Thomas is a senior reporter at TNW. He covers European tech, with a focus on deeptech, startups, and government policy. Thomas is a senior reporter at TNW. He covers European tech, with a focus on deeptech, startups, and government policy.
Blockchain is frequently derided as a solution in search of a problem. But buried beneath the crypto scams and Web3 utopianism hide some intriguing use cases.
Some of the most powerful applications are in traceability. When embedded in supply chains, blockchain can track the entire product lifecycle, from origin to consumption. As the tech provides permanent, indelible, and unalterable records, extensive data about items and transactions can be securely stored and authenticated.
In the food sector, the benefits are particularly attractive. In one pilot project by UK startup Provenance, blockchain and smart tagging were used to track illegal tuna fishing, seafood fraud, and forced labour. As well as ensuring ethical practices, the scheme exposed blockchain’s potential for corporate auditing, tackling counterfeits, and reducing administrative costs.
In Wales, blockchain boffins have found another promising target for traceability: halal meat. In a European first, British startup iov42 is developing a data-sharing platform that provides secure records of compliance with halal standards — which are often breached by fraudulent products.
The culprits range from sole traders to international organised crime groups. One of the most notorious transgressions emerged in 2020, when a Malaysian “meat cartel” was exposed for bribing customs officials, distributing meat from uncertified slaughterhouses, and passing off kangaroo and horse flesh as halal beef.
The scandal sparked an outcry in Malaysia — where Muslims comprise about 60% of the population — and across the Islamic world. It also threatened to cause deep financial problems. Malaysia was aiming to become a global hub for the $2.3 trillion halal market, and was already exporting $9bn in halal-certified products.
iov42 is betting that blockchain can reduce the risks of such offences. By tracing produce from the farm to the table, the company aims to embed provenance tracking, boost certification schemes, and increase impartiality in the halal market.
“Our technology was designed to help improve traceability in industries just like this,” said David Coleman, Chief Product Officer at iov42.
To bring the project to life, iov42 is collaborating with certification experts at Prime UK, a Cardiff-based compliance services provider. Last week, the companies announced that they’ve attracted a cash injection from the Welsh government’s Blockchain Demonstrator Challenge Fund.
The government scheme was launched to develop the local blockchain sector. If the halal project is a success, it could provide a rare example of the real-world benefits that blockchain can bring to Wales.
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More than four years after I first caught wind of their tech, CREAL’s light-field display continues to be one of the most interesting and promising solutions for bringing light-fields to immersive headsets. At AWE 2023 I got to check out the company’s latest tech and saw first hand what light-fields mean for immersion in AR headsets.
More Than One Way to Focus
So first, a quick recap. A light-field is a fundamentally different way of showing light to your eyes compared to the typical displays used in most headsets today. The key difference is about how your eyes can focus on the virtual scene.
Your eyes have two focus methods. The one most people are familiar with is vergence (also called stereoscopy), where both eyes point at the same object to bring overlapping views of that object into focus. This is also what makes things look ‘3D’ to us.
But each individual eye is also capable of focusing in a different way by bending the lens of the eye to focus on objects at different distances—the same way that a camera with only one lens focuses. This is called accomodation.
Vergence-Accommodation Conflict
Most XR headsets today support vergenge (stereoscopic focus), but not accomodation (single-eye focus). You may have heard this called Vergence-Accomodation Conflict; also known to the industry as ‘VAC’ because it’s a pervasive challenge for immersive displays.
The reason for the ‘conflict’ is that normally the vergence and accommodation of your eyes work in tandem to achieve optimal focus on the thing you want to look at. But in a headset that supports vergence, but not accomodation, your eyes need to break these typically synchronous functions into independent functions.
It might not be something you ‘feel’ but it’s the reason why in a headset it’s hard to focus on things very near to you—especially objects in your hands that you want to inspect up close.
The conflict between vergence and accommodation can be not just uncomfortable for your eyes, but in a surprising way also rob the scene of immersion.
Creal’s Solution
And this is where we get back to Creal, a company that wants to solve the Vergence-Accommodation Conflict with a light-field display. Light-field displays structure light in the same way that we see it in the real world, allowing both of the focus functions of the eyes—vergence and accommodation—to work in tandem as they normally do.
At AWE 2023 this week, I got to check out the company’s latest light-field display tech, and came away with an added sense of immersion that I haven’t felt in any other AR headset to date.
I’ve seen Creal’s static bench-top demos before, which show static floating imagery through the lens to a single eye, demonstrating that you can indeed focus (accommodate) at different depths. But you won’t really see the magic until you see a light-field with both eyes and head-tracking. Which is exactly what I got to do this week at AWE.
Photo by Road to VR
On an admittedly bulky proof-of-concept AR headset, I got to see the company’s light-field display in its natural habitat—floating immersively in front of me. What really impressed me was when I held my hand out and a little virtual turtle came floating over to the palm of my hand. Even though it was semi-transparent, and not exceptionally high resolution or accurately colored, it felt… weirdly real.
I’ve seen all kinds of immersive XR experiences over the years, and holding something in your hand sounds like a banal demo at this point. But there was just something about the way this little turtle looked—thanks to the fact that my eyes could focus on it in the same way they would in the real world—that made it feel more real than I’ve ever really felt in other headsets. Like it was really there in my hand.
Photo by Road to VR
The trick is that, thanks to the light-field, when I focused my eyes on the turtle in my hand, both the turtle (virtual) and my hand (real) were each in proper focus—something that isn’t possible with conventional displays—making both my hand and the turtle feel more like they were inhabiting the same space right in front of me.
