The XR Week Peek (2022.11.07): PSVR 2 will cost $549, HoloLens are probably dead, and more!
Yesterday I discovered that a friend of mine wants to propose as “Vitillo’s law” or “Skarred’s law” the law that every innovative technology we are waiting for is always coming in “5 to 10 years”. I would love for that to become an official Murphy’s law, but I’m sure that even if the XR community started adopting it now, the law could become popular only in 5 to 10 years…
That said, let’s dig into the pieces of XR news of this week, which has been pretty interesting…
Top news of the week
Sony announces price and release date for PSVR 2
Sony Interactive Entertainment has finally announced that PSVR 2 will be launched on February 22nd, 2023 for $549. Interested people in selected markets will be able to preorder the device starting from November, 15th 2022.
Together with this announcement, Sony has also announced 11 new games that will be compatible with the console, including 4 titles that have never been released before.
The reaction of the community to this announcement has been pretty mixed: on one side, the price is considered fair, while on the other side, everyone was hoping for something closer to the price of a Quest 2. At $549, this device is more expensive than the PS5 itself, and this will hurt its potential sales. What will be important, anyway, will be the content. Since PSVR 1 games won’t be compatible with PSVR 2, Sony has to build a content catalog for this headset from scratch, and this will require time, money, and commitment.
More info (PSVR 2 price and release date)
More info (The 11 new games announced for PSVR 2)
More info (Every game announced for PSVR 2)
More info (My editorial on the PSVR 2 and its launch price)
Other relevant news
The collaboration between Microsoft and Samsung is now over
Some months ago, some important magazines leaked that Microsoft might have abandoned the HoloLens project. The later departure of Alex Kipman seemed to be the final nail in the coffin for the AR glasses, but a new rumor brought a bit of hope: Microsoft seemed to work together with Samsung to design consumer-oriented AR glasses.
Anyway, things have not gone as we all hoped. According to a new leak, Microsoft scrapped the plans for a HoloLens 3, and also the collaboration with Samsung has been brought to an end. All of this caused much frustration inside XR people at Microsoft: the company was at the forefront of AR technology, and now it is throwing all this knowledge in the trash bin.
The recent partnership with Meta around mixed reality seems a sign that the company is not pursuing new hardware projects internally. It is a huge pity considering the innovations that HoloLens brought into the XR ecosystem. Also, let’s not forget that we have inside tracking because WMR headsets brought it into the market…
More info (Microsoft ended its collaboration with Samsung)
More info (Microsoft and its disinvestment in XR hardware)
Pimax announces the price of its upcoming Crystal headset
Pimax Crystal is the latest headset announced by Pimax, promising everything we VR people always dreamt about: very high resolution (2880 x 2880 per eye), wide FOV, high refresh rate (160Hz), aspherical lenses, hybrid standalone/wireless/tethered mode, and much more.
The Chinese company has just announced the price of this wonder, and it is much less than expected: $1,599. Preorders have started on Nov 2nd at 5 pm EDT. This is a good price for what the device promises, but if you want to buy it, remember that Pimax in the past had problems with shipping delays and hardly configurable software. The company anyway wants to improve, and it is still working on opening new offices in the US to guarantee better customer service in the West.
More info (Pimax Crystal price announcement)
More info (Preorders announcement)
More info (Official website)
Apple AR glasses may have been pushed back to 2025–26
According to a new rumor, Apple AR glasses may have been pushed back from 2024 to 2025–26. This rumor has been shared by Jeff Pu, an analyst at Haitong International Tech Research.
It honestly doesn’t surprise me: we had a similar report about Meta, which was supposed to launch its first consumer AR glasses in 2024 and then was said to have postponed this launch to 2026. Doing AR glasses is very hard and there are many technological challenges to face, so it is very probable that we have to wait many years before we can have AR glasses that are ready for the consumer market. Especially for Apple, which is not interested in releasing devkits, but in shipping devices that appeal to the masses.
Meta has 15,000 people working on the “metaverse”, but layoffs are now coming
According to a report by The Information, Meta has more than 15,000 people working on Metaverse projects: among them, 1100 working on Quest, 1900 on content, 2000 on AR, 1000 on machine learning, 1000 developing custom chips, and 2400 on the research team.
For comparison, Apple has “only” 3000 people working in XR, according to the same report. But don’t let the numbers mislead you: Apple is an established company working on hardware, while Meta is a social media company that wants to become a software+hardware provider, so it has a supply chain to create from scratch.
Anyway, after the last negative financial reports, Meta seems to have decided to perform some layoffs in the company. Thousands of workers will be fired starting from Wednesday, according to the rumors. I’ve heard voices that the XR departments may be less affected by this, but anyway what is happening is not a good spot for the “metaverse” and will reduce even more the trust of the investors in our space.
More info (Meta has 15,000 people working on XR)
More info (Meta to perform layoffs this week)
News worth a mention
Investments in XR are going down
As was predictable, after the hype about the M-word started deflating, also the interest of investors in the technology has gone down. According to Crunchbase, after a boom of investments in XR at the end of 2021 with the announcement of Meta, the investments in the field have started going down. And now, after the bad financials shared by Meta, they are predicted to be very low in Q4 2022.
