XR Industry News

Creator of Indie Breaktout ‘Braid’ Building Roomscale VR Game With ‘no concessions for stationary play’

braid, braid vr, jonathan blow, jonathan blow vr, Meta Quest 3 News & Reviews, PC VR News & Reviews, PSVR 2 News & Reviews, the witness vr, XR Industry News / Ryan Harris / December 4, 2023

Jonathan Blow, the creator of one of indie gaming’s fomative successes, Braid, has begun hiring a team to develop his first VR game.

Before Fez (2012), before Limbo (2010), and before Minecraft (2009), Braid (2008) was one of the breakout successes in the formative years of indie game development and distribution.

Braid is a fairly basic 2D platformer, but with the twist of intriguing time-manipulation mechanics which made it play more like a puzzle game than a typical side-scroller. The game was widely praised and its success helped indie game development become… well, a thing. Braid is getting an Anniversary Edition next year.

Jonathan Blow, the creator of ‘Braid’ and ‘The Witness’

Now years after his 3D puzzler followup, The Witness (2016), creator Jonathan Blow is ready to try his game design chops in the VR realm with a focus on pure roomscale gameplay.

“This game has a boundary-pushing design and is made for untethered, roomscale play, with none of those game-ruining concessions for seated or stationary play,” says Blow.

While the game is far from a formal announcement, he recently shared that he’s looking to hire a small team of developers for the project, including a VR Lead Programmer:

Lead development of a new VR game, starting the game from scratch, using our in-house engine. This game has a boundary-pushing design and is made for untethered, roomscale play, with none of those game-ruining concessions for seated or stationary play.

Lead one other programmer and work with others at the company to build this game on a relatively rapid timescale. We’re looking for someone very motivated who can build high-quality technical systems without micromanagement.

Experience shipping VR games is a huge plus. Experience with Android and Vulkan rendering are a substantial plus (but it’s not a dealbreaker if you are fluent in some other rendering API). No C# Unity programmers please (unless you just happen to know C# and are better in a systems language than you are in C#).

Our engine and gameplay code are written in the in-house programming language created by Thekla. It is a modern systems language with high-powered features that do not cost runtime performance; we recommend looking into the language before applying.

Given the job description (“tetherless,” “Android,” etc), it sounds like the game is very likely to target Quest as a first priority, though Blow hasn’t confirmed any specific platforms of release.

Speaking to Road to VR Blow said that although this will be his first VR game, he’s dabbled in the medium before.

“I have been interested in VR for a long time. We had The Witness running on Valve’s pre-production hardware [prior to HTC Vive]. But the time was never right for me to do a game,” he said.

As for why he’s looking back toward VR now? He says the hardware is ready.

“It is just more about hardware having reached a certain threshold that is pretty good now, so it will only get better from here.”

Blow says development of his new VR game is expected to begin in earnest starting in 2024, so it will be some time before we see a formal announcement.

Creator of Indie Breaktout ‘Braid’ Building Roomscale VR Game With ‘no concessions for stationary play’ Read More »

Valve Launches ‘Steam Link’ on Quest for a Direct Connection to SteamVR

Meta Quest 3 News & Reviews, News, steam link oculus quest, steam link steamvr, steam link vr, steam meta quest, steam oculus quest, XR Industry News / Ryan Harris / December 1, 2023

Valve today released its first-ever application on one of Meta’s VR platforms. Steam Link allows users to quickly and easily connect their Quest headset wirelessly to SteamVR to play PC VR or flatscreen PC content.

Oculus Link / Air Link has for years allowed any Quest headset to connect to a PC to play PC VR content, but it requires users to install and use the long-outdated Oculus PC software. In many cases, that ends up just being a bothersome extra step to finally ending up at SteamVR which has a much more active library of VR apps and users.

To streamline this process, Valve today released the Steam Link app on the main Quest store (which means it has been given Meta’s official blessing). Using Steam Link, the app makes it dead simple to connect Quest directly to SteamVR without the Oculus PC software as a middle layer.

All you need to do is have a capable PC running Steam on the same network as your headset. Then launch the Steam Link app in your Quest and you’ll be greeted with a pairing code. Enter the code on your PC and… voila, you’re looking at your SteamVR library.

