XR Industry News

Meta Reportedly to Return to China, Spearheading with Cheaper VR Headset

china, china quest, china quest 3, china vr, Meta, meta in china, Meta Quest 3 News & Reviews, News, tencent, tencent quest, VR in China, XR Industry News / Ryan Harris / November 11, 2023

After 14 years of being sanctioned from operating in mainland China, Meta is set to return to the country with the help of a new, lower-priced version of its VR headset, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Meta’s planned return is thanks to a deal—allegedly still in preliminary stages—with China’s Tencent, the world’s largest videogame company and soon-to-be exclusive seller of Meta headsets in China, WSJ reports, citing people familiar with the matter.

The report maintains Tencent will start selling the headset beginning in late 2024, with the two companies reaching a deal after about a year of negotiations.

While the report didn’t mention a potential price of the “lower-priced” VR headset, it’s said the China version could use cheaper lenses than the more costly pancake optics in Quest 3. It’s also said the China-approved version could be sold in other markets besides mainland China.

The proposed deal is set to grant Meta a larger share of device sales, while Tencent will have a larger share of content and service revenue, as the headset will feature games and apps published by the Shenzhen, China-based entertainment conglomerate.

As it is today, Meta’s VR hardware is subsidized by content sales, which would make the deal less attractive for Meta on paper. Still, using its VR headset tech to re-enter China, where it might further leverage growth opportunities for other products, may be worth the price.

Meanwhile, it seems Meta is striking in China just as the homegrown competition falters. While ByteDance’s VR division Pico Interactive has gained territory in Europe over the past year with the launch of its Pico 4 standalone, earlier this week it was reported that Pico is set to lay off “hundreds” of employees as it refocuses on hardware development, something that has all but dashed hopes of taking on Meta in its home turf.

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Magic Leap 2 Update Claims Vastly Improved Hand-tracking, Biometric ID, & More

magic leap 2, magic leap 2 1.4.0, magic leap 2 update, News, XR Industry News / Ryan Harris / November 11, 2023

A major update to Magic Leap 2 claims to improve many of the device’s core capabilities.

With all that’s happened in the XR space recently, it’s hard to believe that Magic Leap 2 has hardly been out for more than a year. The company continues to support and improve the device, including a major update released today (v1.4.0) which claims to improve a wide range of core capabilities.

Hand-tracking & Positional-tracking Improvements

The most notable, perhaps is the claimed “six times” improvement in hand-tracking accuracy, alongside a 10% reduction in latency. Although the device ships with a single controller, hand-tracking is the most accessible way to interact with the device, making this a very meaningful improvement.

Additionally, the company says the headset’s positional tracking has been improved, allowing virtual content to more convincingly stay locked to the real world. Specifically the company claims a “63% improvement on average (e.g. if the error was 2 cm when walking 2 meters, it is now 0.74 cm).”

This enhancement is thanks to “improvements in [real-time] calibration,” and the company says this could have knock-on improvements for other systems that rely on the headset’s camera tracking.

Biometric Unlocking and Authentication

The Magic Leap 2 v1.4.0 update also rolls out improvements for what the company calls “Iris ID”—an authentication method based on eye-recognition. The update allows users to unlock their headset with their uniquely recognized eye-scan, and developers can use the same system to authenticate and log-in to third-party applications.

Biometric ID is just one of many potential features that make eye-tracking a game-changer for XR devices.

Improved Casting and Capturing

Today’s update improves the headset’s ability to cast and capture what’s happening in the headset for sharing with others. Details on the exact changes are slim at the moment, with the company only noting:

Improves video stream sharing from the Magic Leap Hub

Improves the user experience for Capture

Removes artifacts in the third eye, improves opacity, and applies settings, across all third eye streams

Adds additional aspect ratio to support standard miracast resolutions

But it’s clear the company recognizes the importance of sharing the view of what’s happening in the headset. “Effective, high-quality capture capabilities are essential for educating and winning over new audiences, creating compelling content, and maximizing enterprise value,” the company says.

