When a polar bear sees the northern lights for the first time, he wants to reach out and touch them. How will he get there and who will he meet along the way? That’s up to you with this charming interactive AR story puzzle.
The Bear Who Touched the Northern Lights
“The Bear Who Touched the Northern Lights” is a sort of choose-your-own-adventure AR story for children where the “chapters” are physical puzzle pieces. The artwork and story are by Julie Puech and Karl Kim.
The ways in which these pieces fit together (or don’t) helps the AR story keep a logical narrative. However, pieces can be added and removed or swapped out resulting in multiple different possible tellings of the tale.
Of course, the adorable puzzle doesn’t tell the whole story. The puzzle pieces come to life with the help of a free AR mobile app for Apple and Android devices. The mobile app recognizes the pieces and animates their artwork, as well as queueing an audio narration by Kasey Miracle.
As a weary old XR veteran with a cold little heart, I sometimes find it helpful to recruit fresh eyes for product reviews – like when my younger brother provided his insights for my Nreal Air review. This time I recruited the help of my fiancée’s eight-year-old daughter.
What’s in the Box?
The puzzle comes with 15 AR story cards and an instructional booklet. The instructional booklet has information about the product, links to the app, and some advice for doing the puzzle for the first time – but don’t panic if you lose it. The puzzle information and a QR code to the app are both on the outside of the box and the first puzzle piece triggers an AR guide to using the app.
The free app, powered by Unity, opens with a quick warning about being aware of your surroundings while using AR and encourages you to supervise children when using the app. From there, the app only has a play button and a settings button. Settings include background dimming to make the animations stand out better, or an option to turn the animations off.
Do be aware that the app is 394 MB and does require a fairly modern device to run. Like any AR app, it requires the use of your camera while the app is running.
Following Directions
Some pieces have special icons on them. Cards with a blue “+” are optional chapters that don’t have to be included in the AR story. Cards with green and orange arrows can be swapped out for one another, changing how the story unfolds.
The play guide recommends that you remove the optional chapters and two of the interchangeable chapters the first time that the puzzle is constructed. This is presumably an introductory version of the puzzle to avoid throwing too much at first-time players.
As with any puzzle, it’s important to find a flat surface large enough for the puzzle when completed. The play guide recommends a space of two feet by three-and-a-half feet. The AR story puzzle is long and narrow in nature, particularly with all of the possible pieces in play, but has some curves in the overall shape so it isn’t just a straight line.
The AR instructions at the beginning of the puzzle remind you that you also need to have space to sit comfortably with the puzzle in front of you for about 20 minutes (give or take). After all, the play guide also recommends additional activities like asking the child to try to construct the story from the puzzle before watching the narration.
Putting the Pieces Together
The first time putting the puzzle together, we followed the play guide’s advice to remove extra pieces and one set of interchangeable chapters. The shapes of the pieces are similar enough to make it a little challenging for young hands to assemble without it being frustrating. They’re also different enough that the story can’t be constructed in an order that wouldn’t make sense.
It only took a few minutes to assemble the puzzle for the first time, and then we fired up the app. The AR instructions are short, cute, and very informative, telling us everything we needed to know without being boring. It takes the app a second or so to recognize the cards, so moving from one chapter to the next is neither seamlessly fast nor frustratingly slow.
The animations are cute and colorful, and the effects are simply but beautifully done. The default background dimming on the app is 35%, and it certainly worked. Turning it up can make the background disappear completely, which makes for optimum viewing quality, but also makes it harder to find the pieces in the camera. Pick what setting you like best.
At one point in the story, the bear starts receiving items for his journey. The Child got to choose which items he used when, but only one item was ever needed in the story, and selecting the wrong item isn’t penalized – you just pick again. We were split on this. It’s nice that we couldn’t pick wrong, but picking at all felt kind of unnecessary. (This made more sense later on.)
We reached the end of the AR story. Sort of. Immediately upon finishing the puzzle and the story the first time, The Child asked to do the puzzle again with the extra chapters.
Putting the Pieces Together Again
We added in the two optional AR story pieces and swapped out both of the interchangeable pieces and put the puzzle together again. Suddenly, the choices made a much bigger difference and a lot more sense.
The interchangeable pieces provide the bear with a different item and see him use it in a different way. The additional chapters introduce new characters, which the bear befriends by using the different items. This gave The Child a new appreciation for the AR story, but it gave me a new appreciation for the AR app.
Doing the puzzle the first time, one would be forgiven for assuming that the chapters are stand-alone pieces that don’t affect one another. Doing the puzzle again makes it clear that the app is telling a new story each time based on the pieces, their placement, and your choices throughout the story.
We’ve only done the puzzle those two times so far. I haven’t done the math to figure out how many different versions of the story are possible with different choices, pieces, and arrangements, but I know that there are a lot of versions of the story that we have yet to hear.
And that’s a good thing. As soon as we finished doing the puzzle the second time, The Child immediately asked if there were any more AR story puzzles like this one.
Where to Find the AR Story Puzzle
So far, The Bear Who Touched the Northern Lights is the only product by Red+Blue Stories (but we’re hopeful for more). The company is based in Canada but also ships to the US. Prices start at around US$34, but you can pay more for different shipping options. As of this writing, the AR story puzzle is not available on other online retailers like Amazon.
The AR instructions say that a child can use the product by themselves after the first go-around. That may be true, but if you’re letting your child construct this AR story puzzle without you, you’re missing out.
PSVR 2 is finally here and for those of you lucky enough to get your hands on Sony’s newest VR headset, here’s some essential tips and tricks you’ll want to know.
PSVR 2 is a pretty straightforward headset thanks to the fact that once you plug it into the console you’ll see the usual PS5 menu that you’re already used to. However, the headset does have a few less obvious capabilities that you’ll want to know about.
1. Voice Input
PSVR 2 supports the same voice commands as PS5, and thanks to a microphone that’s mounted right next to your mouth, they work very well! Voice commands through PSVR 2 can be used to easily launch games and apps (instead of digging through the game library) or to open certain settings pages (instead of digging through the settings menu). All you have to do to get the console to listen is say “Hey PlayStation.”
If you’ve never used voice commands on PS5 before, you’ll need to enable them first. To do so go to Settings > Voice Command (Preview) and enable the option.
2. Quick Menu
PSVR 2 has a quick menu that makes it easy to access frequently used settings. To open the PSVR 2 quick menu, just double-tap the PlayStation button on your controller.
3. Lens Calibration
Since PSVR 2 has such a small sweet spot (the area of the lens where everything is at its clearest), it’s important to get the lenses dialed in just right to your specific IPD.
Luckily PSVR 2 has a built-in lens calibration that’s easy to run at any time, even in the middle of a game.
You’ll be prompted to run the calibration initially when you set up your headset for the first time, but since you put the headset on a bit differently every time (and sometimes the lenses can get bumped which adjusts their spacing) it’s worth running the calibration every few sessions to make sure you’re seeing the clearest image through the headset. You should also run the calibration step any time a new person puts on the headset so they can get the ideal fit.