It’s frustratingly impossible to explain exactly how it appeared via text alone; this video from Creal shot through-the-lens gives some idea of what I saw, but can’t quite show how it adds immersion over other AR headsets:
It’s a subtle thing, and such added immersion probably only meaningful impacts objects within arms reach or closer—but then again, that distance is where things have the potential to feel most real to use because they’re in our carefully watched personal space.
Digital Prescriptions
Beyond just adding a new layer of visual immersion, light-field displays stand to solve another key problem, which is vision correction. Most XR headsets today do not support any kind of prescription vision correction, which for maybe even more than half of the population means they either need to wear their correctives while using these devices, buy some kind of clip-on lens, or just suffer through a blurry image.
But the nature of light-fields means you can apply a ‘digital prescription’ to the virtual content that exactly matches the user’s corrective prescription. And because it’s digital, this can be done on-the-fly, meaning the same headset could have its digital corrective vision setting change from one user to the next. Doing so means the focus of virtual image can match the real world image for those with and without glasses.
Thomas is a senior reporter at TNW. He covers European tech, with a focus on deeptech, startups, and government policy. Thomas is a senior reporter at TNW. He covers European tech, with a focus on deeptech, startups, and government policy.
LSD, magic mushrooms, MDMA, ketamine, DMT… it’s a suspicious product line for a legitimate business — and psychedelics startups know it. With that in mind, it’s unsurprising that the sector are wary of the stereotypes around hallucinogens.
“What the industry really needs is the most boring person in the room to be presenting the topic,” says Clara Burtenshaw, co-founder of Neo Kuma Ventures, Europe’s largest VC fund for psychedelic healthcare.
It would be harsh to call Burtenshaw the most boring person in the room, but she’s not the clichéd lover of trips. More polished entrepreneur than kaleidoscopic hippy, Burtenshaw was a corporate lawyer before pivoting to psychedelic healthcare.
It was an uncommon career switch with a familiar root: seeing loved ones struggle with their mental health. Burtenshaw thought psychedelics could provide a better remedy.
In late 2019, she cofounded Neo Kuma (Greek for “New Wave”) to invest in the treatments. Her timing proved prescient. Within weeks, the world was being plunged into a mental health epidemic.
In the first year of the COVID-19 outbreak, the global prevalence of anxiety and depression increased by 25%, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO). Already understaffed and underfunded, mental health services were pushed beyond their limits.
Inevitably, a surging demand for medications followed. But that was merely accelerating the prevailing trend. In Europe, antidepressant consumption has more than doubled in the last 20 years.
The medication can be life-saving, but the benefits aren’t equally distributed. Over a third of patients are resistant to the treatment’s mood improvements. Others can suffer from side effects, dependence, or withdrawal symptoms.
“It’s about developing the blockbuster drugs of tomorrow.
As the uptake of antidepressants soared, some researchers began to assert that they were barely better than placebos. A recent study found that 10 of the most popularly prescribed medications made a meaningful difference in only 15% of the patients who took them.
Psychedelic treatments offer an alternative. While conventional antidepressants are taken regularly over extended periods, just one trip alongside therapy can have lifelong benefits.
That transformative potential offers big business opportunities. The global mental health market was already valued at $380bn (€356bn) in 2020. By 2030, it’s projected to reach $538bn (€503bn).
The chunk that Burtenshaw’s targeting will come from psychedelic drug development — a subsector that Europe is leading.
Burtenshaw spoke to TNW at TechChill Riga in April. Credit: TechChill
The continent is home to some of the space’s key players, from Atai Life Sciences, a German startup that’s trialling an MDMA derivative for PTSD, to the UK’s Beckley Psytech, which recently won FDA approval to test a compound found in toads as a treatment for alcoholism. The riches, Burtenshaw hopes, will emerge after patenting the intellectual property.
“That’s how you see your return on investment,” she says. “It’s about developing the blockbuster drugs of tomorrow.”
The blockbuster drugs of tomorrow won’t be ready overnight. The process of developing, testing, licensing, and distributing new medications is a long one — but the pay-off could be enormous.
Analysts predict that the psychedelic healthcare industry will be worth $6.9bn (€6.4bn) by 2027. But before the sector reaps those rewards, it must first convince the sceptics.
Once regulators approve a drug, it moves from an illicit substance to a recognised medicine. But the route to psychedelics is long and perilous. To earn their backing, the sector needs to win clinical arguments.
“Psychedelics does attract evangelists who talk about all of the wonderful things about the treatment and perhaps gloss over the risks,” says Burtenshaw. “But we need to take a data-driven, evidence-based approach to looking at these treatments.”
And that evidence base is growing. A growing body of research has shown that psychoactive substances can drive therapeutic breakthroughs for various mental health issues.
In onestudy Neo supported, veterans were given controlled doses of MDMA. Over two-thirds (68%) experienced complete remission from PTSD. The other 32% felt significant relief.
“That was completely unheard of in psychiatry — we don’t see results like that,” says Burtenshaw. “And many of these patients are veterans who had really ingrained PTSD and had been through a number of unsuccessful treatments in the past.”
A wave of post-WWII research into psychedelics was curtailed when the US government escalated the war on drugs. It’s been revitalised in recent years. Credit: Beckley Foundation
Promising results have also emerged at Compass Pathways, a startup that was listed on the Nasdaq in September 2020. Based in the UK, the company has developed a synthetic form of psilocybin — a psychoactive component in magic mushrooms — for treatment-resistant depression (TRD), which is diagnosed after conventional medicine proves ineffective.
A study published last year found that the substance can significantly allay severe depression. After taking a single 25mg dose alongside psychological support, around 39% of participants were in remission by week three. Notably, the biggest impact came a day after receiving the treatment. Standard antidepressants, by contrast, take several weeks to reach maximum effect.
