I’m back in Turin, Italy! The trip to Finland left me with a bad cough, but especially with many sweet memories of the experiences I had there and the amazing people I spent my time with. Did you know that I met Santa Claus and that I pet some reindeer in the Lapland? And that I also visited a chocolate factory? Well, the day we’ll meet I’ll tell you about these incredible experiences I had. But for now, I’ll just tell you what have been in my opinion the most interesting pieces of XR news of the week…
Top news of the week
Valve Deckard’s “Roy” controllers allegedly leaked
The usual Brad Lynch with his team of data miners has found evidence of a controller codenamed Roy in the code of SteamVR. Since there is an OpenXR extension, it is sure that it is a tracked controller and not a gamepad or something like this.
Bradley says the combination of data mining and information from his sources reveals that Roy will have “at least” a D-pad, bumpers, grip buttons, triggers, ABXY buttons, a system button, and some sort of strap. All these buttons replicate the buttons of a standard gamepad, and this would allow players to play their whole Steam library on the Deckard headset, not only the VR games. On the other side, I would say that if the controllers are really like in the picture above, their setup would be very confusing. There are too many buttons, and personally, I keep confusing the two buttons that there are in the controllers now, so I can’t even imagine the mess of having four. Plus this would make the Roy controllers offer a totally different input scheme that would be a disaster for us developers that want to make cross-platform games. Considering that Valve is all about usability, I truly hope that the monstrosity I see in the image above is not going to happen.
The product should also be already far along in the productization stage, with the factories already preparing for mass production. Of course, Valve has not confirmed anything of that, and will keep operating with its usual slow pace until it releases a polished product. Brad and his friends have still to go on with copium for some time 🙂
A final curiosity: Deckard is the name of the main character of the movie Blade Runner, while Roy is the main antagonist. So at least on the naming side, the two things fit perfectly with each other.
More info (Valve Deckard and Roy Controllers — Upload VR)
More info (Valve Deckard and Roy Controllers — The Verge)
More info (Valve Deckard and Roy Controllers — Reddit)
Other relevant news
Discover some Black Friday deals!
Black Friday is getting closer, and many VR vendors have unveiled some interesting deals! These are the best ones that I’ve been able to find until now:
- PSVR 2 has a huge price slash to $350, in a bundle in which you also receive the great game Horizon Call Of The Mountain. It will be interesting to see how many headsets PlayStation will sell at this price, considering that the previous discount led to a big spike in sales
- Pico 4 Ultra comes with Pico Motion Trackers, three games, and one month of VRChat Plus all included in a big bundle
- Target is offering in the US the Quest 3S at $299.99 including a $75 Target gift card
- Bigscreen Beyond is offering a free audio strap for every headset purchase
- HTC’s Viveport has a 10% discount on Infinity plans, 50% off game bundles, and free Arizona Sunshine 2 Deluxe Edition for every Infinity subscriber
- HTC is also offering discounts on its hardware: Vive Focus Vision comes with a free DisplayPort adapter and a bundle of 4–5 games; Vive XR Elite gets a -$100 discount, or -$150 if bought in a bundle with three Vive Ultimate Trackers; Vive Pro 2 comes with a -$400 discount for the full bundle or -$200 for just the headset.
It looks like a good time to buy a new headset! I’m sure that there will also be other offers announced in the next couple of days, so be sure to check out the main VR magazines and communities to stay up to date about them.
More info (PSVR 2 Black Friday deals)
More info (Pico 4 Ultra Black Friday deals)
More info (Meta Quest 3S Black Friday deals)
More info (Bigscreen Beyond Black Friday deals)
More info (Viveport Black Friday deals)
More info (Vive headsets Black Friday deals)
Samsung may launch its smartglasses in Q3 2025
According to a rumor by WellsennXR, reported by Norman Mueller on Linkedin, Samsung and Google may launch their smartglasses in Q3 2025. The glasses should work with Google Gemini AI and have the following features:
- Processors: Snapdragon AR1 and NXP
- Camera: 12MP with Sony IMX681
- Battery: 155mAh
- Weight: 50 grams
The first batch of production should be around 500,000 units, with more to come if the glasses prove to be successful.
The specifications on paper look nice, and for sure the one between Google and Samsung looks like a strong partnership. But the real question is how these glasses will be fashionable compared to the Ray-Ban Meta: people need to put on their face something that makes them cool, not only that is technically advanced.
News worth a mention
Varjo launches Teleport solution for entering into real environments
Finnish company Varjo has just officially launched Teleport, a solution that is comprised of two parts:
- A mobile application for iPhone through which you can scan a physical environment
- A viewer through which you can enter the environments you scanned (after they have been elaborated on by the cloud). There is a web viewer compatible with all devices and an immersive desktop viewer for VR.
Viewing the teleports created by others is free, but creating Teleports requires a €30/month subscription. I have personally tried the solution, and I think it’s a pretty solid product.
