The XR Week Peek (2026.03.11): Meta sued for the Ray-Ban Meta scandal, Steam Frame is now “coming soon”, and more!
I’m writing this newsletter episode from a brand new computer, a new cool rig ideal for XR and AI coming from a collaboration with DELL. Tomorrow, I’ll publish the unboxing video on YouTube… if you’re curious, feel free to check it out!
Luckily, there has been this piece of personal news that excited me, because not much has happened in XR this week…
Top news of the week
Meta to face a lawsuit over the alleged privacy violations
Last week, I reported to you that a Swedish magazine, Svenska Dagbladet, found thatthe images obtained by Meta AI on the Ray-Ban Meta smartglasses may be reviewed by humans in low-wage countries like Kenya. The human reviewers reported (under anonymity) that they had also seen images from private moments of the lives of Western people, who were totally unaware of this happening.
The news promptly had consequences. In the UK, the Information Commissioner’s Office started an investigation into the matter. In the US, things got even worse: Clarkson Law Firm started a class action on the matter against Meta. Notice that the accusation is not directly on the privacy violation, because the terms and conditions that people accept to use the glasses inform the user about possible “human reviews” (we may argue that no one reads the terms and conditions, and that the term “human review” is very vague, but that’s a topic for another day). The real problem is that Meta advertises the devices with statements like “designed for privacy, controlled by you,” and “built for your privacy,”… which are not very coherent with the images of your naked spouse being sent by the glasses to some strangers in Kenya.
But the biggest consequence is about reputation. This news spread like wildfire, and it was reported by every tech magazine. This means that:
- Meta had another big trust hit
- The whole smartglasses sector had a huge trust hit
In a future where we all will wear cameras on our faces, it will be important to know how much we can trust companies making them. Apple, with its strong focus on privacy, will have a great advantage in the future, in my opinion. As for Meta, I think that things will go well until it has the best-performing and cheapest devices on the market. But the moment others compete with similar features, it will pay its reputational debt.
More info (Meta facing a lawsuit over the Ray-Ban Meta glasses — Upload VR)
More info (Meta facing a lawsuit over the Ray-Ban Meta glasses — Road To VR)
Other relevant news
Valve reiterated that Steam Frame is coming in 2026
The recent shortage of components like RAM and the complicated International situation are causing delays for Valve, which would have already liked to announce the price of the Steam Frame. In a recent blog post, the company discussed these delays again and said it “hoped” to launch in 2026, prompting some people to speculate that the release may happen in 2027. So the company rectified the post andclarified that the launch is still expected in 2026.
And the good news is that now the pages of the Steam Frame, Steam Controller, and Steam Machine show a release date of “coming soon”. This is pretty exciting because it means we are getting closer. The problem is that with Valve, “soon” may be in 5 minutes or 5 years. Anyway, it’s time to start hitting that F5 key…
Samsung glasses are also expected for this year
Samsung has confirmed that its smartglasses (made in collaboration with Google and Qualcomm) are to be released in 2026. The company has also unveiled that the glasses will have a camera and that they will work by being connected to a phone. These last two revelations are so useless that they sounded to me like they announced that the water is wet. Anyway, it’s pretty exciting reading about these glasses, and I can’t wait to see them launched on the market…
News worth a mention
Evolution Publishing is a new publisher for VR games
In this very complicated moment for VR in general and VR game studios in particular, it is refreshing to hear that there is a new publisher of VR games in town. The new firm is called Evolution Publishing, and it is headed by a veteran of our industry: Kevin Joyce, who you may remember as one of the top VR journalists when he was the editor at VR Focus.
Evolution Publishing has three titles launching in 2026: Gamitronics Studio’s “Darts VR2: Bullseye” this spring, Dead Boss Games’ “Affected: The Asylum” in the summer, and a third unannounced title later this year. It is currently accepting pitches for interesting XR games, so if you have one in the works, feel free to reach out to them.
Brilliant Labs announces on-device AI processing
Brilliant Labs, the startup that a few months ago announced its Halo smartglasses, announced a very interesting feature for its device: the On-Device Privacy Engine. This means that “All video and audio captured on Halo will be processed entirely locally on the phone in your pocket”. This is a great win for privacy: I think on-device processing is one of the things that will allow us to feel safe when we wear glasses 24 hours a day.