Both treatments are now targeting regulatory review — which would open them up to the market. Burtenshaw believes they can push psychedelic healthcare more broadly towards the mainstream.
“What we’ve seen with psychedelics is this potential for people to really understand the root cause of their trauma, directly face it head on, work with a therapist to come to terms with it, and then get on with their lives,” she says.
Like Burtenshaw, Clerkenwell Health CEO Tom McDonald isn’t the archetypal lover of hallucinogens. McDonald spent 10 years working in management consulting with big pharma before joining Clerkenwell, a British startup that runs clinical trials for psychedelic treatments.
McDonald spoke on a panel at TechChill Riga in April. Credit: TechChill
The career change “definitely raised eyebrows from friends and family,” says McDonald.
“There’s still a lot of stigma around, but everyone in the space is trying to normalise it. And data speaks — as do emotive stories.”
Such stories are powerful tools for changing perceptions, but the most effective narratives are localised.
In the US, for instance, tales of military veterans using psychedelics to overcome trauma have won over sceptics. In the UK, meanwhile, the impacts on patients with terminal illnesses have garnered more public sympathy. That sympathy could bring the benefits closer to home.
Surveys have shown that stories combined with data can win public support. Credit: Drug Science
Currently, most European citizens would need to travel abroad to access psychedelic therapies, but there are signs that the regional gap is narrowing.
In the UK, for instance, politicians from across the political spectrum are rallying support for the treatment. Last month, Conservative politician Crispin Blunt warned that the country’s regulation of psychedelics was “trailing behind Australia, Canada, and the United States.”
Blunt said the substances “will help address the miserable dependence of too many” on antidepressants. The veteran MP wants psilocybin to be moved from a Schedule 1 drug to the lower-risk Schedule 2, which would allow researchers to further explore its potential as a medicine.
“The science highlights their immense potential.
His plea echoes recent petitions in the EU. Just last week, a cross-party faction of lawmakers launched a new group to advance access to affordable and safe novel therapeutic applications of psychedelics in the bloc.
“Millions of Europeans are in need of better treatments,” said Czech MEP Mikuláš Peksa. “We need to ensure that novel psychedelic treatments are being considered, as the science behind them highlights their immense potential.”
That immense potential doesn’t only appeal to politicians. Relaxing rules would also create diverse openings for tech — and startups are poised to capitalise.
Europe’s psychedelics startups have already explored extensive digital applications. They range from April19’s AI drug discovery platform and Beckley Psytech’s biomarkers for tracking patients to Homecoming’s app for therapists and Wavepaths’ personalised music for treatment.
One of their most notable features is adaptability, which could extend their applications from psychedelics to the broader health and wellness markets.
In Wavepaths’ psychedelics sessions, patients wear an eye mask and listen to of music while receiving in-person support from psychotherapists. Credit: Wavepaths
With such breadth of opportunities, the sector has grounds for optimism. But startups will have to play the long game and attract patient capital.
“I think the market landscape is going to look so different in five years’ time to where it is now,” says Burtenshaw. “What we’re expecting to see is this dovetailing of destigmatisation alongside a rollout of these treatments.”
The route to market, however, appears long and treacherous. Regulatory barriers, a perilous financial landscape, and slow paths to profit have somewhat dimmed the excitement around psychedelics. But in the crucial fight for hearts and minds, the prospects of victory are growing.
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The second day of AWE is the day that the expo floor opens. That is always thrilling, and we’ll get there, but first – more keynotes and conversations.
AWE Day Two Keynotes
Day One kickstarted the keynotes, but AWE Day Two saw exciting presentations and announcements from Magic Leap and Niantic. Both affirmed a theme from the day before: meaningful XR is already here.
Magic Leap: Let’s Get to Work
“The vision of AR that some legacy tech companies are promising is still years out, is not years or months or days out,” Magic Leap CEO Peggy Johnson said in her keynote. “The small team at Magic Leap has made something that many larger companies are still struggling to achieve.”
Peggy Johnson
Johnson also continued another theme from AWE Day One: AI and XR aren’t in competition – they help each other. Inbar’s opening talk included a line that quickly became a motto for almost the whole event: “XR is the interface for AI.”
“I honestly believe AR systems are going to become the endpoints for a lot of AI,” said Johnson. “The ability to provide contract input and get contextual output will really be a game changer.”
Magic Leap’s big announcement wasn’t to do with AI, but it will still be thrilling to developers: an Unreal Engine plugin is coming in August.
“AR Everywhere” With Niantic
While enterprise companies and hardware manufacturers are still struggling with adoption to since degree, few companies have done as much for AR consumer adoption as Niantic.
Brian McClendon
In his AWE keynote, “Empowering AR Everywhere”, Niantic Senior Vice President of Engineering, Brian McClendon, laid out a number of major updates coming to the company – as well as coming to or through 8th Wall.
First, ARDK 3.0 will allow developers using Niantic tools to also use outside AR asset libraries. It will also enable a QR code-triggered “lobby system” for multi-user shared AR experiences. The updated ARDK will enter a beta phase later this month. A new maps SDK compatible with Unity is also coming to 8th Wall.
Further, 8th Wall’s “Metaversal Deployment” announced at AWE 2021 is now compatible with mixed reality via Quest 2, Quest Pro, “and probably all future MR headsets.”
Big Picture Panel Discussions
One of the things that really makes AWE special is its ability to bring together the industry’s big thinkers. A number of insightful panel discussions from Day Two explored some of the biggest topics in XR today.
XR’s Inflection Point
The panel discussion “How Immersive Storytelling Can Deepen Human Understanding of Critical Issues” brought together Unity CEO John Riccitiello, journalist Ashlan Cousteau, and TRIPP CEO and co-founder Nanea Reeves. The talk included further affirmations that, contrary to some media pieces, XR as an industry is thriving.
