The XR Week Peek (2022.03.07): Samsung is planning to launch an XR device, PSVR may arrive in 2023, and more!
Another week has passed by, and while the situation in Europe is always more complicated because of the war, in the XR landscape nothing particularly special has happened. It has been a pretty boring week, notwithstanding the MWC, which, as it happened the last few years, hasn’t brought important news about XR. But this roundup will be worth reading anyway, so don’t go away too fast!
Top news of the week
Samsung is close to launching an XR device, or maybe two
The metaverse hype is growing, and with it, all the interest of the big brands towards XR. Last month, we got to know that (according to a rumor) Samsung is working together with Microsoft on new AR glasses, most probably powered by a Qualcomm chipset. This week, instead, we discovered that Samsung is actually working on another headset in parallel.
According to the Korean magazine Electronic Times, the device should be an AR glass and it should use one of Samsung’s Exynos chips. Samsung has apparently completed a prototype, and “is deciding the release date”. The news has been somewhat confirmed by Samsung CEO himself at MWC. He stated that “(Metaverse-related devices) are now the talk of the town, so we have buckled down to a task to cope with the trend. It won’t take too long […] We are striving for perfection as we gear up for the launch”.
It is not clear what this device would be. If I had to bet, I would say that the possibilities are two:
- Smartglasses to see the notifications of your phone
- A hybrid VR/passthrough AR headset, similar to Project Cambria or the rumored Apple headset.
I think it’s too early for an AR glass made by Samsung, while instead these two technologies (smartglasses or MR headset) are already quite mature and would follow the trends of this year. With the rumors intensifying, and with Apple always closer to entering the market, I am expecting an announcement for this year.
Let’s see. Considering the ability of Samsung to craft amazing smartphones, smartwatches, and VR headsets, I am pretty sure they are going to offer something interesting.
More info (New AR glasses rumored for Samsung)
More info (Samsung CEO confirming they are working on an XR headset)
Other relevant news
PSVR 2 may launch in Q1 2023
According to a rumor spread by the Youtube channel PSVR Without Parole, PSVR won’t be released this year. The channel says that according to “credible sources”, Sony may launch PSVR 2 sometime in Q1 2023.
The reason behind that is, of course, the chip shortage. PS5 is still very hard to find because Sony can’t find enough components to make it: in fact, some weeks ago, I shared with you the news that Sony is still building PS4 devices to cope with the shortage of new consoles. And if the userbase of PS5 were not big enough, the target market of the PSVR 2, which needs a PS5 to work, would be too small for a successful launch.
According to Road To VR, we can forecast 32 million PS5 in the wild for the end of 2022, which is a much smaller number than the 40 million PS4 that were available when PSVR was released on the market. This could justify the delay in the release of the new headset.
Of course, take this rumor with a grain of salt: Sony could still decide to launch the new headset in 2022 to exploit the holiday season. But for sure this rumor, and the rationale behind it, shows why Sony has not announced a release window for PSVR 2 yet.
Bytedance bets on Pico and partners with Qualcomm
Something inside Bytedance is moving. After the acquisition of Pico, we got almost no news from the company, as if nothing was happening. But, as I expected, it was just a matter of time (needed to let Pico re-organize itself internally), and now we are starting to see the first steps forward of the company.
The South China Morning Post reports that Bytedance is growing the number of Pico employees and it is also moving some senior managers from Bytedance to Pico. Pico employees are now around 300, from 200 that were last year: yes, it is not the 10,000 that Meta is planning to hire, but it is anyway a +50% growth of the internal forces. It also makes some noise the rumor according to which Ren Lifeng, who co-created Douyin (the Chinese name of TikTok) will join Pico too. This shows how Bytedance wants to push Pico forward.
It is official news instead that Pico is partnering with Qualcomm on “XR hardware, software, developer tools, and technology road maps”. It is absolutely not clear what this practically means, if not for the fact that Pico devices will be powered by Snapdragon Spaces XR, which was clarified by Bytedance CEO. And this is an interesting announcement per se: considering that Snapdragon Spaces has been designed specifically for smartphone-connected headsets, does this mean that Pico is going to release a smartphone-connected AR or VR device?
