I’m back in Italy, after a very long and complex trip back from the US (I had a stop of 13 hours in Paris!). Now I have a few weeks when I’ll stay at home in Italy, and can dedicate myself a bit more to my development job. I think it’s going to be also good for my health, because this month I’ve changed 5 times my timezone in 20 days and I still don’t know what time it is now…
Top news of the week
Meta releases mobile-only game Super Strike on Horizon Worlds
I can imagine your confusion about my choice of putting the release of a game on Horizon Worlds as the most important piece of news of the week. I guess you think all those trips made my brain melt, but actually, there is a solid explanation for this.
The news, per se, is that Ouro Interactive, an internal studio created by Meta to develop high-quality experiences in Horizon Worlds, has just released Super Strike in early access. This is a shooter action game in Horizon Worlds that you can play in the classical team vs team or one-against-all fashion.
Of course, it is not the game per se that is interesting to me. What I think is relevant is that this game is Mobile only. That is, this is a Horizon Worlds game, made by Meta itself, and is not compatible with VR. When we think about Horizon Worlds, we are used to thinking about Meta’s attempt to create the VR metaverse, but things are clearly shifting. Meta has launched at Connect a contest for mobile games on Horizon Worlds, putting $2.5M of prizes at stake. And there have been similar initiatives happening in recent times. So it is not just a game triggering the alarm, but a series of different initiatives.
This is another huge sign that Meta Reality Labs is not considering VR as its priority anymore. I don’t think it is abandoning VR, because it is still investing in MR/VR content, and a new headset is rumored for next year. But it is clearly giving priority to other technologies. I was at Meta Connect, and most of the announcements were about smartglasses, AI, and Horizon Worlds. And while Horizon Worlds started as a social VR experience, now it is shifting towards web and mobile. Meta is clearly trying to replicate the success of Roblox by entering the huge mobile market. In my opinion, it will be very hard for it to steal users from Roblox, though.
Times are hard for us XR people now…
Other relevant news
Meta to open new physical stores
Probably, to Meta, it is not enough to have a strong partner like EssilorLuxottica to showcase smartglasses to the people: the company from Menlo Park wants to have its own stores, like Apple.
Some time ago, Meta opened a flagship store in Burlingame, next to its Reality Labs HQ. Then it opened a pop-up store in LA. After some radio silence, the company announced it wants to continue with this strategy: in LA, it will open a pretty big Meta store (more than 20,000 square feet, which is more than 2000 square meters), and then it will open two pop-up stores in New York and Las Vegas. The LA store promises to be pretty iconic, with the theme being “Skating in Southern California, From Dogtown to Present”. Meta teased great demos of its glasses, and also a limited edition for sale only inside this store.
The fact that Meta is investing in these stores makes us think that the first two went pretty well, so it is doubling down on this strategy. Probably the plan is to expand worldwide and have a Meta store in every big city in the next 5 years. This, for sure, would help Meta in building its brand and make people try its devices, from smartglasses to XR headsets.
I honestly don’t know what to think about it. On one side, it makes sense to have stores where to demo XR devices. We all know it is necessary. On the other side, it is a huge investment, and usually the stores of the companies that are not Apple (e.g. Microsoft, or Google) feel nice, but they are not iconic.
More info (Meta opening its stores — Road To VR)
More info (Meta opening its stores — Upload VR)
HMS shares more info about its SiNGRAY G2 headset
Some months ago, I told you about the SiNGRAY G2 headset, a headset produced by the Japanese company HMS. This device is interesting because it is an AR enterprise headset, so it tries to fill the void left by HoloLens and Magic Leap. The company has finally demoed the headset outside Japan, and we got to know something more about its specifications:
- Chipset: Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2
- VPU: Intel Movidius Myriad X
- Displays resolution: 1920×1080
- Refresh rate: 90Hz
- Field of view: 41° Horizontal, 24° Vertical
- Optics: Birdbath
- Operating system: Android fork
The birdbath optics make it less advanced than HoloLens or Magic Leap, but its processor is definitely powerful, and since it offloads the tracking to the VPU, it has more computational power to share with the applications.
