The XR Week Peek (2024.07.16): Samsung to reveal its headset this year, IDC says XR market has plummeted, and more!
I’m back in Italy after all those trips of the previous weeks. I feel tired, but very satisfied with the fantastic people I met and the new hardware I tried. I also caught a cold, so wish me to get well soon!
Summer is not the best season for VR news, but there are some interesting stories I can tell you nonetheless…
Top news of the week
Samsung confirms its headset is coming this year
At the Galaxy Unpacked event this week, Samsung’s President and Head of the Mobile Experience Business TM Roh mentioned the “new XR platform coming this year” and Google’s Senior Vice President of Platforms and Devices Rick Osterloh confirmed Google is still involved. This is enough to confirm that the headset is still in the works and still planned for this year. Notice that we are not talking about a leak or a rumor, but about some words that have been mentioned by a high-rank Samsung executive, so they are absolutely reliable.
What is not exactly clear is what “coming” means: it may refer to an announcement, so we can just expect the headset to be unveiled this year, or a full launch, with the headset already open for preorders. I have no idea, but if I have to bet, I would do that on the first option. I think that with all the delays it had, and with the so few leaks we have seen these months, the most probable option is that the headset will just be announced and the actual sale will happen in 2025.
I personally can’t wait for Samsung and Google (with the support of Qualcomm) to be back in the XR game. It will be another great endorsement for our space…
More info (Samsung confirms its headset is coming this year — Road To VR)
More info (Samsung confirms its headset is coming this year — Upload VR)
Other relevant news
IDC releases a confusing report on the XR market
Market research company IDC has shared a report on the XR market via Bloomberg this week and its insights have been reshared many times on social media. But its findings are pretty controversial.
First of all, the report says that shipments of XR headsets dropped by 67.4 percent year over year in Q1. Which is really bad news for our ecosystem. But then the explanation of this decline is that people are not interested in VR headsets anymore, but are looking for MR/AR devices instead. This finding has no sense, because, as Bob Cooney perfectly says, VR headsets and MR headsets are now “the same fucking thing”, because all VR headsets now have MR capabilities. So it’s not clear how the shipment of headsets has declined because people are now interested in headsets…
The second finding that got very popular is that concerning the number of shipped units, in Q1 2024, Apple had 16% of the global market of XR headsets, second only to Meta. This made many people share the news that Apple is a successful XR vendor. However, in the same report, IDC says that no one in the US is buying the Apple Vision Pro anymore and that Apple will never reach its target of 500,000 units sold in 2024. The shipments are down -70% in Q3 (with regard to Q1) and only a cheaper device in 2025 may help Apple in recovering sales. So it’s not clear if in the end Apple Vision Pro should be considered a success or a failure… maybe both.
So, summarizing this report: VR is dead. MR is not, but probably it will be. We should all learn how to properly cook fries so we can find a job at McDonald’s.
More info (Apple Vision Pro sales halting)
More info (Apple not reaching the target of 500K units for AVP)
More info (AVP’s shipments dropping -70% in Q3)
More info (Shares of shipped headsets in Q1 2024)
More info (VR headsets’ shipments down of -60% because of MR headsets)
More info (Bob Cooney publicly saying what we all would have liked to say)
Matthew Ball has interviewed Andrew Bosworth
Matthew Ball, the investor who has been able to gain a lot of reputation during the metaverse hype, has interviewed Andrew “Boz” Bosworth, the CTO of Meta. They talked about AI, XR, and the metaverse: the whole interview is very interesting and offers some precious insights. In my opinion, these are some key takeaways:
- Meta (Facebook at that time) had never been much interested in PCVR after the acquisition of Oculus, because “a peripheral for PC” is not an interesting product for such a big company. They wanted to create a platform, they wanted to lead the next generation of technology: something like the Quest has always been the goal. This makes me think that the Rift never had a chance after the acquisition
- In 7 years, we still won’t see the headset of our dreams, but we’ll still see headsets that optimize a feature over others. Quoting Boz himself: “In seven years we are not going to be free of these fundamental trade-offs of weight, cost, and performance, etc. Really it’s pick one and a half of these three. It’s not even choose two.”. The road to affordable high-performance lightweight AR glasses that we wear all day is still very long
- Meta will give camera access to developers when people feel comfortable seeing other people having a headset around them without feeling spied on. Boz left the door open and suggested that is a question of “when” more than “if”
- Meta now sees “a path” toward AR glasses, but it’s long and complicated. Anyway, they now have internal technologies that 10 years ago would have looked impossible and this shows how the budget they are investing in their metaverse efforts can accelerate the research on the needed technologies
- Meta is very interested in generative AI tools that help creators easily craft content for immersive social platforms like Horizon.