To run lens calibration on PSVR 2, double-tap the PlayStation button on the controller, then select Adjust Visibility from the quick settings menu.
The calibration will help you not only adjust the headset to the ideal IPD (distance between the lenses), but also tell you if the headset is sitting too high, low, or crooked on your head. Having the best fit will also increase the accuracy of the headset’s eye-tracking function.
4. Use PSVR 2 Without a Display Connected
Though PSVR 2 mirrors its display onto whatever TV you’re connected to so spectators can see what you’re up to, you can also use the headset while your TV is turned off, doing something else, or disconnected entirely.
Just note that to set up your PSVR 2 for the first time you’ll need a connected display, but once you have it set up you can turn off the display or unplug it entirely and your headset should continue to work just fine.
5. Where to Find PSVR 2 Volume Control
This one really shouldn’t be a tip or a trick, but it’s not entirely intuitive where to find the volume control for PSVR 2.
Instead of being in the quick settings menu, you can find the volume adjustment for PSVR 2 by pressing the PlayStation button to bring up the bottom menu, then selecting Sound (speaker icon). In the Sound menu you’ll see PSVR 2; click on it to find the volume adjustment.
6. Use Headset Button to Mute Microphone
The button on the bottom of PSVR 2 gives you one-click access to the headset’s passthrough view, which is very handy. However you have the option to rebind this button to act as a microphone mute toggle instead, which might be useful if you find yourself playing multiplayer VR games regularly.
To make the button on PSVR 2 mute the microphone, go to Settings > Accessories > PlayStation VR2 > VR Headset section > Function Button Assignment, then switch it to Mute Microphone.
Even if you change the button’s function, you can still quickly access the passthrough view by double-clicking the PlayStation button on the controller to open PSVR 2 quick settings, then click ‘View Surroundings’.
7. Use PSVR 2 as a 120Hz HDR Display for Playing Flat PS5 Games
While PSVR 2 is undoubtedly an impressive VR headset, you can also use it to play regular PS5 games and watch video content—Sony calls this ‘Cinematic Mode’ for PSVR 2.
To do that, all you need to do is launch a non-VR game or app on PS5, then use a standard PS5 controller to play (unfortunately the Sense controllers won’t work for regular content because they don’t have all of the same buttons and controls as a regular controller). Some non-game apps may work with the Sense controllers for simple navigation however.
And technically speaking, PSVR 2 can function like a regular high refresh rate (120Hz) HDR TV, which means it will be able to play flat PS5 games that support a 120Hz performance mode and it can correctly display any HDR content that an HDR TV could.
While PSVR 2 automatically runs at 120Hz and HDR mode for VR games, you need to enable both 120Hz and HDR for flat PS5 games and content.
To do so, go to Settings > Accessories > PlayStation VR2 > Cinematic Mode. Then select Video Output for Cinematic Mode. There you’ll find the option for both 120Hz output and HDR.
8. Change the Size of the PSVR 2 Cinematic Mode Screen
So you’re playing PS5 games using your headset like a high performance TV, but maybe you wish your screen was a little bigger or smaller?
Luckily you can easily adjust this by double tapping the PlayStation button on the controller to access the PSVR 2 quick settings, then use the Screen Size slider to adjust the size.
If you want to reposition the screen you can also press and hold the options button (on the right controller) which will move the screen directly in front of you regardless of where you’re looking.
9. Tighten Your Sense Controller Straps the Easy Way
Nobody thinks they’re going to accidentally throw their controller until it happens. That’s why I personally always use my wrist straps when using a VR headset, and recommend others do too. After using VR headsets for more than 10 years, I have smashed 0 TVs and broken 0 controllers.
Luckily Sony has come up with a neat design for the wrist straps on the PS Sense controllers that allows you to tighten them with one hand.
PSVR 2 has a neat ‘self-tightening’ wrist strap. Surprised I haven’t seen this before. pic.twitter.com/v4itutthXm
To do so just pull the wrist strap so there’s tension on the band, then rotate your wrist to tighten the strap. If it doesn’t seem to be working, try rotating your wrist the other direction.
10. Dark Rooms Are No Longer Ideal
With the original PSVR, you’d get the best headset and controller tracking when playing in a dark room because of the way the tracking system on that headset worked. When everything else was dark, it was easier for the camera to pick up the glowing tracking markers on the headset.
With PSVR 2 now using an inside-out tracking system, playing in a dark room will actually hinder tracking performance rather than help it. In our testing we found the headset is quite good at tracking in low light, but even so it isn’t the ideal way to play.
While too much sunlight (ie: being completely outdoors) is also an issue, playing in a normally lit room will give you the best tracking performance on the headset.
11. Enable Tracking Support for Tough Tracking Conditions
Speaking of tracking performance, if you feel like your headset is having tracking issues, you can turn on an additional option which will use your TV as a tracking marker to make it easier for the headset to have something to lock onto.
To enable Tracking Support on PSVR 2, go to Settings > Accessories > PlayStation VR2 > Tracking Support and turn the option on.
In our testing we found that PSVR 2 tracking is really solid, and for most people this option shouldn’t be necessary. In some specific cases (ie: a room with lots of skylights letting in tons of bright sunlight), or a completely white room with no discernable features, it could be helpful.
Note that this option will only improve head-tracking; if you’re having tracking issues with only your PSVR 2 controllers, something else is likely to blame.
Got any great PSVR 2 tips & tricks to share? Let us know in the comments below!
A Fisherman’s Tale (2019), the VR adventure from Innerspace and Vertigo Games, is getting a sequel, launching on all major VR platforms this year.
Aptly called Another Fisherman’s Tale, the episodic tale is bringing you back for another round of mindbending VR puzzles which the team says lets you use your own body, detach and control your limbs, and find new attachments to progress.
“Discover the truth as you journey through beautiful and unique locations, brought to life by the makers of A Fisherman’s Tale. Get ready for a captivating VR experience unlike any other,” the description reads in the game’s announcement trailer.
A Fisherman’s Tale puts you in the boots of Bob, a fisherman who lives in a strange, recursive world centered around a dollhouse-sized lighthouse. In the sequel, you return to the story as Bob’s daughter Nina for another round of mind-bending escape room-style puzzles.
We liked the smorgasbord of VR game mechanics in the original, although a big sticking point was its overall playtime, which we clocked in at just around one hour in our review of A Fisherman’s Tale. The sequel is slated to take around five to six hours—promising to offer up plenty of adventure to keep you scratching your head.
Creative Director Balthazar Auxietre of Innerspace VR stated that the goal was “to renew the gameplay and the storytelling [of the first game] while keeping key elements of a universe that has obviously reached the heart of VR gamers.”
