This is going to be the week of the Apple Vision Pro, with the first people who preordered it finally receiving the device at home! Finally, we will have some real impressions on the device not coming from scripted demos. I’m not envious, no… absolutely no, don’t worry…
And it will also be a bit my week…
Top news of the week
Apple Vision Pro preorders were a success, but…
As I’ve said in the introduction, this is going to be an epic week for Apple and XR in general, because Apple is going to ship the first Apple Vision Pros on Friday, February, 2nd. According to Mark Gurman, we should have the first genuine reviews of the device starting today, that is Tuesday. It will be very interesting to discover how the headset actually is, outside of scripted demos. This is the moment we’ll read if there is something beyond the initial WOW effect or if this is just a glorified devkit.
The preorders of the headset have gone very well, and according to the analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, Apple Vision Pro preorders interested between 160,000 and 180,000 units, which is much more than the 60,000 to 80,000 units Apple had available at launch. The same analyst, though, added an important note to these statistics that has been ignored by many magazines: “shipping times remained unchanged 48 hours after pre-orders opened. It indicates that demand may quickly taper off after the core fans and heavy users place their orders”. This means that all people who wanted to get a Vision Pro rushed to preorder one, but then the orders diminished a lot as if the number of people really interested in the device was anyway limited. This is the opposite of what happens when a new iPhone launches: there, the shipping times keep increasing over time.
Apple released a new trailer for the headset. And it also moved well on the content side: besides the 1M compatible iPad apps, more than 200 native apps have been developed for the headset until now, so the first users will have enough to explore for the first days. There is even an app to send faxes!
I really can’t wait to see the first reactions to the Apple Vision Pro…
More info (Apple Vision Pro preorders estimate)
More info (Caveat about the preorders)
More info (More than 200 apps available at launch)
More info (First reviews coming on Tuesday)
More info (New Apple Vision Pro trailer)
Other relevant news
PSVR 2 market is stagnating
Many indicators point to the fact that PSVR 2, even after a promising soft launch, is not selling as much as we all hoped for. Probably this is the final nail in the coffin of tethered VR, at least for what concerns broad consumer adoption.
Road To VR published some statistics comparing the sales of Quest and PSVR 2 on Amazon US over the holiday season, and the proportion of sold Quests to sold PSVR 2 is 30 to 1! We all expected the sales of Quest to be higher, but 30 to 1 is a devastating statistic, meaning that there is no competition happening.
One of the reasons for such low performances of Sony’s headset is the lack of content, and in fact, in the classifications of the most sold games on PSVR 2, there are mostly old games in the first places, showing how there has not been a proper injection of many new good pieces of content for this console.
Even worse, since the target market for PSVR 2 is rather small, it is not attracting developers: the studio behind Rec Room has just announced that it is not porting its popular social VR space to PSVR 2 because “we haven’t found a way to make it make economic sense”. This statement is very simple but very powerful in showing how PSVR 2 is really in bad shape. Anton Hand, the developer behind Hot Dogs, Horseshoes & Hand Grenades confirmed that he did not do a port of his popular sandbox game for the same reasons.
If developers are not interested, and Sony is not willing to invest in exclusive great content for its immersive console, PSVR 2 is going to have a very troubled (and probably short) life. Anton Hand told me on X that “it’s already a dead platform”. I really hope he’s wrong, but I’m afraid that if things do not change, he may be right.
More info (Quest vs PSVR 2 sales)
More info (Most downloaded games on PSVR 2)
More info (Rec Room not coming to PSVR 2)
More info (Anton Hand on PSVR 2)
Apple implemented the Digital Markets Act, but not its spirit
I was pretty excited about the Digital Markets Act, the new law by the European Union that tries to stop the monopoly imposed by the platform holders, which force developers to put their applications on the stores with very high fees and many limitations (like the obligation to get money only through the In-App-Purchase system of the store). DMA was meant to force platform holders to remove these restrictions and give developers more freedom and more rights.
Apple has just implemented the Digital Markets Act, but in its own way so as to be legally compliant, but at the same time not fully embracing the spirit of the law. There have been some important updates that sound like a success for the EU, like now Apple allowing sideloading, third-party stores, and external payment methods on its devices. These things were unthinkable in the Apple ecosystem until a few months ago, and it is great to see it open a bit.