There’s no public price announced for SiNGRAY G2, but preorders should open later this year, and mass production is planned for 2026. I’m following this headset with interest, because many enterprise customers are in need of a new AR headset to replace their old HoloLens.
REK organized a successful robot fight with VR
I admit I didn’t have “Fights between robots” in my VR bingo for 2025. But here we are talking about it anyway.
REK, the company founded by Cix Liv starring other XR celebrities like Nima Zeighami and Amanda Watson, just had its first event this week in San Francisco, and it was a huge success. The event was a sort of boxing fight between robots inside a cage, with the robots being controlled through VR headsets by two professional fighters. It was innovative, and it was fun. There was a huge line of people waiting to enter to assist it.
Among the many use cases we thought about VR, robots fighting was usually not included. But it seems that it can actually be a pretty good one. Big compliments to all the REK team. Now we have only to see if this idea can appeal outside the hard tech ecosystem of the Bay Area…
More info (The line to attend the match)
More info (A short portion of the boxing match)
More info (A proof of the success of the event)
News worth a mention
Hideo Kojima and Niantic Spatial partnered to create… something
One of the most intriguing news of the week has been the announcement of the partnership between Niantic Spatial, the company focused on creating the “outside world metaverse,” and Kojima Productions, the company of the legendary game designer Hideo Kojima.
It sounds amazing because maybe this partnership may lead to an engaging outdoor AR game. The problem is that we don’t know, because both the words and the video with which the partnership has been announced are just plain fluff. It is absolutely not clear what they are building together. This is the reason why you find this news here and not in the upper section.
Anyway, count me intrigued. I’ll keep an eye out for future updates.
More info (Kojima X Niantic — Road To VR)
More info (Kojima X Niantic — Upload VR)
Pimax announces delays on its headsets
Pimax announced delays in shipping its very compact Dream Air headset. If it were another company, I would have said I’m disappointed by the delay, but being Pimax, I would say that I would be disappointed otherwise. Delays are part of the DNA of the company.
After already having missed its first promised deadline, Pimax said some days ago that the SteamVR Tracking variants of Dream Air and Dream Air SE will actually start shipping from December, while the inside-out computer vision tracking models won’t ship to customers until next year.
But since innovation is another part of the DNA of the company, Pimax announced that the Dream Air headset will ship with some innovative concave lenses, which will offer up to 110° of field of view. This is the largest field of view ever seen on a headset based on micro-OLED displays, and it is pretty cool.
More info (Pimax delays — Road To VR)
More info (Pimax delays — Upload VR)
Valve expands Steam Link to more headsets
Valve has just announced the expansion of its Steam Link PCVR solution to five more headsets from HTC and Pico. The company also announced the public release of the APK build of the Steam Link client, so that it can also be installed on other headsets, even without the involvement of Valve. This is pretty cool.
It is now possible to launch PCVR games from the Quest
Last week it was a rumor, and now it has been confirmed. In v81 of the Quest, the PCVR “Rift” games that you have installed on your PC will appear alongside your Quest games, and if you click on them, Quest Link is automatically connected and the game launched. This simplifies a lot the interface for Quest PCVR users. But the problem is that now most PCVR games are on Steam, and this technology is not compatible with Steam.
One funny thing is that I remembered that this was actually teased many years ago, so I investigated inside my blog and I discovered that Mark Zuckerberg promised this feature in 2020. It has been five years in the making: better late than never, I guess…
More info (PCVR games visible on Quest)
More info (Mark Zuckerberg promising it in 2020)
GoPro Max 2 is an interesting 360 camera
After years in which the Chinese companies DJI and Insta360 have dominated the sector of the affordable 360 cameras, GoPro is trying to fight back with its new Max 2 device. Max 2 costs slightly less than the competitors ($500), and it offers “true 8K” resolution and a high 300Mbps bitrate. But it also has its drawbacks, like a lower photo resolution and a shorter battery life. It is a pretty interesting device.
