The XR Week Peek (2024.08.06): PSVR 2 sales skyrocket after the price slash, Meta reports revenue growth, and more!
In the middle of the summer, let’s enjoy this week’s most interesting pieces of XR news!
Top news of the week
PSVR 2 sales skyrocketed with the discount
Last week I reported about Sony heavily discounting PlayStation VR 2 in the US and UK: the original price was $550, but after the discount it amounted to just $350. This week, The Shortcut reports that the sales of the headset may have skyrocketed by a 2350% factor from the day before the discount to the day after. According to the same magazine, more PSVR 2 were sold on the first day of the discount than in the whole of 2024 until that day. This is pretty insane.
It’s not the first time that we see how price is critical for the success of a headset: the Oculus Rift CV1 was lagging in sales far behind the HTC Vive until Oculus slashed the price so much during “The Summer of Rift” that people started preferring the cheaper Oculus to the more expensive Vive. From that successful experiment, Oculus (then Facebook, Meta) started selling headsets under cost to kill the competition. Upload VR reports that “while at Meta, John Carmack revealed that the company saw each $100 reduction in price result in an exponential boost in sales, not the linear increase you might assume”.
Now the question is what Sony Interactive Entertainment thinks to do after this spike in sales. If, given the negative moment of the gaming ecosystem, it wants to focus on PS5, then this discount has only been useful to clear stocks in the warehouses and nothing more. But if it considers this as a successful experiment, it could do the same thing that Oculus did back in the day: keep this discount permanent and give new life to the PSVR 2, both as a console headset and as a PCVR headset (through the adapter). This of course would also require new investments in VR content, which may be the biggest problem for Sony to carry on, especially after all the layoffs it did this year. Let’s see: for now, let’s enjoy the good news that finally PSVR 2 had some good sales…
Other relevant news
Meta reports positive earnings, but Reality Labs still bleeds cash
Q2 2024 has been a very positive quarter for Meta. The company reported growth in all the economic indicators, with net revenues reaching $13.47 billion, an increase of 73% compared to $7.8 the year prior. The money is of course brought mainly by “the family of apps”, that is Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, which are the current main business of the company. This positive moment is pleasing investors and gives Zuckerberg more leeway to keep investing huge amounts of cash into the technologies of the future, that is AI and XR.
Reality Labs had a positive quarter, too, with a 28% increase in revenues compared to one year ago. Meta claimed that Quest 3 has been the main driver of this growth, with sales that are exceeding Meta’s expectations. Honestly, it’s the 1000th time that I hear XR companies claiming that a new device is selling beyond expectations: either they all suck at making expectations, or this is just a bullshit marketing sentence. I vote for the second option, but you decide what you prefer.
In any case, the growth is good, but revenues are still lower than when Quest 2 was in its golden moment. Quest 3 is too expensive to reach explosive growth, and we will need the cheaper Quest 3s for XR sales to accelerate again.
Reality Labs is still bleeding cash, though: notwithstanding the growth of the revenues, the division still lost $4.5 billion in just a quarter. Meta is investing heavily to dominate the metaverse and this is something I personally appreciate. But on the other side, according to a recent report, it is also wasting a lot of money because of bad management. It seems that the company promotes people who are successful in the social media business to the XR business, but since they do not understand the XR space and they do have not the humility to learn, they make disasters. Also, some ambitious projects are started and after spending a few millions they get closed because they are not going anywhere. This is coherent with what John Carmack said a few years ago: before leaving the company, he complained about the efficiency, saying that the team could have gone much faster. So, while Meta is doing well in investing money in future technologies, it could probably waste much less cash if it had better internal processes.
More info (Meta increased its revenues in Q2 2024)
More info (Meta Reality Labs revenue growth)
More info (Meta Reality Labs wasting money because of bad management)
PSVR 2 PC Adapter has a Bluetooth problem
The first reviewers started getting the PSVR 2 Adapter for PC and reporting feedback about it. It seems that the device is just fine, and if you have a computer that is powerful enough, the experience with PSVR 2 is definitely good. The headset is comfortable, has a good resolution, and has great black colors thanks to the OLED display. Also, the tracking of the headset is good.