I think we’ll discover the results of this partnership in the upcoming months. For sure, these movements by Bytedance make me think that it wants to establish itself as the leader in China and also go competing with Meta, sooner or later.
More info (Bytedance partners with Qualcomm)
More info (Bytedance is making Pico grow)
Meta says we need better a better network infrastructure for the metaverse to work
On the occasion of the MWC, Meta has been back at talking about the metaverse on its blog. The company claimed that performant networks are necessary for the metaverse to happen: like social media and video sharing has been possible only when the network allowed for that, to reach the next technological platform we need a new upgrade of the network infrastructure. Meta VP Dan Rabinovitsj reasoned we need “metaverse-ready networks” where “things will need to move an order of magnitude faster”. Very high bandwidth and single or low double-digit millisecond latency is the goal.
Meta has also partnered with the Spanish telco Telefónica. The cooperation will initially be about co-building what they’ve dubbed the Metaverse Innovation Hub in Madrid to “accelerate metaverse network and device readiness”. Clearly, the idea is the one of bridging the expertise of the two companies to create an infrastructure that will make the metaverse possible.
This news shows once more that we are living in a technological revolution that does not only involve one technology (XR) but that is driven by many technologies (AI/5G/blockchain/etc) that all together, with their convergence, will create something new and magical. Only one growing without the others is not going to take us anywhere.
More info (Meta aims at building networks for the Metaverse — VentureBeat)
More info (Meta aims at building networks for the Metaverse — CNBC)
News worth a mention
Zuckerberg privileges features over form factor
Mark Zuckerberg has been hosted on Lex Fridman’s podcast and has talked about his vision for the metaverse and Meta itself. It has been a long and interesting talk, but there has been no important announcement in it. There have been some parts worth listening to, though. The most relevant of them is when he has stated that he sees eye and face tracking fundamental technologies for the future of XR and in particular of social XR, so in his opinion, offering them is more important than shrinking the size of the headsets.
This is important to understand Meta’s vision of the future. But someone made a bit of irony about this statement saying that Mark privileges tracking over everything else…
More info (Integral interview)
More info (Meta privileging eye and face tracking over the rest)
More info (Some interesting tidbits from the interview)
The VOID is coming back
The pandemic has hit hard on all LBVR (Location-Based VR) operators, and even the most important companies of the sector, The Void and The Sandbox, were forced to close. But now that the pandemic situation is improving, and the sector is getting better. Some months ago we had the news of The Sandbox returning being operative, and now also The VOID is trying to follow a similar route.
The Void’s website is back up, and its creators say that the company is getting back with “upgraded VR technology,” and “a flexible platform designed to evolve with the latest in innovation”. The reboot is expected for 2022. I just hope they have changed their business model because the previous one was absolutely not sustainable because of its very high fixed costs.
Tundra Trackers to launch in a few days
Notwithstanding the many difficulties it is facing because of the chip shortage, Tundra is managing to go forward and ship its trackers to its Kickstarter backers. Now it can finally start accepting online orders from whoever wants to buy them. The company already warns that there won’t be many units available, but anyway, the official launch should be on the 15th for Europe and on the 10th for all the rest of the world (China included). A piece of very good news for those who need SteamVR trackers for full-body VR or for installations with tracked props.
Virtual Reality is 44% more addictive than traditional gaming
A study conducted by HTC Vive together with a Chinese university shows that Virtual Reality has much more addictive potential (+44%) than traditional flat gaming. According to the same study, the most effective means to prevent excessive usage of the technology is implementing warning systems for prolonged usage times inside the headsets. This study should not worry us but should show us the way to create headsets that foster a healthier use of immersive realities.