He added that the studio’s recent experiences allowed them to “pursue a new level of ambition for the A Fisherman’s Tale franchise, thanks to the multifaceted gameplay and the diversity of the models’ worlds. Everything is in place for a new adventure that will take us across the virtual oceans.”
At the time of this writing, the 2019 A Fisherman’s Tale garnered a user rating of a 93% ‘Very Positive’ rating on Steam, and a [4.5/5] star user rating on Quest.
Another Fisherman’s Tale is slated to arrive sometime this year on PSVR 2, Quest 2, and PC VR headsets via Steam and Viveport.
Chinese tech giant Tencent is reportedly shuttering its XR development team, ostensibly putting a hold on its home-grown VR ambitions. That may not mean Tencent is hanging up the XR towel for good though.
As reported by Chinese language publication 36Kr, WeChat developer Tencent is set to promote Meta Quest 2 in mainland China. At the time of this writing, Meta officially supports the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan and most countries in Europe.
Using headsets from Meta would provide Tencent with a ready-made hardware platform so it could focus on creating a game library and its own software, but more importantly it could soon counter ByteDance’s Pico Interactive, the VR headset creator most recently known for its Quest 2 competitor, Pico 4.
ByteDance allegedly won a fierce bidding war against Tencent in early 2021 to acquire Pico, which then went on to release Pico 4 to consumers in Europe and Asia. It also looked like Pico was eyeing the US as well, as it opened a headquarters on Meta’s home turf in June 2022, however it was reported late last week that ByteDance, parent company of TikTok, is actually laying off hundreds at Pico Interactive.
This isn’t the first time Meta hardware has found its way into mainland China. Meta (then Facebook) released the 3DOF standalone Oculus Go in 2018 in China thanks to a manufacturing partnership with Xiaomi, branding the headset as the ‘Mi VR Standalone’.
As 36Kr points out, Tencent partnered with Nintendo in 2019 to sell a version of Switch, which provides access to localized games and online services. The report maintains the partnership with Meta will also follow a similar distribution model.
Big business opportunities are brewing in the cosmos. Morgan Stanley predicts the space economy will grow from €355 billion in 2020 to over €1 trillion by 2030 — and competition for the rewards is fierce.
The USA remains a celestial superpower, while China is emerging as a powerful challenger. Europe has historically lagged behind the world leaders — but is now carving out a promising niche.
Across the continent, countries are converging around a single segment of the market: small satellites in low-Earth orbit (LEO).
The maximum altitude in LEO is about one-third of Earth’s radius. Credit: ESA
As the name suggests, low-Earth orbits are relatively close to the globe’s surface: a maximum of 2,000km above the planet, and sometimes as low as 160km. Commercial planes, by comparison, rarely fly at altitudes much higher than 14km.
In the 50 years since astronauts last stepped on the Moon, human space exploration has been confined to LEO. Crewless probes still fly deeper into our solar system, but most satellites — as well as the International Space Station — are now found in low-Earth orbit.
The LEO appeal
Small satellites in LEO may lack the glamour of spaceships taking astronauts to the moon, but they offer compelling advantages.
The lower altitude alone has numerous attractions. The costs, risks, and time required for more distant missions have reduced their allure, while the appeal of low-Earth orbit has increased. Among its advantages are speed boosts from gravity’s pull; better signal-to-noise ratios for radar and lidar; higher geospatial position accuracy; expanded launch vehicle options; more convenient journeys and — crucially — fewer resource needs.
‘The pandemic highlighted the need for high-speed connectivity.
Investments have surged as the use cases have expanded. LEO can provide internet connectivity, Earth observation, satellite navigation, and weather forecasting — and it’s becoming more accessible.
As a result, the number of projects in low-Earth Orbit is increasing rapidly. Dan York, who led the Internet Society’s 2022 LEO satellite report, attributes this growth to three key factors: the ceaseless demand for connectivity, the plummeting costs of satellites, and an expanding funding pool.
“The pandemic highlighted the need for high-speed connectivity that can be used for video communication, online learning, e-commerce, and more,” York told TNW. “LEO satellite systems have emerged as a powerful way to provide that high-speed, low-latency connection.”
In the race to commercialise LEO, a single target has been assigned pivotal significance: the first-ever orbital launch from Western Europe.
The territorial advantage
Europe already has a functioning equatorial spaceport — in South America. The Guiana Space Centre in Kourou, French Guiana, has been in operation since 1968. Originally, it served as the spaceport of France, but it’s now shared with the European Space Agency (ESA), which covers two-thirds of its budget.
Despite being 6,000km from mainland Europe, the site has a propitious location. Its position near the equator reduces the energy required for geostationary orbits, which match the rotation of the Earth. Rockets launching east can harness this momentum, while the centre’s proximity to open sea reduces risks to human habitations.
In Western Europe, however, a satellite has still never been sent into orbit — but the milestone is getting closer.
Polar orbits can offer comprehensive views of Earth.
The achievement would provide more mere than bragging rights. A homegrown spaceport would be a powerful launchpad for a budding LEO sector.
The location also has advantages. Western Europe can harness Earth’s rotation to power polar orbits, a flight path that passes the planet from north to south. This trajectory gives satellites extensive views of the planet rotating below, which is particularly useful for observation, mapping, and surveillance.
Further benefits would arise from the proximity to Europe’s production sites, talent, and connected industries.
“For the first time, the EU will have its own telecommunications constellation.
The war in Ukraine has exposed another lure of LEO. As a result of Russia’s full-scale invasion, Ukraine’s terrestrial internet connection has been disrupted by damage, outages, and jamming. In response, Elon Musk’s SpaceX offered free access to the Starlink satellite internet system, which has kept the country connected.
“The success of SpaceX’s Starlink service throughout Europe, and particularly in Ukraine, has shown the power of LEO satellite systems,” said York.
The EU is now developing its own satellite constellation. Known as IRIS2, the network is designed to maintain internet access during crisis situations. The $6.2 billion project is scheduled to launch by 2027.
“For the first time, the European Union will have its own telecommunications constellation, in particular in low orbits, the new frontier for telecommunication satellites,” said MEP Christophe Grudler, rapporteur on the EU secure connectivity programme.
The bloc has grand plans to compete with Starlink — and that’s just one of Europe’s LEO ambitions.
All around the continent, countries are trying to reap the benefits. The first one to reach orbit will get an edge over the competition.
Contenders in the race
Only nine countries and one international organisation (the aforementioned ESA) currently have orbital launch capability, according to the Pentagon.
Booming demand is expected for their services. The number of operational satellites is projected to grow from 5,000 today to 100,000 by 2040 — and spaceports across Europe are sprouting up to launch them.
Among them is a Spaceport Cornwall in the UK. In January, the site tried to send a satellite into orbit, but the attempt ended in bitter disappointment. After the Virgin Orbit rocket was successfully released, an engine malfunction brought the mission to a premature close.
