March, 2025

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‘Half-Life: Alyx’ is Now Five Years Old. What’s Next for Valve in VR?

Road to VR

Five years after Half-Life: Alyx reshaped expectations for VR gaming, Valve remains a quiet yet critical force in the industry. Despite little fanfare, the company has continued to shape the VR landscape through steady updates to SteamVR, integration with standalone headsets like Quest, and whispers of new hardware and games. Now, as the fifth anniversary of Alyx passes, the question looms larger than ever: is Valve still all-in on VR, or is it slowly retreating from the frontier it helped defin

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PicotionAI: Playing Pictionary with mixed reality, camera access, and artificial intelligence

The Ghost Howls

Today I want to tell you about a little but very cute project I’ve developed for Pico headsets. It’s called PicotionAI and it is a game that includes mixed reality, camera access, and artificial intelligence! As I have done in other similar cases, I’m telling you this story hoping that it can inspire you to do cool projects of your own.

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Immersive Learning Case Studies: XR Training Success Stories

XR Today - Virtual Reality

Immersive learning case studies from countless industries highlight the potential extended reality technologies have to transform how we build skills and knowledge. Research from Stanford University found that XR training can improve learning effectiveness by 76% compared to traditional learning methods. Immerse VR found that companies using its solutions for training report a 52% improvement in time to competence.

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Connecting Dots at SXSW: The Rise of VR180

AR Insider

A subtle theme at SXSW was VR180. not because new hardware was pervasive, nor because everyone was buzzing about it, but if you looked closely you could connect the dots. Our Editor at Large Emily Olman reports. This post appeared first on AR Insider.

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The Future of eLearning in 2022: A Sensitive Eye for Authentic Translation and Localization

Speaker: Chris Paxton McMillin, President of D3 Training Solutions

To avoid awkward and sometimes disastrous learning content, instructional designers must use authentic translation in the right context to get optimal results. For example, even a simple phrase like “got milk” translates to “are you lactating” in Mexico. Can you imagine what a straight translation might do to your course? With over 317 million people in the US and over 6.7 billion potential customers in the world, personalizing training seems logical.

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Roboquest VR Is My Most Anticipated Flat2VR Studios Game

Upload VR

Roboquest VR shows promise with compelling FPS roguelike mechanics, and we recently previewed the PC VR version. Out of Flat2VR Studios' six upcoming games, Roboquest VR is easily my most anticipated title yet. I'll admit that I wasn't familiar with the flatscreen Roboquest before last year's announcement , yet the comic book-inspired art style and roguelike gameplay immediately had me intrigued.

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PC VR Headset Bigscreen Beyond 2 Promises Big Boost to Field-of-view & Clarity, Launching Next Month

Road to VR

Bigscreen today announced its next-gen Beyond PC VR headset, promising a big boost in field-of-view (FOV) and clarity thanks to the inclusion of new pancake lenses. Bigscreen is also making the slim and light headset more attractive to at-home and enterprise users too thanks to its new adjustable interpupillary distance (IPD) and a universal Lightseal facial interface.

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Smartglasses: my experience at CES and the road to AR glasses

The Ghost Howls

Today, I want to discuss one of the XR technologies that has been getting more hype lately: smartglasses. I want to start my analysis with what I’ve seen at CES and then go beyond that and discuss what I envision for the future of this technology. Smartglasses at CES In the XR area (and beyond), smartglasses were one of the most popular technologies at CES.

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J. J. Keller & PIXO VR to Scale Workplace Immersive Training Opportunities

XR Today - Virtual Reality

Rounding off a busy week for the XR industry, PIXO VR made further strides in bringing VR immersive training solutions to the forefront by collaborating with safety and regulatory compliance solutions provider J. J. Keller & Associates to scale and enhance workplace training into the latter’s portfolio of training services. The move allows J.

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Spatial Beats: Wearable AI, Napster Returns & the Future of Siri

AR Insider

Infinite Reality pays big for Napster's throwback vibes and Apple wants to turn Watches into Wearable AI. We have these and other items from XR and AI worlds through the eyes of Charlie Fink. This post appeared first on AR Insider.

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How to Train Employees 65% Faster With Virtual Reality

With a rapidly changing economy, Avangrid Renewables looked to virtual reality to develop a standardized form of immersive training in order to onboard and upskill technicians faster than ever before.

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For IO Interactive, Hitman On PS VR2 Is A Chance At Redemption

Upload VR

IO Interactive considers Hitman on PlayStation VR2 its chance at redemption, and we interviewed the studio alongside a hands-on preview to learn more. Third time's the charm might be the conventional saying, yet Hitman is pinning its hopes with attempt no.4. Previous versions of Hitman 3 for PSVR and PC VR had merits but ultimately fell short, and much has already been said about the widely criticized Quest 3 port last year.

