The XR Week Peek (2026.10.12): XREAL Aura costs $1,279, everyone is in love with Titanfall 2 VR, and more!
You’re here to read some interesting XR-related piece of news… so, I’m going to tell you all the most interesting XR-related news of the week! Ah, and I’m also giving you a free key for the amazing game Shil 😉
Top news of the week
XREAL discloses the price of Aura
XREAL has finally disclosed the price of its very interesting Aura augmented reality glasses. It is $1,279 for the SKU with 12GB RAM + 256GB storage, and $1,499 for the unit with 16GB RAM + 512GB storage. People who made a reservation for the device can now complete the purchase. Shipping is starting before the Winter Holidays.
Unfortunately, purchase will be possible only for users in the US, Canada, Japan, and Korea. We in the European Union and in Australia can’t purchase the device anymore, and XREAL is offering refunds to anyone who made a reservation in these regions. The reason for this decision is not clear, and XREAL just published some PR fluff to justify it:
To make sure AURA delivers a seamless and fully localised experience across different languages, regional infrastructure, and local app ecosystems, we’ve decided to take some additional time for regional optimisation.
What this “regional optimisation” actually means is not clear, and some people speculate that it may be for some EU regulations around AI that may impact the use of Gemini. I bet it is something related to regulations, politics, or logistics. In any case, in this period I’m very pissed off that we Europeans have become second-class citizens in the XR world.
The curious thing about the price of $1,279 is that it seems to me that it has been studied to be cheaper than Meta VR Glasses. I bet that XREAL strategically waited for the announcement of Meta VR Glasses to announce a price that was slightly cheaper. The two devices are quite different, but there is an overlap between the customers of one and the other, so they are clearly competitors. Anyway, considering the hype around Meta VR Glasses, I’m not so sure that just $30 less can make an impact: if I were XREAL, I would have gone for $1,199 or even $1,099 to create a true price differentiator.
I tried the device at AWE, and I think it’s a great AR headset. Let’s see how its sales will be.
More info (XREAL announces the price of Aura)
More info (XREAL Aura won’t be available in Europe)
More info (Some frustration in Europe about this announcement)
Sponsors Area
This newsletter has also been possible thanks to our sponsors.
Groovy Labs
Groovy Labs is an open VR/MR rhythm playground with access to 100,000+ songs. Slice, strike, or punch your way through music and discover different ways to move with the beat.
Built as an independent ecosystem, Groovy Labs is not tied to a single mechanic or platform. Customize your experience, explore new gameplay styles, and make every session your own. The project is shaped by experimentation, player feedback, and an active community. It is designed to keep evolving with new ideas, content, and ways to play.
Available on Meta Quest, SteamVR/PCVR, PICO 4, HTC VIVE, and Samsung Galaxy XR. One rhythm ecosystem, built for freedom, creativity, and community.
Other relevant news
The community is in awe of Titanfall 2 in VR
The VR mod for Titanfall 2 is getting universal acclaim in the XR community. People are getting excited because the game has depth, length, great graphics… everything the VR community has always desired. The mod is very easy to install and works surprisingly well. It’s literally a dream coming true for the VR community. It is not a typical VR game, but a VR game with the characteristics of a real full game.
Kyle Riesenbeck came out with a provoking thought: if the VR community is appreciating so much a flatscreen game ported to VR, maybe it is not true that we need VR-native games to enjoy the experience. It’s an interesting reasoning, and I agree up to a point. The truth is that we already had fun for years with games ported to VR: I loved Resident Evil 4 VR, for instance. If a game is VR-native and is well made, it truly clicks when you play it in VR. But having fun doesn’t require perfection: we can even have fun with just a few marbles…
More info (Upload VR praising Titanfall 2 VR)
More info (Kyle Riesenbeck’s provoking thoughts)
Pimax unveils its version of Steam Frame and Steam Machine
Pimax is being Pimax again. When the Chinese company senses that there is hype around a PC VR headset, it usually announces something better than it to ride the wave of the hype… and usually then it delivers with delays.
So since now everyone is talking about the Steam Frame, the company has announced the Pimax Crystal Pro, a headset made to wirelessly connect to a computer to have high-quality wireless PCVR. The headset features 2,880 x 2,880 pixels per eye, 110° horizontal FOV, up to 120Hz of refresh rate, and 200 nits of brightness. It integrates eye tracking so that it can have foveated streaming like the Steam Frame. The headset should be connected with a cable to a battery that goes in your pocket. Wireless streaming can happen via a Wi-Fi antenna, or, if you want the most premium experience, with a Pimax 60G AirLink antenna that should offer you the sensation of uncompressed image with just 2ms of latency.