Developer Improvements

The update also adds a range of improvements to make it easier for developers to work with the headset. Specifically Magic Leap says it’s focused on improving debugging capabilities.

We’re introducing debugging and profiling tools that provide developers with more actionable information to test and optimize their applications and setups.

These tools support faster development of more reliable, valuable, and sophisticated AR solutions for enterprise. They will enable developers and partners to self-service their app debugging on user-build secure devices. Developers will be able to run profiling tools, decipher logs, and determine if a problem exists within the application or the OS.

Additionally, the update opens up developer access to the headset’s magnetometer—a digital compass which tells the direction the headset is facing—allowing developers and users to calibrate the heading for their specific situation. This is important for world-relative applications like AR navigation.

– – — – –

You can find the full update details in the Magic Leap 2 v1.4.0 release notes here.

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Report: Pico to Layoff “hundreds” as Company Shifts Focus to Hardware

bytedance, bytedance vr, pico, pico interactive, pico layoffs, pico vr, XR Industry News / Ryan Harris / November 8, 2023

There were rumors circulating late last month that TikTok parent company ByteDance was set to spin down its China-based VR headset company, Pico Interactive. While the company dismissed those rumors, a new Reuters report maintains Pico is soon set to lay off teams focused on sales, videos and platform operations, which could affect “hundreds” of employees.

Citing three people with direct knowledge of the matter, the report maintains the information comes from an internal meeting from earlier this morning wherein it was allegedly revealed Pico is keeping its VR hardware team whilst folding much of its software team back into ByteDance’s own product development team.

Reuters reports Pico’s CEO Zhou Hongwei said at the meeting that “the VR industry remains in a very early stage,” saying the company’s estimation for the industry and market growth was “too optimistic as (real growth) did not go as fast as expected.”

It’s not clear how many Pico employees will be laid off, however the report maintains that “hundreds” of staff are expected to be affected globally. Pico additionally confirmed to Reuters it was restructuring the business to focus more on hardware and core technologies, but declined to comment on possible job cuts.

Acquired by TikTok parent company ByteDance in 2021, Pico was tapped to take on Meta with its growing line of standalone VR headsets. Launched about a year ago, the company’s latest headset Pico 4 offered up some pretty compelling specs alongside what is now around 75 percent of the game library available on Quest.

The company’s long-awaited entrance into the US market has still yet to come though, as Pico has only released its consumer-focused headsets in Europe and East Asia (China, South Korea, Japan, Malaysia and Singapore).

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‘Arizona Sunshine’ Studio Working on Unannounced “AAA VR game” Based on a Global Franchise

AAA vr, aaa vr game, arizona sunshine, Meta Quest 3 News & Reviews, PC VR News & Reviews, PSVR 2 News & Reviews, vertigo games, XR Industry News / Ryan Harris / November 6, 2023

According to a recent job offer posted by Amsterdam-based developer Vertigo Games, pre-production has begun on a “high-profile, multiplatform AAA VR game,” which is said to be based on a globally recognized franchise.

Posted earlier this month, the studio is looking for a Lead Level Designer with a proven track record in level design for console/PC action-adventure games as well as expertise in Unreal Engine.

Acquired by Embracer Group in 2020, Vertigo Games is behind titles such as Arizona Sunshine (2016) and After the Fall (2021).

The company has grown significantly over the years, having acquired AR/VR studio Force Field Entertainment in 2021 in its bid to develop what it called at the time an “unannounced AAA game based on a well-known IP.”

Since the acquisition of Force Field, Vertigo Games released The 7th Guest VR (2023), the VR remake of the classic ’90s CD-ROM game. It’s also currently developing Arizona Sunshine 2, which is set to release on all major VR headsets in December.

Thanks to Brad Lynch for spotting the news.

