent headset for use with untracked input devices such as racing wheels for sim racing or HOTAS setups for flight simulators.

Another Axiom confirmed Gorilla Tag has seen over 1 million daily active users, over 3 million monthly active users and over 10 million lifetime players. The studio statedthat these users spend "an average of nearly 60 minutes per play session" on the free-to-play VR multiplayer hit. […] Another Axiom revealed that the multiplayer game's revenue is now totaling over $100 million.

"We were playing with it in January. And we decided it wasn't good enough. It was too held back by some system architecture limitations that we had and feeling more like a toy and it didn't really have the power that we think it needed to deliver on the promise of what it was.

And so we made a tough decision there to go back to the drawing board, and basically consider a completely different type of architecture, starting from scratch, basically, including actually a much deeper set of changes to the system to enable what we want to build there.

Buried in their report today about Apple suspending work on Vision Pro 2 to focus on shipping a cheaper headset by the end of next year, The Information's Wayne Ma and Qianer Liu also report that Meta "started work in November on a new high-end headset, internally code-named La Jolla".

We've heard that La Jolla name before. In March 2023 an internal Meta hardware roadmap was leaked to The Verge. Alongside accurately describing Quest 3 and other Meta products, the roadmap revealed that a 2024 Quest Pro 2 candidate had been canceled in favor of a more ambitious but “way out in the future” model codenamed La Jolla.

Bad news for the VR industry: Apple has reportedly halted development on its next premium headset and Vision Pro successor.

This is reported by The Information. The website cites an employee of a supplier that makes key components for the Vision Pro and has been notified accordingly by Apple. The Information is considered a reliable source and reported on the development of the product long before the Apple Vision Pro was unveiled.

The site also claims to have learned from two people involved in the supply chain and manufacturing that Apple is continuing to work on a cheaper Vision Pro model with fewer features, which is planned for late 2025 at the earliest.

Xreal Air glasses lack onboard compute or battery, they just act as an external monitor for whatever device (such as your phone) you connect over USB-C, projecting the image onto a head-locked virtual screen in front of you. When used with a few specific Android phones, a PC, or almost any device via the existing Xreal Beam adapter though, the glasses can support rotational 3DoF tracking. And when used with specific Samsung Galaxy phones the Xreal Air 2 Ultra glasses can even do true AR with 6DoF positional tracking.

Enter Xreal Beam Pro. It's designed to let you use true 6DoF AR on Air 2 Ultra or have a 3DoF screen on the other Air models, regardless of what phone you own and without draining its battery.

• A (much) Lower Price
• Mixed & Virtual Reality Games
• Motion Controllers
• A Stylus for XR Creatives
• Social Platforms
• All-day Ergonomics

Logitech MX Ink is designed for both 2D drawing on a physical surface via its pressure-sensitive tip and for 3D creativity via full 6DoF positional tracking, multiple buttons, and a haptic feedback motor.

Indie studio ManaBrigade and publisher Fast Travel Games today announced that BlackForge: A Smithing Adventure, a fantasy VR blacksmithing game, is now available on Quest and PC VR headsets.

VRChat let go 30 percent of its team and promised at least 12 weeks of severance for departing staff.

The CEO of VRChat, Graham Gaylor, suggested in an email posted to the company's forums that recent management changes have set up the company "for success over the next five years."

"We’re in a good cash position, but to execute effectively on our five-year strategy, we need an extended runway with line of sight to profitability. The current fundraising environment is tough, and we’ll likely struggle to fundraise without greatly improved metrics. To take control of our own destiny and not solely depend on market-driven outside investment, we’re placing an emphasis on capital efficiency to ensure VRChat thrives."