The failure was a painful setback for Britain’s launch sector, but by no means a fatal one. Virgin Orbit is considering another go in Cornwall, while the SaxaVord spaceport in the Shetland Islands is set to attempt a launch before the end of the year. Further sites are under development in Sutherland, Argyll, Prestwick, Snowdonia, and the Outer Hebrides.
Virgin Orbit releases its rockets from a plane, in what’s known as a horizontal launch. Credit: Virgin Orbit
The UK does, however, face growing competition from spaceports in the EU. Most are located in isolated areas of Northern Europe, where populations are sparse and the sea is close.
Sweden’s Spaceport Estrange, for instance, recently became Europe’s first mainland satellite launch facility. The inaugural take-off from the complex is expected in late 2023.
“Europe has its foothold in space and will keep it,” said EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen at the centre’s opening in January.
Another contender in the race is Andøya Space in Norway, which hopes to launch its first satellite rocket this year. Sites in Iceland, the Azores, Andalusia, the Canary Islands, and the North Sea are also in the running.
“This is exactly the infrastructure we need, not only to continue to innovate but also to explore the final frontier further.” -Ursula von der Leyen, President of the @EU_Commission
“We’re seeing a proliferation of space bases in Europe,” Marie-Anne Clair, head of the Guiana Space Centre, told AFP in December. “The commercial aspect is real: there is also an abundance of micro-satellites which will require missions from micro-launchers.”
An LEO island
A satellite launch provides a springboard for the host nation’s space sector — even if it fails. The UK’s attempt last month, for instance, added impetus to the local industry.
Before malfunctioning, the rocket did reach space, while Spaceport Cornwall became the world’s newest space launch operations centre. The build-up also boosted domestic satellite development and connected an array of talent, businesses, and public sector organisations.
Among them is Open Cosmos, an Oxfordshire-based startup that had a satellite onboard the Virgin Orbit rocket.
“We delivered a satellite in record time,” Open Cosmos CEO Rafel Jordá Siquier told TNW. “It’s sad not to have it in orbit, but we’re ready to come back and rebuild the satellite at an even faster pace if needed.”
Jordá founded Open Cosmos in 2015, with the aims of producing satellite-based solutions for Earth’s biggest problems.
Despite the ill-fated launch, Jordá believes that the UK is now a major player in LEO.
“The UK, with its leadership and its growing commitment towards the space sector, now has a seat at the global table in this industry. And it’s very important that we keep our team there and keep developing our capabilities.”
Those capabilities now encompass downstream applications, data and information services, and the upstream satellite and launch capabilities.
According to Jordá, the UK’s small satellite technology is particularly impressive. Alongside startups such as Open Cosmos, the country is home to OneWeb, one of the world’s leading satellite internet players. In January, the company announced that it now had 542 satellites in orbit – more than 80% of the fleet for its first-generation constellation.
“We now have a truly pan-UK capability.
The landscape also encompasses Surrey Satellite Technologies’ world-leading small satellite platforms, alongside first-rate “CubeSat” nanosatellites produced by Open Cosmos, Clyde Space, and Spire.
Another drawing card is a strong supply chain for space hardware and software. British luminaries in this area range from SMEs such as Teledyne, to aerospace giants like Airbus UK and BAE Systems.
Paul Febvre, CTO at Satellite Applications Catapult and a professor at Bradford University’s new space AI centre, said launch sites will complete the package.
“Now that we are establishing small-satellite launch facilities in both Cornwall and Scotland, with new ventures being developed in East Anglia, we have a truly pan-UK capability which creates the conditions for competition and success,” Febvre told TNW.
The new Bradford-Renduchintala Centre for Space AI plans to launch its own ‘pocket cube’ into LEO in 2024.
Until the British sites are operational, Open Cosmos will take off from other nations. But in the near future, Jordá plans further launches from the UK and France.
“The nice thing about the launch landscape at the moment is that it’s very diverse,” he said. “It’s getting very competitive and that means we have multiple partners that we can work with for different types of orbits.”
Space on the mainland
Another nation with eyes on LEO is France, which has the largest national space programme in Europe.
“France’s space startup ecosystem is particularly strong in LEO satellites, and I think we will see a number of winners emerging from there,” Maureen Haverty, VP at Seraphim, a prolific investor in space tech startups, told TNW.
“France is also the most successful country at encouraging US companies to set up in Europe and is the European hub for a number of key players.”
“We will have our own SpaceX.
A further asset for France is Arianespace, Europe’s leading satellite space launch company. The aerospace giant is currently developing a new reusable rocket, called Maïa, to challenge SpaceX. The launcher is due to be operational by 2026.
“For the first time Europe… will have access to a reusable launcher,” said French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire last year. “In other words, we will have our SpaceX, we will have our Falcon 9.”
Critics have dismissed the prospect of Maïa competing with SpaceX, but the rocket would at least offer a European alternative. PLD Space in Spain plans to provide another.
The company aims to produce Spain’s first rocket to reach orbit — as well as Europe’s first reusable launch vehicle.
Named Miura 1, the 12.5-meter tall vehicle has a payload capacity of 100kg — just a fraction of the SpaceX Falcon 9’s 25,000kg and the Rocket Lab Electron’s 200–300kg. But PLD Space is confident it can serve the booming demand for small payload launches to LEO.
“We have demonstrated that PLD Space is the most promising company to improve European competitiveness in the microlaunchers race to space,” Ezequiel Sánchez, the company’s executive president, said after a successful test last year.
“This fact makes our project strategic not only for Spain but with a European perspective and a reference to show the profitability of reinforcing investment in new players.”
The public investment in Arianespace provides an edge over rivals that rely on private funding — but the competition is growing.
Smaller startups are also fighting for a spot in low-Earth orbit. Haverty, who oversees Seraphim’s investments in LEO satellite businesses, has seen success from those that tap into domestic expertise.
As an example, she points to Seraphim portfolio company ICEYE, which applies Finland’s strengths in hardware and avionics to world-leading synthetic aperture radar. In Lombardy, meanwhile, D-Orbit has harnessed Italy’s space heritage to establish the planet’s only commercial in-space delivery orbital tug company. The firm recently launched its seventh and eighth missions on SpaceX’s transporter mission.
Prior to joining Seraphim, Haverty was COO at Apollo Fusion, a space startup that was acquired in 2021 for $145M by Astra. She then worked on investments for Astra.
“Overall, I think Europe’s route to success lies in focusing on where they can be world leaders rather than trying to develop a European alternative to an American solution,” said Haverty.
Points of differentiation could also compensate for some shortcomings.
Rejuvenating the old world
The barriers to LEO are lowering, but they remain daunting. Funding in Europe still can’t compete with what’s in the US; space projects are susceptible to delays that can push customers to bigger competitors; nascent markets are tricky to target with commercially viable products.
Startups providing satellite internet services face further obstacles. The established leaders of SpaceX and OneWeb already have LEO constellations in space, customer equipment available, and regulatory approvals in many countries.