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Analysts predict drop in headset sales this year

Hypergrid Business

(Image by Maria Korolov via Adobe Firefly.) IDC released their latest headset predictions today , and it’s a bit of a mixed bag. We saw a 10 percent bump in augmented and virtual reality headset shipments last year — but they’re predicting a 12 percent drop for 2025. Do the IDC numbers mean anything? Yes, they do. IDC — International Data Corp. — is the most reputable company out there for this kind of data, and they base in on actual shipment numbers.

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Smartphone Giant Vivo Announces ‘Vision’ MR Headset, Copying Apple’s Name & Design

Road to VR

Another Vision Pro knock-off is coming to town, and this time it even has the ‘Vision’ name. While not a household name, China’s Vivo is known for its sensible, mid-range smartphones, regularly ranking it in the top five smartphone creators by market share. Now, at the Boao Forum for Asia in China’sHainan Province today, the company showed off its first entry into the XR segment: Vivo Vision.

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The XR Week Peek (2025.03.11): Samsung headset may launch in Q3, Animal Company is the most grossing game on the store, and more!

The Ghost Howls

THIS IS MY 400TH ROUNDUP OF XR NEWS. I cant believe Im writing these words. When I started writing these weekly summaries of AR/VR news I couldnt imagine I would have continued for such a long time. Thank you to all of you, my readers, for having kept reading these posts of mine and giving me the strength to keep writing them by telling them they are useful for you.

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AR/VR Simulations for Sustainable, Regenerative, Circular Cities

Speaker: Nik Gowing, Brenda Laurel, Sheridan Tatsuno, Archie Kasnet, and Bruce Armstrong Taylor

With 191 country signatories to the Paris Climate Agreement now hard at work in the race to zero carbon by 2050, much of the heavy lifting in ecosystem sustainability falls on the shoulders of the world's densely populated urban centers. This conversation considers how today's AI-enabled simulation media, such as AR/VR, can be effectively applied to accelerate learning, understanding, training, and solutions-modeling to sustainability planning and design.

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GIGABYTE & TAICCA Launch AI-Driven XR Content Creation Platform – SXSW ’25

XR Today - Virtual Reality

This week, at the 2025 SXSW festival, alongside arts and technology, immersive technology innovator GIGABYTE announced a partnership with the Taiwan Creative Content Agency (TAICCA) to promote the deployment of an AI-powered XR content creation platform. The event is famed for showcasing the latest in arts and technology, and this year at the SXSW 2025 XR Lounge, the partnership underlined the events reputation.

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Apple Lights Up Austin: the SXSW Dispatch

AR Insider

At SXSW, Apple debuted its immersive Metallica experience. AR Insider Editor at Large Emily Olman was on site to get a demo from Apple. She breaks down her observations on Apple's latest, and the broader return of cinematic VR. This post appeared first on AR Insider.

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Inside The Walkable VR Holodeck That Sells Real Estate

Upload VR

In 2012, Jonathan Coon backed the original Oculus kickstarter project and has a signed Rift DK1 to show for it. In 2025, Coon and a team of technology integrators developed a functioning 5,000-square-foot holodeck on a hilltop overlooking Austin, working through a collaboration between Pureblink , Agile Lens , and DBOX. This first-of-its-kind facility sells the idea of residing on the hill in a few years in a home with a "frictionless lifestyle".

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Vuzix AR Smart Glasses Power Innovative Hearing Assistance Solution

XR Today - Augmented Reality tag

This week, Vuzix Corporation noted a major uptick in its hardware sales and adoption. This follows a period in 2024 when 2023’s third-quarter figures dropped due to lower sales of the M400 product in key areas like Asia. However, Xander is significantly reordering Vuzix Shield AR smart glasses that are helping to continue an upward tick for the veteran’s enterprise XR hardware vendor, which appeared to kick into action following the Q2 drop.

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Are You Still Watching? How to Create Engaging Presentations for Virtual Learning

Speaker: Richard Goring, Director at BrightCarbon

Remote meetings are here to stay - and many are BORING. If you are trying to engage your learners (or any audience), compelling content is critical. But trying to create stimulating content with the same tools you’ve always had is hard, right? Thankfully, wrong! Terrific tools in PowerPoint along with visual assets help you create the kind of dynamic content you need to capture your remote audience’s attention, with functions that allow for interactive sequences and navigation.

