The Ghost Howls

MARCH 21, 2021

Image by Sony Interactive Entertainment). Sony unveils the new controllers of the PSVR2. One month after the reveal of a “next-gen VR headset for the Playstation” (whose name is not known, but I guess it will be PSVR2), Sony has revealed one important detail of its new VR system: the controllers. It will so have inside-out tracking.

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Road to VR

MARCH 17, 2021

Microsoft says however that the error message was inaccurate, and that VR for Xbox is still not a happening. Some prognosticated that Microsoft has mistakenly leaked VR support for Xbox, something it has repeatedly rebuked in the past. This tracks with Microsoft’s long-term stance on VR for Xbox consoles going back to Xbox One.

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The Ghost Howls

NOVEMBER 26, 2024

All these buttons replicate the buttons of a standard gamepad, and this would allow players to play their whole Steam library on the Deckard headset , not only the VR games. Plus this would make the Roy controllers offer a totally different input scheme that would be a disaster for us developers that want to make cross-platform games.

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UploadVR Between Realities podcast

JUNE 13, 2017

We’ve seen a routinely strong showing for the tech at the games industry’s biggest event over the past few years, but it hasn’t yet truly dominated the conversation. Press conferences have been light on jaw dropping announcements and games are running a little thin on originality and inspiration.

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Upload VR

JANUARY 7, 2025

Sony branded its standalone headset XYN, and we went hands-on with the latest prototype. UploadVR's Don Hopper is on site at CES 2025, and attended Sony's formal announcement of its XYN headset, pronounced "zin", which the company still describes as a prototype.

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Road to VR

OCTOBER 14, 2019

Ginza Sony Park, the Japanese tech giant’s Tokyo-based hub for Sony brand promotion, is now playing host to a new Ghostbusters -themed multiplayer experience using a newly revealed Sony AR headset prototype. And yes, they’re shooting proton energy from their hands. Otherwise you can sign up here (Japanese).

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Road to VR

AUGUST 21, 2019

Sony Interactive Entertainment announced Monday that the company is acquiring Insomniac Games, a storied game studio and one of the most experienced in VR development anywhere in the world. Image courtesy Insomniac Games. Image courtesy Insomniac Games. SEE ALSO Xbox Game Studios Has (inadvertently?)

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Road to VR

NOVEMBER 2, 2017

Khronos Group , the consortium behind the OpenXR project which aims to standardize the way applications communicate with AR and VR headsets, just added Microsoft to its ranks. Among its count of members, the OpenXR working group consisted of nearly every major player in the industry except Microsoft until now.

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Road to VR

JUNE 22, 2018

Back at E3 2016, Microsoft’s Head of Xbox Phil Spencer announced on stage that the Xbox One X (then ‘Project Scorpio’) would become the industry’s next VR-compatible console, positioning the platform to compete with Sony’s PSVR with what Spencer called “high fidelity VR.” Trouble in paradise?

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ARPost

FEBRUARY 14, 2020

The ecosystem of digital game development is all about using the latest technologies to attract and engage gamers all over the world. Games, as one of the prime sources of entertainment, could be more prominent by becoming more interactive and immersive. Some VR Gaming Market Trends Which Determine Its Consistent Growth.

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Road to VR

OCTOBER 2, 2024

XR Games, the Leeds, UK-based studio known for Hitman 3 VR: Reloaded (2024) and Zombieland VR: Headshot Fever (2021), have laid off a reported 86 percent of its staff. The information was shared by María Fernanda Díez Huerta via LinkedIn , who was Head of Production at XR Games from 2021 – 2023.

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Road to VR

JUNE 18, 2019

A year ago, in response to Sony consistently delivering high-quality exclusives for PS4, Microsoft made a commitment to rejuvenating its first-party game development efforts and went on a shopping spree, acquiring a handful of respected studios to bolster its first-party game development talent under the Xbox Game Studios banner.

