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

Welcome to the first ever Saturday edition. If you prefer it like this, rather than during the week, let me know!

🥳 But there’s more:

Swarm 2 is here.

Humanity is on the Quest. Finally!

You can be a pirate ruler. Now in VR, with Tropico VR.

eXtend your gaming:

Welcome to XR Gamer Digest #12

Discounts and Tips

🤩 The Spring Sale is here: lots of games are discounted 30%+ on both Meta Quest Store and Steam.

🔄 If you had issues with your Elite Strap battery, Meta is offering replacements due to a charging issue acknowledged in November, reaching out to buyers to redeem a new and updated strap, even if their current one is functioning without issues.

🛏️ Lying down mode is coming to Quest 3 a little bit later and here’s why.

XR Games

🚀 "Starship Home," developed by Creature, is the first Quest 3 exclusive game, transforming your living room into a starship for an interplanetary expedition with MR passthrough, set to launch in Q3 2024.

🏴‍☠️ Ahoy! "Tropico VR," the VR version of "Tropico 4," launches on Meta Quest on March 28 for $29.99. It has the original 20-mission campaign, the Modern Times expansion, ten DLC packs, and a Sandbox mode.

📚 Ernest Cline, author of "Ready Player One," announced "Open," an AAA metaverse gaming experience with battle royale elements, developed by Walker Labs in partnership with Readyverse Studios. Frankly, it sounds like a mish-mash of every type of game you might have seen. I don’t know what to expect 🙂 

🥽 For the few of us that own an Apple Vision Pro, "Just Hoops," a retro-inspired arcade basketball game developed by Realcast, is now available there. It doesn’t have multiplayer support yet, unfortunately.

🎉 Humanity is now available on the Meta Quest. The game was a huge success on Steam, so I assume we will see the same on the Quest store.

👩‍🏫 Unearthed is a new adventure game that combines educational content with entertainment. With voice acting from well established actors, the game promises an exciting adventure.

🚀 This is amazing: "Gorilla Tag," has become the first Quest title to surpass 100,000 user reviews, marking it as one of the most successful games on the Quest platform in terms of reviews and revenue generated.

💕 "Tin Hearts," a heartwarming puzzle adventure game by Wired Productions and Rogue Sun, received a free VR update, now available on PSVR 2 and PC VR via Steam, allowing players to immerse themselves in the game's puzzles directly in VR, priced at $19.99.

🥽 Apple's Vision Pro is introducing Vision Pro-native versions of popular iOS games like "Crossy Road Castle" and "Solitaire Stories" to Apple Arcade, blending 3D with flatscreen-native gameplay, starting April 25th.

🎴 "Expansion VR," is a new sci-fi game for Meta Quest and PC VR. It combines real-time strategy and deck-building with both single-player and multiplayer PVP modes, set in a universe where players fight for resources in newly colonized celestial regions.

🏹 "SWARM 2," the sequel to the high-flying arcade shooter "SWARM" by Greensky Games, is now available on Quest 2/3/Pro and Pico headsets for $25.

Watch the trailer below:

XR Entertainment

🖼️ ImmerGallery now supports a multiplayer mode for up to five users, allowing the creation of private rooms with a password to view shared galleries together, currently in alpha testing. The update also includes several improvements, detailed in the latest release notes.

XR News

⚙️ Meta has announced a strategic partnership with W4 Games to enhance OpenXR support and facilitate the development of Quest games using the Godot engine, aiming to complete the project by July 2024 and create a viable alternative to Unity and Unreal Engine.

🗺️ Apple's Vision Pro, initially a US-only device, may soon prepare for an international launch as code reveals 12 new languages being added, including UK, France, Germany, Japan, Australia and Canada.

👋 Jan 'Split' Ilavsky, founder of Beat Games and the creative mind behind "Beat Saber," has left the studio and plans to take an extended break from VR after creating one of the most financially successful VR games, which generated over $100 million in revenue in 2021 alone.

🥽 Pico Interactive, a subsidiary of ByteDance, is rumored to release the "PICO 4S" headset, following a recent trademark and leaked controller design.

🕶️ I think the next step in mass adoption of XR devices is glasses. And the closest to that are the XReal Air 2 Pro. Here’s a detailed guide to the future of XR.

Until next time, enjoy your other reality gaming!

Bobby Voicu