The XR Week Peek (2026.04.27): Steam Frame is approaching its launch, Samsung is working on new glasses, and more!
The hype for the Steam Frame is getting bigger and bigger, and we all can’t wait to know its price, which should be announced soon! Besides this, it has not been a huge week for XR, but still, in my roundup, you will be able to find some interesting pieces of AR/VR news!
Top news of the week
The launch of the Steam Frame should be imminent
It seems that Valve is getting closer and closer to the launch of the Steam Frame. There are many telling signs about this:
- Komodo Station, the Asian reseller of Steam hardware, has published some placeholder pages for Steam Frame, Steam Machine, and Steam Controller. This means that it is preparing to sell these products very soon
- Valve has uploaded an unboxing video of the Steam Controller, without publishing it yet
- A review video of the Steam Controller was published “by mistake”, revealing the final price of $99. I don’t believe much in these “mistakes”; they all seem controlled leaks to me
- Some rumors confirm Valve is in the final stages before the launch
- VR magazines have published fewer articles this week, which usually happens when journalists are writing articles behind the scenes but can’t publish them because of an embargo for a new product
- In any case, Valve promised a launch in the first half of 2026, and we are getting towards the final part of this launch period
I would bet on an announcement this new week. It would happen in typical Valve style, with just an update on the website and not much fanfare. Probably at the same time, VR magazines would publish their review of the headset and some editorials about it. A Japanese website claims the hardware is going to launch on May, 4th: it would be really cool to launch on Star Wars day, but I’ve found no confirmation about this elsewhere.
The hype is really huge on this one. I just published a screenshot of the Komodo website saying that I was hitting F5 waiting for the price, and when I re-opened X, it had hundreds of likes. People are waiting for this device because it is going to be cool. Some of them see it as the saviour of VR, but I honestly doubt this will be the new “Quest moment” for VR. I’m convinced the Frame is going to be cool, but I bet the price will be in the range $800–1000, which is too high to get the interest outside the niche of gamers and VR enthusiasts. The leaked $99 price for the Steam Controller shows that this hardware is going to be expensive: not hugely expensive, but not affordable either. These are high-quality products for people who want a very good experience.
Now enough writing, let me get back to pressing F5 on the Steam Frame page…
More info (Komodo published the pages about the Steam hardware)
More info (Valve uploads unboxing video)
More info (Leaked Steam Controller video)
More info (A rumor stating that Valve is in the final phase before launch)
More info (Rumor about May 4th launch day)
More info (My simple post getting viral)
Other relevant news
Samsung may be working on smartglasses with a display
Android Authority found evidence of a new pair of smart glasses in the source code of Samsung’s upcoming One UI 9 firmware, revealing a new model number: ‘SM-O500’, codenamed ‘Haean’. This is a new type of device, which is different from the other two we already know, and that Samsung should launch in the upcoming months. These known models should be similar to the Ray-Ban Meta glasses and feature audio-only interactions.
According to some rumors, the “Haean” glasses may be a new type of glasses that feature a display, like the Ray-Ban Meta Display, and may launch next year, in 2027. It’s interesting anyway to notice that this is not the first time that we hear that name: one year ago, one of the first leaks about Samsung glasses already mentioned “Project Haean”.
I should warn you that these are all rumors, though. It’s not clear if this device is going to be launched and what its features are going to be. They are just speculations for now. The only certainty we have is that Samsung is launching glasses this year.
More info (Samsung may launch display glasses in 2027)
More info (“Project Haean” leak from one year ago)
Gucci aims to launch smart glasses next year
A few months ago, Google announced a partnership with Kering to release Android XR-powered smartglasses. This week, the Kering group revealed that next year, we may see the first glasses coming out from this partnership.
While the name Kering doesn’t say much to most of us, it is the entity controlling the brand Gucci, which is a super-famous fashion brand. Luca de Meo, CEO of Kering, announced that, probably next year, we may see some “luxury” Gucci smartglasses powered by Android XR coming to the market.
I think this is great news: the more fashion brands we have in the smartglasses sector, the better. We need glasses that do not look like toys for nerds, but cool eyewear that people want to wear. I just hope this trend is going to continue, and it is not just a temporary phase.