From left to right: John Riccitiello, Ashlan Cousteau, and Nanea Reeves
“I now cancel what I said seven years ago about this not being a good time to build a business in this space,” said Riccitiello. “We’re at a time right now where it makes a lot of sense to look forward with optimism around XR. … Companies are born around technology transitions.”
Reeves echoed the sentiment, but included some of the cautious caveats expressed by XR ethicist Kent Bye during a panel discussion yesterday.
“We’re at such an interesting point of technology and the evolution of it, especially with AI and XR,” said Reeves. “What’s the next level of storytelling and what should we be aware of as we bring AI into it?”
Building Open Standards for the Metaverse
The good news is that the metaverse isn’t dead. The bad news is that it arguably hasn’t been born yet either. One of the most important features of the metaverse is also one of its most elusive.
It was also the crux of a panel discussion bringing together XR Safety Initiative founder and CEO Kavya Pearlman, XRSI Advisor Elizabeth Rothman, and Khronos Group President Neil Trevett, moderated by Moor Insights and Strategy Senior Analyst Anshel Sag.
From left to right: Kavya Pearlman, Neil Trevett, Elizabeth Rothman, and Anshel Sag
“Whichever way you come to the metaverse, you need interoperability,” said Trevett. “It’s foundational.”
The panel also addresses the lasting and fleeting effects of the wave of attention that has seemingly passed over the metaverse.
“We go through these hype cycles and bubbles,” said Rothman. “There are always technological innovations that come out of them.”
The panel also addressed AI, an overarching theme of the conference. However, the panel brought up one concern with the technology that had not been addressed elsewhere.
“This convergence has a way more visceral impact on children’s brains even than social media,” said Pearlman.
So far, the “solution” to this problem has been for content publishers to age-restrict experiences. However, this approach has crucial shortcomings. First, most approaches to age restrictions aren’t foolproof. Second, when they are, this measure excludes young users rather than protecting them.
“We run the risk of regulating children right out of the metaverse,” said Rothman. “We need to strike a balance.”
Hitting the AWE Floor
I first started covering AWE during the pandemic when the entire conference was virtual. AWE is a lot more fun in-person but, practically speaking, the demos are the only component that can’t really happen remotely.
Meeting Wol
I actually met Wol in the Niantic Lounge before the very first session on Day One. While this is where arranging this content makes sense to me, Wol was possibly my first impression of AWE. And it was a good one. But wait, who’s Wol?
Niantic Lounge
Wol is a collaboration between 8th Wall, Liquid City, and InWorld AI. He’s an artificially intelligent character virtually embodied as an owl. His only job is to educate people about the Redwood Forest but he’s also passionate about mushrooms, fairies, and, well, you just have to meet him.
“Wol has a lot of personal knowledge about his own life, and he can talk to you about the forest through his own experience,” explained Liquid City Director Keiichi Matsuda. “Ultimately, Wol has a mind of its own and we can only provide parameters for it.”
I met Wol through the Quest Pro in passthrough AR via a portal that appeared in the room directly into the Redwoods – and, now that I think about it, this was the day before Niantic announced that 8th Wall supported Quest Pro MR. In any case, the whole experience was magical, and I can’t wait to get home and show it to the family.
Visiting Orlando via Santa Clara
Largely thanks to a group called the Orlando Economic Partnership, Orlando is quickly becoming a global epicenter of metaverse development. Just one of their many initiatives is an 800-square-mile virtual twin of the Orlando area. The digital twin has its own in-person viewing room in Orlando but it also exists in a more bite-size iteration that runs on a Quest 2.
“The idea was to showcase the entire region – all of its assets in terms of data points that we could present,” explained the OEP’s Director of Marketing and Communications Justin Braun. “It’s going to become a platform for the city to build on.”
I was able to see at AWE featured photorealistic 3D models of Orlando landmarks, complete with informational slides and quiz questions. The full version, which took 11 months, is a lot more fully featured. It just doesn’t fit in Braun’s backpack.
“At some point, this will be able to do things that are beneficial for the city and its utilities, like shower power outages,” said the OEP’s Chief Information Officer David Adelson. “It’s community-driven.”
Gathering Around the Campfire
I opened by saying that demos can’t be done remotely. I remotely demoed Campfire recently, but that was their desktop view. Campfire also offers tabletop and room-scale 3D interactions that require the company’s custom-made headset and markers. I got to try these solutions out hands-on when I reconnected with CEO and co-founder Jay Wright on the AWE floor.
Campfire at AWE USA 2023
“The perception system is designed to do one thing very well, and that’s to make multi-user AR as high-fidelity as desktop,” said Wright. And they’ve done it.
Models and mockups that I viewed in mixed reality using Campfire’s hardware were beautifully rendered. The internet connectivity at AWE is notoriously spotty and, while the controller disconnected a few times, the display never skipped a beat.
Wright demonstrated the visor that switches Campfire from MR to VR on a virtually reconstructed art museum that I could view from above in a “dollhouse mode” or travel through in a 1:1 model. In addition to showcasing more hardware and software ease-of-use, it might have been the most graphically impressive showcase I’ve seen from XR hardware ever.
The Lenovo VRX
With Lenovo ThinkReality’s new headset announced the day before AWE started, this might be the record for the shortest passage of time between a headset releasing and my putting it on – and it’s all thanks to ARPost’s longtime Lenovo contact Bill Adams.
“We think we have one of the best passthrough headsets and most comfortable headsets in the industry,” said Adams, who made a gentleman’s wager that I would (finally) be able to see my notes through the Lenovo VRX.