Meta AI now available on Ray-Ban Meta in some EU countries
After an initial launch only in the US, Meta released its Meta AI assistant for Ray-Ban Meta glasses in Ireland, France, Italy, and Spain. Anyway, because of AI regulations issues, the only feature that is landing is the voice input capability, while no feature involving camera access is being released. Next month, Meta plans to add live translation for English and French, Italian or Spanish, too.
Some more info about Meta Orion
Fast Company interviewed some members of the team working on Meta Orion and managed to get some interesting information about the vision of the product. For instance, Meta stated that it doesn’t want our future AR to be cluttered with ads like in the short movie Hyperreality. On the technical side, one of the most intriguing information is that thanks to technical advancements, by the time Orion ships, some dimensions will scale anywhere from 33% to 50% thinner than what Meta is demonstrating today.
Quest 3 will pair with Windows 11 PCs next month
Meta and Microsoft announced that the automatic pairing of Quest 3 headsets with Windows 11 PCs is coming in preview access in December. The feature will allow Quest 3 and Quest 3S to wirelessly connect to Windows 11 PCs for a multi-monitor work environment in a way similar to what the Vision Pro does with Mac laptops. This could be a great thing for productivity.
Bullet Time Agent is a full game coming to VRChat
Bullet Time Agent is an action-adventure game lasting 8 hours that has just been released. But it is not coming to a store like the Horizon Store, but as a world in VRChat. This made everyone celebrate what is possible to do on a social VR platform with the tools that VRChat provides. Now, I don’t want to sound like a balloon popper, but VRChat basically lets you use Unity for the development, so most of the content that can be developed in Unity and that does not require low-level features like reading files or connecting with custom servers can be done in VRChat. As a Unity developer (also knowledgeable of VRChat), I’m not surprised at all, honestly.
What surprised me the most was that the creator decided to do this for VRChat. Probably it is for the great community, for the many development tools that the community created, or for the many users already inhabiting the platform. But it is interesting that someone decided to make such a long gaming content and not to release it on a store but on a social VR platform.
PSVR 2 is getting five new games and a renewed interest
PlayStation has detailed on its blog that PSVR 2 is getting four new games by the end of the year: Mare, Trombone Champ: Unflattened, Masters Of Light, and Alien: Rogue Incursion. Plus there is Hitman World of Assassination that is coming next year. This shows that Sony is still somewhat committed to this headset, whose library of content is actually growing pretty well. If we pair this with the huge discount that PSVR 2 is getting these days, we obtain a device that may be not that bad to receive as a Christmas gift. Yes, there is not a big library of exclusive content, but remember that now PSVR 2 can also work on a PC with SteamVR and it just costs $350…
Microsoft released Flight Simulator 2024
All the simulator games fans can rejoice. Microsoft and Asobo have launched the new version of Microsoft Flight Simulator and it is a blast. The game tries to have an accurate reconstruction of the Earth, including real-time updated weather and air traffic information for every place you may be in. In this version, you can also land your plane and walk a bit in the streets of the place you are in. Many people are expressing on Reddit enthusiastic opinions about this game, which is also playable in VR. The only problem is that there have been some server issues at launch, which is quite bizarre for a company that owns probably the best cloud service in the world.
More info (Microsoft Flight Simulator launch and server issues)
More info (Microsoft Flight Simulator review on Upload VR)
More info (An enthusiastic post on Reddit about the game)
Some news about content
- Hitman World of Assassination has been delayed to March 27th, 2025
- Orion Drift, the huge social VR game by the same studio behind Gorilla Tag, had a free two-day playing test to verify servers’ scalability
- Survios released a new story trailer for Alien: Rogue Incursion. The game studio also announced that the game is landing on Quest 3 on February, 13
- Action Hero is coming exclusively to Quest on December 12th, priced at $20
- Thrill Of The Fight 2 is now available in Early Access on the Horizon Store for $10. It features a multiplayer fighting mode
- Songbird, the upcoming VR karaoke game, is slated for a Quest launch on December, 5
- Niantic’s “Hello, Dot” is now free to download on the visionOS App Store
- The House of Da Vinci VR, a puzzle adventure based on the inventor’s real-life contraptions, arrives on December 4 on Quest and Steam
- F1 races viewer with mixed reality augmentations Lapz has been forced to pause its TestFlight for Apple Vision Pro, probably for some IP & legal issues
- Zix is a VR co-op roguelite where you are “tasked with spreading chaos across the universe in service of Zix”. It is expected to be released next year
