I’m super excited that this week I’ve shared the news that we of NTW are going to launch our game HitMotion:Reloaded on November, 27th. But there have been also many wider-scope news this week that I want to discuss with you, so let’s start talking about them!
Top news of the week
Is Magic Leap in trouble?
The Magic Leap could become a tragic leap, using some words from Palmer Luckey.
Display expert Karl Guttag has published at the beginning of this week a report claiming that all (or at least many) of the patents of Magic Leap have been assigned as collateral to bank JP Morgan. This substantially mean that ML is mortgaging its patents, so that to be able to ask for a loan and have some money to invest in the development of its products. It sounds like a desperate move, that usually startups do when they are about running out of cash: IP is one of the most important assets of a company, and when it comes the time it gets mortgaged, things are getting serious.
While we were worried, Variety published an article on the topic, where Magic Leap stated that it was in the middle of raising another round of investments, to be exact, the E round. According to ML, everything is ok, and the patents’ operation is all part of a greater schema to have more money. As my friend Christian has stated on Twitter, it is certainly not the first startup doing this, and also Uber, for instance, has done a similar operation. After this, I felt things were actually good for them.
But a new subsequent report of Karl Guttag highlighted how the situation of the startup may not be good at all: it seems it has laid off many people this year, and that while it is burning money as hell, it may have sold only 2000 units in total (plus many others given away for free). Many other analysts highlight how the problem of ML may be the fact that it has over-hyped a product that in the end was just a good HoloLens clone, almost as expensive as HL, and without a clear market as HL. Sales are not going good, and apart from many app releases (like the latest Spotify AR app), the ecosystem seems always the same in the last year and a half. Money seems over because the company burns dozens and dozens million dollars each month, and with the slow growth of the XR ecosystem, it is hard to sustain these expenses waiting for the big wave.
In the meantime, the competition of Chinese companies like nReal is threatening even more the appeal of Magic Leap. ML may release soon a second version of the device (that could include 5G connection according to Karl Guttag), which may be the one that will decide the destiny of this company. ML’s CEO Rony Abovitz has not commented on the news of the economic troubles, but he claims he’s excited by the second generation of the device.
The fact that things are not going well is confirmed by the fact that CFO Scott Henry has departed from the company, and also the great John Gaeta (the visionary genius behind The Matrix’s FX) has gone away. This is a sign of big internal troubles.
Personally I don’t love Magic Leap, but I absolutely hope they won’t fail now. Everyone has seen the video of the whale in the gym and Magic Leap is one of the XR companies having obtained more money. If ML crashed now, when people are already in doubt about the future of XR, its failure would create a ripple effect in the whole ecosystem, with investors losing faith in AR/VR startups and so not giving money to little companies really deserving to succeed. I think it would make the situation worse for us all, and we would need months to recover completely.
More info (Magic Leap putting its IP as collateral)
More info (ML raising E round of investments)
More info (Twitter comment on IP as collateral being not uncommon)
More info (Magic Leap’s complicated sales situation)
More info (Abovitz excited by ML 2)
More info (Scott Henry and John Gaeta leaving the company)
More info (Ian Hamilton’s irony on the situation)
More info (Robert Scoble’s comment on the situation)
Other relevant news
John Carmack leaves Oculus
In a surprise move that no one was expecting, the god of programming John Carmack has decided to leave Oculus. He will remain in a “consulting CTO” role, that more or less means that he will not abandon the ship abruptly, but he will help the company during the transition.
It is not clear why this has happened. He claims that he is fascinated by AI and he wants to experiment with it and innovate in that interesting field, which stimulates him a lot. While I believe he is fascinated by AI, there are still so many challenges in the AR/VR field, that I think that he could have had fun in it for at least other five years. So there must have been other reasons.
Personally, I believe in some problems with Facebook’s management: some days ago, when he was given a lifetime VR Award for his great contribution to the ecosystem, strangely John complained about the VR technology going too slow. In my opinion, it may mean (but it’s just speculation) that he would like to work on improving the technology and make it go very fast, while Facebook is working on creating a sustainable business and innovate a bit less (like what it is doing with the Rift S). This could have frustrated John in the same way it frustrated Brendan Iribe some months ago.