HTC is still committed to XR, but…
I interviewed a spokesperson of HTC about the current direction of the company. I’ve been told that the company is still committed to the XR field, but it is diversifying its offering, and is currently mostly betting on smartglasses, content creation, Location-based entertainment, and the Viverse metaverse platform. At-home VR seems less of a priority for them, now…
Two new games for Ray-Ban Meta
Smartglasses are not the ideal gaming devices. But this is not stopping Meta from experimenting with it. The company has just teased two little games for the Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses: Goat, which is a small platformer game, and the classical 2048 puzzle game. They are nice, but just look like the porting of mobile games to the glasses: I can’t wait to see games that truly use the peculiar features of glasses…
Ndreams announces new layoffs
nDreams has announced its third round of layoffs. And it is a pretty severe one: two of its three studios, nDreams Compass and nDreams Near Light, are shutting down, and the company is conducting a staff reduction of up to seventy-eight employees at all levels, ‘including senior leadership.’ It’s sad to constantly read news about layoffs in our industry and in the gaming industry in general.
Some news about content
- Beat Saber finally joins the Horizon Plus program, but DLCs remain behind a paywall
- The Amusement, a VR narrative adventure game, is launching on Quest and PC VR on April 16
- There is a VR mod for Resident Evil Requiem from the famous VR modder Praydog, but it is still in early stages
- The cute and cozy puzzle game Interlocked: Puzzle Islands is coming to Meta Quest on March 24
- Affected: The Asylum, the follow-up to Affected: The Manor, is going to be released this Summer
- Puzzling Places to launch on Steam on April 9th
- Le Dino Labo, a puzzle game that lets you assemble Dinosaurs, is available now on the Meta Horizon Store, priced at $4.99
- Darts VR2: Bullseye, an arcade-flavored darts game, is coming soon to all major VR platforms
- Apple released a new episode of The Apple Immersive series Elevated, this time about the Swiss Alps
More info (Beat Saber)
More info (The Amusement)
More info (Resident Evil Requiem)
More info (Interlocked: Puzzle Islands)
More info (Affected: The Asylum)
More info (Puzzling Places)
More info (Le Dino Labo)
More info (Darts VR2: Bullseye)
More info (Elevated)
Some reviews about content
- Raceclub is an addictive racing game, even if its graphics and gameplay are pretty simple
- Alliance Tales: Battle For The Frontier is a nice space game if you have the patience to take the time to learn its controls
- Rumble is a PvP earth-bending game that requires time and practice to learn, but then it can be very satisfying
- Peak Rhythm managed to impress Upload VR’s reviewer, who is a rhythm game fanatic
More info (Raceclub)
More info (Alliance Tales: Battle For The Frontier)
More info (Rumble)
More info (Peak Rhythm)
Other news
A South-Korean company created “Meditation pods” to let workers relax using VR when they are stressed. To me, it looks like a thing straight out of Futurama
Meta announced FrameSync, a technology that allows Quest apps to run in a smoother and more consistent way
The interesting XR startup Doublepoint got acquired by ŌURA
VividQ announced Starfish AR: a 3D light engine to give “true AR” to wearable displays
RealityProxy, the research plugin to allow better interactions with distant objects in AR, has been opensourced
Epic and Google signed a deal over “metaverse apps”, whatever this means
News from partners (and friends)
Support The Ferryman Collective
The Ferryman Collective, one of the most talented creators of narrative experiences on VRChat, is organizing a big event to raise funds to allow them to keep offering amazing shows. The event is going to be held on March 22, both physically in Pasadena, California, and virtually on VRChat. The goal is to raise $10,000: help them reach it!
Learn more
Sponsored Area
Discover FM DUO camera!
Meet the FM DUO, a VR camera that is capable of filming up to 12K @30fps, and 8K @60fps. With built-in RTMP live streaming and 5G connectivity, the FM·DUO will immerse your viewers in real time! The FM·DUO features 2 full-frame CMOS sensors, with 6000 x 6000 pixels each. This allows for high-resolution zooming capabilities. Not only can you narrow in on one subject, but you can also focus on singular details of the subject’s facial expressions, clothing textures, and a multitude of other small details, enabling a much more immersive experience of VR video.
Visit Product Website
Some XR fun
Probably this is how he felt
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
- Carol Dalrymple
- Keith Bradner
- 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
- Don Williams
- Giuseppe Pippi
- Mark Frederiksen
- Ken Lin
- Sebastien Poivre
- Ixn91
- Chris Madsen
- Sb
- Boule Petanque
- 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
- Mark G
- 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 Meta)
Disclaimer: this blog contains advertisement and affiliate links to sustain itself. If you click on an affiliate link, I'll be very happy because I'll earn a small commission on your purchase. You can find my boring full disclosure here.