And it isn’t just PC VR games—you can also play any game from your Steam library on a big screen in front of you. Again, this has all been possible before, but Steam Link makes the process easier than ever.

To use Steam Link, Valve says the minimum requirements are:

Wi-Fi: 5 GHz minimum, wired connection to PC
GPUs: NVIDIA (GTX970 or better)
OS: Windows 10 or newer
Headset: Meta Quest 2, 3, or Pro

There’s indications that Steam Link on Quest may also support eye-tracking and face-tracking for those using Oculus Pro, but we haven’t had a chancre to test it just yet.

Valve Launches ‘Steam Link’ on Quest for a Direct Connection to SteamVR Read More »

Varjo XR-4 Will Get a SteamVR Tracking Variant and Sell Direct to Prosumers

News, steamvr tracking, varjo xr-4, varjo xr-4 lighthouse, varjo xr-4 steamvr, XR Industry News / Blake Jones / November 30, 2023

Varjo just announced its latest headset, the XR-4, and while the company is primarily continuing to target high-end enterprise use-cases, this is the first headset in their ‘XR’ series that they will sell directly to consumers and without a hefty annual fee that was once required to use the headset.

Released back in 2021, Varjo Aero is the company’s first and only prosumer-positioned headset. Though high-end, it has also been a lesser-speced headset than the company’s flagship devices.

The new Varjo XR-4 is the latest headset from the company that has focused on creating the highest-fidelity tethered headset on the market. While the headset’s $4,000 price tag is surely targeting high-end enterprise use-cases, for the handful of prosumers out there who have cash to burn, XR-4 is actually the cheapest of the company’s enterprise-positioned headsets yet. It’s also the first of Varjo’s XR-series headsets that the company will sell directly to consumers and without a required annual fee.

For now the company is soliciting invitations to join the consumer waitlist for the XR-4, saying those on the list will be alerted when the headset is available in their given country.

Varjo XR-4 with SteamVR Tracking

While XR-4 has its own inside-out tracking system, the company is also making a variant of the headset which ties it into the SteamVR Tracking ecosystem (as its prior headsets once relied upon).

Unfortunately it’ll bring the price of the base variant of the headset up by another $1,000. Varjo has confirmed that this variant of XR-4 can switch back and forth between SteamVR Tracking and the headset’s own inside-out tracking.

It’s potentially also possible to eschew the $1,000 addition and instead add SteamVR Tracking to the base variant of XR-4 by attaching something like the Tundra Tracker and configuring it to represent the position of the headset. Though this will take a few extra steps compared to having SteamVR Tracking built right in.

Varjo XR-4 Will Get a SteamVR Tracking Variant and Sell Direct to Prosumers Read More »

Quest 2 is Vastly Outselling Quest 3 so Far This Holiday on Amazon

Data, Meta Quest 3 News & Reviews, Quest 2, quest 3, XR Industry News / Blake Jones / November 30, 2023

With such an alluring price point on Quest 2 during the Black Friday period, it makes sense the headset would sell more than Quest 3. But what will it mean for the company’s effort to make mixed reality the main selling proposition of its headsets?

Twitter user JustDaven pointed out that Amazon reveals some coarse sales figures in certain cases, including for Quest 2 and Quest 3. We thought it would be interesting to look at all of the major Amazon territories where Quests are sold to find out what the numbers look like.

Across all major Amazon territories (just one of many places where the headset is sold), we found that Meta has sold some 240,000 Quest headsets. What’s more interesting than the raw number however is that Quest 2 is outselling Quest 3 nearly 3:1.

Even though Quest 3 is the hot new model that’s getting all the marketing, it’s not surprising how this happened.

The Quest 2 had a pretty stellar Black Friday discount with a sticker price of $250, including a $50 gift card (pricing it effectively at $200). Compare that to the lowest sticker price for Quest 3 which was $500, including a $15 gift card and a copy of Asgard’s Wrath 2 (pricing it effectively at $425).

Considering the Black Friday sticker prices ($250 vs. $500), people will naturally ask: “At twice the price of Quest 2, is Quest 3 twice as good?”

What It Means

In any case, the cheaper headset appears to be the clear winner so far this holiday season. But what does this mean for Meta—which has been trying to pivot from pure VR to mixed reality with its last two headsets?