But there is a huge problem: the PSVR 2 controllers require Bluetooth to work and the adapter has no Bluetooth inside. The device so relies on Bluetooth connection from the computer, but the biggest absurdity is that many existing Bluetooth controllers do not work well with PSVR controllers. The YouTuber Voodoo had to try four Bluetooth dongles before finding one that worked, but even with this one, the tracking of the controllers was awful and had frequent hiccups. Sebastian Ang from MRTV had the same issues.
This Bluetooth issue can ruin the experience of anyone who wants to use PSVR 2 with a PC. Our only hope is that Sony releases a list of compatible Bluetooth controllers.
News worth a mention
Meta releases new tool for audio ray tracing
Meta announced the release of a new Acoustic Ray Tracing feature in the Audio SDK for Unity and Unreal. It will make it easier for developers to add realistic sound propagation in their XR experiences, making them more immersive. It can simulate sound reflections, reverberations, and things like diffraction, occlusion, and obstruction, which are all critical to making spatial audio closer to the real thing. It is also compatible with popular middleware like FMOD and Wwise and this will make a few sound designers happy.
Acoustic Ray Tracing is being used in the upcoming Quest exclusive Batman: Arkham Shadow,
More info (Audio Ray Tracing — Road To VR)
More info (Audio Ray Tracing — Upload VR)
Microsoft and Sony join the Alliance For OpenUSD
The OpenUSD format, which is meant to be a standard for exchanging 3D scenes between applications, is going to have two more big tech giants supporting it. Microsoft and Sony have just joined the Alliance for OpenUSD, which already includes other relevant tech companies like Pixar, Adobe, Apple, Autodesk, NVIDIA, Meta, and Epic Games. At this point, with the support of almost all the major tech companies out there, I’m pretty sure that OpenUSD will become a relevant standard for 3D scene definition and declaration.
Meta releases v68 runtime for Quest, which includes AI a measurement app
Meta is rolling out the runtime v68 for Quest and this includes a few improvements here and there, but the most relevant changes are:
- The introduction of an AI assistant, through which people can speak and to which people can ask to analyze the environment around them. It will be available only in North America, though
- The release of the Layout app, which lets people take measurements of furniture in their environment and also preview how a new piece of furniture fits in the house. This app had been previewed various times and now it has finally been released on the Horizon Store.
More info (Quest v68 — Road To VR)
More info (Quest v68 — Upload VR)
HTC discounts the price of the Vive XR Elite
HTC has discounted the price of the Vive XR Elite in the US, cutting it from $1,100 to $900. Until the end of the month, people can also buy the Vive XR Elite and some trackers together in a bundle for a discounted price. Honestly speaking, I don’t think this little price slash is going to move much the sales of the device.
More info (Vive XR Elite discounted — Road To VR)
More info (Vive XR Elite discounted — Upload VR)
Jensen Huang and Mark Zuckerberg had a chat at SIGGRAPH
NVIDIA had a strong presence at SIGGRAPH. There it also announced a few news about OpenUSD, like a generative AI service to generate USD files.
But the highlight of the event has been the fireside chat between Jensen Huang and Mark Zuckerberg, who talked together about Artificial Intelligence and Immersive Realities. So many billions on just one stage! If you have some time, I suggested to watch it because it’s a pleasant chat.
(Thanks to Ivan Aguilar for the tip on the last link)
More info (NVIDIA’s USD service)
More info (Zuckerberg and Huang’s chat)
More info (Highlights of Zuckerberg and Huang’s chat)
Pimax talks about the status of all its projects
The community asked Pimax to improve its communication and Pimax did it. In a video released a few days ago, the company talked about all its products and the status they are in. It’s a very candid moment and I absolutely appreciate this openness. One of the most relevant information contained inside is that the Pimax Portal, the Wish copy of the Nintendo Switch, has been canceled: the company will still provide updates for existing devices, but it has stopped its production.