The company has also announced its new ringless controllers, with a special mount to unite them to create a gamepad, exactly the same thing that the community is doing with the Steam Frame controllers.
Then it also announced a mini PC with an AMD RX 9070 XT or Nvidia RTX 5070 Ti graphics card that is called Spation. Spation is basically a more powerful Steam Machine, and you can use it together with the Pimax Crystal Pro.
Pimax Crystal Pro is slated to ship sometime next year, priced at $1,399. The third gen 60G AirLink is priced at $599. When bundled together, the whole package costs $1,899. The price of Spation has not been announced. The official release dates of these products have not been announced: you can’t be late if you did not set up a release date [insert Eddie Murphy meme here].
The company also announced a rebrand, with a new logo and blue being its new color. Probably someone will miss the green color typical of Pimax.
More info (Pimax announces Crystal Pro and Spation — Official Blog Post)
More info (Pimax announces Crystal Pro and Spation — Road To VR)
First images of the Pico Space Pro may have leaked
Some images of the Pico Space Pro and its internals may have leaked from some Japanese regulatory filings. We are not 100% sure it is the Pico Space Pro; some people claim it may be the Vivo Vision, but I tried the Vivo Vision, and it is different from the thing in the pictures. Nothing major can be learned from these pics, but at least we can have a first look at the device.
More info (Pico Space Pro images may have leaked — Upload VR)
News worth a mention
Happy anniversary, Road To VR
Road To VR, one of the most important XR-related magazines, just celebrated its 15th anniversary! Ben Lang started it out of passion even before the Oculus Kickstarter, and then, when VR exploded thanks to Palmer Luckey, his online website started gaining a lot of fans. 15 years is a lot, and I really compliment the Road To VR team for providing high-quality articles for so long.
It’s interesting that together with this celebration, there are also changes happening at Road To VR. Ben is stepping back from his role of Executive Editor because he has been hired by Viture, the smartglasses company. He will keep managing the website and writing once in a while, but now the Executive Editor is going to be Scott Hayden, who has been writing for the magazine for many years at this point. I’ve already said that on social media, and I repeat it: I wish both of them a lot of luck for their new jobs. They’re amazing guys, and they deserve success.
More info (Road To VR celebrates its 15th anniversary)
More info (Scott Hayden is the new Executive Editor at Road To VR)
Sesame to launch its AI Glasses in 2027
According to Janko Roettgers’s newsletter, Sesame is planning to launch its smartglasses in 2027. Sesame is the startup where Oculus’s founders Brendan Iribe and Nate Mitchell are executives.
The company is trying to provide a high-end experience to its users. For the design, it didn’t partner with a huge company like Ray-Ban, but with some Japanese designers. Then it worked a lot on the AI assistants you should use in the glasses, crafting their voices to be soothing and their behaviour to be useful. Sesame is trying to create an AI you can converse with naturally and pleasantly.
I’m very curious to see the result. We’ll see next year.
Meta launches smartglasses for enterprise
Do you remember the Oakley Meta Vanguard glasses for cyclists that Meta announced last year at Connect? This year, Meta announced a new version with fully transparent lenses and Z87 and Z87+ standards. These are the standards for the production of safety glasses, and in fact these glasses are not meant for athletes but for enterprise settings. It’s interesting to see Meta also exploring the possible B2B use cases of its smartglasses.
The hardware is there; now we have to see if Meta is also going to provide a reliable enterprise service. In VR, it created it and killed it three times, let’s see if with glasses it can be more reliable.
NVIDIA may have halted the production of the RTX 5090
According to a famous leaker, NVIDIA may have stopped the production of its RTX 5090 graphics cards because it is more profitable for it to use the same chips in more expensive cards for AI data centers and workstations. It is also rumored that the company may release a new RTX 5080 with 24GB of memory as the new flagship of the series.
So PCVR people wanting the absolute best performance for their game should buy an RTX 5090 as long as supplies last. But I have to warn you that it is going to cost you a kidney.
(Thanks Rob Cole for the tip!)
Steam Frame is now shipping in 2027
The logistics of the Steam Frame keep being complicated. Some people haven’t received the email to reserve their kit yet, while other people receiving it now are seeing a shipping date in 2027. Let’s say that Valve has not managed the logistics of this device very well… probably it should have partnered with a company that knew better how to manufacture and ship hardware.
New Meta Quest update improves the window management
The new PTC (aka Beta) version of HorizonOS introduces interesting features like a new management system for the 2D windows, the addition of a QR code reader, and improvements to the virtual surface keyboard.