- Pirates VR: Jolly Roger, a new action-adventure across a cursed island, arrives next year on Steam (January, 14) and PlayStation VR2 (Q2 2025)
- Survivors of Xcalibur is a new VR bullet-heaven game inspired by Vampire Survivors, and it’s out today in early access on Quest
- Camouflaj outlined the Batman: Arkham Shadow post-launch roadmap, confirming that the New Game+ Mode is coming in January
- Anomaly, a new extraction shooter from the makers of Swarm, launches on Meta Quest in early December
- Half-Life: Alyx NoVR is now 100% playable, so fans of the saga who don’t own a VR headset can still enjoy it in a sub-optimal way
- Upload has published its usual collection of minor XR news in its “XR News Round-Up” column
More info (Hitman World Of Assassination)
More info (Orion Drift)
More info (Alien: Rogue Incursion — Trailer)
More info (Alien: Rogue Incursion — Release Date)
More info (SUPERHOT)
More info (Thrill Of The Fight 2)
More info (Songbird)
More info (Hello, Dot)
More info (The House Of Da Vinci VR)
More info (Lapz)
More info (Zix)
More info (Pirates VR: Jolly Roger)
More info (Survivors of Xcalibur)
More info (Batman: Arkham Shadow)
More info (Anomaly)
More info (Half-Life: Alyx NoVR)
More info (XR News Round-Up)
Some reviews about content
- Wall Town Wonders is a game that got a lot of attention lately because of the very charming little houses of a lively little town that you can attach to your walls. The mixed reality it creates is charming, but the gameplay is a bit too slow
- Augmented Empire may not be the best game for what concerns level design and combat mechanics, but it delivers great character design and an intriguing story
- Spatial Ops reinvents multiplayer shooters by making you play in mixed reality in your home. The problem is that it requires you to have a lot of free space in your house
- Ember Souls could be a great game inspired by Prince Of Persia, but it is currently haunted by too many bugs and performance issues. It needs a few patches to be released soon
- Bounce Arcade is a good game that reinvents pinball by putting you at the center of the action, but not all the levels have been designed properly
- By Grit Alone is a very good VR horror game, but it needs more polishing, especially in balancing the difficulty of winning against the enemies
More info (Wall Town Wonders — Road To VR)
More info (Wall Town Wonders — Upload VR)
More info (Augmented Empire)
More info (Spatial Ops)
More info (Ember Souls)
More info (Bounce Arcade)
More info (By Grit Alone)
Other news
A wonderful article on Road To VR takes us behind the scenes of Batman Arkham Shadow development and shows some artworks of the game
Gorilla Tag and Digigods are showing the value of User Generated Content in social VR
Gracia adds its amazing moving volumetric scenes to its Quest 3 client
Tilt 5 is going to announce a second generation “soon”
The nominees for the VR game of the year at The Games Awards are pretty spot on
Figmin XR lets you see how to fold origami in mixed reality. This is a smart use of MR
November, 23rd 2024 was the Virtual Reality Day
News from partners (and friends)
Trip The Light is on Kickstarter
Trip The Light, the VR game about dancing and chilling is now live on Kickstarter! I talked about it in one of my articles about AWE EU: I genuinely had fun while playing with it on the show floor of the event, so I invite you to check it out and support it!
Gibby’s Guide to Quest 3
The author behind Gibby’s Guide has just published “The Ultimate Quest Guide 2025”, a book to guide new users to the wonderful world of Meta Quest. The book is longer than 200 pages and includes a full review of the best games to try, the best experiences to try, and various trips and tricks to optimize the use of your headset. If you’re new to VR, you should give it a look.
Some XR fun
I don’t think Poker is supposed to be played this way
(Thanks Vic for the tip!)
Funny link
Maybe Batman looked the same when he removed his mask
Funny link
This is podracing for real
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
- Richard Penny
- Terry xR. Schussler
- Ilias Kapouranis
- Paolo Leoncini
- Immersive.international
- Nikk Mitchell and the great FXG team
- Jake Rubin
- Alexis Huille
- Raghu Bathina
- Chris Koomen
- Cognitive3D
- Wisear (Yacine Achiakh)
- Masterpiece X
- Dimo Pepelyashev
- Jennifer Granger
- Jason Moore
- Steve Biggs
- Julio Cesar Bolivar
- Jan Schroeder
- Kai Curtis
- Francesco Strada
- Sikaar Keita
- Ramin Assadollahi
- Juan Sotelo
- Andrew Sheldon
- Chris Madsen
- Horacio Torrendell
- Andrew Deutsch
- Fabien Benetou
- Tatiana Kartashova
- Marco “BeyondTheCastle” Arena
- Eloi Gerard
- Adam Boyd
- Jeremy Dalton
- Joel Ward
- Alex P
- Lynn Eades
- Donald P
- Casie Lane
- Catherine Henry
- Qcreator
- Ristband (Anne McKinnon & Roman Rappak)
- Stephen Robnett
- KaihatsuJai
- Christopher Boyd
- Carol Dalrymple
- Sb
- Pieter Siekerman
- Enrico Poli
- Vooiage Technologies
- Caroline
- Liam James O’Malley
- Hillary Charnas
- Wil Stevens
- Francesco Salizzoni
- Alan Smithson
- Steve R
- Brentwahn
- Michael Gaebler
- Tiago Silva
- Matt Cool
- Simplex
- Gregory F Gorsuch
- Paul Shay
- Matias Nassi
And now here you are the link to donate:
Support The Red Cross in Ukraine
(Header image by KnightMD)