Demeo Mixed Reality mode | Image courtesy Meta

Meta has pushed mixed reality as the primary use-case for both the Quest Pro and Quest 3. But while developers still need time to build killer apps and use-cases for mixed reality, a fresh surge of Quest 2 users is about to hit—a headset which just barely supports mixed reality experiences with a grainy black & white view.

This creates a difficult decision for developers: build for the new-fangled headsets with their greater power, better visuals, and much improved mixed reality capabilities? Or cater to the much larger audience of Quest 2 users?

This is of course always the case when game developers need to choose when to shift their focus to a next-gen game console. But this is different.

Between PS4 and PS5, for instance, there is no significant difference between the consoles that compares with the difference in mixed reality capabilities between Quest 2 and Quest 3. For PS4 and PS5, it’s comparatively easy for developers to build a single game and tune it to run well on both systems.

That’s arguably the same case for Quest 2 to Quest 3, but only if we’re talking about pure VR apps.

But a great mixed reality game built for Quest 3 is really going to struggle to provide a good experience on Quest 2; not only because of the lower resolution and black & white passthrough view, but also Quest 2’s lack of depth-sensor—a critical component for creating reasonably accurate maps of the player’s environment to truly mix the virtual and real worlds.

Quest 2 is already three years old. That’s not long for a typical console generation, but it is in the much faster moving landscape of standalone VR headsets.

A new surge of users for the last-gen headset will inevitably slow the transition to the next generation. That means developers will stay focused on the broader Quest 2 audience for a longer period, leaving Quest Pro and Quest 3 with less content that truly takes care of their main differentiator of higher quality mixed reality.

Ever since Quest Pro, Meta has focused its Quest marketing very heavily on mixed reality, giving customers a sense that there’s lots of great mixed reality content for the devices. But that’s far from the truth as things stand today. Mixed reality games and apps are still barely gestating, with most simply attaching a passthrough background to an existing game. Sure, that might make those games better in some cases, but it doesn’t really make use of the headsets’ mixed reality capabilities.

So while Meta would apparently like to see developers accelerate their transition to Quest Pro and Quest 3’s unique capabilities, the market is incentivizing them to decelerate that transition. That puts the platform and its developers at odds, with customers stuck somewhere in the twilight zone between.

Quest 2 is Vastly Outselling Quest 3 so Far This Holiday on Amazon Read More »

Vrgineers Secures $6M to Accelerate Wide-FOV VR for Enterprise

PC VR News & Reviews, vrgineers, vrgineers xtal, XR Industry News, xtal, xtal mr, xtal vr / Ryan Harris / November 29, 2023

Vrgineers, the US-Czech company known for its wide-FOV PC VR headsets for enterprise, announced it’s secured a $6 million Series A investment.

The funding round was led by Taiwania Capital, a venture capital firm based in Taipei, Taiwan. Returning investors include Czechia-based Nation 1, which has increased its share by $500,000 since the previous investment round.

Founded in 2017 and based in Delaware, United States and Prague, Czechia, Vrgineers is slated to use the funds to accelerate growth in addition to releasing a new version of its XTAL headset later this year.

Priced in the thousands of dollars, the XTAL platform is designed to appeal to enterprise, with the team putting a large emphasis on flight simulation. It offers both a ‘pure’ VR XTAL headset as well as mixed reality XTAL headsets for applications where users need to read real-world instrumentation.

“This investment is not just about the necessary funds to boost our activities and products, but it also brings a great deal of overlap,” Vrgineers CEO Marek Polcak said. “This strategic investment has connected us with the leaders in the electronics development and manufacturing industry. With this connection, we can now improve our technology to the highest level possible.”

The firm also offers a number of pilot training platforms in addition to its suite of wide-FOV XR headsets, ranging from portable, suitcase-style rigs up to custom-made trainers featuring integrated motion platforms.

Vrgineers Secures $6M to Accelerate Wide-FOV VR for Enterprise Read More »

HTC Launches Inside-out ‘Vive Ultimate Tracker’ for $200

htc vive tracker, htc vive ultimate tracker, PC VR News & Reviews, vive tracker, vive tracker 4, vive ultimate tracker, XR Industry News / Ryan Harris / November 29, 2023

First revealed at GDC 2023 earlier this year, HTC has now launched its long-awaited inside-out tracking accessory, which is now dubbed the Vive Ultimate Tracker.