Some of the classic Home environments are coming back, too. And talking about environments, the usual data miners have found that Meta is working on a new cinema environment where people can enjoy movies on Quest and the new VR Glasses.
More info (New version of HorizonOS)
More info (New cinema environment)
Apple is organizing an event for XR storytellers
Apple is organizing an event on November, 11th where people working on creating XR storytelling content can “connect with fellow creators, explore the latest tools and platform updates, and get a preview of how to produce live events in Apple Immersive”. The event is in person in Cupertino, but online attendance is also possible. If you are working in the field, I suggest you register for it.
(Thanks, Louis, for the tip!)
More info (In-person Apple event)
More info (Online Apple event)
I Let You In is a new horror series for Meta headsets
“I Let You In” is a new immersive horror series from the “Talk To Me” universe. The series will be composed of six episodes and will narrate “a group of young travelers chasing the ultimate party in Ibiza as they become hooked on the thrill of conjuring spirits, a supernatural high deadlier than any drug”. It will be available exclusively on Meta headsets.
Depthray is a new 3D player for Quest
Depthray is a new video player for Meta Quest that automatically does 2D-to-3D conversion for every video. While Meta already introduced a similar feature in its gallery, the nice thing about Depthray is that it can ingest videos from many sources, like Youtube, Plex, or a private local server.
I briefly tried it and found it promising, but there is still a lot of polishing work to be done.
Some news about content
- Resolution Games has announced that its Rocket League-like arena sports title Ultimechs will be delisted from all VR platforms on October 20
- Terry’s Terraforming, a VR narrative adventure game where you fix up planets across the galaxy, is coming to Quest 3 on October 22
- Coltrane is a new five-episode VR series produced by New Canvas, Jacaranda Productions, and Pico, continuing the detective noir story begun with 2016’s VR Noir
More info (Ultimechs)
More info (Terry’s Terraforming)
More info (Coltrane)
Some reviews about content
- Fresh Tracks VR is a mix between Beat Saber and an RPG game
- Omega Pilot Evolution is a fun racing game, but it has some serious game design issues
- Shil is a puzzle game with minimalistic graphics (it has like 3 colors), but it manages to be fun thanks to a fantastic game design
More info (Fresh Tracks VR)
More info (Omega Pilot Evolution)
More info (Shil)
Other news
It seems that the reboot of Altspace VR is coming in 3 weeks
Sony has sold many patents related to XR to Meta and some people wonder if this means it is abandoning XR
A new Upload VR Showcase is coming this December
In Norway it has been proposed a ban of smartglasses from public places
Meta brings immersive college football to Quest and promises 100+ live sporting events next year
NVIDIA may finally release a fix for the bug that affects Quest Link users in November
Someone manage to use Meta Neural Band with Rokid glasses (but in a hacky way)
VR Phobia Birds has been made to help people fight their fear of birds
News from partners (and friends)
Vector Tango
Vector Tango is an air traffic control simulation game for the Meta Quest. It was made using entirely AI workflows by solo developer Matt Scobel. The game is inspired by his father Frank, who spent 35 years as an air traffic controller in Canada. You put a tiny airport on your real table, or step into a control tower in VR, and bring every plane home safely across five airports. The story campaign follows Frank’s career, one busy shift at a time. It launches October 31.
Wishlist it now!
The Great Flood
The Great Flood is an action-packed real-time strategy game for Meta Quest, featuring PvE/PvP gameplay and 50+ mythical characters. You can support it now on Kickstarter!
Go to Kickstarter campaign
Free key for Shil!
As I told you before, Shil is a very intriguing game that is able to deliver very well, notwithstanding very minimalistic graphics. I managed to get a free key for this cool Quest game. First come, first served!
6WJQC-7HKQT-KNXN7-NPTX9-A34Q6
If you did not manage to get the key, consider buying the game to support the developers!
Get Shil on Meta Quest Store
Some XR fun
PC VR people are happy now
Funny link
Being a VR Youtuber is not easy these days
Funny link
VR gamers these days
Funny link
It seems I have to get married now
Funny link
A thank you and an invite
I want to thank all my donors on Patreon for making this newsletter possible. Without them, I wouldn’t be able to afford to keep my website up and you wouldn’t be reading this roundup! So, a big thank you to:
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- Nikk Mitchell and the great FXG team
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- Jason Moore & The MetaMovie Project
- Steve Biggs
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- Joel Ward — Downward Spiral
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- Ready Player One
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- Boule Petanque
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- Simplex
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- Matias Nassi
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