I couldn’t read my writing, but I could tell where the writing was on the page – which, honestly, is enough. Having tried the same experiment on the Quest Pro earlier that day, I can back up what Adams said about the headset’s passthrough quality.
As for comfort, ditto. The headset features a removable overhead strap, but it was so comfortable that I forgot that the strap was there anyway. Switching from VR to passthrough is a simple button press.
Catching Up With Snap
The average user can have a great AR experience with just a phone, and the average creator can make a really advanced experience without creating their own app, according to Snap Senior Product Communications Manager Cassie Bumgarner.
Snap at AWE 2023
“There’s a lot of chatter on the hardware front, but what we want to show is that there’s so much more left to unlock on the mobile front,” said Bumgarner.
A Snap Lense made with QReal uses AI to identify LEGO bricks in a tub. A quick scan, and the lens recommends small models that can be made with the available pieces. Bumgarner and I still get the fun of digging out the pieces and assembling them, and then the app creates a virtual LEGO set to match our creation – in this case, a bathtub to go with the duck we made.
Of course, Snap has hardware too. On display at AWE, the company showed off the virtual try-on mirrors debuted at the Snap Partner Summit that took place in April.
One More Day of AWE
Two days down and there’s still so much to look forward to from AWE. The expo floor is still open tomorrow. There are no more keynotes, but that just means that there’s more time for panel discussions and insightful conversations. And don’t think we forgot about the Auggies. While most of the Auggies were awarded last evening, there are still three to be awarded.
Like its predecessors, Quest 3 will be able to plug into high-end gaming PCs to play top PC VR titles.
Meta might have largely abandoned PC VR, but it’s not ready to pull the plug completely.
A spokesperson for the company has confirmed with Road to VR that Quest 3 will continue to support Oculus Link (also known as Quest Link) and Air Link.
Oculus Link allows users to plug Quest headsets into their PC via USB-C to interface with the Oculus PC software. From there users can use the headsets, including Quest 3 when it launches, to play Oculus PC games like Lone Echo and SteamVR games like Half-Life: Alyx.
Air Link, which offers the same PC VR capability—except wirelessly over Wi-Fi—is also confirmed for Quest 3.
As with prior versions of the headset, this could be a lifeline for the PC VR space which would otherwise be shrinking if not for a glut of Quest 2 users using their headset to play PC VR games. Quest 2 became the most popular headset used on SteamVR shortly after it launched, and has remained there ever since, holding a significantly larger share of usage than any other headset on the platform (including Meta’s older dedicated PC VR headsets like Rift and Rift S).
One Hamsa, the studio behind VR sports game Racket: NX (2018), announced their next game during Meta’s Quest Gaming Showcase today, this time delving into futuristic, physics-based robot fighting.
Called UNDERDOGS, the single player roguelike pits you against a cast of robo-baddies in the underground robot fighting scene, letting you gear up with 100+ items, including power tools like chainsaws and wrecking balls.
From the screenshots, it also appears UNDERDOGS is also getting some comic-book style narrative inserts too.
Here’s how One Hamsa describes the game:
[H]ire hackers and saboteurs, hustle and deal with the gangsters and psychos that run these streets as you claw your way up the food chain. This city is a dog-eat-dog s#@^ show, but luckily you ain’t alone. Your little bruv King is in your corner – hacking your enemies and giving you lip while you fight like a wild animal, smashing car sized pit bots that wanna kill you dead to the the deafening roars of the blood thirsty crowds. This is New Brakka – The Mech Fighting Capital of the World.
As a physics-based combat game, it also seems like there’s a fair bit of punching and weapon melee.
You’ll have some time to reorder your space for all the room-scale slashing and bashing. UNERDOGS is slated to hit the Quest Store sometime in early 2024. In the meantime, we’ll be following along with One Hamsa’s Twitter for all of the latest developments on its first post-Racket: NX VR game.
Siôn is a reporter at TNW. With a background in environmental science, he loves to write about climate tech, policy, and the built environme Siôn is a reporter at TNW. With a background in environmental science, he loves to write about climate tech, policy, and the built environment.
The European Commission launched a new initiative this week to help 100 deep tech startups become unicorns, as the bloc looks to accelerate growth in green and digital technologies.
“We will identify one hundred of Europe’s future tech champions, engage them, and provide them with support on their scaleup journey,” said EU tech chief Margrethe Vestager, who announced the EIC Scale Up 100 initiative at a deep tech conference in Stockholm yesterday.
These “future tech champions” will be picked from a pool of startups already enrolled in national and EU-led innovation programmes across the Continent. Only the “best performing” startups will make the cut, the EU executive said in a statement.
Startups will be selected in areas that contribute to Europe’s green and digital transition such as climate, energy, digital, and health. “Supporting scaleups is not only our best chance to produce home-grown tech giants: it is a critical choice for digital and energy resilience,” said Vestager.
The European Innovation Council (EIC) will oversee the process. The Council, which Vestager likened to a “factory of European unicorns,” has already produced 12 startups valued at $1bn or more, such as Dutch vertifical farming startup Infarm and Swedish 3D bioprinting startup Cellink. The EIC has also produced 112 ‘centaur’ companies — firms with an annual recurring revenue exceeding $100m.
EU member states and countries associated with the bloc’s scientific research initiative, Horizon Europe, will be invited to nominate companies from their ecosystems, with their participation pending the selection process.
The selected startups will receive support from a group called the EIC Scaling Club which includes 100 investors from VC, growth, and government funds, 100 companies with innovation units, and 100 independent mentors.
The initiative aims to help the startups grow annually by 40% in their valuation, new investments, partnerships, and jobs and by 50% across the same parameters for the 20 top performing companies in two years.