(Thanks Alex for the tip)
Flat2VR Studios gets investment from Andreessen Horowitz
Flat2VR Studios has been admitted into the SPEEDRUN accelerator of Andreessen Horowitz, one of the biggest VC firms in the US. Apart from $750,000 in funding and support, this is a huge endorsement for the VR porting studio. This is great news because it means that the studio will be able to port more popular flatscreen games to VR. I’m happy for them, but I also would like to see how much the VR porting business will prove to be profitable: we have seen people like Luke Ross making good money with VR ports, but when VCs give you money, you should make dozens of millions a year to be considered successful. I guess the next months will tell us if this bet is going as expected…
WaveXR is back
WaveXR is back at making immersive concerts. The company just opened a waitlist for people that want to know more. I’m pretty happy about it because Wave was able to make dope performances…
Some news about content
- The New Salsa Academy, an MR/VR application that teaches you how to dance Salsa, is available for Quest 2/3/Pro on the Horizon Store, priced at $20
- Impulse: Playing with Reality is an interactive documentary narrated by Tilda Swinton that explores ADHD through mixed reality. It is the second episode of the “Playing with Reality” installment, after the award-winning Goliath
- Living Room, a mixed reality app aimed at bringing lots of cute animals to your living room, is going to arrive this fall on Quest
- Maestro, an orchestra-conducting VR rhythm game, launches on October 17 on Quest and October 22 on Steam
- Tier One: Direct Action is a spiritual successor to VR tactical shooter Onward, created by some of its previous developers. Its Kickstarter campaign is now live
- Guardian of Realms is a new MR combat game designed by the Swordsman VR studio, arriving this month in early access on Quest 3
- Project Judge Visions is an experimental card combat game released by Bandai Namco in partnership with ADOOR. It is free to download from App Lab
- Bomber Drone is a mixed reality game for Quest 3 that gives you a virtual drone to fly in your living room to complete some missions
- Road To VR published its “XR News Bits” article with some minor news about XR
- Upload VR published its “ICYMI” article with some minor news about XR
More info (The New Salsa Academy)
More info (Impulse: Playing With Reality)
More info (Living Room)
More info (Maestro)
More info (Tier One: Direct Action)
More info (Guardian Of Realms)
More info (Project Judge Visions)
More info (Bomber Drone)
More info (XR News Bits)
More info (ICYMI)
Some reviews about content
- Attack on Titan VR according to Road To VR shows promising game mechanics, but it is still too rough to be enjoyable
- Clawball, a 3 vs 3 soccer VR game between cat characters seems fun from its preview
- DIG VR showed fun silly minigames in its preview to Upload VR
- Starwave looks like a fun rhythm game that may evolve the concept of Beat Saber giving more sense of flow
- Hello Cruel World didn’t get a good score from Upload because it is not scary enough as a horror game and its puzzles are quite frustrating.
More info (Attack On Titan VR)
More info (Clawball)
More info (Dig VR)
More info (Starwave)
More info (Hello Cruel World)
Other news
A global VisionOS hackathon is taking place in September
Omni One VR treadmill is going to launch in September with a lineup of 51 titles
A flight simulator rig using a VR headset has been FAA-qualified for the first time. This is great news for VR training.
Developers creating games for Vision Pro are frustrated by Apple’s poor technical support and non-existent financial support
Someone released an opensource text-to-speech Unity plugin that runs locally on Quest 3
A new leak points at an “action button” on Meta Quest 3s
News from partners (and friends)
Watch Al Caudullo interviewing me
I met with Al Caudullo at AWE and he had an interview with me on the fly in the showfloor venue. We talked about XR in general and about my experience at AWE. If you want to watch it, follow the links here below!
Learn more (Al Caudullo interviews Skarredghost — DeoVR)
Learn more (Al Caudullo interviews Skarredghost — Youtube)
Learn more (Al Caudullo interviews Skarredghost — Oculus TV)
Sponsored Area
Advertise your product on The Ghost Howls!
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Some XR fun
Well, as a teenager you think about only one thing… and it is not VR…
Funny link
The crypto industry in a nutshell
Funny link
I’ve seen the future of XR
Funny link
The new curation of the Meta Horizon Store
Funny link
Donate for good
Like last week, also this week in this final paragraph I won’t ask you to donate to my blog, but to the poor people who 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
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And now here you are the link to donate:
Support The Red Cross in Ukraine
(Header image by Meta)
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