Kinethreads and other crazy ideas from UIST
UIST is coming to South Korea, and its reel of the shortlisted projects shows many interesting and crazy things. One that I’ve selected for you is Kinethreads, which, using pulleys and some cords, is able to simulate force feedback and haptic sensations on your arms and feet. It’s all immersion and fun, until you trip on one of the cords and die.
(Thanks Ivan Aguilar for the tip)
More info (Kinethreads)
More info (Projects at UIST)
Meta Horizon Hyperscape Capture is a revolution for environment scanning
In the past few days, I’ve tried Meta Horizon Hyperscape Capture, and I have to tell you that it is one of the most intriguing pieces of XR tech that I’ve tried in the last few years. Basically, you can just use your Quest 3, and in just 15 minutes, you can scan your room without any previous training. After a few hours of work on the Meta Servers, you can enter a render of it made with Gaussian Splats. The definition of the scans is incredible, and you feel like you’re there. This software can become the democratization of “teleporting in VR”: you can, for instance, scan your house today, and in 20 years make your children enter it to see how you lived in the “good old times”.
Some news about content
- Apple announced a new slate of Immersive Videos for Vision Pro, ranging from sports to storytelling. They will definitely be worth a watch
- IO Interactive announced that Hitman World of Assassination has finally got its long-awaited PC VR patch. The game is so finally good on PC!
- Gunman Contracts — Stand Alone showed some impressive graphics. almost Half-Life: Alyx like, in its latest devlog video
- Microsoft Flight Simulator is coming to PSVR 2 next year
- My Monsters is an upcoming VR platformer adventure inspired by Moss, that lets you fight against your inner demons. It is out on October 2nd
- Super RC lets you play in VR with radio-controlled cars. It is out on October 1st
- Forefront, a shooter game that is a sort of 32-player Battlefield-style FPS, targets an early access launch “later this fall”.
More info (Apple Immersive Videos — Road To VR)
More info (Apple Immersive Videos — Upload VR)
More info (Hitman)
More info (Gunman Contracts — Standalone)
More info (Microsoft Flight Simulator)
More info (My Monsters)
More info (Super RC)
More info (Forefront)
Some reviews about content
- Titan Isles has been recognized as a very good bullet hell VR game by both Upload VR and Road To VR. But while Upload VR appreciated the game very much, Road To VR found it not as innovative as Windlands 2, so it has given it a good-but-not-great mark
- MotoGP Tour De Force, a new Apple Immersive Video shot with Blackmagic’s new stereo camera, is nothing short of impressive
- Successor brings an RPG tabletop strategic game to your table in mixed reality. It is a bit buggy, but it delivers on its promises
More info (Titan Isles — Road To VR)
More info (Titan Isles — Upload VR)
More info (MotoGP Tour De Force)
More info (Successor)
Other news
Good Guy AMD fixed its drivers so that now Mbucchia’s Oasis driver can bring WMR headsets back to life, also on AMD graphics cards
In the UK, a survey reports that people are not that interested in smartglasses. I guess the reason is that they don’t understand the potentialities, yet
(Thanks Tom FFiske for the tip)
ValemVR made a great prototype, recreating the interface of Ray-Ban Meta Display glasses inside the Quest 3!
Learn more (Prototype 1)
Learn more (Prototype 2)
News from partners (and friends)
Attend the Sandbox Immersive Festival!
The Sandbox Immersive Festival is back! Unluckily, I can not attend it because I have work to do, but if you can afford a trip to Beijing and are interested in XR and storytelling, you should definitely go there. This is the official description of the event I have been sent.
Sandbox Immersive Festival, Asia’s leading XR event, returns to Beijing for its fifth edition, kicking off on October 15th. This premier gathering is dedicated to showcasing the forefront of immersive storytelling, featuring a curated selection of award-winning international XR films, groundbreaking interactive experiences, and virtual performances. Beyond the exhibitions, the festival serves as a dynamic industry hub with a prestigious competition, a project market for new ventures, and a professional forum attended by field pioneers. It is the essential platform to explore the business potential of Chinese market, experience cutting-edge technology, and engage with the creators shaping the future of digital narrative.