Unlike previous Vive Trackers, Vive Ultimate Tracker makes use of inside-out optical tracking instead of SteamVR base stations, making it useful for users of HTC standalones Vive XR Elite and Vive Focus 3. The company says support is also eventually coming to OpenXR/SteamVR based PC VR setups in the near future.

Vive Ultimate Tracker does this by imbedding two wide-FOV cameras to track its own location in 3D space. It also allows users to link up to five trackers per headset for multi-point full-body tracking by attaching two trackers to the elbows, two to the feet, and one to the user’s hips.

Vive Ultimate Tracker also uses a standard 1/4″-20 UNC mount and has a pogo pin interface, allowing it to attach to a variety of objects, the company says, adding that it’s also slated to release developer documentation and the 3D CAD file publicly so that people can design their own bespoke mounts.

Post-launch, HTC says Vive Ultimate Tracker will work entirely independently with SteamVR, without any headset present, so it can be used to track the movement of people or objects, making it useful for industrial things like equipment and prop-tracking. That’s slated to arrive as a beta in the coming weeks.

HTC’s latest standalone, Vive XR Elite, will also see the launch of a native VRChat app in December which supports Vive Ultimate Tracker.

Priced at $200, users looking for basic full-body tracking don’t need to spend the full $1,000 though for five trackers however, as HTC is also pitching a three-tracker bundle for $600, which includes the required Vive Wireless Dongle ($39 MSRP). With that setup, you’d attach a tracker to each foot (with supplied straps) and one to your hips.

HTC is offering a few bundles as special deals from now until December 31st. Owners of Vive XR Elite who purchase the $600 Ultimate Tracker 3+1 Kit + TrackStraps Special can get a $100 discount after registering a valid Vive XR Elite serial number, bringing the price to $500. This also includes a Dance Dash download key.

HTC is also bundling Vive XR Elite and Vive Ultimate Tracker for $1,500, which includes VIVE XR Elite headset ($1,000 MSRP), 3 Vive Ultimate Trackers, 1 Wireless Dongle, a Dance Dash download key, and TrackStraps. You can find the deals over at vive.com.

Check out the specs below:

In-box items – VIVE Ultimate Tracker, 1/4″-20 UNC screw-in mount (use is optional), 120 cm USB-C to USB-C cable, Documentation (user guide QR code / safety guide / warranty card)
Tracking – 6DoF inside-out tracking – Wide-FOV tracking cameras x 2
Dimensions – 77 x 58.6 x 27.3 mm
Weight – 94 g
Battery life – Up to 7 hours
Charging time – 2.2 hours on average with Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0, 3.2 hours on average with 5V/1A power supply
Charging mechanism – USB Type-C, Pogo pins
Inputs – Pogo pins x 6, USB Type-C port
Connectivity – Proprietary 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz Wi-Fi
Compatible devices – Requires VIVE Wireless Dongle to connect to: VIVE XR Elite, VIVE Focus 3 (LBE). Support for other standalone and PC VR headsets is planned

HTC Launches Inside-out ‘Vive Ultimate Tracker’ for $200 Read More »

Varjo Reveals XR-4 Headset, Claiming Mixed Realty Visuals “indistinguishable from natural sight”

varjo, varjo mixed reality, varjo xr-4, varjo xr4, XR Industry News / Ryan Harris / November 28, 2023

Varjo has announced its latest high-end enterprise headset, the XR-4. The company is going all out on the headset’s mixed reality capabilities, saying that the view of the outside world as seen through the headset is “indistinguishable” from how the world appears with your own eyes.

That’s a seriously lofty claim, but Varjo hasn’t made a habit of hyperbole. We’ll wait until we can actually look through the headset ourselves, but clearly the company is confident in what it’s built.

But not every XR-4 headset will have what the company says is a passthrough view with a whopping 51 pixels per-degree resolution. Only the more expensive variant—the ‘Focal Edition’, priced at $10,000—will reach that peak visual quality thanks to an eye-tracked auto-focus system which adjusts the cameras to keep the world in sharp focus wherever you’re looking around the scene.

