The XR Week Peek (2020.12.14): Facebook gets sued for alleged monopolization, Medal Of Honor is a mediocre game, and more!
Yesterday I got this amazing news that my Youtube channel has now 1000+ subscribers. I know that it is not a big number per se, but I’m not a Youtuber, I’ve no professional camera, and I’m a bit awkward in front of the camera, so for me, this is an incredible result! I’m really satisfied about it and I still don’t believe it has happened! I want to thank you all for helping me in reaching this goal with your love and support! Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
And now, with much love, let’s examine the best news of the week in XR!
Top news of the week
Facebook gets sued for monopolization in US and Germany
It was in the air in the last weeks and finally, the time has come: Facebook is being sued for monopolization and anticompetitive strategy. And it is not being sued only once, but three times: one accusation comes from the FTC (Federal Trade Commission of the USA), another one comes from 40 states in the USA, and a separate legal action relative just to the Quest 2 is coming from Germany’s Federal Cartel Office.
The actions coming from the US are not much related to VR and Oculus, but mostly to the social space. Due to the acquisition of Instagram and Whatsapp, Facebook has gathered a dominant position in the “personal social networking” space and has used that position to buy or destroy whatever company could become a competitor of its. Because of this, Facebook has established a monopoly, and because there is no valid competition, this is a disadvantage for the customers that so can’t choose a valid alternative. The defense of Facebook is that people choose Facebook’s services because they are the best, not because there are not other ones. In fact, there are other social media competing with Facebook, like Snapchat that competes with Instagram or Telegram that competes with Whatsapp.
Some analysts say that it may be difficult to prove that Facebook is guilty, also because Facebook has been preparing for this moment for a long time, hiring many lawyers experts on the matter, and unifying all the backend services of all its social media (Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp) so that to make harder a true separation of them. But if the FTC is going to win, Facebook may be forced to break into several smaller companies, and it would be the end of an era. This could also mean splitting the Facebook Reality Labs into a separate company (a new Oculus?), and have domino effects on VR, too.
In Germany, instead, the legal action regards the mandatory Facebook login for Oculus Quest 2. Facebook is using its dominant market position in VR to force people to use another service, the Facebook social medium, but this is against German laws. The most probable consequence of this is that Facebook will stop selling its headsets in Germany, forcing German people to buy them from outside stores.
This is not going to be a Merry Christmas for Mark Zuckerberg and all his team of executives. I would like to say that I’m sorry, but actually, I am not, and I hope that all these problems that Facebook is having will be useful to let them be less bullish on the market and will give more openness and competition in the VR landscape.
More info (FTC sues Facebook)
More info (Facebook may be required to split in multiple companies)
More info (Some analysts say it is hard to prove Fb is guilty)
More info (German Cartel Office opens legal action against Fb)
Other relevant news
Medal Of Honor: Above And Beyond is a mediocre game
We have been waiting for “Medal Of Honor: Above And Beyond” for years: it had been announced as an AAA game, made in collaboration with a great studio like Respawn Entertainment, with realistic recreation of war in virtual reality. And during all these months the hype was high, and we all thought about 2020 as a golden year for PCVR gaming, with the release of Half-Life: Alyx and Medal Of Honor. Well, we were wrong.
Reading all the reviews, it seems that Medal Of Honor is a game that is just “good” or “mediocre”, depending on the reviewer. Ben Lang of Road To VR has completely roasted it, and his final score was 5/10, while Upload VR gave it a Good rating (equivalent to 6/10) just because the multiplayer part is intriguing. The game is not bad, but it is full of bugs, weird screens with the “VICTORY” writing even if you have not won anything, interaction flaws, UX not fully compatible with VR, and other issues. When you try to grab an item it is like a lottery, because you don’t know if you are grabbing the one that you intend to take or one of the surrounding ones. The missions have not a logical thread that unites them and in any case, they feel all equal. In the beginning, there are lots of moments when you get bored listening to the NPCs talking. The AI of the enemies is either too dull and you kill them easily, or too smart and you die without even knowing why. Some cutscenes foster motion sickness. And so on… there is a big list of complaints that make you understand that this is not the great VR game we were all waiting for. The only “great” thing that everyone is praising its the internal documentary on WWII, that is very accurate, but that is not part of the game.