More info (Fashion brands are coming to the smartglasses sector)
More info (Gucci glasses to be released in 2027)
News worth a mention
Quest browser integrates experimental support for WebGPU
Quest Browser v146 includes experimental support for WebGPU in WebXR. It should just be activated in the experimental features. This is great news because WebGPU increases the performance of WebXR, so this is another step towards making WebXR a viable technology to make production-ready XR applications.
Some interesting XR-related research projects
This week I’ve discovered some interesting XR-related research projects I want to tell you about:
- MUA, a solution to have quasi real-time photorealistic avatar of people on Meta Quest
- Boxer, a solution to identify objects around you and their bounding boxes when wearing Project Aria glasses
- Haptic Bots, a project from some years ago, where tiny robots move on your desk to get closer to your fingers so that you can have haptic sensations when interacting in XR
- Humanoid Turk, a project in which a humanoid robot sits behind you and moves your chair while you are racing in VR to give you a more realistic experience. I don’t know why this should be better than a haptic chair, but at this point, I’m too afraid to ask.
(Thanks to Ivan Aguilar for pointing me to many of these projects!)
More info (MUA)
More info (Boxer)
More info (HapticBots)
More info (HumanoidTurk)
Learn to design for mixed reality
Meta has published on its YouTube channel the video of the GDC talk by Doug North Cook, the CEO of Creature, the studio behind Starship Home. It is a nice talk that talks about how to design your experience for mixed reality, making sure that it is enjoyable and fits in the house of every person. It’s rare to find suggestions on how to build for passthrough MR from people that built successful games around it, so I suggest you have a look at this one.
Mentra and Nimo start a partnership
Mentra, the company building the MentraOS open operating system for smartglasses, announced a partnership with Nimo, a Chinese startup making super lightweight smartglasses. Thanks to this, users of the Nimo glasses may also use the Mentra MiniApp Store as a source of applications. This is great because it shows that Mentra is making some steps ahead to position itself as a cross-platform layer between various smartglasses, allowing developers to build once and ship to many devices.
Some info about content
- Into The Radius 2 exited from Early Access on PC. Price has not changed from before and still sits at $39.99
- Five Nights At Freddy’s: Secret of the Mimic arrives on April 28 on PSVR 2 and SteamVR.
More info (Into The Radius 2)
More info (Five Nights At Freddy’s: Secret of the Mimic)
Some reviews about content
- Many journalists and influencers went hands-on with a preview of Forefront 1.0. They all had tons of fun and defined it as one of the best Battlefield-like games in VR. They also said the “1.0” update doesn’t feel that massive, though
- Marrow Marrow is a frantic VR movement roguelike shooter with good graphics and audio, but also a lot of motion sickness
- Little Nightmares VR: Altered Echoes got a whopping 4.5/5 on Upload VR, which defined it “the best VR horror game in quite some time.”
More info (Forefront 1.0 — Road To VR)
More info (Forefront 1.0 — Upload VR)
More info (Marrow Marrow)
More info (Little Nightmares VR: Altered Echoes)
Other news
‘Star Wars’ Director Jon Favreau Used Vision Pro in Filming ‘Mandalorian & Grogu’
A smart way to capture your favorite game character as a Gaussian Splat
News from partners (and friends)
Attend the VR AR Expo China!
In mid-May, I will be in Shanghai to attend VR AR Expo China, one of the most interesting Chinese events entirely dedicated to AR/VR. I will be a speaker and also a media partner. I’m going there because it’s a great opportunity to meet XR-focused companies in China, and also try new hardware. I hope we’ll meet there!
Learn more (Official website of the event)
Learn more (My interview to 4 companies attending the event)
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
Even Meta AI doesn’t trust Meta
Funny link
I see we all love the new Quest UI
Funny link
I guess it’s Zuck that wants to say “goodnight”
Funny link
The Steam Frame is coming “soon”
Funny link
The biggest offense you can get as a developer
Funny link
Luckily the Terminator moment is not today
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 Valve)
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.