“EIC Scale Up 100 will prove that Europe is the most attractive location for future global unicorns and their investors,” said Vestager.
The programme falls under the New European Innovation Agenda, launched last year, which aims to boost scaleup funding, nurture deep tech skills, and implement improved policy tools.
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Thomas is a senior reporter at TNW. He covers European tech, with a focus on deeptech, startups, and government policy. Thomas is a senior reporter at TNW. He covers European tech, with a focus on deeptech, startups, and government policy.
A European airline today opened reservations for its first-ever commercial electric flights — but don’t expect a booking for this year’s summer holiday. Or the next four after that. Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) aims to make the maiden voyages within Sweden, Norway, and Denmark in 2028 — and even that sounds ambitious.
The company still hasn’t chosen the aircraft for the trip, which is unsurprising as the planes are still being built. SAS also isn’t ready to tell customers the date, departure location, distance, or duration of their flights. The airline promises to reveal further details “when decided.”
Another potential obstacle is regulatory hurdles. The new certification rules for electric aviation have, thus far, lagged behind technological development.
All of this makes it natural to have doubts about the timeline. According to SAS, the projections are based on talks with potential suppliers and the first electric flight “is estimated to be carried out in 2028.” Notably, that’s when the ES-30 airliner is due to enter service.
Designs for the ES-30 bear a strong resemblance to the images SAS used to promote its electric-flight bookings. Credit: Heart Aerospace
Developed by Swedish startup Heart Aerospace, the ES30 is expected to carry 30 passengers along a 200km all-electric range. In September 2022, SAS signed a “letter of support” about adding the model to its regional fleet.
The airline, however, says it still hasn’t made a final decision on which aircraft will operate the first flight. Nonetheless, it’s billing the ticket sales alone as a historic moment.
“The fact that we can now invite our passengers to the next major milestone in the future of aviation is a natural continuation of that pioneering spirit and a significant step on our journey towards more sustainable aviation,” said Anko van der Werff, CEO of SAS, in a statement.
Despite the apparent confidence, SAS isn’t willing to guarantee takeoffs in 2028. On the plus side, tickets are priced at a relatively reasonable 1946 Swedish krona (€168) — a nod to the year SAS started flying. And if your plans change, you can transfer the reservation to someone else.
If that convinces you to take the chance, you can reserve a seat here. There are 30 seats available on each of the three inaugural flights.
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AWE USA 2023 saw a blossoming industry defending itself from negative press and a perceived rivalry with other emerging technologies. Fortunately, Day One also brought big announcements, great discussions, and a little help from AI itself.
Ori Inbar’s Welcome Address
Historically, AWE has started with an address from founder Ori Inbar. This time, it started with an address from a hologram of Ori Inbar appearing on an ARHT display.
Ori Inbar hologram
The hologram waxed on for a few minutes about progress in the industry and XR’s incredible journey. Then the human Ori Inbar appeared and told the audience that everything that the hologram said was written by ChatGPT.
While (the real) Inbar quipped that he uses artificial intelligence to show him how not to talk, he addressed recent media claims that AI is taking attention and funding away from XR. He has a different view.
it’s ON !!!
Ori Inbar just started his opening key note at #AWE2023
“We industry insiders know this is not exactly true … AI is a good thing for XR. AI accelerates XR,” said Inbar. “XR is the interface for AI … our interactions [with AI] will become a lot less about text and prompts and a lot more about spatial context.”
“Metaverse, Shmetaverse” Returns With a Very Special Guest
Inbar has always been bullish on XR. He has been skeptical of the metaverse.
At the end of his welcome address last year, Inbar praised himself for not saying “the M word” a single time. The year before that, he opened the conference with a joke game show called “Metaverse, Shmetaverse.” Attendees this year were curious to see Inbar share the stage with a special guest: Neal Stephenson.
Neal Stephenson
Stephenson’s 1992 book, Snow Crash, introduced the world to the word “metaverse” – though Stephenson said that he wasn’t the first one to imagine the concept. He also addressed the common concern that the term for shared virtual spaces came from a dystopian novel.
“The metaverse described in Snow Crash was my best guess about what spatial computing as a mass medium might look like,” said Stephenson. “The metaverse itself is neither dystopian nor utopian.”
Stephenson then commented that the last five years or so have seen the emergence of the core technologies necessary to create the metaverse, though it still suffers from a lack of compelling content. That’s something that his company, Lamina1, hopes to address through a blockchain-based system for rewarding creators.
“There have to be experiences in the metaverse that are worth having,” said Stephenson. “For me, there’s a kind of glaring and frustrating lack of support for the people who make those experiences.”
AWE 2023 Keynotes and Follow-Ups
Both Day One and Day Two of AWE start out with blocks of keynotes on the main stage. On Day One, following Inbar’s welcome address and conversation with Stephenson, we heard from Qualcomm and XREAL (formerly Nreal). Both talks kicked off themes that would be taken up in other sessions throughout the day.
Qualcomm
From the main stage, Qualcomm Vice President and General Manager of XR, Hugo Swart, presented “Accelerating the XR Ecosystem: The Future Is Open.” He commented on the challenge of developing AR headsets, but mentioned the half-dozen or so Qualcomm-enabled headsets released in the last year, including the Lenovo ThinkReality VRX announced Tuesday.
Hugo Swart
Swart was joined on the stage by OPPO Director of XR Technology, Yi Xu, who announced a new Qualcomm-powered MR headset that would become available as a developer edition in the second half of this year.
As exciting as those announcements were, it was a software announcement that really made a stir. It’s a new Snapdragon Spaces tool called “Dual Render Fusion.”
“We have been working very hard to reimagine smartphone XR when used with AR glasses,” said Swart. “The idea is that mobile developers designing apps for 2D expand those apps to world-scale apps without any knowledge of XR.”