A look at the mixed reality view through Varjo XR-4 (captured through the headset’s cameras, but not lenses)

The considerably less expensive XR-4 standard edition, priced at $4,000 nixes the auto-focus system and delivers only 33 pixels per-degree (though this is still very high resolution passthrough compared to the majority of headsets you can buy today).

Achieving such a high resolution mixed reality view has required that the headset also includes some pixel-packed displays. With XR-4 the company is also moving fully to inside-out tracking as the default, along with built-in audio, and the company’s own controllers.

Let’s look at the spec breakdown here:

Varjo XR-4 Specs, Price, Editions, and Release Date

XR-4 Focal Edition
Visuals
Display	2x mini-LED (200 nits with local dimming), 96% DCI-P3 colors
Resolution	3,840×3,744 (14.4MP)
Pixels Per-degree (claimed)	51
Refresh Rate	90Hz
Optics	Full-dome aspheric
Field-of-view (claimed)	120° × 105°
Pass-through view	Yes (51 PPD)
Optical Adjustments	IPD (automatic)
IPD Adjustment Range	56–72mm

Input & Output
Connectors	1x DisplayPort, 1x USB-C
Input	XR-4 controllers
Audio	In-headstrap speakers, 3.5mm aux port
Microphone	Dual-microphone
Weight	665g (headset) + 356g (headstrap)

Sensing
Headset-tracking	Inside-out (no external beacons), SteamVR Tracking (external beacons) [optional]
Controller-tracking	Headset-tracked (headset line-of-sight needed)
Eye-tracking	Yes (200Hz)
Expression-tracking	No
On-board cameras	6x tracking, 2x RGB (20MP) eye-tracked auto-focus
Depth-sensor	LiDAR (300 Kpix)
Price
MSRP	$10,000

This is the XR-4 ‘Focal Edition’ which includes eye-tracked auto-focus passthrough cameras to achieve the claimed 51 PPD passthrough resolution. The ‘standard edition’ XR has nearly identical specs, except without the auto-focus camera, the company says the headset’s passthrough resolution drops to 33 PPD.

As for pricing, while the Focal Edition is seriously pricey, the standard edition is actually cheaper than its predecessor; the XR-3 was priced at $5,500 for the headset alone, plus a required $1,500 annual support charge. XR-4 standard edition meanwhile is priced at $4,000 and does not require an annual support charge.

Varjo is also making two ‘Secure Edition’ variants of the XR-4 (which mirror the specs of the Focal Edition and standard edition, but these are TAA compliant and can be ordered without any wireless radios (this is for particularly niche applications where data security is critical, for instance in military applications). These are priced even higher, at $8,000 and $14,000 respectively.

The headset-tracked controllers are made in partnership with Razer, which has previously dabbled with various VR accessories.

Varjo says the XR-4 will begin shipping by the end of 2023.

Varjo Reveals XR-4 Headset, Claiming Mixed Realty Visuals “indistinguishable from natural sight” Read More »

Samsung Files XR ‘Glasses’ Trademark in the UK

apple vision pro, galaxy glasses, samsung, samsung ar, samsung galaxy glasses, samsung glasses, samsung samrt glasses, Samsung VR, samsung xr, XR Industry News / Blake Jones / November 27, 2023

Samsung has secured a trademark with the UK’s Intellectual Property Office for ‘Samsung Glasses’, which could mean we’re finally seeing some movement from the South Korean tech giant to release an XR headset.

Filed in August and later entered into registry in November, the Samsung Glasses trademark specifies that it covers “Virtual reality headsets; Augmented reality headsets; Headphones; Smartphones; Smart glasses.” The news was first reported by UploadVR.

Samsung announced in February it was partnering with Google and Qualcomm to develop an XR device, something the company said at the time was “not too far away.” We’re still not sure what it will be other than hardware made by Samsung, software by Google, and chipset by Qualcomm.

While unconfirmed as a related device, only a short month later Samsung filed for the US trademark ‘Samsung Galaxy Glasses’. In its description, the US filing is said to cover the same categories as the UK trademark.