Another possibility, that XR detractors point to, is that he has understood that VR has some big underlying problems that can’t be solved soon in any way, and so he’s leaving the sinking ship of VR. Personally, I don’t believe this, but I think we should consider all the possibilities.
Whatever the case, I think XR has just lost a big mind. I will miss you, John.
More info (John Carmack leaves Oculus)
More info (Carmack stating he’s not satisfied with VR pace)
More info (Damo9000’s sarcasm on the news)
Apple AR glasses may be released in 2022–2023
After two negative news, we can only have a third one. Apple, that many considered as the saviour of XR, the company that could start the big wave, is probably not releasing an AR glass until 2022.
A new report from The Information states that while there are many people working on XR at Cupertino (around 1000), we won’t see an AR glass from them soon. Apple remains committed to AR, it still believes it is the technology that will supersede smartphones, but the technology is not ready to create something that is worth the Apple logo now.
In some years, it should be possible, though. According to the same report, the company will start taking developers onboard in 2021, for the release of a first mixed reality device in 2022 and an AR glass in 2023. The first device should be a visor, big as a ski goggle, with the possibility of doing both AR and VR. It should be something for home usage, maybe also something that professionals could use for creative work. In 2023, instead, the company should release a pair of sleek AR glasses for everyday usage, something that people could also wear in the streets.
The timeline is similar to the one that has been recently rumored on Facebook’s AR glasses. After I have spoken with smart people like Tony Rogers and Jeri Ellsworth, I have understood that these companies know that now it is impossible to create the AR glasses we all dream of, so the plans have to be delayed.
All these first three news together are telling us a story: AR and VR will still take more time to succeed. Don’t expect a big wave coming soon, unless some miracle happens: all companies in the field are having some troubles or some delays. But the good news is that many remain committed, so the future seems bright in the end.
More info (Apple glasses delayed to 2022)
More info (Apple glasses delay)
Snap’s Spectacles 3 are officially on sale
Snap, the company behind the popular social media Snapchat, has finally released its Spectacles 3 smartglasses. These are fashionable glasses that let you shoot photos, add to them cool filters and social effects and then share them on social media (like Snapchat or Instagram). The device has the innovative feature of exploiting its 2 cameras to apply some 3D effects to the photos, like the addition of colored balloons that float among the people portrayed. The price is $380 and you can buy them in two colors: carbon or gold.
I love that these glasses are light and fashionable, as all the smartglasses should be. We all should take style lessons from Snaps. What I don’t like is the limited functionalities (they just shoot photos and short videos and add effects) and the mediocre usability (to add the 3D effects you have to upload the video to Snap’s cloud and then download it back). Reviews are mixed: while some effects are cool, the device has some usability problems and has still to prove its utility. The past two iterations of Spectacles have not been very successful, indeed.
According to The Information, the company is already working on a fourth iteration that should add realtime AR filters. Let’s see…
More info (Spectacles 3 on sale)
More info (Spectacles 3 review)
More info (Spectacles 4 rumored)
Oculus and Insomniac release Stormland
Insomniac Games has released this week Stormland, an Oculus exclusive title that was one of the most awaited games of the year.
The game has been praised immediately from the critic and the gamers. It features an open world, with the right mix of action and exploration. It has an innovative (and fun) locomotion mechanic that lets you fly and glide in the clouds. It has co-op multiplayer features. It has replayability, with the game letting you play each week a new modified version of the environment. Reading the reviews, the scores are always around 9: there are some problems in the UX (like the UI being very cluttered in some situations) and in the fact that it requires an ultra-beefy PC, but for the rest, it is a very fun game.
If you don’t have an Oculus device, well, in the beginning there were problems in using Revive, but now they have been fixed.
Have fun with Stormland!
More info (Stormland review on Road To VR)
More info (Stormland review on Upload VR)
More info (Stormland system requirements)
More info (Stormland with Revive — Initial problems)
More info (Stormland with Revive — how to fix)
More info (Stormland: How to co-op)
More info (Stormland tips)
More info (Stormland’s virtual collectibles)
More info (Stormland: behind the scenes)
More info (Funny moment in Stormland)
Half Life VR may launch on November, 20th
According to a Reddit thread, there is the possibility that Valve will announce Half Life VR this Wednesday.
Tyler, the guy behind Valve News Network, claimed some time ago that he would have done a Half Life marathon the day of the launch of Half Life VR… then some days ago, he announced that he’s doing such a marathon on Wednesday. This makes us think that November, 20th could be the big day.