Some articles on the metaverse
In my usual collection of the most useful articles among all the fluff about the M-word, this week I report to you:
- A survey conducted by IPSOS on the metaverse and how it is perceived by Americans. The results are pretty interesting: 38% of the respondents report familiarity with Metaverse, but only less than one in five Americans (16%) are able to correctly identify the term. It’s funny also to see that one in four (23%) believe the metaverse is “tech companies trying to figure out a new way to make money”. I can’t say they are wrong.
- The statement by Second Life according to which now people in the US have to start paying taxes on the transactions happening in its world. This is relevant because it shows that the more we go on, the more the virtual worlds will be regulated and taxed. I don’t think now there is any kind of taxation for the land you own inside virtual worlds, even if it is worth millions of dollars sometimes… but sooner or later, this is going to happen.
More info (IPSOS survey)
More info (Taxes in Second Life)
Vox Machine has been released with Single Campaign mode
Mech game Vox Machine has been released on Quest, and on occasion for this launch, it has also released a Single Campaign mode on all platforms. The reviews on this campaign are not enthusiastic: not that it is bad, but the story is not super-interesting, and the animations of the characters that talk to you to unfold the story are poorly made. It’s still a good multiplayer game, though.
More info (Vox Machine review on Road To VR)
More info (Vox Machine review on Upload VR)
Cosmonius High to be released this month
Owlchemy Labs, the studio behind Job Simulator, has announced that its new game Cosmonius High is slated to launch on March 31st for Meta Quest 2 and SteamVR headsets. From the initial trailers and the hands-on feedback by Upload, this seems to me a lightweight game intended for kids or anyway very young children.
More info (Cosmonius High launch date)
More info (Cosmonius High hands-on)
Some news on content
- The Tale of Onogoro is officially launching on the Quest platform worldwide on March 17th, 2022, priced at $30;
- Walkabout Minigolf is developing a 36-hole course based on ’80s classic fantasy film LABYRINTH. It will be released in Summer 2022;
- Boat racing game MarineVerse Cup has been promoted from App Lab to Quest Store
- Townscaper developer is looking into VR and has even developed an early prototype
- Population One is going to launch a new map on March, 17th
- SpaceWalk is the new short movie recorded by Felix & Paul on the ISS. It will make you feel like walking in outer space, and the first reviews are very positive;
- Beat Games has announced that OST 5 is coming to Beat Saber;
- Nock, the new multiplayer VR game that looks to merge Rocket League’s big soccer gameplay with archery, is going to launch on March, 10th
- F1 2022 is adding support for Virtual Reality!
More info (The Tale Of Onogoro)
More info (Walkabout Minigolf)
More info (Marineverse Cup)
More info (Townscaper)
More info (Population One)
More info (Spacewalk announcement)
More info (Spacewalk review)
More info (Beat Saber)
More info (Nock)
More info (F1 2022)
Other news
HP announces ExtendXR, a professional management system for XR headsets, made in collaboration with ArborXR
Here you can find a curated list of resources on holographic displays
News from partners (and friends)
WorldCAST helps you in creating your AR experiences
I just had a friendly call this week with April Robinson from WorldCAST, and she showed me their solution to build easily AR experiences even if you don’t know how to code. You can check it out by clicking on the link here below.
Learn more
Join the NVIDIA RTX3080 Ti raffle [PAID]
Until March, 21st, I will keep reminding you to join the raffle to win an NVIDIA RTX3080 Ti by registering to the NVIDIA GTC with my referral and by watching one of its sessions (the keynote doesn’t count). This offering holds only for EMEA users (Europe, Middle-East, Africa).
Register now
Some XR fun
The latest video by Lucas Rizzotto is fun and intriguing (as usual)
Funny link
Meta’s Metaverse is not as you expected, or maybe yes
[Video in Italian language]
Funny link
Donate for good
Like last week, also this week I won’t ask you to donate for my blog, but to the poor people that 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:
- DeoVR
- Raghu Bathina
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And now here you are the link to donate:
Support The Red Cross in Ukraine
(Image leaked by WalkingCat)
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