Granted, this is a pretty wide range of devices which span the entire XR gamut, although both proposed ‘Glasses’ monikers seem to imply it wouldn’t be a direct competitor to either Meta Quest 3 or the soon-to-release Apple Vision Pro, the $3,500 mixed reality headset which is set to launch sometime early next year.

Quest 3 (left) and Apple Vision Pro (right) | Based on images courtesy Meta, Apple

Vision Pro is well beyond the size of spectacles, so calling anything with that format would be an odd move. There are a few candidates though.

Something similar to Meta’s Smart Glasses from Ray-Ban could be more fitting to bear the ‘Samsung Glasses’ name. Confusingly enough, Meta Smart Glasses don’t have a display, instead packing in cameras, off-ear headphones, microphones, and voice access to Meta’s digital assistant.

Another option might be a device similar to XREAL’s Air 2 Pro, which packs in birdbath optics and micro-OLEDs for traditional content consumption, such as film, TV, and flatscreen video games.

A full-blown pair of all-day AR glasses is decidedly out of the picture though, as optics and battery technology (among other things) still aren’t at a point where they’d fit into a glasses format. These are problems that every major tech company in the XR space is working on currently, but it’s safe to say we’re years away from what many hope will be the next major computing platform.

Samsung Files XR ‘Glasses’ Trademark in the UK Read More »

VR Veteran Studio nDreams Acquired by Aonic for $110M

aonic, aonic group, ndreams, ndreams acquisition, vr acquisition, xr acquisition, XR Industry News / Ryan Harris / November 20, 2023

nDreams, the veteran VR studio, today announced it was acquired by video gaming group Aonic for $110 million.

The Farnborough, UK-based nDreams has changed a fair bit since its founding in 2006. Having taken up VR game development full-time in 2013, the studio went on to release a slew of VR titles complimenting nearly every major headset release, including games such as The Assembly (2016), Phantom: Covert Ops (2020), Fracked (2021), and Ghostbusters: Rise of the Ghost Lord (2023).

The acquisition by Aonic follows a $35 million investment from the group in March 2022, which at the time helped nDreams expand its publishing wing in addition to allowing the studio to grow to 250 employees strong across its family of studios, including Elevation, Orbital and Near Light.

Since then, the company has underwritten a number of VR games, such as Little Cities (2022) and Powerwash Simulator VR (2023).

The studio says it’s not changing its commitment to VR and MR gaming, but rather continuing to expand its position in XR even further. Studio co-founders Patrick and Tamsin O’Luanaigh are also remaining in their positions alongside the rest of the company’s executive team and board.

The acquisition however will allow nDreams to collaborate with Aonic’s family of game studios, such as Warren Spector’s OtherSide Entertainment, Milky Tea, and Bkom Studios.

nDreams says it’s also looking at investment opportunities in third-party publishing titles as well as possible studio acquisitions.

VR Veteran Studio nDreams Acquired by Aonic for $110M Read More »

Varjo Teaser Strongly Suggests New XR-4 Headset Reveal

News, varjo, varjo xr-4, XR Industry News / Ryan Harris / November 15, 2023

High-end enterprise headset maker Varjo is teasing an online “special event” where it says viewers will “discover the future of VR/XR.” The tease heavily points in the direction of the company’s next headset, likely the XR-4.

Varjo has been steadily making its high-end enterprise focused XR headsets better and cheaper over the course of years. The company’s key differentiator has been its ‘bionic display’ system which adds an extra display to each lens which offers retina resolution quality in a small area at the center of the headset’s view.

The company has also focused heavily on making high-quality passthrough and interesting features to take advantage of it. It’s latest flagship headset, the XR-3, was announced back in late 2020.

Today the company announced a forthcoming “special event” with some photography that heavily implies we’ll see the announcement of a new XR-4 headset.

The online-only event will take place on November 27th at 10AM PT (your timezone here).

While it looks like we can probably expect to hear about the Varjo XR-4, it’s unclear if the company will have any updates on its high-end consumer headset, Varjo Aero, which got a big price cut recently. While we don’t know exactly what the company’s plans are for the future of the Aero, Varjo told us last year its plan was to make it a whole series of headsets, not just a one-off device.