XR will raise back again, but now the M-word seems to be going straight into the trough of disillusionment of the Gartner Hype Cycle.
Niantic unveils Lightship Maps for the web
After the acquisition by Niantic, The 8th Wall is implementing a lot of amazing features to its WebXR engine. This time is the turn of Niantic Lightship Maps. Long story short, you can make a geolocated AR application, similar to Pokemon Go, with maps and all the rest, which works completely inside your browser, in an easy way using The 8th Wall. I’m seriously amazed by the work that The 8th Wall is doing, it’s the most powerful WebAR engine out there.
Meta bans all children from Rec Room and similar apps
Suddenly Meta has decided to enforce its age limits on Quest, so all accounts below 13 years old on all social VR applications should be banned. The popular app Rec Room has to adhere to these new guidelines, too, and is going to prevent all kids to join it on Quest (Junior accounts will still work in Rec Room on the other platforms).
On one side, it’s good to see Meta working always more in guaranteeing safety for children. On the other side, it is sad that lots of children won’t be able to play their favorite application anymore.
More info (Meta bans young kids accounts)
More info (Rec Room having to stop all its Junior accounts on Quest)
China aims at investing in XR in the upcoming years
According to official media, China released its first action plan dedicated to virtual reality, which should be aimed at improving its XR ecosystem. The press release says that the government is going to invest money so that the country arrives at shipping 25 million XR devices by 2026.
25 million units is not much for the enormous Chinese market, but considering that currently, the consumer XR market in China is still nascent, it would anyway be a good result. Anyway, like all things political, take these promises with a big grain of salt.
Web3 is not Web 3.0 and now is being superseded by Web5
This week I got a bit confused about Web3. I had just started to grasp it, when Tim Berners Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, said that Web3 is not Web 3.0 and he doesn’t believe in crypto becoming the foundation of the internet.
To make things even more complicated, in Tom Ffiske’s newsletter I discovered Zion, a Web5 app. I don’t even know what happened to Web3 and Web4 in the meanwhile. I just closed my eyes, and when I woke up we were already in the Web5 era.
After all of this, I decided that this is a Web9 website. I’m ahead of all of you, but you will understand the potentiality of my technology only in 5 to 10 years.
More info (Tim Berners Lee against Web3)
More info (Zion, the Web5 app)
Discover Holokit X
HoloKit X is a plastic augmented reality cardboard. It’s a very cheap plastic shell where you can put your iPhone inside and have very affordable augmented reality. Some people tried it at AWE and said to me that it is very interesting.
The idea is not new and had already been carried on with mediocre commercial success by Aryzon and Mira, so I’m not sure it can succeed this time. But it remains an interesting product for hobbyists.
Holoride launches in Germany
In-car VR entertainment system Holoride launches in Germany. Owners of Audi cars may decide to buy a Holoride Pioneers’ Pack which contains everything needed to transform the car into a full VR entertainment system for passengers for €699. I’m quite a fan of the product, so I’m curious to see what commercial success it may reach.
Some news on content
- Final Fantasy XIV VR Mod is coming soon
- Ghostbusters: Rise of the Ghost Lord, the game announced by Meta and Sony Pictures, is coming in 2023
- Upload VR has reviewed Iron Guard VR
- Stealth game Espire 2 releases on November 17th for Quest 2 and Quest Pro. It will also feature co-op
- Upload VR has reviewed Iron Man VR on Quest 2, praising how it works well on Quest 2, where it doesn’t have the problems of disk loading and poor tracking it had on PSVR
- Kartoffl is a pleasant and relaxing puzzle game
- Tender Claws and Netflix are working together on Stranger Things VR
More info (Final Fantasy XIV VR Mod)
More info (Ghostbusters VR game)
More info (Iron Guard VR)
More info (Espire 2)
More info (Iron Man VR)
More info (Kartoffl)
More info (Stranger Things)
Other news
Qualcomm states that many headsets featuring XR2+ chipset are coming soon
Mojo Vision showcases the integration of its contact lens with Amazon Alexa
Ultraleap has improved its touch-less mid-air haptic device
Eye5 are smart glasses to augment reality for low-vision people
A very interesting interview with the people behind The Peripheral, the new series about VR on Amazon Prime
Azad Balabanian has used the Quest Pro to work every day and found it ok
A very smart statement by Tim Sweeney about the Metaverse
Kat VR is now compatible with Quest 2
IFixit has completely disassembled a Quest Pro
News from partners (and friends)
Join Weart crowdfunding campaign
Weart, the innovative Italian company offering a glove that can provide different tactile sensations at your fingertips is still running its crowd investment campaign, and you can join it now if you find the company interesting.
Some XR fun
The worst about PSVR 2, according to many
Funny link / 1
Funny link / 2
I thought that the pandemic was solved by masks and vaccines, while instead…
Funny link
I mean, even them had legs…
Funny link
The one with the toilet paper is my favorite
Funny link
Discover one of the fundamental laws of the metaverse
Funny link
Donate for good
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(Header image by Sony Interactive Entertainment)
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