XR = eXtended Reality (everything VR, AR, MR)

🥳 But there’s more:

You can now play PC games natively on Meta Quest.

Lucy Liu is a pirate queen and puffins are curious in Mini Golf.

eXtend your gaming:

Welcome to XR Gamer Digest #11

Discounts and Tips

🤞 Don’t forget you can get up to 25% discounts when you buy a game from the Meta Quest store. Go here and look for your game (we’re not affiliated with the website, but it’s a great tool).

💻 WinlatorXR enables running PC games natively on Meta Quest, showcasing its capabilities with System Shock 2 and offering both flat and VR modes for gameplay.

🔎 SideQuest introduces a web installer and on-headset adjustments for device settings like CPU and GPU levels, texture resolution, and more for Quest headsets, streamlining the installation process and enhancing user control without needing a PC.

👍 Meta updated its Quest Link app, now supporting 120Hz on Quest 3 and offering significant battery savings for all users, alongside expanded support for nVidia 4000 series GPUs, enhancing the PC VR gameplay experience.

🛏️ The Quest v63 update introduces a lying down mode for Quest 2 and Quest Pro, allowing users to comfortably use seated VR apps and games in bed by rotating the virtual coordinate space 90 degrees upwards when recentering while looking up.

XR Games

🏴‍☠️ "The Pirate Queen: A Forgotten Legend" offers an engaging VR narrative based on the infamous pirate Cheng Shih but falls short in execution, featuring minimal comfort settings and some technical issues, yet provides an entertaining short adventure with a standout performance by Lucy Liu.

⛳️ Walkabout Mini Golf's new Ice Lair course introduces curious puffins and innovative gameplay mechanics, including ice areas that change the ball's physics, available across Quest, Steam, PSVR 2, and Pico headsets.

🎴"Dragon Front Rising," a collectible card game with a solo campaign, ranked matches, and a mixed reality mode, offers a steep learning curve and detailed graphics on Quest 3, blending high fantasy and diesel punk aesthetics.

💰"Thief Simulator VR" introduces a free prologue chapter on Quest, offering players an "escape from prison" story that precedes the main game's narrative of thieving across the Greenview Street neighborhood.

⚾️ MLB Home Run Derby VR is set to launch on March 28th in the Meta Quest Store for Quest 3, Quest 2, and Quest Pro, featuring new updates including a progression system, customizable online clubhouse, trophy room, and expanded online multiplayer options across 30 major league ballparks.

🏝️"Survivor: Horizon Island" introduces a virtual experience of the CBS series in Meta's Horizon Worlds, featuring classic challenges and a leaderboard, accessible in the US and Canada starting March 8.

🕵️ "Espire 1: VR Operative" receives a significant graphics and performance update for Meta Quest 3, Quest 2, and Quest Pro, enhancing stealth gameplay, audio mixing, and leaderboards.

🌇 "Retropolis 1 & 2" brings classic point-and-click adventure to VR, offering engaging storytelling, puzzles, and a captivating film noir world, recommended even for those not typically fans of the genre.

🧍‍♀️"Body of Mine VR" is set to release an enhanced edition for Quest 3 in summer 2024, offering a more immersive full-body experience without the need for body trackers.

🕹️ "Arcade Paradise VR" is set to release on Quest in Spring 2024, allowing players to manage a laundromat turned arcade with 39 playable cabinets and a new mixed reality mode for placing arcade cabinets freely.

🦧 "Monkey Doo" is set to release on March 14th, 2024, for PC VR via Steam and on the Meta Quest Store for Meta Quest 3, Quest 2, and Quest Pro, featuring improved graphics, new maps, modes, and expanded customization options.

XR Entertainment

⏯️ VideoLAN is developing a VR version of the VLC Media Player for Apple's Vision Pro and is open to creating a version for Meta Quest as well.

🧟‍♀️ David Montecalvo is experimenting with Apple's Vision Pro to push mixed reality boundaries, showcasing a Hauntify prototype that dynamically adapts to environments without setup, even outdoors, highlighting Vision Pro's advanced mixed reality capabilities.

🎸 Avenged Sevenfold released "Looking Inside," a 26-minute VR concert experience in collaboration with AmazeVR and Warner Records, available on Apple Vision Pro and Meta Quest platforms, featuring live performances with visual effects in a virtual environment.

XR News

✋ Meta is set to delete all Oculus accounts and their associated data by the end of March, as part of its transition away from Oculus branding and the requirement for Facebook accounts for XR device log-ins.

📈 AR/VR headset shipments saw a significant increase of 130.4% year-over-year in the fourth quarter of 2023, despite a 23.5% decline in shipments throughout most of the year, with new product launches like Quest 3 contributing to the market rebound.

☠️ Meta's VP of VR explained that Quest headsets stopped working due to erroneous login-session-related data sent by Meta's servers, making the headsets think the login was invalid. This incident, which affected all internet-connected Quest headsets for about an hour, is being addressed by Meta with a vow to enhance the system's resilience against such rare conditions in the future.

🤒 University of Cambridge researchers have demonstrated that VR technology can detect early Alzheimer’s symptoms by assessing impairments in spatial navigation, offering a new approach to early diagnosis.

🎮 Sony's new MR headset features innovative controllers, potentially guiding future immersive input for devices like Apple's Vision Pro, emphasizing precision and efficiency in virtual spaces.

😎 The CIA is hiring an 'Extended Reality Specialist' to leverage XR technology for enhancing environment immersion, showcasing technical expertise, and staying updated on AR/VR technologies, with a focus on AR/VR headsets, software development, and cloud infrastructure.

🕶️ Meta is reportedly preparing to unveil its prototype AR glasses, "Orion," at Connect 2024, following nine years of development and internal pressure for high performance, aiming to showcase the company's advancements in AR technology.

🧑‍🍳 Lowe's has developed Style Studio™, an exclusive app for Apple Vision Pro, enabling users to design their dream kitchen in VR with a variety of styles, materials, fixtures, and appliances from Lowe's, and share completed designs via email, text, or AirDrop.

🤑 MOONHUB, a London-based VR interactive training platform, secured $1.4 million in seed funding led by Unconventional Ventures, bringing its total raised to $4.5 million.

🤝 Google proposed a partnership to Meta for its upcoming Android XR platform, but Meta declined, preferring to maintain its freedom to innovate and build better experiences without restrictive terms.

Until next time, enjoy your other reality gaming!

Bobby Voicu