Keeping the Conversation Going
Another talk, “XR’s Inflection Point” presented by Qualcomm Director of Product Management Steve Lukas, provided a deeper dive into Dual Render Fusion. The tool allows an experience to use a mobile phone camera and a headworn device’s camera simultaneously. Existing app development tools hadn’t allowed this because (until now) it didn’t make sense.
Steve Lukas
“To increase XR’s adoption curve, we must first flatten its learning curve, and that’s what Qualcomm just did,” said Lukas. “We’re not ready to give up on mobile phones so why don’t we stop talking about how to replace them and start talking about how to leverage them?”
A panel discussion, “Creating a New Reality With Snapdragon Today” moderated by Qualcomm Senior Director of Product Management XR Said Bakadir, brought together Xu, Lenovo General Manager of XR and Metaverse Vishal Shah, and DigiLens Vice President of Sales and Marketing Brian Hamilton. They largely addressed the need to rethink AR content and delivery.
From left to right: Vishal Shah, Brian Hamilton, Yi Xu, and Said Bakadir
“When I talk to the developers, they say, ‘Well there’s no hardware.’ When I talk to the hardware guys, they say, ‘There’s no content.’ And we’re kind of stuck in that space,” said Bakadir.
Hamilton and Shah both said, in their own words, that Qualcomm is creating “an all-in-one platform” and “an end-to-end solution” that solves the content/delivery dilemma that Bakadir opened with.
XREAL
In case you blinked and missed it, Nreal is now XREAL. According to a release shared with ARPost, the name change had to do with “disputes regarding the Nreal mark” (probably how similar it was to “Unreal”). But, “the disputes were solved amicably.”
Chi Xu
The only change is the name – the hardware and software are still the hardware and software that we know and love. So, when CEO Chi Xu took the stage to present “Unleashing the Potential of Consumer AR” he just focused on progress.
From one angle, that progress looks like a version of XREAL’s AR operating system for Steam Deck, which Xu said is “coming soon.” From another angle, it looked like the partnership with Sightful which recently resulted in “Spacetop” – the world’s first AR laptop.
XREAL also announced Beam, a controller and compute box that can connect wirelessly or via hard connection to XREAL glasses specifically for streaming media. Beam also allows comfort and usability settings for the virtual screen that aren’t currently supported by the company’s current console and app integrations. Xu called it “the best TV innovation since TV.”
AI and XR
A number of panels and talks also picked up on Inbar’s theme of AI and XR. And they all (as far as I saw) unanimously agreed with Inbar’s assessment that there is no actual competition between the two technologies.
The most in-depth discussion on the topic was “The Intersection of AI and XR” a panel discussion between XR ethicist Kent Bye, Lamina1 CPO Tony Parisi, HTC Global VP of Corporate Development Alvin Graylin, and moderated by WXR Fund Managing Partner Amy LaMeyer.
From left to right: Amy LaMeyer, Tony Parisi, Alvin Graylin, Kent Bye
“There’s this myth that AI is here so now XR’s dead, but it’s the complete opposite,” said Graylin. Graylin pointed out that most forms of tracking and input as well as approaches to scene understanding are all driven by AI. “AI has been part of XR for a long time.”
While they all agreed that AI is a part of XR, the group disagreed on the extent to which AI could take over content creation.
“A lot of people think AI is the solution to all of their content creation and authoring needs in XR, but that’s not the whole equation,” said Parisi.
Graylin countered that AI will increasingly be able to replace human developers. Bye in particular was vocal that we should be reluctant and suspicious of handing over too much creative power to AI in the first place.
“The differentiating factor is going to be storytelling,” said Bye. “I’m seeing a lot of XR theater that has live actors doing things that AI could never do.”
Web3, WebXR, and the Metaverse
The conversation is still continuing regarding the relationship between the metaverse and Web3. With both the metaverse and Web3 focusing on the ideas of openness and interoperability, WebXR has become a common ground between the two. WebXR is also the most accessible from a hardware perspective.
“VR headsets will remain a niche tech like game consoles: some people will have them and use them and swear by them and won’t be able to live without them, but not everyone will have one,”Nokia Head of Trends and Innovation Scouting, Leslie Shannon, said in her talk “What Problem Does the Metaverse Solve?”
Leslie Shannon
“The majority of metaverse experiences are happening on mobile phones,” said Shannon. “Presence is more important than immersion.”
Wonderland Engine CEO Jonathan Hale asked “Will WebXR Replace Native XR” with The Fitness Resort COO Lydia Berry. Berry commented that the availability of WebXR across devices helps developers make their content accessible as well as discoverable.
Lydia Berry and Jonathan Hale
“The adoption challenges around glasses are there. We’re still in the really early adoption phase,” said Berry. “We need as many headsets out there as possible.”
Hale also added that WebXR is being taken more seriously as a delivery method by hardware manufacturers who were previously mainly interested in pursuing native apps.
“More and more interest is coming from hardware manufacturers every day,” said Hale. “We just announced that we’re working with Qualcomm to bring Wonderland Engine to Snapdragon Spaces.”
Keep Coming Back
AWE Day One was a riot but there’s a lot more where that came from. Day Two kicks off with keynotes by Magic Leap and Niantic, there are more talks, more panels, more AI, and the Expo Floor opens up for demos. We’ll see you tomorrow.
Meta dumped an avalanche of VR news today in its hour-long Quest Gaming Showcase livestream, revealing trailers and info on more than a dozen new games coming to Quest 2, Quest Pro, and probably also the newly unveiled Quest 3 headset.