“The single biggest challenge for these [European] projects is to get all the components launched and in orbit,” said York, who led the Internet Society’s recent LEO report. “The second biggest challenge is to obtain the regulatory approvals in every country in which they want to operate.”
The growing demand for sparse skills is also difficult to meet. Rewards on offer in the US are often far more lucrative, and the finance and gaming sectors suck up much of the top tech talent.
“We need to encourage and stimulate the understanding in our new generation of engineers, innovators, and entrepreneurs that space is a fantastic place to develop a career and business opportunities, and universities are the knowledge engine for the future economy,” said Febvre, CTO at Satellite Applications Catapult.
At Satellite Applications Catapult, Febvre focuses on growing the UK space industry.
Further problems have emerged in Europe’s commercial launch sector. As well as lacking spaceports, the continent is short on effective rockets. Arianespace’s Vega launcher has been marred by repeated failures, the Araine-5 rocket will soon be retired, and its replacement may not be available for over a year.
The rocket shortage could delay the launch of satellites into LEO. Consequently, Europe has become reliant on commercial launch partners, particularly SpaceX.
“Europe does not have the ‘SpaceX Mafia’ effect.
Haverty adds two further weaknesses compared to the US: a limited product focus in satellite projects and a scarcity of second-generation spacetech founders.
“Europe does not have the ‘SpaceX Mafia’ effect,” she said. “European governments focus more on grants rather than on contracts, which makes it harder to grow startups into big businesses.”
The growing popularity of LEO has created another problem. There’s only so much space in space – and it’s starting to get crowded.
The ESA estimates that there are 36,500 chunks of space debris larger than 10cm, and 130 million between 1mm and 1cm. As these numbers grow, so do the risks of crashes and light pollution.
These threats can also scupper business plans. Regulators consider environmental concerns before deciding whether to allow a satellite launch, but their rules can place heavy burdens on LEO startups. Haverty hopes regulators exert greater pressure on the major operators than their smaller challengers.
“It’s important to remember that the vast majority of debris and causes of potential collisions are caused by the deliberate destruction of satellites by China and Russia,” she said. “Most operators are doing their best to keep space clean.”
On the plus side, the problems of space debris and pollution are presenting business opportunities for space robotics, manufacturing, and in-space servicing. European startups have pitched a range of solutions, from AI monitoring of debris to towing satellites out of LEO.
The ESA and Swiss startup ClearSpace plan to complete the first removal of space debris from orbit in 2025. Credit: ESA
Cleaning up is one of many emerging opportunities in LEO — and Europe is well-poised to grab a share
Despite the challenges, the continent has an enviable array of major satellite operators, affordable engineering talent, a rich history of multinational efforts, and a superlative satellite supply chain.
Insiders hope the spaceport race will further stimulate the sector. The first country across the line may not end up as the best, but the competition can be a boon for all contenders.
The capital flooding into LEO suggests the prospects are strong. Across the continent, investors are betting that a rising tide will lift all spaceships.
In 2012, two former students from Hanze University of Applied Sciences in the Northern Dutch city of Groningen, took a major gamble. They made a list of 100 companies they’d like to work for — including Facebook, Twitter, Spotify, and Uber — and hacked them. As you can imagine, this little stunt certainly got their attention.
Now, $159.4M in investment later, their cybersecurity company, HackerOne, reached unicorn status in 2022 and counts big players like Nintendo, AT&T, Hyatt, GM, and even the Pentagon amongst its clients.
HackerOne is a bug bounty hunting platform that enables companies to enlist the help of ethical hackers across the globe to identify and mitigate security vulnerabilities and data breaches, which cost companies an average of $4.35 million.
While founders Jobert Abma and Michiel Prins now live in San Francisco, where HackerOne’s HQ is based, they surprisingly decided not to move their development team across the pond. In fact, over 50% of their engineering and product design team are still based in Groningen today.
The question is, does it actually make sense to keep half of your dev team in another time zone and is this a strategy other founders should actually consider? And why Groningen? With a global tech powerhouse like Amsterdam just a few hours away, why keep the team in this Northern Dutch city?
Follow-the-sun model
The story of HackerOne’s founders is the typical tech fairytale come true. Abma and Prins grew up across the street from each other in a small town in the North of the Netherlands and spent their time playing video games, building websites, and, of course, pulling the occasional prank hack.
They went to Hanze University of Applied Sciences in Groningen together, where they identified a major data leak in the institution’s system. Realizing this could be a successful business venture, they started a consultancy firm and built a small team of like-minded ethical hackers.
After gaining the attention of Silicon Valley’s biggest names, they realized it was time to spread their wings abroad.
HackerOne’s Groningen office
At the same time, keeping part of their dev team in Groningen presented a great opportunity to introduce a ‘follow-the-sun’ model, ensuring someone is always online and ready to tackle any issues that arise.
“The internet has no borders,” Abma says, “We have tens of thousands of people every single day that use our platform to collaborate and work together. We rely on such a distributed community of hackers, that I don’t see why we can’t do that as a company.”
Indeed, HackerOne facilitates this exchange between global, ethical hackers and companies by providing a platform where they can connect, without having to worry about tax forms, background checks, payment security, and other barriers.
Some who visited fell in love with the city and moved permanently.
While there are a number of benefits to having a distributed development team, it also comes with its challenges.
“Working across time zones requires everyone to become good at written and asynchronous communication. It’s important to let people take time to become good written communicators,” Abma says.
Another important point he shared is to make sure engineering and adjacent roles continue to be regularly exposed to other departments, such as sales, marketing, and customer success. This helps build context, breaks down silos, and allows teams to create better solutions.
One way HackerOne does this is by sending their Groningen team to visit the San Francisco HQ a few times a year and vice versa.
It’s important to enable people to build a stronger bond by having them spend time with each other in person, at least twice a year. They love that aspect of having a distributed team because they get to visit different cities and meet new people, but still have the comfort of being able to live in Groningen, which I think is a great city to live in and raise a family.
The benefits of a cosmopolitan city, on a smaller scale
Aside from the business benefits of maintaining a distributed team model, as Abma explained, most of the team simply wasn’t keen to follow them to San Francisco.
“Many people were starting their families and had significant others there, so they couldn’t move to the other side of the world, and we didn’t necessarily want them to.”
For a city of just 235,000, Groningen has an extremely cosmopolitan vibe. Through its two universities and growing startup community, it attracts almost 6,000 international students per year and a growing number of expats.
Some HackerOne employees who visited the Groningen office from San Francisco fell in love with the city and decided to move there permanently. Abma suspects it’s these ‘expat ambassadors’ turned hiring managers who have been key to getting more global talent on board by sharing their first hand experiences of moving to the city.
I think it’s good for Groningen to just be Groningen.
For Isuru Ranaweera, Senior Software Engineer at HackerOne, moving his family to Groningen was an easy transition.