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The Ghost Howls

FEBRUARY 18, 2025

More info (Mentra and Vuzix partner on AugmentOS) More info (AugmentOS official website) News worth a mention (Image by Sony Interactive Entertainment) PSVR 2 had great holiday sales numbers Thanks to the huge price discount from $550 to $350, the sales of PSVR 2 had a huge boost in 2024.

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Road to VR

JUNE 22, 2023

At least from the outside, it appears Microsoft isn’t actively competing for a seat at the XR table, which is fairly odd coming from a company that pioneered enterprise AR while simultaneously wrangling some of its top OEM partners to make a fleet of PC VR headsets for consumers in 2017. If Microsoft goes in half-cocked, maybe.

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Road to VR

SEPTEMBER 17, 2024

The Farnborough, UK-based studio maintains in the LinkenIn announcement that layoffs are in response to “a challenging VR games market, situated within a tough gaming landscape more broadly.” In 2023, Stockholm, Sweden-based gaming group Aonic acquired nDreams for $110 million.

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Road to VR

MAY 4, 2021

Epic Games, the creators of Unreal Engine, said it would consider building a launch title for Sony’s “next VR platform” during negotiations about Fortnite cross-play on PlayStation in 2018. And though Epic hasn’t made any VR games since then, it seems that in 2018 it was still ready and willing.

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UploadVR Between Realities podcast

MAY 19, 2017

For Microsoft it’s the Halo and Gears of War games. But for Sony, it’s changed with each console generation. Most of those games wouldn’t really be that great of a fit for VR you’d think. They’re all third-person action games. “So this is 2009, 2010,” Marks said.

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The Ghost Howls

MAY 30, 2023

Top news of the week (Image by Brad Lynch) Bloomberg got a preview of the Quest 3 Last week I predicted that Meta could have given us a glimpse of the Quest 3 during the Gaming Showcase on June, 1st, so that to create attention around its device before the announcement of the Apple headset.

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Road to VR

OCTOBER 8, 2019

A Microsoft patent application for a ‘virtual reality floor mat’ describes a special mat which defines a virtual playspace and can be used for tracking. The artwork in the patent clearly suggests a living room environment where the VR experience is powered by a game console. Image courtesy Microsoft.

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The Ghost Howls

MAY 7, 2022

The Quest 2 is a great gaming machine offered at a ridiculous price, and it has totally crushed the competition. Not HTC, which has very little money compared to Facebook/Meta; not Valve, who is focused mostly on PC gaming; not HP which seems interested only in the pro/business market. No one can compete now.

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Road to VR

NOVEMBER 2, 2017

VR may still be young, and adoption still low compared to the world of traditional gaming, but it can’t be ignored that mounting sales of the Playstation VR headset—effectively a very expensive accessory for the PS4—is adding up to considerable revenue. VR and AR intelligence firm Greenlight Insights estimates that Sony has sold 1.5

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VRScout

FEBRUARY 10, 2020

It appears as though Xbox is playing the long game. Compared to competing gaming platforms, Xbox is way behind the curve in terms of VR. Meanwhile, Sony is effectively dominating the console VR space with the Playstation VR. Image Credit: Microsoft Xbox. Even Nintendo has gotten in on the action via Nintendo Labo VR.

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Upload VR

APRIL 9, 2025

A terrible Microsoft Flight Simulator ripoff took #1 in Europe's PlayStation VR2 download charts for March, and #4 in the US. The game was originally titled "Flight Simulator 2025 VR" on the PlayStation Store when it launched last month, and has now been changed to "Flight Simulator Delivery 2025 VR".

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Road to VR

JUNE 17, 2018

Image courtesy Sony Japan Studio. Featuring the cute bots first seen in The Playroom (2013) , Sony Japan Studio’s upcoming platformer Astro Bot Rescue Mission uses similar controls and gameplay mechanics as any other 3D platformer, but it has been created from the ground up with VR in mind. Image courtesy Squanch Games.