News worth a mention
Meta easies off the purchase of Quest 3
With Quest 2 out of stock, the entry point for standalone VR has become $499, which is not exactly affordable. For this reason, Meta has introduced this week two strategies to entice more people to buy this device:
- Meta is offering financing to buy the Quest 3 through Affirm, which lets you pay $25 per month for a 128 GB headset, or $35 per month for the 512 GB model. The payment time is 24 months and during this period you also get for free the Quest+ gaming subscription
- Some official resellers (Amazon US, Walmart, Target) are discounting Quest 3 (128GB) at $430. It’s the first sale of the headset ever.
With these two options, Meta hopes to convince some more people to buy the device, while we all wait for the launch of the more affordable Quest 3S.
More info (Quest 3 financing)
More info (Quest 3 sale)
Pimax provided an update on its Crystal Super headset
Pimax has released an update about the development of its Crystal Super headset, which is a more advanced version of the Crystal Light, featuring eye-tracking, automatic IPD adjustment, and a swappable optical system. The company said that the customers can expect a headset that is 30% smaller than originally planned. But Pimax being Pimax showed this with renders and non-functional prototypes, meaning that the headset is not ready yet.
Pimax Crystal Super is expected to launch in Q4 2024 starting from $1800. But I wouldn’t be surprised if there will be delays.
Hands-on Play For Dream headset
A few weeks ago, I told you about the Chinese “Play For Dream” mixed reality headset, which was announced as a potential Apple Vision Pro competitor. The specs of this device were interesting, but I could not find any reliable reviews about it. This week, finally, my friend Alex from GanJJGames has gone hands-on with it and he reported that the device is actually quite good, with high screen resolution, good passthrough, higher FOV than Apple Vision Pro, and PCVR streaming support out of the box. Let’s wait for this device to be launched, but now I have a bit more trust in it.
A researcher shared his findings on VR UX
The researcher Corrie Green has shared the findings of his PhD in Virtual Reality user experience with the community. There are some interesting tidbits, like the interfaces which are fully 3D, and controls that have been modified to make the interaction in XR more comfortable. One notable example is the slider: after you move a slider, it returns back to the center: this way you don’t have to extend the arm all the way towards left or right to change a parameter, but you can do that with small hand movements. You have just to do a small drag in a direction, wait for the handle to return to the center, drag it again in that direction, and so on: this way your arms will be less tired while interacting in VR.
He also noticed that the small tremors of the hand make interacting with raycast in XR more complicated, so he tried to apply a simple filter to the hand angle and noticed that interactions with distant UI are much simpler this way.
Read the links below (and explore his GitHub repositories) to read more about his findings.
(Thanks Rob Cole for the tip!)
More info (Study on VR interfaces)
More info (Study on VR tremors)
Meta releases an opensource computer vision library for Quest
Meta has released Ocean, “a C++ framework for Computer Vision (CV) and Augmented Reality (AR) applications”. This framework is cross-platform and it also works on Quest. However since Meta does not want to publicly allow camera access to us developers, the framework to work needs an external USB-C webcam to be attached to the headset. This is literally ridiculous: Meta releases a library to let us do computer vision on the Quest, a device with lots of onboard cameras, but to do that we need to attach to it a webcam. It makes absolutely zero sense…
The good thing about this nonsense is that it seems to me a hint that in the future camera access is actually going to happen.