“What I enjoy about Groningen is that it’s less busy and I actually find it a calm city compared to other places. Additionally, I feel safer here, making it a good place to raise my child. Another bonus is that the city is very green, with plenty of trees.”
Photo by Stella Dekker Fotografie
Another great policy HackerOne has in place is that they pay developers in Groningen the same rates they would pay in Amsterdam.
As an expat, settling here was easier compared to my friends who have settled elsewhere in the Netherlands. Housing is available and affordable, which I found beneficial when migrating to a different country. Reducing costs is important and living here helped me to lower my housing costs during my first years of residency. The commute is also easy as you don’t really need a car. We’ve been living here with a child and a dog without having a need for a car, which is great. I also like staying away from the chaos of big cities.
Having a base in a university town also has the added benefit of access to a pool of young talent. Groningen in particular has two great universities located in the city that attract students from across the globe. Zahra Putri Fitrianti, Software Engineer at HackerOne, was recruited after studying and working at the University of Groningen as a teaching assistant.
Personally, I really like the atmosphere in the city, it’s very suitable for students as well as workers. The city has a sense of tranquility that helps me be productive at university and work. There’s also a lot of great hubs where you can work, such as the Forum cultural center that provides great support for people that spend their day there, albeit sometimes being quite crowded especially during exam season.
Zahra Putri Fitrianti, Software Engineer at HackerOne
Groningen is changing, but hopefully not too much
Groningen is quickly becoming a more recognizable name in the global tech community with new startup success stories and university spinoffs putting its ecosystem on the map. Nonetheless, there are a few changes Abma still hopes to see that will help the city reach its potential:
For Groningen to really upscale that vibrant ecosystem, there are some fundamental building blocks that still need to be built, like more access to funding, tax breaks, etc. What would make me really proud is if, ten years from now, some of the people who we initially hired at HackerOne went on to found their own companies in Groningen. If they can make that transition, it would show the building blocks are really in place. Although I’m happy to see companies like HackerOne have a presence there, I’d like to see more of that.
However, having lived both in Groningen and now (arguably) the capital of the tech world, Abma hopes these oncoming changes don’t impact the character of the city:
“I think it’s good for Groningen to just be Groningen. It doesn’t need to be the next Silicon Valley. There are a lot of downsides to that kind of ecosystem as well.”
Photo by Stella Dekker Fotografie
The question is, like HackerOne, will Groningen’s humble beginnings morph it into a tech giant of the future? Probably not. But it will likely be a place of choice for expats and young talent looking for the perfect balance of exciting opportunities and compact city life. Unlike Silicon Valley’s cut throat culture, Groningen’s tight knit tech community can be likened to the theme song from Cheers: it’s likely everybody will know your name and actually be happy that you came.
If Groningen has piqued your interest, check out some of the great tech jobs open in the city on the Make it in the North.nl job board.
A rough year in public markets has taken a heavy toll on startups. According to new research, every unicorn in Europe that went public in 2021 has since shrunk in valuation.
The losses follow record-highs for VC exit valuations in 2021. PitchBook, a financial data firm, attributed the downturn to a shrinking public market.
The company found that 13 unicorns went public during 2021’s bull market and IPO frenzy. Yet none have gone on to have positive share price returns.
Their numbers paint a gloomy picture. By the end of 2022, more than half of them had lost over 75% of their market cap since going public.
Every European unicorn that had a public listing in 2021. Credit: Pitchbook
Their fortunes have reverberated across Europe’s tech ecosystems. In 2022, there was not a single unicorn exit through a public listing.
“The shutoff of the public listing market plays on the recency bias of founders and their management teams, as they have seen what happened to the companies that went public in 2021,” said PitchBook’s analysts in their latest VC valuations report.
Despite the tough year for exits, there has been positive financial progress for Europe’s leading startups. Last year, 47 new unicorns emerged on the continent —the second-highest figure on record — bringing their cumulative number to 129. Furthermore, aggregate unicorn post-money valuations were increasing dramatically before signs of a slowdown emerged. Yet the newest members of the herd are electing to stay private.
New and cumulative unicorn count and aggregate post-money valuation (€B). Credit: Pitchbook
Notably, food delivery startups had impressive exits via acquisition in 2022. Finland’s Wolt was bought by DoorDash for €2.7 billion, Spain’s Glovo was acquired by Delivery Hero for €800 million, and Germany’s Gorillas was snapped up by Getir for €1.2 billion.
These exit routes, however, may prove to be anomalies. According to Pitchbook, most unicorns now prefer to remain within the VC ecosystem.
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Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Jeff Bezos: what these names have in common is they are all founders of some of tech’s most powerful companies. The other key thing they have in common is they’re all men.
While there are many women founders—Melanie Perkins of Canva and Sandy Lerner of Cisco are just two, along with Mira Murati, the CTO of OpenAI, creator of the much-lauded ChatGPT—there is a significant gender disparity in the technology industry.
There are many systemic reasons for this. Globally, women make up over 50% of the population, but own only 1% of the total wealth, and cultivating wealth is even more difficult: a United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) study found that women only have access to 3% of bank loans.
WEgate, the European gateway for women’s entrepreneurship, reported in its 2021 WEbarometer report that UNECE’s findings held water. Less than 25% of its respondents rated the environment for accessing finance as good or better, and as a result many of them self-fund or get finance from family sources.
Other studies found that 65% of venture capital firms do not have a single partner who is a woman, and just 12% of decision makers at VC firms are women. Given the male-domainated financing context, it isn’t surprising that in 2022, US startups with all-women teams only got 1.9% out of the $238.3 billion in venture capital allocated, according to PitchBook.
Broken rung
Additional factors that hold women back are access to flexible work and childcare. Then there is the “broken rung,” a workplace phenomenon identified by McKinsey and LeanIn.Org.
It refers to a problem whereby women in entry level positions are promoted to managerial positions at much lower rates than men. For every 100 men promoted to manager, only 86 women are promoted, which causes a disparity that is hard to correct, and results in fewer women in leadership positions.
All that is dismal enough, but a recent study from the University of Amsterdam has discovered that women are much less likely to apply to startups where men are in the majority. Women also made up less than 15% of the workforce in more than one in five startups in the study, showing that underrepresentation is common—and it’s also really detrimental, because when there are less than 15% of women in an organisation, women applicants are almost 30% less likely to apply.
Yuval Engel, the lead author of the research and a professor at the University of Amsterdam, explains how this can become systemic in startups.
Hiring decisions are made by the founders themselves rather than professionals experienced in recruitment and hiring. These founders often gravitate towards recruiting from their personal networks and do not typically invest in any formalised policies or procedures to protect themselves from bias.
The solutions
It’s easy to understand why women might choose to opt out of applying for a job at a small, male-dominated tech startup, and there is no quick fix for this problem, multi-faceted as it is. For women looking for new career opportunities, there are a number of things they can do to assess a company of any size for its gender diversity, both pre-application and at interview stage.