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The Ghost Howls

DECEMBER 26, 2023

PS Remember that there is an ongoing giveaway of physical copies of the Sam&Max game for PSVR for all people in North America! But unluckily, their tracking performance was bad, especially for what concerns controllers, the manufacturing quality was debatable, and especially Microsoft never invested enough into dedicated content.

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XR Today - Virtual Reality

APRIL 26, 2023

Today, the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) blocked Microsoft’s $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard, which provides the “ building blocks ” for its Metaverse. Microsoft first announced its acquisition in 2022.

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The Ghost Howls

MARCH 4, 2025

Gabe Follower also maintains Valve is also set to ship games or demos that are already done specifically for Deckard. And indeed the device should be able to play SteamDeck flatscreen games, but on a big screen in VR. Fast Travel Games just made Mannequin free to play. 400 seems like a good price for it, in my opinion.

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Road to VR

SEPTEMBER 18, 2024

Mojang, the Microsoft-owned studio behind Minecraft , announced it’s dropping support for the original PSVR next year, leaving any hope for PSVR 2 support firmly at (bed)rock bottom. Then, there’s Mojang’s parent company Microsoft, which has been fairly wary of VR gaming in general over the years.

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UploadVR Between Realities podcast

NOVEMBER 9, 2016

For some developers, porting an Oculus Rift or HTC Vive game to PlayStation VR is easier said than done. Sports Bar VR and Job Simulator both came from Vive to PS VR with a good degree of success, while games like The Brookhaven Experiment have only made small compromises to make it onto the platform. DiRT Rally, from Codemasters.

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The Ghost Howls

JANUARY 17, 2022

The news of the week is that Meta is poaching talents from all the other companies : in particular, it has been able to “steal” 100 employees from the HoloLens team in Microsoft. Beat Games). Many great XR games are controlled by Meta. Image by Sony). The most bullish of them is, of course, Meta. Other relevant news.

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Road to VR

JUNE 21, 2022

.” The so-called Metaverse Standards Forum was founded by platform holders, hardware companies, engine/tool creators, and users, with participants including companies such as Adobe, Autodesk, Epic Games, Unity, Meta, Microsoft, nVidia, OTOY, Qualcomm, and Sony. ” Image courtesy Metaverse Standards Forum.

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The Ghost Howls

NOVEMBER 9, 2020

Image by Sony). And both the journalists of Road To VR and Upload VR agree on the fact tha t it doesn’t represent an improvement for VR gaming yet. The result of all of this is that games run exactly as on a PS4 Pro, with no other advantage than faster loading times (thanks to PS5’s SSD drives). Image by Microsoft).

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VRScout

MARCH 3, 2017

Microsoft is showing some commitment to the idea of Windows Mixed Reality (formally known as Windows Holographic) with not just a single headset, but with five headsets. Back in February, Sony announced that they sold 915,000 PlayStation VR headsets since it launched in mid-October, while Microsoft focused on their HoloLens MR headset.

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The Ghost Howls

FEBRUARY 7, 2022

The total revenues on the Quest Store alone had been $1B since its foundation in 2019, and this shows that many people are enjoying Quest games. This is good news also for the developers: 120 titles on Quest store have made more than $1M , and 8 even more than $20M, proving once more that some studios can make a living out of VR games.

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Slashgear

APRIL 20, 2022

It looks like Microsoft may not be the only company exploring in-game ads. Sources claim Sony has similar plans for its PlayStation platform.

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XR Today - Mixed Reality tag

NOVEMBER 25, 2022

Japanese electronics giant Sony recently bought out Beyond Sports, allowing the former to build massive metaverse content for sporting events. Beyond Sports develops real-world data for 3D animations, and its technologies will seamlessly integrate with Sony’s growing portfolio of immersive solutions. it announced this week.

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VRScout

MAY 29, 2019

Oculus’ whirlwind Kickstarter success led many to believe that established entertainment companies such as Sony, Microsoft, or even tech giant Google might look to buy the company, but Facebook’s decisive choice wasn’t something anyone could have predicted. Image Credit: Benjamin Formaker-Olivas.

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