But still, Apple didn’t comply following the spirit behind the law. First of all, the Cupertino company talked about the DMA as something that may put at risk the privacy and the safety of the users, not to mention the duration of the battery of the phone, because now users are able to download apps for iOS through third-party stores. Besides that, all apps, even the ones not on the official App Store, should undergo a minimal review by Apple anyway. And then there is the genius move: for all the applications that want to adhere to the new conditions in the EU, Apple is going to apply a 0.50 per-install tax after the first 1M of downloads. The effect of this measure is that for most small apps, the final fee to pay to Apple will be smaller than the current standard one, but for popular applications from major companies, it will be immensely higher. So Apple is giving more freedom to the small developers, but it is forcing all the major players to stay in their current contractual conditions because if they go to the new ones to try to get money through alternate channels, they are going to pay much more. That’s why Epic’s Tim Sweeney was furious when Apple made this announcement.
Walled gardens are gonna be walled, I guess.
More info (Apple announces compliance with Digital Markets Act)
More info (The Verge talks about Apple’s implementation of the DMA)
More info (The Calculator show how the new conditions cost more for big players)
More info (Tim Sweeney reacts to Apple’s announcement)
Zuckerberg and Nadella still bet on XR
While the XR market is not in its best moment ever, important figures in our space lik Mark Zuerkberg and Satya Nadella have confimerd their interest in immersive realities.
So, while Meta published article to talk how the company is working towards the metaverse by implementing a lot of AI, Mark Zuckerberg confirmed his interest towards building the metaverse, which still is the final goal of Meta. He clearly said that: “I don’t know how to more unequivocally state that we’re continuing to focus on Reality Labs and the metaverse” .
And he’s not the only believer: Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella indicated Mixed Reality as one of the top three trends to follow for 2024.
These pieces of news are important because they show that both Meta and Microsoft are going to support immersive realities. And this is good for investments in our space: if Zuckerberg had declared that AI was the new only focus of Meta, many investors would have left the field, leaving many XR startups without funds. This way, there will be a bit more trust between investors and startups in our ecosystem.
More info (Mark Zuckerberg is not pivoting away from the metaverse)
More info (Meta is implementing AI in all its products)
More info (Nadella endorses Mixed Reality)
BLINK ENERGY is a new startup about AR contact lenses
After Mojo Vision had to pivot away from AR contact lenses to focus on microdisplays, I thought that I could not see an AR contact lens for a long time. But luckily, I was wrong.
A few months ago I discovered a startup working on smart contact lenses called XPANCEO. And this week, a video shared by Dave Haynes caught my attention: it was about Blink Energy, a new Israeli startup working on AR contact lenses. Blink Energy has an interesting design, because beyond the scleral lens in the eye, the product features a little circuit to be installed on the eyelid, and that helps in bringing power and connectivity to the close smart lens.
I know that smart contact lenses are still years away, but seeing the video of the CTO wearing the lens in the eye felt so cyberpunk to me that I can not wait to try them!
More info (The video showing Blink Energy’s CTO wearing the smart contact lens)
More info (Blink Energy’s official website)
News worth a mention
Meta is reportedly not releasing Quest to China anymore
A few months ago, a report informed us that Meta was partnering with Tencent to bring to China a Quest headset. The last version of the rumor was clearly hinting at a cheap Quest 3 Lite that Tencent should have helped in selling to China, taking care of the localization of the system and the content, making them adhere to all the local regulations. A new report coming from the Chinese magazine VRTUOLUO talks about Meta suspending the partnership because of “unresolved details on how to handle the specifics” (whatever it means). Let’s see if Meta will totally abandon the idea, or if this suspension is a roadblock that can be circumvented.
More info (Meta suspending the partnership with Tencent — Upload VR)
More info (Meta suspending the partnership with Tencent — Road To VR)
Is Meta working on bringing Codec Avatars to Quest?
One of the most interesting projects Meta is working on is “Codec Avatars”, that is ultra-realistic avatars that can bring our true selves to the metaverse. This is an ongoing huge research project: for instance, recently Meta has released a new related research paper on how it can bring ultra-realistic hands to VR.
Codec Avatars are years away from commercial availability, but in the latest Quest runtime, there are already some strings in the operating system that reference them. Strings in the operating system have in the past forecasted upcoming features, but sometimes they’ve also been found for something that never happened (e.g. the Avalanche cloud streaming service). In this case, in my opinion, they are more a signal that someone at Meta is experimenting with their integration in the Quest runtime, which is already cool because it means that Meta is working for them to be commercially available in the future. A far future, but an exciting future.
More info (Realistic hands in VR)
More info (Codec Avatar references found in the Quest runtime)
Samsung teased its Galaxy Ring
After years of rumors, finally Samsung unveiled that its Galaxy Ring is a reality. The company just quickly teased it and revealed that it is meant to “empower more people to manage their health with a comprehensive yet simplified approach to everyday wellness at home”. It so seems like an always-on tracker for healthcare (e.g. to detect heart rate and oxygen levels), but I wonder if they also thought about ways to integrate it with the upcoming XR headset.