The good news is that according to some Redditors the game becomes a bit better after 2 hours of play, and Respawn is already releasing the first patch to fix the most annoying bugs (like the VICTORY screens). But it seems not enough to me: if Facebook wanted to demonstrate it can do better than Valve, it has failed miserably. Even if Half-Life: Alyx is not a perfect game, it is a fantastic experience, probably the most complete and detailed one in the market, while Medal Of Honor is just a mediocre one. I wonder if this is also the result of Facebook abandoning PC VR: can it be that Facebook didn’t want to invest any more money in it leaving the game “unpolished”? Some errors seem to be too big to be true, including the fact that the game has been launched the day after Cyberpunk 2077 and has been completely eclipsed by it. A rookie error that speaks for itself.
More info (Medal Of Honor review on Road To VR)
More info (Medal Of Honor review on Upload VR)
More info (Medal Of Honor review on TESTED)
More info (MOH improves after 2 hours of gameplay)
More info (Patch 1 of the game is on the way)
More info (Recommended specs of the game)
Valve may be working on a new VR game codenamed “Citadel”
Valve told us that it didn’t intend to stop after Half-Life: Alyx, and according to some rumors, this may be the truth. Tyler McVicker of Valve News Network has found some references to a new game, codenamed “Citadel”, that could make people in VR fight against people with a 2D screen. The game would feature asymmetric multiplayer, with one player having a top-down view of the battlefield who spawns AI-driven enemies while another player with a first-person slashes them to the victory. While it may seem counterintuitive, it seems that the VR player should be the one with the top-down view (weird…).
Notwithstanding the name, “Citadel” shouldn’t refer to the Half-Life franchise, and Road To VR suggests it could be in the “Team Fortress” one.
Remember that this rumor is unconfirmed, and even if it were true, Valve has a long history of abandoning internal projects (cough cough Half-Life 3), so we don’t know if this game will ever see the light. But it is good to know that Valve is still working on VR games.
More info (Citadel game news on VR Final)
More info (Citadel game news on Road To VR)
Oculus Rift S now costs $300
The Oculus Rift S is coming to the end of its life and Oculus is slashing its price to sell all the remaining items: this week the new official price has become $300.
It’s hard to say if you should buy it or not. On one side, the Rift S is a good device, it is comfortable, and $300 to experience PC VR is a steal if compared with the alternatives (that cost at least $600). On the other side, it is a device that is becoming abandoned (and that was already abandoned since its launch…) and for which there will be no support in the future. Not to mention the fact that for the same price you can buy a Quest 2 and have a device supporting both standalone and PC VR. So, if you use only PC VR, and you use it for many hours a day, this is a good offering, otherwise, you can skip this offering entirely unless they slash the price to less than $200.
More info (New offering on Oculus Rift S)
More info (Upload advising not to buy it)
Oculus is now working only on top of OpenXR
This week Facebook has announced a new feature for Oculus Quest headsets called Phase Sync, which shortens the latency between when a frame is computed and when it is shown on the screen, for an improved experience for the user. This news wouldn’t be that important if not for the fact that this is an OpenXR-only feature and it won’t be available for experiences made with the legacy Oculus SDK. It is the first time it happens and for sure it won’t be the last.
Facebook has in fact also recommended game engines support Oculus headsets via the OpenXR standard, not its proprietary SDK, and this makes us understand that this will be the way the Oculus app will be built in the future. And while Unreal Engine already supports OpenXR, Unity is a bit lagging, but support is coming in 2021.
This is something like a watershed moment that shows that OpenXR is a standard that is here to stay and won’t be useless like VirtualLink. And it could finally make us reach a point where an app built for a device will work on all devices, making the life of us developers easier…
…until Apple arrives with a competing standard, of course.
More info (Phase Sync)
More info (Facebook now recommends OpenXR)
News worth a mention
You can somewhat play Cyberpunk 2077 in VR
Cyberpunk 2077 is the game of the moment and almost everyone is playing it. There is not a VR mod for it, but of course, the VR community is doing everything to play it in VR, so let me link here below various guides on how you can play it inside a VR headset, to have better immersion.
More info (Cyberpunk 2077-inspired VR rollercoasters)
More info (How to play Cyberpunk 2077 in VR thanks to VorpX)
More info (How to play Cyberpunk 2077 in the Quest with Stadia)
More info (How to play Cyberpunk 2077 on a big VR screen)
Oculus Quest 2 is sold out in US
The Oculus Quest 2 is having very solid sales and in the US it is sold out in every physical and digital store. If you want to buy it at its base price, you must wait until 2021 to receive it. This is a strong indicator that the device is selling incredibly well… a piece of great news for all the ecosystem.