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HTC is Sending a VR Headset to the ISS to Support Astronaut Mental Health

andreas mogensen, focus 3, HTC, htc vive, nord-space aps, vive focus 3, XR Industry News, xrhealth / Ryan Harris / November 3, 2023

Virtual reality is already being used on the ground to help prepare astronauts for the rigors of space, although now HTC says it’s sending its standalone VR headset Vive Focus 3 to the International Space Station (ISS) to help support the mental health of astronauts during their mission.

To help alleviate stress, and maybe even combat homesickness, a specially-fitted Vive Focus 3 will make its way to the ISS starting on November 7th as a part of a resupply mission.

The company says in a blogpost that it will be used by Danish astronaut Andreas Mogensen, Commander of Expedition 70 on the ISS, who will run a mental health initiative created by XRHealth and Nord-Space Aps.

Like all modern VR headsets, Vive Focus 3’s room-positioning system wasn’t built with the microgravity of space in mind, however the company settled on a solution that’s sometimes used in the world of location-based entertainment, such as roller coasters and flight simulators.

Using a controller as an anchor point allows the headset to orient itself spatially, giving Mogensen a fixed reference point as ‘the ground’, presumably leaving the other controller to operate the headset’s user interface.

The initiative’s main goal is one of VR-based therapy, which is designed to give astronauts a break from the isolating environment and allow them to be transported to another place via immersive 360-degree videos.

It’s set to include videos such as a sunset atop a picturesque hill, a mountain path in Europe, swimming with dolphins, a tour of the western coast of Denmark, and a nature hike through the wetlands.

“Astronauts are essentially isolated during their missions for months and years at a time and are confined to small spaces with limited contact with friends and family,” says Per Lundahl Thomsen, Chief Technology Officer at Nord-Space Aps. “Creating a virtual platform that addresses their mental health needs while in isolation is imperative for them to maintain a healthy lifestyle when they return. We partnered with companies that provide the most advanced technologies that could be adapted for space to provide the most beneficial experience for our astronauts.”

While 360 videos are generally less immersive than dedicated virtual reality simulations—even 3D 360 videos lack support for 6DOF spatial movement—it’s certainly sounds like a well-calculated stab at putting the minimum viable solution in the hands of astronauts to see just how much VR can help alleviate the daily stressors of working and living aboard the ISS.

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Magic Leap Shakes up Leadership with New CEO

magic leap, magic leap ceo, News, peggy johnson, ross rosenberg, XR Industry News / Ryan Harris / October 31, 2023

Magic Leap, maker of one of the best AR headsets on the market, is making a major change to its leadership with a new CEO that will face the challenge of carving out territory for its transparent AR technology against a growing wave of passthrough AR headsets.

After a meteoric rise and then near catastrophic collapse under its original founder Rony Abovitz, Magic Leap brought on Peggy Johnson to stabilize the company, manage its pivot to enterprise, and launch the Magic Leap 2. Three years later, Johnson is out and a new CEO is taking over.

Magic Leap has announced that Ross Rosenberg will take up the position, an experienced tech executive who has worked in senior roles at a number of large-scale enterprise technology companies.

From the announcement, and its description of Rosenberg’s prior work, it seems clear that Magic Leap is hoping the new CEO will be able to guide it toward increased (or perhaps, initial) profitability.

But Rosenberg’s tenure will inevitably be about more than just streamlining operations and finding the right product-market fit; he’ll also need to both grow and defend the company’s turf as newer headsets focus on passthrough AR capabilities—the likes of Quest 3 and Vision Pro.

While neither headset is directly competing against Magic Leap’s enterprise-focused transparent AR headset, Rosenberg will surely be looking a few years down the road at which point passthrough AR headsets could begin to approach the size and real-life visual quality that is currently Magic Leap’s advantage.

The company hasn’t yet hinted at an upcoming Magic Leap 3 headset, though with the current Magic Leap 2 only being out for a little over a year at this point, that could well still be brewing.

At least from the outside, it looks like the company had an amicable split with the former CEO, Peggy Johnson, though it isn’t clear which side compelled the change.

“Having accomplished so much of what I set out to do at Magic Leap, I felt the time had come to transition leadership to a new CEO who can guide the company through its next period of growth,” Johnson said in the announcement. “I’m incredibly proud of the leadership team we’ve built at Magic Leap and want to sincerely thank all of the employees for their work in helping to successfully reorient the company to the enterprise market.”

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Reality Labs Revenue Drops to Lowest Point on Record Ahead of Quest 3 Launch

News, reality labs revenue, XR Industry News / Ryan Harris / October 26, 2023

Meta today announced its third quarter earnings, revealing that revenue of its Reality Labs XR division dropped to its lowest point on record, just ahead of the launch of Quest 3. All eyes are now on the holiday season to see if Meta’s new hardware will move the needle.

Meta announced the latest Reality Labs revenue figures today during its Q3 earnings call. While the division had shown strong performance when Quest 2 was the company’s hot new product, revenue has fallen on average as the headset has aged. That led Reality Labs’ Q3 2023 revenue to drop to $210 million, and a loss of 27% year-over-year. That’s the lowest point on record since Meta began divulging Reality Labs revenue in Q4 2020.

Due to Meta’s significant ongoing investments in Reality Labs, the division overall lost a whopping $3.74 billion in Q3 2023, continuing the trend of significant losses over the last 12 quarters. Meta has previously warned investors that these major investment expenses may not pay off until the 2030s.

Next quarter ought to see a significant revenue boost for Reality Labs thanks to a combination of new hardware and the holiday shopping season.

Quest 3 and Meta’s new Ray-Ban smartglasses launched just after the end of Q3. That means we won’t begin to see the impact of those new products on revenue until the company’s Q4 earnings announcement.

Historically, the Q4 holiday quarter has been the best performer for Reality Labs, and it’ll be interesting to see if Q4 2023 can top the division’s revenue record of $877 million in Q4 2022.

As for comments on the call, Meta executives didn’t have much to share at this point about the performance of the launch of Quest 3 or the Ray-Ban smartglasses. They didn’t offer much more than saying only that initial reviews were positive and they are happy with the launch of the new products, and excited to have them on the market on the leadup to the holidays.

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Pico Shutdown Rumors are False, Says Parent Company ByteDance

pico, pico 4, pico 5, pico interactive, pico mr, pico shutdown, pico vr, pico xr, XR Industry News / Ryan Harris / October 25, 2023

A recent rumor, which alleged that TikTok parent company ByteDance is slated to spin down its XR hardware subsidiary Pico Interactive, is false, the company says.

China-based publication EqualOcean reported late last week that ByteDance is set to “gradually abandon the PICO business.”

The report alleged the person in charge of Pico recently went to Singapore to report to ByteDance founder and CEO Zhang Yiming, maintaining Pico’s performance in the past few years has “not met expectations, and there is no hope for the future.”

ByteDance has since disavowed the report, telling China’s Financial Associated Press (Chinese) the news was “untrue,” and that “PICO is operating normally and the company will invest in XR business in the long term.”

Founded in 2015 and later acquired by ByteDance in 2021, Pico Interactive has created a number of standalone VR headsets over the years. Its most recent of which, Pico 4, was released in 2022 as an apparent competitor to Meta’s Quest 2.

While priced competitively and available for purchase in most of Europe and a number of countries in Asia, the €429 (~$450) Pico 4 still hasn’t made its long-awaited debut in the United States where it would more directly compete with Quest 2 or Meta’s latest, Quest 3. Meanwhile, Pico has made a concerted effort in those regions to bring a majority of Quest’s top apps to Pico 4.

Back in February, Pico began a round of layoffs that at the time were reported to be in the hundreds. Responding to that report, the company maintained it would only be a “small number of colleagues.”

Thanks to Cix Liv for pointing us to the news.

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