The XR Week Peek (2024.11.05): Google Play Store is preparing for XR, Meta Reality Labs financials released, and more!
I’m back from AWE Europe, where I had an amazing time! If you want to read something about my experience, you can have a look at some articles I have written about it:
- A description of my experience at the AWE EU event
- My detailed hands-on review of Snap Spectacles 5
- My tests with the XPANCEO contact lenses
- My impressions of the MeganeX Superlight 8K VR headset
And now, let’s see what the most interesting pieces of XR news of the week have been!
Top news of the week
Google is adding XR support to Play Store in preparation for the launch of the Samsung headset
A report from Android Authority highlights that XR support is being added to the Google Play Store. Analyzing the code of the new versions of the store, some data scrapers have found an icon of an XR headset in the list of devices where it is possible to install an app and a string mentioning XR headset compatibility. Of course, these features are currently hidden to the public, but they make us understand that Google is preparing its Play Store for a renewed support of XR headsets.
Considering a partnership with Meta never happened, it seems clear that these updates are targeted at the upcoming headset that Google is building with Samsung and Qualcomm. This update on Google Play makes us understand that the launch of this headset is getting closer. This seems confirmed by a recent mention of XR devices as the goals for 2025 in a recent earnings call by Samsung. 2025 may so be the year of the launch, but let’s remember that until a few months ago we were sure it could have been 2024…
More info (Google Play adding support for XR — Road To VR)
More info (Google Play adding support for XR — Upload VR)
More info (Samsung headset may be launched in 2025)
Other relevant news
Meta Reality Labs increase its revenues, but also its losses
Meta has published its financial situation for Q3 2024. In this quarter, which does NOT include the launch of the Quest 3s, Meta had $0.27B of revenues and $4.70B of losses. Everyone online tried to interpret these numbers in different ways. There were people highlighting the enormous loss of $4.4B in just one quarter. A magazine like Upload VR stressed that revenues in Q3 2024 are higher than Q3 2023 (which were $0.21B) and this is a good sign for the growth of VR. Yahoo instead highlighted that the estimates were $0.31B, so the revenues are actually disappointing.
Actually, this is a debate that comes out every time Meta does its quarterly earning call. It’s years that Meta is pouring billions into the ecosystem, and every time there are always the same discussions. We should be grateful that the company is investing so much in our space, as long as it can afford to do that. I personally believe they are also wasting a lot of money and they could optimize their internal processes to cut these expenses. But still, this is an investment that can pay off in the long term, when XR will be ready for mainstream use. The only revenue data that interests me now is the one for Q4 2024, which will make us see if Meta Quest 3S has been a hit during the upcoming holiday season.
More info (Meta Reality Labs financial results — Upload VR)
More info (Meta Reality Labs financial results — Yahoo)
The cheaper Apple Vision Pro may have been delayed beyond 2027
The Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has just reported that Apple may have delayed the release of the cheaper Apple Vision headset beyond 2027. The reason for this delay is that Apple may be looking for a strategy to reduce costs significantly on the device (and this requires time for new technologies to be available) and that Apple is looking also for more use cases the make the price of the headset justifiable for consumers. Mr. Kuo states that now the only headset to be expected in 2025 is the refresh of the Apple Vision Pro which uses the M5 chipset.
Ming-Chi Kuo is considered a very reliable Apple analyst. I consider him very reliable, too: for instance, in 2021, Mr. Kuo reported that the Apple Vision Pro was expected to sell around 3M units in 2023 for the first generation (to be launched at the end of 2022) and around 10M in 2024 for the second generation. This prediction aged like fine milk. It was incredibly reliable. I guess that to become a “very reliable” Apple analyst you have just to tell random stuff until one of them becomes true. What I mean is: treat these predictions with a lot of grains of salt.
The news caused discomfort to the Apple Vision Pro community. Many people come out disillusioned, understanding that the Apple XR ecosystem may need many years before becoming big enough to be economically sustainable for developers to enter it. I don’t know if this rumor is true, but what I’ve learned in more than 10 years in the industry is that “It always takes more time than we expect”. So don’t rely on a brand to come and save you, don’t rely on analyst predictions, and don’t rely on just one egg in your basket. Most of us are still in survival mode.
More info (Ming-Chi Kuo’s predictions)
More info (A post showing disappointment about Apple’s strategy)
Oasis is the first playable AI open world
Oasis is a new experimental project to create a version of the multiplayer Minecraft game without using any game engine. The game is fully powered by AI: an AI has been trained from many hours of use of the Minecraft game and now lets you play the game generating what should happen and what you should see on the screen in a fully automated way, without needing any sort of coding. It is a very fascinating research, that tries to understand if AI can completely change the paradigms of computer science, even removing development altogether from the creation of an application.