Varjo Teaser Strongly Suggests New XR-4 Headset Reveal Read More »

Valve is “still working on VR and still pushing forward on it”

PC VR News & Reviews, steam deck, steam deckard, steam standalone vr, steam vr, SteamVR, valve vr, valve vr headset, XR Industry News / Blake Jones / November 13, 2023

Valve unveiled its Steam Deck OLED late last week, offering up a hardware refresh for the first time since the company launched the handheld gaming device last year. While the company has been full steam ahead on handhelds and developing Steam OS, Valve says it’s “still pushing forward” on VR.

Valve ostensibly has a standalone VR headset in the works, and although there wasn’t any big announcement (or acknowledgement) of what the company has in store just yet. Talking to Norman Chan of Tested though, it was revealed the company is still working on VR.

In an interview, Valve designer Lawrence Yang spoke about the overlap between Steam Deck’s design relative to its VR efforts:

“There’s a lot of things [informing hardware decisions]. Working with an APU, working with miniaturization of computers. We don’t have anything to announce today in terms of a VR other than we are still working on VR, and we’re still pushing forward on it. Just like Steam Deck is learning a bunch of stuff from controllers and VR, future products will continue to learn from everything we’ve done with Steam Deck.”

“Obviously there’s a lot of overlap, from technology pieces that we can use; wireless streaming is very applicable to VR. That benefitted Steam Deck as well in improving the wireless experience. But also from just establishing relationships with part suppliers, hardware partners, and that kind of stuff. The SteamVR team and the Steam Deck team work together. There’s a lot of inoculation of ideas, parts and technologies.”

At Steam Deck’s initial launch in February 2022, Valve chief Gabe Newell told Edge Magazine that Steam Deck represented a “steppingstone” to portable VR for the company thanks to its battery-capable, high-performance horsepower.

More recently, the company released its long-awaited SteamVR 2.0 which drastically upgraded the platform’s VR interface. Whether this is in preparation for an upcoming VR standalone headset remains to be seen; it’s certainly a knock-on effect of improvements made specifically for Steam Deck’s UI.

You can check out the full breakdown of Steam Deck OLED in the Tested video below:

Valve is “still working on VR and still pushing forward on it” Read More »

‘Tokyo Chronos’ Studio MyDearest Secures $7.8M to Further Expand IP on Quest & PSVR 2

brazen blaze, Meta Quest 3 News & Reviews, my dearest, mydearest, mydearest inc., PSVR 2 News & Reviews, tokyo choronos, XR Industry News / Ryan Harris / November 11, 2023

MyDearest, the Japan-based VR studio behind the Chronos adventure game franchise, announced it’s secured $7.8 million (1.2 billion yen), something the studio says it will use to expand its existing IP for VR headsets, such as Meta Quest and PSVR 2.

The investment was led by SBI Investment Co., Ltd. and is joined by DG Daiwa Ventures Inc., NetEase Games, Wing Capital Partners, Ltd., OLM Ventures Inc., Samurai Incubate Inc., Dentsu Group and Mitsubishi UFJ Capital.

MyDearest initially specialized in patently Japanese-style adventure games that is heavily influenced by manga, including Tokyo Chronos (2019), Altdeus: Beyond Chronos (2020), and Dyschronia: Chronos Alternate (2022).

With the funding, the studio hopes to further expand both its original IP and publishing business. Coming in 2024 is the studio’s first multiplayer shooter, Brazen Blaze, representing the studio’s first big step clearly outside of the adventure game genre.

According to MyDearest CEO Kento Kishigami, the studio hopes to use the funding to better appeal to users worldwide, and not just in Japan.

“Until now, MyDearest has been a frontrunner in VR games representing Japan, but with this round of funding, it will become a frontrunner in VR games “representing the world.” The technology of VR holds the potential to create entertainment experiences that will become the common language in a new world.”

Founded in 2016, the latest round brings the company’s total funding to $16.1 million (2.4 billion yen) to date.

‘Tokyo Chronos’ Studio MyDearest Secures $7.8M to Further Expand IP on Quest & PSVR 2 Read More »

XR Industry News

Varjo XR-4 with SteamVR Tracking

What It Means

Varjo XR-4 Specs, Price, Editions, and Release Date

XR-4 Focal Edition

Visuals

Input & Output

Sensing

Price