L’Oreal releases a line of virtual makeup, paving the way for our mixed-reality future
Some weeks ago, L’Oreal has released a set of selfie filters for all the most popular social services (Instagram, Snapchat, etc…) that let you put L’Oreal virtual makeup while you shoot your photos and videos. Since Snap Camera is supported, you can use it to also have virtual makeup on Zoom or Google Duo.
I think this is a very important moment: for the first time, girls shouldn’t have to spend time to put makeup before going to work remotely, but they can relax and let augmented reality put virtual makeup for them. Seeing it in perspective, this can lead to a long term future where people won’t put on makeup or change the hair color in real life but will let augmented reality make the other people see them as they want to be seen, while they can just have a real natural look. The cosmetic industry may change a lot in the next 10 years and make-up or cosmetic surgery companies may be disrupted by augmented reality. We should all be intrigued by this.
FinnAir is selling virtual Christmas travels
Santa Claus comes from Finland, and every Christmas many tourists go there to visit his home. Since this year there is the pandemic, FinnAir, the air company that served the Christmas tourists, is now offering virtual travels to these Christmas locations: for 10 euros, you can buy a virtual trip that can be enjoyed from all devices (VR or not).
The money will go to charity organizations, but I think this can be a test to verify how virtual travels have appeal for tourists and I would be very curious to know its sales numbers.
Mojo Vision partners with Menicon
Mojo Vision, a very interesting startup building AR contact lenses, has announced a partnership with Menicon, one of the most important contact lenses manufacturers, with decades of expertise in the production of these items. This partnership can help Mojo Vision in building better contact lenses and go to the market faster.
Enter the matrix in AR
Thanks to the power of Apple AR and LiDAR, a creative has been able to create a Matrix filter for the environment around the user that is incredibly cool. It has become viral this week, so I thought it could be a good idea to let you see it.
Felix and Paul are recording an immersive movie on the ISS
One of the most interesting VR production of 2020 is a VR movie about the ISS that the renowned studio Felix & Paul have organized in all these months. The astronauts have been sent special immersive cameras and they are shooting various videos so that we all in some weeks will be able to see how it is life on the International Space Station and experience it in first person. I can’t wait.
Understand the personas in the VR market
Facebook has released an interesting article about the different personas (that is, the kinds of people) that are part of the VR market, from the ones that are already into VR, to the ones that will never be interested in the technology. If you have a B2C VR startup, this is interesting material for your CFO and CMO…
HoloLens 2 is great, but it can be better
A developer using HoloLens 2 these months has written an interesting post on Medium highlighting all the main drawbacks of this device. It is worth a read because through it you can discover some insights like the fact that the visuals on HoloLens 2 are worse than on HoloLens 1.
Epic Games is maybe thinking about an XR store
According to a rumor reported by the German publication Mixed, Epic Games is thinking about an XR version of its Epic Store… a store all about VR games compatible with multiple platforms, a bit like Viveport. The rumor is unconfirmed, but if Epic was committed to VR, it would be great news for us all.
Some news on content
- Lone Echo 2 is being delayed until 2021, highlighting even more how Facebook doesn’t care about PC VR anymore;
- Myst VR releases on Quest, and it is a very good porting, even if the old school gameplay may frustrate some players
- Warhammer 40000 Battle Sister releases on Quest, and is a good game if you are a fan of the saga;
- SuperHot releases a new boxing mode for the holidays;
- H3VR is doing the MeatMas initiative: something like an advent calendar with new features released every day until Christmas (a great idea!);
- We have the first gameplay video of Vertigo 2 and it looks cool;
- Vertigo Games announced Uplugged, an indie game that looks like Guitar Hero on Quest. What has made me happy is that the dev attracted the interest of this big studio by just publishing a video on Reddit. There is hope for us all.
More info (Lone Echo 2)
More info (Myst VR)
More info (Warhammer 40K Battle Sister)
More info (Superhot)
More info (H3VR)
More info (Vertigo 2)
More info (Vertigo Games announces Unplugged)
More info (Unplugged dev thanking the community)
News from partners (and friends)
With the big VRrOOm team (headed by the amazing Louis Cacciuttolo), I’m working on a VR concert for New Year’s Eve with Jean Michel Jarre! I am not revealing much about it, let me just say that there will be the Notre Dame cathedral, JMJ, amazing electronic music, and lots of special effects. The only thing missing is… you! So come and celebrate with us the end of this cursed 2020 in this innovative concert!
Some XR fun
VR hasn’t succeeded thousands of years ago, so why should it succeed now?
Playing Echo VR is dangerous
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