The company working on this project is called DecartAI and Sequoia Capital is an investor in it. When Sequoia published a video about the Oasis project, Tim Sweeney, Epic’s CEO, very politely answered “Wow! Every single thing about this sucks!” and this sparked a little flame on X. While I’m heating my popcorns to eat them while reading the comments on X, I wonder what will happen in the next 10 years. Today the project is actually ridiculous, you look at stones and after a while they become sheep, but how will this AI evolve in the future? May really AI be able to emulate any program on the fly? I personally don’t think so, but who knows…
More info (Oasis, an AI-powered open world)
More info (Gameplay video of Oasis)
More info (Tim Sweeney’s comment on the project)
News worth a mention
Meta increased Quest 3s’ maximum GPU clock speed
Meta has made an early Christmas gift to its developers and users, raising the maximum GPU speed of around 16% for both Quest 3 and Quest 3S. The previous maximum frequency was 545MHz while now it is 599MHz. Thanks to this, games will be more performant on the headsets.
Niantic opensources new compressed format for 3D Gaussian Splats
Niantic has just announced the open sourcing of an internal format it was using to store more efficiently Gaussian Splats. The new format is called SPZ and can be seen as the JPG of Gaussian Splats, while the currently standard one, PLY, is a bit like PNG. The license is MIT, so this format can be used both in free and commercial applications. Someone in the community already built a Unity plugin for it. It will be interesting to see if this format will become a new standard.
More info (Niantic releasing SPZ format)
More info (Unity plugin for SPZ format)
ARM is entering a litigation with Qualcomm
Almost all mobile chips are based on ARM designs. And most Android phones and XR headsets are based on Qualcomm chips, that are built on top of the ARM designs. Now the two companies entered litigation, with ARM trying to terminate Qualcomm’s license of using ARM designs and accusing Qualcomm of breaching the licensing conditions. Qualcomm is rejecting the accusations and a trial between them is already set for December. Considering that Snapdragon chipsets are installed in almost all VR headsets, it’s interesting to see how this will play out.
Meta Horizon v71 is bringing a lot of updates
The quest v71 update is going to be a huge one. No feature is game-changing, but there are a lot of interesting small updates that will improve the experience with the headset. Upload VR reported the list of all the new updates:
a refresh of the system interface design, an AI model that converts microphone audio into estimated facial expressions, smoother passthrough, train support for Travel Mode, Dolby Atmos and Dolby Digital Surround, a first-party calendar app, a shortcut to Remote Desktop in Quick Settings, improvements to Scene Mesh scanning, a volume mixer for app and call audio, the ability to send flat and spatial videos in Horizon chats, the ability to pair controllers and styluses inside the headset, and an app permissions indicator on the menu bar.
Somnium VR1 is shipping
Somnium Space is now finally starting to ship its VR1 headset. Kudos to this company for having kept its promises about the delivery.
XR at SIGGRAPH Asia 2024
SIGGRAPH is an amazing event that always brings under the spotlight very interesting research projects. In its XR reel of the Asian chapter, you can have a taste of a few of them.
(Thanks Ivan Aguilar for the tip)
XR at Comic Con London 2024
At EGX & MCM Comic Con London 2024, the latest VR Game Spotlight showcased upcoming VR games and updates from a variety of developers and studios. Most of them were indies. You can watch a trailer including all the presentations through the link here below.