I have to warn you that VNN always releases interesting leaks on Valve, but it is also filled with hype and leaked news that don’t end up being true. I think that most probably, on 20th nothing will happen, but who knows, just let’s dream a bit 😉
News worth a mention
Lenovo is working on sleek PC AR glasses
In Beijing, Lenovo has just showcased a concept of tethered AR glasses for the workspace. The idea of Lenovo is releasing light glasses that users can connect to a PC to see big monitors in front of them, on which they can work. Considering the current state of the AR technology (limited resolution and field of view), I’m not that convinced it can work now, but I would be curious to try them.
Looking Glass is releasing an 8K holographic display
Looking Glass is releasing a new 8K holographic display for the enterprise: the new display is huge, has amazing resolution and many vantage points, letting many people see 3D content at once without wearing glasses.
The price is undisclosed, but it will be way above $5000, so it is a device for enterprise customers.
More info (Looking Glass 8K)
More info (How it looks like)
A new research makes cool holograms in the air
A new interesting research from universities of Sussex and Tokyo has created a holographic machine able to show colored holograms in the air. The system is also able to provide sounds and pseudo-tactile sensations associated with the hologram.
It is all made with ultrasound emitters that move a polystirene bead (like the ones that you can find in some packages) and LEDs that cast light on it. The effect is amazing. It is not a product yet, but I hope it can become one soon.
Droolon F1 is now on sale in China
The super-interesting eye tracking device Droolon F1 by 7Invensun is now in preorder on Taobao, with Amazon listing coming soon. I can’t wait to use this device, that for only $150 can give eye tracking functionalities to all Vive headsets (including Focus).
More info (Description of Droolon F1)
More info (Taobao link)
Gear VR dies again
Oculus has just deprecated support for Gear VR in its latest version of Oculus SDK. Developers won’t be able to create apps for it anymore.
(Thanks Kevin Williams for the news)
VR Awards have awarded all the excellences in the XR ecosystem
As every year, the VR Awards have awarded the most interesting companies in the AR/VR ecosystem. I have been proud of having been of the judges and I want to show you what have been the winners!
More info (VR Awards intro video)
More info (VR Awards 2019 winners)
New experiments on virtual taste
Researchers have injected virtual tastes sensations in flies by sending impulses to their neurons. Creepy and fascinating at the same time.
Oculus and Unity partner for a course on VR
Oculus and Unity have just released a free course on virtual reality. The course, that is worth 20-hours of lessons, will teach you all the basics of virtual reality development in Unity. It’s very interesting for beginners.
More info (Announcement)
More info (Link to the course)
$200 discount on VRX conference!
The interesting VRX conference (featuring many speakers from companies like Oculus and Snap) is coming closer, and as one of its media partners I have managed to obtain a big $200 discount for you all! During the checkout, just specify the code 5049TGH200 and spare a lot of money 😉
Click this banner to register 🙂
Other cool discounts for you
Black Friday is coming closer, and there wil be some nice discounts for all us VR enthusiasts, like -45% of Viveport Infinity or Oculus Rift S at $350.
More info (Viveport Infinity discounted)
More info (All known discounts)
We have the first reviews on Minecraft Earth
Minecraft Earth has finally arrived in the US! Besides that, we are also starting seeing more online videos and reviews about it, and from them it seems a very cool game, that has still to grow and improve to become complete.
More info (Minecraft Earth in the US)
More info (Minecraft Earth review on Upload VR)
Some news on content
This week, we had:
- Olivier JT finally launching his much awaited Synthesis Universe. It seems very cool and I invite you to check it out
- Golem finally launching after 5 years but being a bit frustrating and disappointing
- An indie game studio releasing the Early Access of Thief Simulator, that makes you embody a burglar (very original!)
- The Climb finally coming to Quest on December, 3rd. Graphics are not as on PC, but looks gorgeous as well
- Facebook making an awesome artistic installation in a theater
More info (Synthesis Universe)
More info (Golem released)
More info (Golem review)
More info (Thief Simulator)
More info (The Climb on Quest)
More info (FB’s cool installation)
Some XR fun
VR helicopter training has never been so good
AR can scare your cat!
Best cardboard ever
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