Learn more
Gen-AIvatar delivered realistic avatars
University of Bonn, TH Köln, and MindPort collaborated on a research project called Gen-AIvatar, whose purpose was to develop a novel, AI-supported solution for generating emotions for realistic avatars. These avatars are realistic and cost-effective and enable a lot of interesting use cases.
Learn more
Meta Ray-Ban Display vs Even G1
Tyriel Wood published an interesting YouTube video about smart glasses. And he also mentioned me inside it. So you have a couple of good reasons to watch this content!
Learn more
Join the Digital Days in Prague!
Join Digital Days at the French Institute, running alongside Signal Festival — Prague on October 16 & 18, 2025, a two-day program exploring the future of digital arts through talks, panels, and workshops on economic models, distribution, and international collaboration. Featured speakers include Mathieu Vabre (CHRONIQUES Biennial), Pavel Mrkus (Signal Festival), Annabelle Playe (Ana Compagnie), Céline Berthoumieux (HACNUM), and Paul Bouchard (Diversion). A selection of French VR works will also be showcased by Diversion during the event. Free entry with registration, and programming will be held in English.
Register now for the event
Discover FM DUO camera!
Meet the FM DUO, a VR camera that is capable of filming up to 12K @30fps, and 8K @60fps. With built-in RTMP live streaming and 5G connectivity, the FM·DUO will immerse your viewers in real time! The FM·DUO features 2 full-frame CMOS sensors, with 6000 x 6000 pixels each. This allows for high-resolution zooming capabilities. Not only can you narrow in on one subject, but you can also focus on singular details of the subject’s facial expressions, clothing textures, and a multitude of other small details, enabling a much more immersive experience of VR video.
Visit Product Website
Some XR fun
Oh no, another roguelike game…
Funny link
We need more Gorilla Tag clones
Funny link
Donate for good
Like last week, also this week in this final paragraph I won’t ask you to donate to my blog, but to the poor people who are facing the consequences of the war. Please donate to the Red Cross to handle the current humanitarian situation in Ukraine. I will leave you the link to do that below.
Let me take a moment before to thank anyway all my Patreon donors for the support they give to me:
- Alex Gonzalez VR
- DeoVR
- GenVR
- Eduardo Siman
- Jonn Fredericks
- Jean-Marc Duyckaerts
- Reynaldo T Zabala
- Richard Penny
- Terry xR. Schussler
- Ilias Kapouranis
- Paolo Leoncini
- Immersive.international
- Nikk Mitchell and the great FXG team
- Jake Rubin
- Alexis Huille
- Raghu Bathina
- Chris Koomen
- Cognitive3D
- Wisear (Yacine Achiakh)
- Masterpiece X
- Dimo Pepelyashev
- Carol Dalrymple
- Keith Bradner
- Jennifer Granger
- Jason Moore
- Steve Biggs
- Julio Cesar Bolivar
- Jan Schroeder
- Kai Curtis
- Francesco Strada
- Sikaar Keita
- Ramin Assadollahi
- Juan Sotelo
- Andrew Sheldon
- Chris Madsen
- Horacio Torrendell
- Andrew Deutsch
- Fabien Benetou
- Tatiana Kartashova
- Marco “BeyondTheCastle” Arena
- Eloi Gerard
- Adam Boyd
- Jeremy Dalton
- Joel Ward
- Alex P
- Lynn Eades
- Donald P
- Casie Lane
- Catherine Henry
- Qcreator
- Ristband (Anne McKinnon & Roman Rappak)
- Stephen Robnett
- KaihatsuJai
- Christopher Boyd
- Don Williams
- Giuseppe Pippi
- Mark Frederiksen
- Ken Lin
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- Sb
- Boule Petanque
- Pieter Siekerman
- Enrico Poli
- Vooiage Technologies
- Caroline
- Liam James O’Malley
- Hillary Charnas
- Wil Stevens
- Francesco Salizzoni
- Alan Smithson
- Steve R
- Brentwahn
- Michael Gaebler
- Tiago Silva
- Matt Cool
- Mark G
- Simplex
- Gregory F Gorsuch
- Paul Shay
- Matias Nassi
And now here you are the link to donate:
Support The Red Cross in Ukraine
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