A new VR games showcase is coming in August
On August 15th VR veteran Jamie Feltham will present the inaugural VR Games Showcase, which will cover a variety of games targeting Quest, PSVR 2, and PC VR. The event promises a peek at AAA VR games and major updates coming from a number of studios, including nDreams, Vertigo Games, Schell Games, Flat2VR Studios, and IO Interactive. Many of these studios will be present at Gamescom in the Home of XR megabooth, so this event will also act as a presentation of what people will be able to experience at that event, I think.
The development of Zenith VR has been stopped
Ramen VR, the studio behind Zenith VR, announced the ceasing of new development for its VR MMORPG. The user retention is simply not there and the studio has not been able to create a critical mass of affectioned players to make the business sustainable. For now, the servers will not be shut down, so people who like the game can luckily continue playing with it.
This is an enormous pity: there was a moment when Zenith VR seemed able to bring the MMORPG game to VR, hooking many players to it. It could have been one of the VR killer apps. But things didn’t play out as expected: for sure this genre sooner or later will be successful and Zenith will be remembered as a pioneering application, but that day is not today.
More info (Zenith VR — Upload VR)
More info (Zenith VR — Road To VR)
Some news about content
- Bounce Arcade makes you play pinball by hitting the ball in an immersive way with your fists
- Frenzies is an upcoming arena shooter for Quest and PSVR 2. From the trailer, it looks pretty cool
- Into The Radius 2 will be launching as an Early Access title on July 24th for $39.99
- Indie game Stabby has a genius final credit scene in which you keep stabbing people
- Psytec Games announced that Windlands 2 is coming to PlayStation VR 2 on July 25
More info (Bounce Arcade)
More info (Frenzies)
More info (Into The Radius 2)
More info (Stabby)
More info (Windlands 2)
Some reviews about content
- Infinite Inside is a great mixed-reality puzzle game. It features complex mazes and satisfying puzzles that rarely feel too difficult or too easy, and it’s all delivered with smooth transitions between VR and MR elements.
- Spin Rhythm XD is a versatile rhythm game with a unique concept, and its VR version only extends its strengths
- The Exit 8 VR is an immersive port of the indie hit that leaves you feeling more unnerved than ever. It is a short but intense experience.
More info (Infinite Inside)
More info (Spin Rhythm XD)
More info (The Exit 8 VR)
Other news
Meta plans to bring more generative AI tech into games, specifically VR, AR and mixed reality games
The Immersive Wire has a new interesting column that talks about the Chinese XR market
Simtek VR offers a new way of moving in VR
(Thanks Ivan Aguilar for the tip)
NASA is using a VR simulator to check how passengers may experience an air taxi ride
News from partners (and friends)
Onirix is a new solution for VPS
Onirix has launched Onirix Spatial AR, a framework to provide Visual Positioning System to WebXR applications. Thanks to Onirix Studio, people can easily add augmentations to a space without needing to know how to code: they just scan the physical location, configure where the augmentations should appear, and then the spatial AR application is ready to be consumed by customers!
Learn more
Discover Vivaria
Vivaria is a new interesting indie MR application. This is the description the developers sent me:
Create your own vivarium in VR or Mixed Reality. You will be able to use many plants and other living beings to create the most aesthetic mini ecosystems you will be in charge of keeping alive and maintaining. Display and appreciate your vivaria in your game lobby or use the MR mode to see them in your room and connect with nature like you have never before.
Learn more
Download the game
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Some XR fun
Is VR good only for first-person games?
Funny link
Look! Someone who is genuinely enjoying natu… ah no
Funny link
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(Header image by Samsung)
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