Some important news about content
- A few outlets have been able to try “Alien: Rogue Incursion” and they all highlighted the high quality of the game. In this experience, you can have classic moments of Alien horror and follow an interesting story. Aliens are smart and work against you in groups (like Velociraptors), so you have to be careful
- Skydance Interactive has released a new trailer about Behemoth where it is possible to see a new boss and some more details about the gameplay
- Vertigo Games released a trailer showing off the first seven minutes of Metro Awakening gameplay, which is headed to all major VR headsets this week. The game looks amazing from the video
More info (Alien: Rogue Incursion — Road To VR)
More info (Alien: Rogue Incursion — Upload VR)
More info (Behemoth)
More info (Metro Awakening)
Some news about content
- Sight Unseen is a unique VR puzzle game where you detach a robotic eye to find solutions
- VAIL VR is going to become a free game featuring a social hub with some minigames, with all the current shooter content becoming an external DLC called “Vail Combat” priced at $30. It is a pretty strange strategy and it will be interesting to see if it will pay off. The game is currently on sale, with a weird discount code inspired by P Diddy
- Last Stand, the new multi-location mixed reality PvP shooter, enters early access on November, 14
- Songbird, a new VR Karaoke game, reaches the Meta Quest platform this November
- Dino Hab, a game where you can raise and pet dinosaurs, is coming soon on Quest
- Gargoyle Doyle, an experience that crosses mixed reality museums with comedic VR storytelling, it’s out today on Quest. A few years ago it was showcased to festivals like Venice Immersive
- Pulsargeist is a horror mixed reality game for Apple Vision Pro
- Ghost Town is a new supernatural VR puzzle adventure coming soon to Quest, Steam, and PS VR2
- Underworld Overseer is a dungeon keeper VR game where you as a god have to fight human invaders that try to enter the underworld. It is out on Quest and Steam for $20
- Triangle Strategy, a turn-based tactical RPG from Square Enix, has been adapted for VR on Quest. It is out now for €27
- Wolvic Chromium 1.1 adds WebXR AR support to the open-source standalone XR browser
- Bridge Constructor Studio is a new entry in the unique and popular hectic physics-based bridge-building game. It is out on Quest on December, 5 for €10
- Upload has written the usual ICYMI post with many minor XR pieces of news
More info (Sight Unseen)
More info (Vail VR — free to play)
More info (Vail VR — discount code)
More info (Last Stand)
More info (Songbird)
More info (Dino Hab)
More info (Gargoyle Doyle)
More info (Pulsargeist)
More info (Ghost Town)
More info (Underworld Overseer)
More info (Triangle Strategy)
More info (Wolvic)
More info (Bridge Constructor Studio)
More info (ICYMI)
Some reviews about content
- Phasmophobia on PSVR 2 has some technical issues but it can deliver a frightening atmosphere and some very effective jumpscares
- Blade and Sorcery Nomad now includes the campaign and it’s almost on par with the PC version. The campaign enriches what is already a very successful game
More info (Phasmophobia)
More info (Blade And Sorcery: Nomad)
Other news
Canon announced its new lens system for spatial videos is going on sale this November for $449.99
Ben Lang went on with MeganeX Superlight 8K and appreciated its many comfort options
Marques Brownlee went hands-on with Meta Orion
Upload VR is returning with a new Winter Showcase
An interesting PhD thesis about VR interactions
News from partners (and friends)
MindPort’s AIXTRA was selected for the VOXReality call
LEFX and MindPort’s project AIXTRA has been selected in the VOXReality call. AIXTRA is a project dedicated to enterprise customers that has been made with these two goals in mind:
- Overcoming the Language Barrier: In VR-based training, language differences can hinder communication. AIXTRA tackles this by integrating AI-based in-VR translation, allowing participants to communicate seamlessly in their native languages.
- AI-Based Virtual Training Partner: Multi-user training can be very impactful, but requires multiple participants to be available at the same time. AIXTRA seeks to address this by integrating AI to simulate human-to-human interactions with an AI-based virtual training partner that can step in if no real human is available
If you are curious about VOXReality and its call, this is a description I’ve been provided:
VOXReality’s goal is to conduct research and develop new AI models to drive future XR interactive experiences, and to deliver these models to the wider European market. These new models address human-to-human interaction in unidirectional (theatre) and bidirectional (conference) settings, as well as human-to-machine interaction by building the next generation of personal assistants. The VOXReality team is developing large-scale self-supervised models that will be fine-tuned to specific downstream tasks with minimal re-training. At the same time, we rely on modern training approaches for designing models that include subnetworks with a common representation power but are more targeted towards specific architectures. By leveraging the once-model-for-all concept from the model training (large-scale self-supervision) and deployment (jointly learning sub-networks) perspective, we will be able to provide a catalogue of highly generic models with high representation capacity that will be efficiently specialized for downstream tasks.
Learn more
Devil’s Purge is out now on iOS
ONTOP has released the AR game Devil’s Purge,an action shooter extravaganza fused with roguelike mechanics played in the real world. The game is now available on iOS.
Learn more
Sponsored Area
No sponsored messages today, just take a deep breath and remember to do something beautiful for yourself 🙂
Some XR fun
Sexy Time in Batman: Arkham Shadow
Funny link
When VR becomes punk
Funny link
Love this ad from Fiverr. I bet it has not been made on Fiverr
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
- DeoVR
- GenVR
- Eduardo Siman
- Jonn Fredericks
- Jean-Marc Duyckaerts
- Reynaldo T Zabala
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- Nikk Mitchell and the great FXG team
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And now here you are the link to donate:
Support The Red Cross in Ukraine
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