Here’s what we’re most excited about:
Asgard’s Wrath 2
Image courtesy Sanzaru Games
That’s right, the sequel to hit Rift title Asgard’s Wrath (2019) is coming to Quest this winter, bringing with it a ton of new places to explore and a cast of new companions and puzzles. Meta’s Sanzaru Games says we should expect phsyics-based melee and a more intuitive combat system altogether, not to mention a brand-new realm to explore which will bring us to a reimagined Ancient Egypt. Catch the full announce here. Also, check out the trailer on YouTube (age-restricted).
I Expect You To Die 3: Cog in the Machine
We’ve known about the upcoming sequel to the hit spy-flavored puzzle game I Expect You To Die, but it seems every new trailer that pops up is just another opportunity to salivate at the Bond-style escape room’s ingenious puzzles and patently dastardly villains. It’s coming to the Quest platform and PSVR 2 “soon,” developers Schell Games says. Catch the full announce here.
Attack on Titan VR: Unbreakable
The trailer for Attack on Titan VR: Unbreakable is admittedly not gameplay, although it’s easy to see where it’s headed, as Japanese studio UNIVRS seems to be heavily suggesting gameplay elements here. It’s bringing both single player and co-op modes to the Titan-killing, swing-tastic game, letting you play in Japanese or English, subs included. It’s coming to Quest platform in winter 2023, which is a little later than the promised summer 2023 launch window previously announced, but better late than never. Catch the full announce here.
Dungeons of Eternity
Although it’s hard to get super excited about a roguelike dungeon crawler—there are a few really great ones out there already—Dungeons of Eternity is coming to the Quest platform this year from a studio called Othergate, which was founded by a bunch of ex-Oculus Studios game designers. The 1-3 player co-op dungeon crawling RPG also incorporates physics-based combat, which is pretty refreshing to see since it focuses on melee as well as archery and magic. Catch the full announce here.
Stranger Things VR
TV show game tie-ins are pretty hit and miss (mostly miss), but we can actually vouch for the studio developing this Stranger Things VR game, coming to Quest this fall from VR pioneers Tender Claws. You may know Tender Claws for its games Virtual Virtual Reality 1 and 2 and The Under Presents, three spectacular titles that really just get what makes VR great. Be the bad guy, Vecna. Do bad shit. Catch the full announce here.
– – — – –
Assassin’s Creed: Nexus VR
Image courtesy Ubisoft
Ok, just one more, but it’s definitely outside of our lineup since we didn’t exactly get an eye-full of Ubisoft’s upcoming Assassin’s Creed game today like we hoped, which is now confirmed to be officially called Assassin’s Creed: Nexus VR (the only real news about AC from the showcase).
The actual reveal is said to come during Ubisoft’s Forward livestream event taking place on June 12th though, so we’re closer than ever to learning whether Ubisoft is set to faithfully translate the franchise’s high-flying, time-tripping assassin into VR. Catch the full announce here.
There were a ton of games announced today. Which one are you looking forward to the most? Let us know in the comments below!
During Meta’s Quest Gaming Showcase today the company revealed the hotly awaited sequel to Asgard’s Wrath, the single-player adventure which launched on Rift in 2019.
Called Agard’s Wrath 2, the game is slated to launch on Quest 2 and Quest Pro in Winter 2023. Picking up where it last left off, the sequel suddenly thrusts you into a battle with a creature from an Ancient Egypt-inspired realm. There, you encounter the ‘Weavers of Fate’ who set you on a mission to find and stop a certain trickster god.
Meta-owned studio Sanzaru Games says the sequel includes a host of new realms to explore, including Asgardian realms in addition to vast desert expanses of ancient Egypt. You’ll be able to battle and puzzle your way through temples, caves, and dungeons, where you’re encounter monsters, main quests, sidequests, crafting resources, mini-games and more.
Like the first, you’ll have access to a cast of warrior-followers to help you solve puzzles and help you take on enemies. God-scale perspective
Asgard’s Wrath 2 includes an updated combat system that departs from the last, which previously required you to block and parry hits, destroy shields and armor, then kill the enemy itself. Now you’ll be able to hack away at defenses naturally in addition to parrying for opportune melee windows. It also includes elemental types and a wider variety of enemies in addition to physics-based melee. Upgradeable abilities and weapons extend beyond the player, as companions also have their own skill trees.
Enemies are said to scale to user level and ability, giving them access to better moves and defensive measures. In addition to the main game, there’s also set to be an infinite dungeon crawling mode to help you bone up on tactics.
Among Meta’s avalanche of Quest gaming news today, the company revealed that Bulletstorm, the co-op shooter first launched on flatscreen in 2011, is coming to VR for the first time.
The game is currently under development by Incuvo, known for Green Hell VR, and the game’s original developers People Can Fly.
If you haven’t played the original, or the remastered version Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition (2017) on flatscreen, Bulletstorm sets itself apart from other shooters by emphasizing skill points, which you earn by creatively dispatching the enemy.
Here’s how Incuvo describes the VR version:
Back in 2011, Bulletstorm introduced the world to the “Skillshot.” Kick an enemy into a cactus? Skillshot. Crush one under a hot dog cart? Skillshot. Grab one with your Energy Leash and fling ‘em into a burner? Definitely a skill shot. Today, People Can Fly and Incuvo (developer of Green Hell VR) announced they’re bringing Bulletstorm to the Meta Quest Store. Skillshots new and old, as well as the action-packed story—all of it recreated from the ground up to take advantage of VR.
Today’s announcement of the co-op shooter also arrived with a gameplay trailer, showing off the game’s skill-based carnage, fast-paced locomotion, and massive monsters.
It’s not clear when we’ll see Bulletstorm on Quest 2, or what other platforms it might arrive on in the future. In the meantime, take a look at the trailer below:
