Road to VR

FEBRUARY 1, 2024

Meta today announced its fourth quarter earnings for 2023, revealing how Reality Labs has fared during the holiday season. It’s been a banner quarter for Meta’s XR division, with Reality Labs posting record revenue numbers, but also record costs. During its Q4 earnings call, Meta revealed its XR division had crossed over $1 billion in revenue for the first time, but also had its biggest quarter in terms of costs at $5.72 billion, resulting in a quarterly loss of $4.65 billion.

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FEBRUARY 1, 2024

Over the last three weeks I’ve had the chance to spend significant time in Apple Vision Pro. While my full review is still marinating, I want to share some early thoughts I’ve had while using the headset and what it means overall for the XR industry. It has to be said that anyone who doesn’t recognize how consequential the launch of Vision Pro is fundamentally doesn’t understand the XR industry.

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NOVEMBER 21, 2023

VitruviusVR, the studio behind Shadow Legend VR (2019) and Mervils: A VR Adventure (2016) , announced the upcoming release of a new sci-fi action-adventure game called Arken Age. Coming to PSVR 2 and PC VR headsets, the single-player VR adventure is set to bring a host of headlining features that ought to raise an eyebrow among fans of the genre, including fully customizable melee and ranged weapons, physics-based combat, boss fights, over two dozen unique areas, and a 10-hour campaign.

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Road to VR

NOVEMBER 19, 2023

We’re keeping an eye on the best Meta Quest 2 Black Friday & Cyber Monday 2023 deals, don’t blink or you might miss the best Quest 2 sale of the year! While we can’t recommend Quest 2 at its full price in 2023, a $100 discount is certainly worth considering if you’re looking for your first taste of VR. Updated – November 19th, 2023 The Best Meta Quest 2 Black Friday & Cyber Monday 2023 Sales Image courtesy Facebook Meta Quest 2 (128GB) The best Meta Quest 2 (128GB) Black Frid

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NOVEMBER 20, 2023

Meta Quest is getting an official Gundam VR experience, which its creators describe as a feature-length “immersive anime.” Revealed at Anime NYC by Bandai Namco Filmwork and XR studio Atlas V ( Gloom Eyes , BATTLESCAR ), Mobile Suit Gundam : Silver Phantom is set to be much more than an interactive narrative experience, it seems. “This is not a game, nor is it just a narrative experience—it’s an immersive adventure that leverages the best of both worlds.

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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).

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Road to VR

NOVEMBER 20, 2023

We’re on the lookout for the best Meta Quest 3 Black Friday 2023 sales, and Cyber Monday too. Because the headset just launched last month, we don’t expect to see any major deals, however, there are a few offers worth looking at. Updated – November 20th, 2023 The Best Meta Quest 3 Black Friday & Cyber Monday 2023 Sales Image courtesy Meta Meta Quest 3 (128GB) The best Meta Quest 3 (128GB) Black Friday & Cyber Monday 2023 sale so far is $500 bundled with $15 store credit for Q

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Road to VR

NOVEMBER 20, 2023

Industry Direct by VENTAVR Industry Direct is our program for sponsors who want to speak directly to the Road to VR newsletter audience. Industry Direct posts are written by sponsors with no involvement from the Road to VR editorial team. Links to these posts appear only in our newsletter and do not intermix with our on-site editorial feed. Industry Direct sponsors help make Road to VR possible.

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Road to VR

OCTOBER 9, 2023

Skydance Interactive, the studio behind The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners , revealed their next VR game Behemoth is being delayed by a year, now slated to arrive on all major headsets in late 2024. The studio confirmed the delay with UploadVR , also noting that the game now has a new name: Skydance’s Behemoth. First revealed at Meta Connect 2022 this time last year, the upcoming VR adventure puts you in what the studio calls a “plague-ravished wasteland of a once glorious empire

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OCTOBER 9, 2023

If you’ve been waiting to hear about a release date for the long-promised Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas on Quest, you’ll just have to sit tight a little longer. Meta announced at Connect 2021 that it was working with Rockstar Games to bring GTA: San Andreas to Quest 2 , giving players a new perspective on the nearly 20 year-old game. When asked during Connect 2023 in late September, a Meta spokesperson told Road to VR this: “We don’t have any updates to share on GTA: San Andr

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OCTOBER 9, 2023

Following Quest 2 almost three years to the day, Quest 3 is finally here. Meta continues its trend of building some of the best VR hardware out there, but it will be some time yet before the headset’s potential is fully revealed. Read on for our full Quest 3 review. I wanted to start this review saying that Quest 3 feels like a real next-gen headset.

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Road to VR

JULY 20, 2023

You might have seen the demo floating around for Tea for God for a few years now, however indie studio Void Room has finally released the full version of its VR roguelike adventure for Quest and SteamVR headsets. Tea For God is a unique VR adventure that uses “impossible spaces”, allowing players infinite movement within their own room. While there is optional stick movement, the game’s true claim to fame is its ability to smartly guide you around your own room with your own tw

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JUNE 16, 2023

INVERSE , a multiplayer survival horror unveiled by MassVR , has launched into early access on Quest. Be the monster, or the agents working together to restore power to the facility. In this 4v1 asymmetric game, players can choose to be the Agents, working together to restore control terminals, or take on the role of the Nul monster, seeking to corrupt and disable unsuspecting victims—so basically Dead by Daylight , but for VR.

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Road to VR

JUNE 16, 2023

Caveman Studios, the team behind the tactical VR shooter Contractors (2018) , announced a new competitive battle royale called Contractors Showdown. As first shared during UploadVR’s Summer Showcase, the game is set to launch on all major VR platforms in 2024, which is also slated to include crossplay. Here’s how Caveman Studios describes the action: Explore the uninhabited, rugged land that has remained ungoverned for decades.

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JUNE 16, 2023

Just a month after PlayStation’s big gaming showcase, the company announced it’s bringing four more titles to PSVR 2’s library of games, which includes an upgraded port, a remake, and two brand new titles. There is already a good swath of games on the horizon we can’t wait to play on PSVR 2, such as upcoming sci-fi shooter Synapse coming in July, Five Nights at Freddy’s: Help Wanted 2 in late 2023, Arizona Sunshine 2 later this year, and Resident Evil 4 VR coming h

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Road to VR

APRIL 26, 2023

Squido Studio announced its first-person platformer No More Rainbows is coming to Quest 2 and SteamVR headsets soon, offering up a VR take on classic platforming action. No More Rainbows has been available in open beta on Quest’s App Lab for a year now, and it’s almost time for it to graduate to the main Quest Store and Steam too. Exactly when, we don’t know, but Squido and its partner Robot Teddy say it’s coming “very soon.” Here’s the studio’s

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Road to VR

APRIL 26, 2023

ChatGPT isn’t perfect, but the popular AI chatbot’s access to large language models (LLM) means it can do a lot of things you might not expect, like give all of Tamriel’s NPC inhabitants the ability to hold natural conversations and answer questions about the iconic fantasy world. Uncanny, yes. But it’s a prescient look at how games might one day use AI to reach new heights in immersion.

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MARCH 22, 2023

Meta has nearly scrubbed all of its products of the Oculus name, however the company today announced its third-party publishing wing is getting a sort of rebrand that will see the Oculus name live on. Meta announced at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) that it’s naming its third-party publishing arm Oculus Publishing. The company tells us Oculus Studios, its first-party studio, will continue to exist.

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Road to VR

MARCH 22, 2023

Meta today revealed at Game Developers Conference (GDC) a fresh bit of insight into Quest Store stats. The company says in a developer blog post there are now 500+ titles available on the Meta Quest Store, 40 of which have grossed over $10 million in revenue. At Connect 2022 in October, the company reported that 33 titles out of the 400 apps on the Quest Store at the time had tipped over the $10 million mark.

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Road to VR

MARCH 22, 2023

ARVORE, the studio behind the Pixel Ripped game series, announced it’s releasing a sequel this summer called Pixel Ripped 1978 , which aims to take us back for another immersive trip down memory lane. To bring the latest entry in the Pixel Ripped franchise to life, the Sao Paolo, Brazil-based Arvore has struck a major branding partnership with iconic gaming house ATARI.

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Road to VR

DECEMBER 28, 2022

Dolami, a Japanese startup based both in the US and Japan, announced it raised 100 million yen (~$730,000) this week to help bring X Mask to market, a unique facemask capable of tracking a user’s facial movements in VR. While many of the specifics surrounding X Mask are still under wraps, the startup seems to have both consumer and enterprise users in mind.

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NOVEMBER 8, 2022

Turtle Beach, the gaming headphone and accessories maker, is bringing out its own Quest 2 charging dock that should keep your headset and controllers always ready for action. The device, called the Turtle Beach Fuel Compact VR Charging Station , provides power and storage for Meta Quest 2 and Touch controllers by replacing a few bits and bobs on your stock device.

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Road to VR

NOVEMBER 7, 2022

Palmer Luckey, the creator of the original Oculus Rift headset, says he’s modified a VR headset such that it can kill the user for real. The provocative art project is inspired by the anime Sword Art Online in which players who are trapped in VR die for real if they die in the virtual world. In the anime Sword Art Online , November 6th, 2022 is the day in which the VRMMORPG goes public, and the same day that players learn the dire circumstances of their situation.

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Road to VR

NOVEMBER 7, 2022

Last week, tinyBuild Games and Steel Wool Studios announced it was bringing a new VR take on viral indie hit Hello Neighbor to PSVR and PSVR 2 next year. Now the studios say they’re also bringing the game to Quest and Rift in early 2023 too. If you haven’t played before, Hello Neighbor is a stealth horror game all about sneaking into your neighbor’s house to figure out what horrible secrets he’s hiding in the basement.

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NOVEMBER 7, 2022

Tender Claws , the indie studio behind Virtual Virtual Reality and The Under Presents , announced it’s working on a Stranger Things VR game. It’s slated to arrive on all major VR headsets late next year. Called Stranger Things VR , the horror-action game was created in collaboration with Netflix and the series writers, and lets you immerse yourself in one of the major twists from last season.

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SEPTEMBER 19, 2022

Pico is gearing up to launch its next VR headset, which may very well be the previously spotted Pico 4 series of standalone headsets. The company says to stay tuned to an official announcement coming on Thursday, September 22nd. The China-based company says it’s indeed announcing a new standalone headset this week, which looks to be the very one that’s hoping to take on Meta in its home turf.

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SEPTEMBER 16, 2022

Sony still hasn’t tossed out a launch day lineup for PSVR 2, although we’re starting to get a good idea of what the next-gen VR headset might have in store when it releases sometime in early 2023. Here’s a look at what we hope will be a quickly growing list of all games announced for PSVR 2 thus far. Also, don’t forget to check out our detailed hands-on with PSVR 2 hardware to see what sets it apart from the original.

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Road to VR

AUGUST 1, 2022

Now that August is here, Meta has made good on its promise to raise the price of Quest 2 and its accessories. Here’s a quick look at how the company has increased prices for its most popular VR headset yet. If you’ve been following along you’ll recall that Meta announced just last week that it would raise the price of Quest 2 , making the industry’s most affordable VR headset a bit less of a steal.

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Road to VR

AUGUST 1, 2022

ByteDance’s Pico Interactive is getting ready to launch a new line of standalone VR headsets soon looking to compete with Meta, dubbed Pico 4 and Pico 4 Pro. Now a leak has allegedly revealed Pico 4’s controllers, and they look to be a significant step forward in terms of ergonomics. The news comes courtesy Antony Vitillo, AR/VR developer and editor over at SkarredGhost , who received the images of the controllers from a community member after having initially covered the FCC filing

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AUGUST 1, 2022

Chinese tech giant Xiaomi today unveiled a pair of smart glasses that the company is positioning as an addition to an active lifestyle, targeting consumers at 2,499 yuan (~$370). Called Mijia, the Google Glass-style device features a single display and two cameras: a 50 MP primary and 8 MP periscope camera, something the company says is capable of up to 15× zoom and 100 minutes of continuous recording.

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JUNE 15, 2022

While Oculus doesn’t offer much publicly in the way of understanding how well individual games & apps are performing across its Quest 2 storefront, it’s possible to glean some insight by looking at apps relative to each other. Here’s a snapshot of the 20 best rated Oculus Quest games and apps as of June 2022. Some quick qualifications before we get to the data: Paid and free apps are separated.

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Road to VR

JUNE 15, 2022

ENGAGE , the XR education and enterprise metaverse company, today unveiled its Link social platform which the company calls a “fully featured corporate metaverse.”. Previously codenamed Oasis when it was first revealed in June 2021, the Ireland-based studio calls Link a “professional metaverse,” as it was designed to host persistent virtual worlds which serve as gateways to individual spaces where employees, students and individual users can interact.

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APRIL 29, 2022

Bigscreen is putting Meta to shame again, as the VR hangout app just got a serious bump in functionality for Quest users and PC VR users alike. Now VR’s favorite social viewing app includes native YouTube support, so you can watch anything on YouTube with friends and strangers. Bigscreen has now added the version of YouTube you’d expect to find on a console or smart TVs, directly integrated into the VR hangout app.

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APRIL 28, 2022

Varjo today announced the launch of Varjo Reality Cloud, the company’s XR cloud streaming platform that’s aimed at making XR more scalable in enterprise settings by doing the heavy lifting of rendering in the cloud. At the outset the company is targeting the automotive industry, but plans to enable enterprises more broadly with support for Unity & Unreal Engine.

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Road to VR

APRIL 28, 2022

After the Fall (2021) , the co-op zombie shooter from Vertigo Games, is getting a nice little content bump today in its ‘Shock & Awe’ update, which brings to the game a new arsenal of weapons, a free-for-all deathmatch mode, and a new map. Launched earlier this year, the game’s Frontrunner Season has already brought a number of updates to the game, including Horde mode, two Horde mode maps, the Boulevard Harvest map, the ‘Skimmer’ enemy, the LMG and Revolver weapons, and new player out

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Road to VR

APRIL 27, 2022

Today during Meta’s Q1 2022 earnings call CEO Mark Zuckerberg told shareholders that they should buckle up for the long haul because the company’s steep investments in XR and metaverse technologies aren’t expected to flourish until the next decade. Today Meta gave its shareholders a quarterly update, in which the company overviewed its latest earnings and expenses.

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Road to VR

APRIL 26, 2022

Axon, the company best known for its Taser stun guns, has announced the acquisition of VR studio Foundry 45 which it says will bolster its VR training offerings. Founded in 1993, Axon is the company behind the well known Taser stun guns which are employed by police and military forces around the world. In modern times the company has also focused on body cams and software for administration and management of public safety organizations.

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