Microsoft releases Mesh for Teams
Finally, Microsoft Mesh has been released for Microsoft Teams, and corporate teams from all over the world can meet in the 3D space to have meetings that on paper are more immersive and fun, while in reality may just be very cringe. I have still personally to test this feature, and I will keep you posted about it.
Contextually to this, Microsoft has also released a Mesh app on Quest so that people can enter into Mesh meeting spaces in an immersive way.
More info (Official announcement post)
More info (Mesh for Teams — Road To VR)
Immersed Visor has now a subscription service
Immersed has just announced a subscription service for its upcoming Visor headset. With the subscription, you can pay the headset $400 upfront and then pay either $60/month for 1 year or $40/month for 2 years. Of course, if you use the subscription, you pay more, but it is because the subscription to Visor Plus brings some benefits like Pro features and a lifetime warranty. In fact, you can also subscribe to Visor Plus even if you paid already the full price for the device.
Meta’s research blends reality and virtuality
A very impressive research work from Meta tries to blend in an incredible way real and virtual elements, giving the illusion that virtual elements are having agency over the real ones. It is very early experimental work, but I advise you all to give it a look, because it is pretty mind-bending.
Some news about content
- Resolution Games is working on an official Dungeon & Dragons virtual reality game
- Arcade Paradise gives you the joy of visiting an arcade in virtual reality. It is coming soon to Quest
- Hunt Together, a new PvP psychological horror game, has been released on Quest
- Titanic: A Space Between brings you to an adventure on the Titanic. It is shipping on February, 14th
- Lawn Mowing Simulator VR is launching on Quest on March, 21st
- The very promising platformer Max Mustard is coming to Quest App Lab on February 14 for $29.99
- ArcSine, a new physics-based precision puzzle platformer, is coming to PCVR on February 19. A free demo is already available on Steam
- Hyperbolica VR is a crazy non-euclidean VR game that may stress a lot your VR legs
- MR-Chess lets you play chess in mixed reality with people who are distant from you
- Upload VR has published its usual roundup of news with many small pieces of news about XR content
More info (Dungeons & Dragons)
More info (Arcade Paradise)
More info (Hunt Together)
More info (Titanic)
More info (Lawn Mowing Simulator)
More info (Max Mustard)
More info (Arcsine)
More info (Hyperbolica VR)
More info (MR Chess)
More info (Upload VR roundup)
Some reviews about content
- Crumbling is a cute roguelike VR game that may evoke nostalgia feelings in people who played with action figures in the past.
- Underdogs kept its premises and was judged by Upload VR as the best VR arena fighting game out there, thanks to its strong gameplay and progression system
- Orbeats is an ok rhythm game which may interest to the fans of C-Smash VRS
- Demeter: The Asklepios Chronicles brings the innovation of platforming in mixed reality, but its gameplay is not very exciting
More info (Crumbling)
More info (Underdogs)
More info (Orbeats)
More info (Demeter)
Other news
Daniel Beauchamp made another one of his amazing prototypes, this time showing how mixed reality may help in vacuuming
Ghosts of Tabor amassed over $10 million during its time on Quest App Lab and Steam Early Access
Meta is working on a special mode to make you watch movies on the Meta Quest while you are on an airplane
Learn more (Road To VR)
Learn more (Upload VR)
Scalpers are reselling Vision Pros at almost double the price on eBay
Meta is working towards supporting Apple spatial videos on Quest
Some good advice to get investments for your XR startups: as usual, mind traction and product-market fit
Only 1 out of 3 Quests is used at least once a month, according to analysts
Body tracking kit Sony Mocopi receives an update to work natively with VRChat on PC
Some major VR companies in China have joined forces in a metaverse consortium
News from partners (and friends)
Synth Riders launches “Electro Swing Essentials 2”
The popular rhythm game Synth Riders has just launched its latest DLC, dubbed “Electro Swing Essentials 2”, containing 4 free & 5 paid songs. This is a good way to increase your songs library if you are a fan of the game!
Learn more (Announcement trailer)
Learn more (Article about it on Upload)
Some XR fun
I think people at Nintendo may be happy about the new CitraVR emulator…
Funny link
Incredibly accurate chart
Funny link
Modern problems require modern solutions
Funny link
Amazingly detailed tutorial on how to increase your perceived FOV on every VR headset
Funny link
Donate for good
Like last week, also this week in this final paragraph 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:
- Alex Gonzalez VR
- DeoVR
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And now here you are the link to donate:
Support The Red Cross in Ukraine
(Header image by Apple)