For starters, check its website: while it’s unlikely that all employees will be listed, those holding senior positions should be. Assess the gender split—are there any women there, and if so, what sort of roles do they represent?
Look at the company’s social media, in particular its LinkedIn business page—what employees are listed as working there and what is the mix of men versus women? Another measure, usually best for enterprise-level companies, is to check its ranking on “best workplaces”-type reports.
Establishing a company’s diversity and inclusion (D&I) and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) policies is another key indicator of a workplace that supports diversity.
It means the organisation is thinking strategically and will understand the value of women in its workforce. A McKinsey report found a direct correlation between employee diversity and financial performance with companies in the top 25% for racial and ethnic diversity being 35% more likely to generate higher revenues.
Backing this up is a Boston Consulting Group study which found a significant correlation between the diversity of management teams in overall innovation. Companies reporting above-average diversity on their management teams also reported innovation revenue that was 19% higher than that of companies with below-average leadership diversity.
When it comes to the interview stage, it’s perfectly acceptable to ask questions about a company’s diversity. One of the best ways to do this is to couch your queries around any existing policies—D&I and ESG journeys are not one and done, they are, and should be, ever-evolving.
Ask questions about progress so far, and what the next steps are. If you get blank stares, you’ll know it is not a priority. Ask too, if there are any employee resource groups (ERGs) in place. For example, Microsoft’s Women at Microsoft ERG has a mission to attract, retain, and develop women around the world.
And lastly, know this: if you have the qualifications and the experience, you are entitled to be in this space. In the words of the late Ruth Bader-Ginsberg, former associate justice of the US Supreme Court,
Women belong in all places where decisions are being made. It shouldn’t be that women are the exception.
Over the years, ARPost has covered the physical nature of XR in athletics and sports a number of times – from how athletes use XR to improve their game, to how gamers can use VR sports to stay fit, to how thrilling and active a good AR team game can be for players and spectators alike. XR is also increasingly being used in another capacity: fan engagement.
Is AR the Future of Fan Engagement?
Athletes are usually sports fans, but are sports fans usually athletes? This article isn’t about how XR can make a sports viewer into a finely-tuned machine, or how a sports viewer can become a star in their own right through things like esports. After all, not all sports fans want to do those sorts of things.
However, it’s probably fair to say that all sports fans want to feel closer to the athletes and teams that they follow. That doesn’t mean getting onto the field, but it might mean getting out of the stands. Sports teams and property managers are increasingly using XR for sports fan engagement to let fans get closer to their passion, if not closer to the action.
“The Blue Jackets are one of the few sports organizations taking the lead to bring fans the latest in cutting-edge technology with first-ever immersive experiences to their arena,” MVP Interactive CEO James Giglio said in a release shared with ARPost. “Our team was honored to work with everyone at CBJ to bring technology forward with multi-generational experiences to their Fan Zone.”
The 4,000 square-foot space overlooks the team’s practice area and includes a number of XR experiences, as well as the eSports Lounge for CBJ gaming, the team’s official esports arm. As exciting a development as esports is in the general gaming world, we’re most interested in the XR fan engagement activations.
“With the upgraded space and technology advancement of our new Fan Zone, we hope to provide a world-class experience for fans of all ages,” Blue Jackets Vice President of Marketing Ryan Chenault said in the release.
XR in the Fan Zone
In the “Slapshot Challenge” fan engagement activation, fans choose between three different game modes including “Shots on Goalie” pitting their skills against a virtual goaltender. Using a real stick and a ball, the fan’s movements are tracked by sensors to replicate an on-ice experience in a space reminiscent of the Cave VR system.
The “Goalie Challenge” flips the scenario, both figuratively and physically. In full goalie gear, the fan now faces the screen where a virtual contender appears to launch physical balls their way. While the goalie in the slapshot challenge is entirely automated, the placement of balls fired off in the goalie challenge can be controlled by a friend via a computer interface.
“The Blue Jackets are dedicated to removing barriers to the game of hockey and investment in this space is a meaningful nod to this mission,” said Chenault. “By providing both stick-in-hand and controller-in-hand activations, we can give fans an opportunity to not only watch the game but experience it first-hand.”
There are less intense fan engagement opportunities as well. A “Pose with a Pro MorphingStation” gives fans an opportunity to take a selfie next to a virtual replica of their favorite Blue Jackets. A similar activation allows fans to pose in a virtual Blue Jackets jersey. All of these activations reward the fans with videos and images optimized for social media.
Implementation and Stats
On entering the Fan Zone, fans have the opportunity to check in by scanning a QR code and providing an email address to receive their videos and photographs. According to figures provided to ARPost following the launch of the activation, over 1,200 fans entered the Fan Zone on opening night and 375 provided emails to receive their digital mementos.
Further, the “average dwell time across experiences was 24.55 seconds.” This may not seem like a long time, but it is averaged across all of the fan engagement experiences though the challenges likely engaged fans for significantly longer than the AR photo opportunities.
NIL in AR
The “Pose with a Pro” fan activation presented by the Blue Jackets shows that there is a lot of promise in sports fan engagement with virtual replicas of their favorite athletes. That isn’t just limited to professional sports, however.
College sports are tremendously popular but its athletes were, to some degree, barred from benefiting from that popularity for most of the history of college sports. That’s because college athletes were largely prevented from benefiting from their name, image, and likeness (NIL) by the NCAA – the organization that governs college sports.
However, in 2021, the NCAA began loosening NIL rules, opening up potentially lucrative opportunities for college athletes. AR publishing platform LDP Studio claims to be part of the first “NILAR” (name, image, and likeness in augmented reality) agreement. The signee? The University of Tennessee senior tight end Jacob Warren for the Craven Wings restaurant chain.
“We believe AR Hero will change the way college football fans experience the game by engaging more people with the players they know and love,” LDP Studio VP of business development Jessee Black said in a release shared with ARPost. “It’s a really cool and futuristic new concept for QR code use which increases engagement for businesses and brings fun to the fans.”
AR Hero, the tool that runs the experience, invites users to trigger fan engagement activation via a QR code. From there, fans can take photos and videos with an AR version of Warren that goes through different poses giving plenty of opportunities to fans.
“With AR Hero, fans can feel like they are part of the action and experience the players they know and love in a whole new way,” said Black. “Businesses have the opportunity to create more engagement with fans through ‘NILAR’ as well.”
The First NILAR Agreement?
It’s easy to be skeptical of whether this fan engagement initiative is really the first NILAR agreement. It is very probably the first NILAR agreement in college sports and it just might be the first of its kind anywhere as LDP Studio claims.
Digital twins of celebrities aren’t brand new. However, the ownership of these twins has long been problematic. The owner of a digital twin is usually the studio that commissioned it, rather than the individual that the twin is created from.