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Samsung Reportedly Planning to Release XR Glasses This Year

Road to VR

We’ve been waiting to hear about Samsung’s entrance into XR for a few years now, with the company’s still unnamed mixed reality headset ‘Project Moohan’ set to debut sometime this year running Google’s Android XR operating system. Now, a report from ETNews (Korean) maintains the South Korean tech giant may also have a pair of XR glasses up its sleeves.

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The XR Week Peek (2025.03.04): Valve Deckard may cost $1200, PSVR 2 price has been slashed, and more!

The Ghost Howls

Today is the last day of the Carnival celebrations, and there are many people having fun in the streets here in Italy. On my side, Ill just celebrate by eating some typical sweeties of this period. I actually have a second reason to celebrate: Feedspot has put me in 3rd place in its classification of the best 60 Virtual Reality websites , ranked by authority.

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1500 PPI at Ultra-Low Power: TCL CSOT’s XR Display Sets New VR Headset Standard – MWC ’25

XR Today - Virtual Reality

While MWC 2025on the XR side of thingsprimarily focused on the surging AR smart glasses market and, of course, Samsungs Moohan, display technology leader TCL CSOT took to the event to unveil a new virtual reality display that promises competitive visual fidelity and low power consumption for headset vendors that wish to adopt its technology innovation.

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Turning Down $3B and Other Lore from Evan Spiegel

AR Insider

Evan Spiegel's lore includes building Snapchat, bringing it public, and turning down a $3 billion acquisition offer from Mark Zuckerberg.This all comes out in a sprawling interview this week from Diary of a CEO, which we embed & excerpt. This post appeared first on AR Insider.

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Who C.A.R.E.S.!? How Learning Got Its Bad Rap & What We Can Do About It

Speaker: Treion Muller, Chief Strategy Officer at ELB Learning

Since when has learning and development (L&D) become such a negative experience with its intended learners? Could it be because learners have been conditioned by very poor learning experiences over the past two decades, combined with the kinks of technological innovation? Or is it because learning has typically been designed as a one-size-fits-all solution, despite the fact that humans are not clones?

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Valve Working On "SteamVR Link Dongle" For Reliable Wireless PC VR

Upload VR

Valve is working on a "SteamVR Link Dongle", datamining reveals, and it could improve the reliability of wireless PC VR. VR enthusiast Brad Lynch's Discord datamining group have discovered multiple references to the device and its drivers in SteamVR code, including a vendor and device ID which Lynch claims suggests the device is "being finalized internally".

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XPANCEO to Showcase Prototype Smart Contact Lenses at MWC ’25

XR Today - Augmented Reality tag

This week at Mobile World Congress 2025, XPANCEO continues its legacy of drip-feeding details about its emerging AR smart contact lens portfolio at leading industry events. The firm commonly attends leading XR events to showcase prototypes of its futuristic AR product, which may not be available today but could be a glimpse of XR tomorrow. At MWC 2025, XPANCEO updated the status of its emerging technology promise by unveiling three new smart contact lens prototypes.

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Bigscreen Beyond 2 Outsells Original in First Day, Surpassing Months of Beyond 1 Sales

Road to VR

Bigscreen launched orders for its upcoming Beyond 2 PC VR headset yesterday, which is boosting field-of-view and clarity thanks to the inclusion of a new pancake lens design. Now, the company says that within a mere 10 hours of sales going live, Beyond 2 has already outsold the original Beyond by a significant margin. In a series of updates on X, Bigscreen revealed just how well Beyond 2 was doing among PC VR enthusiasts. “In just the first 25 minutes, Beyond 2 outsold the first day of Bey

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Immersive Learning Benefits: Reducing Training Time and Enhancing Skill Acquisition

XR Today - Mixed Reality tag

Wondering how immersive learning benefits teams across industries? Compelling research is quickly mounting up. Countless studies from world leaders like Accenture and PWC have shown that immersive training (using XR technologies) can improve knowledge retention, increase employee confidence, boost engagement, and even reduce training times. In fact, PWC says that immersive training helps learners complete training up to four times faster while ensuring they retain the knowledge they gain for lon

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The Key to Getting the Best Out of Video-Based Practice & Coaching

Speaker: Micah Eppler, Account Executive for Rehearsal of eLearning Brothers

Did you know that companies such as Paychex, 3M, and Honeywell are getting better results by incorporating video-based practice and coaching within their L&D strategy? From sales pitches to soft skills, learners are becoming top performers by applying and validating knowledge transfer using the unique benefits of video. Whether used as a stand-alone application or integrated with a learning platform, video-based practice and coaching platforms give learners the ultimate opportunity to repeatedly