NILAR agreements with athletes as well as other individuals have huge potential to give individuals more control over their own digital twins. That’s a big win for those individuals from an economic standpoint, but it’s also a good idea from an ethical perspective.
Getting Sports Fans Out of Their Seats
With good AR fan engagement, everybody wins. Fans get more interactive ways to engage with their favorite content and athletes. Athletes can have an AR proxy that’s available to fans while they’re busy training, on the field, or at home. Teams get new ways to bring fans deeper into the sports that they love (and, yes, collect some much-cherished user data).
The good news keeps getting better. XR fan engagement activations are becoming simpler to use, more interactive, and are even being created in ways that are more mindful of the humans that lend their digital duplicates to these activations.
If you’re in Japan right now, you could be the first to play the new, officially licensed Street Fighter VR arcade experience, which pits you against some of the universe’s most iconic warriors.
Capcom released a trailer this week for the single-player arcade game, called Street Fighter VR Shadaloo Enhancement Plan (ストリートファイターVR シャドルー強化計画). It isn’t just a brand engagement vehicle that’s flavored like Street Fighter; hands-on reports suggest it’s actually a pretty solid basis for what might be an honest-to-goodness VR game one day if Capcom really wanted to put the effort in.
According to a hands-on by GAME Watch (Japanese language), Street Fighter VR recruits you as a junior soldier of the evil secret society ‘Shadaloo’, led by M Bison. Matched up against the warriors of Street Fighter V, you battle up the ranks to become the strongest.
The game, which plays on HTC Vive Pro 2, is said to first offer a basic training mode stage which was ostensibly ported directly from Street Fighter V. Although the number of attacks you can do are limited to punches and fist-focused moves like Hadouken and Shoryuken, the rules of the VR game are the same as the original, GAME Watch reports.
Opponents include Ryu, Zangief and M Bison (known as ‘Vega’ in Japan), although another opponent was seen in Capcom’s official art, including what appears to be the shadowy silhouette of Blanka at the end of the trailer. So maybe more yet to come? As it is, if you don’t win a single match, there are actually eight different endings depending on what you play—sounds like a fair amount of replayability.
“To be honest, before playing it, I thought it was just a VR game with a Street Fighter motif,” Hiroyuki Endo of GAME Watch writes, “but when I actually touched it, there were fighting game elements everywhere, and I was surprised that I was able to enjoy a full-fledged Street Fighter in a VR game from a first-person perspective.”
Street Fighter VR kicked off on February 17th at the Plaza Capcom Store in Hiroshima, Japan, priced at ¥1,200 (~$9 USD) per gameplay session. It’s also set to expand on April 17th to Miraino Aeon Mall in Toyokawa, Japan.
There’s really no indication whether we’ll see a release outside of Japan, although we’ve seen similar projects make it across thanks to sustained popular demand, such as the once Japan-only Mario Kart VR racer—so it doesn’t seem too farfetched if Street Fighter fans are vocal enough.
Note: We’ve corrected the name ‘Shadroo’ to ‘Shadaloo’. Thanks go to our reader ‘IIDX’!
Don’t blink, because PSVR 2’s eye-tracking may get you more than you bargained for in the headset’s upcoming on-rails horror shooter The Dark Pictures: Switchback VR, which aims to toss some extra scares your way when you least suspect it.
PSVR 2 is releasing on February 22nd, and in its 100+ game content lineup is a unique horror game from the makers of Until Dawn: Rush of Blood which tosses you back into another rollercoaster thrill ride that arms you with plenty of guns to fend off what bumps in the night.
Besides bringing high-quality VR to PS5, Sony’s next-gen headset also packs in eye-tracking, which is many games are using for easier UI selection and foveated rendering—useful, but not terribly exciting stuff.
Some developers though, including Supermassive Games, are integrating the feature into their core gameplay loop, which in Switchback’s case allows enemies to move around specifically when your eyes are closed.
In a new gameplay video, Supermassive shows off the feature as it plays out beyond the big ‘DON’T BLINK’ doors, revealing a room full of grotesque mannequins which only move when you blink—and they’re entirely focused on attacking you if they can.
Alejandro Arque Gallardo, Game Director at Supermassive, says there’s also set to be another mannequin type that works with eye-tracking, but cryptically will work in “a completely different way.”
We’ve linked to the timestamp (above) where Arque Gallardo discusses Switchback’s eye-tracking mechanic. The full video also delves into haptics, adaptive triggers, spatial audio, and the multiple areas you can encounter in the game.
The Dark Pictures: Switchback VR is launching on March 16th, priced at $40. You can pre-order the game here. In the meantime, make sure to check out our growing list of all confirmed games coming to PSVR 2.
Ioanna is a writer at SHIFT. She likes the transition from old to modern, and she’s all about shifting perspectives. Ioanna is a writer at SHIFT. She likes the transition from old to modern, and she’s all about shifting perspectives.
Although the UK has set out ambitious clean energy targets, it risks lagging behind the US and the EU in attracting the required investments, two of the country’s energy trade organisations have warned.
Ahead of the Chancellor’s Spring Budget next month, Energy UK and Renewable UK have published two separate reports, calling on the government to implement measures and rule changes that will enable the UK to attract vital private investment in renewables.
“The renewable energy sector is facing a perfect storm this year.
According to Energy UK’s report, investment in low-carbon electricity generation “has deteriorated significantly” in the past months, owing to soaring inflation, increasing interest rates, supply chain difficulties, policy uncertainty, and “poorly designed” windfall taxes that presently “favor oil and gas extraction.”
The trade organisation estimates that an additional investment of £500 billion would be needed between now and 2050 to meet the UK’s Net Zero goals. But without government action, it expects a £62 billion investment loss by 2030. This would translate to a shortfall of 54GW of potential wind and solar capacity — enough electricity to power every home in the UK.
“The UK is in increasing danger of undermining its own ambitions and failing to deliver on its commitments, “Emma Pinchbeck, Energy UK’s CEO, said. “In many ways, the UK has led the way in the transition to clean energy — witness our world-leading offshore wind industry — but we risk squandering this position and driving the investment that we need elsewhere.”
The fierce global competition for investment, skills, and supply chains was also cited by Renewable UK’s Executive Director of Policy Ana Musat, who highlighted that “the US and the EU are in a race to offer incentives to clean energy investors.”
Both trade organizations are calling for measures such as implementation of more attractive regulations, faster project planning, more sustainable renewable electricity prices, and new fiscal measures policies like reforming the windfall tax and respective tax reliefs.
“We are at a pivotal point right now with other countries actively trying to attract the same companies and investors and it would be unforgivably complacent to think that we don’t need to do the same,” Pinchbeck noted. “This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity and if we don’t seize it now, we will miss out not just on cheaper, cleaner energy but on the huge boost to our economy such investment will bring in terms of growth, jobs and other benefits.”
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Ensayo de misión de vuelo completado con éxito 
