The Ghost Howls

MARCH 21, 2021

Image by Sony Interactive Entertainment). Sony unveils the new controllers of the PSVR2. Sony promises amazing haptic sensations on the controllers, that should be able to provide “impactful, textured, and nuanced” sensations. Image by Microsoft). Top news of the week. It will so have inside-out tracking.

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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. The studio has developed three Oculus exclusive titles, with its fourth and largest yet, Stormland , still due to launch in 2019.

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Road to VR

JULY 27, 2020

Today the company announced that developers can submit OpenXR applications to be published on the Oculus Quest and Oculus Rift stores. Oculus today announced that developers can submit OpenXR apps for sale on the Quest and Rift storefronts which, will run on those headsets as of the v19 version of the Oculus software.

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UploadVR Between Realities podcast

JUNE 13, 2017

We haven’t had the E3 where Sony doesn’t shut up about VR like it once did 3D, for example, nor the E3 where it seems like everyone and their mothers are making VR games like they once were mobile or motion controlled experiences. It was Microsoft that dropped the ball the hardest.

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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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UploadVR Between Realities podcast

FEBRUARY 18, 2017

As usual, Microsoft is firing first with its press conference this E3, but it’s doing so even earlier than anticipated. This E3 is shaping up to be the biggest batle between Sony and Microsoft since 2013, the year where each had to convince gamers to buy a PlayStation 4 or Xbox One respectively.

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Road to VR

MAY 26, 2016

Microsoft may be preparing a new, much more powerful version of their Xbox One games console codenamed ‘Scorpio’ to power the Oculus Rift some reports are suggesting. It’s also claimed MS are pursuing a partnership with Oculus to supply headsets to go with the new console, said to be released in 2017.

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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. With the company’s next VR headset not expected to launch until at least 2022, it’s unclear if the Sony took up the offer.

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Road to VR

JULY 12, 2017

Oculus for its part has attempted to kickstart that ecosystem by investing hefty sums in content developers, and now the company says it’s starting to pay off. With the backing of Facebook, Oculus has publicly committed to investing $500 million into VR content development.

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VRScout

FEBRUARY 10, 2020

Headsets such as the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift have made PC the go-to platform for a majority of AAA VR developers. Meanwhile, Sony is effectively dominating the console VR space with the Playstation VR. Spoiler alert: it’s not looking good: The OG Oculus Rift came packaged w/ an Xbox One Bluetooth controller.

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UploadVR Between Realities podcast

MAY 25, 2016

Faced with the release of PlayStation VR later this year, Microsoft is reportedly exploring a deeper partnership with Facebook that would bring full Oculus compatibility to a future version of the Xbox One. The post Report: Microsoft Considering Xbox That Can Run The Oculus Rift appeared first on UploadVR.

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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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VRScout

DECEMBER 9, 2016

Google, Sony, Oculus, Samsung, Acer and HTC have combined their efforts in order to create a healthy and equal industry for virtual reality hardware and software to develop and expand. The post Google, Sony And Oculus Unite To Establish VR Industry Standards appeared first on VRScout.

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The Ghost Howls

MAY 7, 2022

In the case of VR, we all remember the competition between HTC and Oculus in 2016, with HTC clearly winning the market until Oculus used Facebook’s money to slash the price of the Rift around 2017. This led to a growing importance of Oculus, until with the Quest it started dominating the market in a way no one was able to face.

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The Ghost Howls

AUGUST 3, 2020

Some time ago, the most important companies of the XR ecosystem (HTC, Oculus, Microsoft, etc…) joined the Khronos Group to discuss a standard to end the fragmentation of the XR space. That is if every company implemented OpenXR, a program built for the Oculus should work with SteamVR as well. Image by Oculus).

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VRScout

FEBRUARY 27, 2020

The company announced that Oculus will be backing out of GDC over similar concerns. Facebook’s decision to cancel F8 comes on the heels of news that Oculus would be backing out of this year’s Game Developers Conference over similar concerns. The company will instead make a series of digital announcements remotely.

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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 Sony.

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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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UploadVR Between Realities podcast

JANUARY 4, 2017

What We Know: Microsoft is at the show in a multitude of capacities. What To Expect : The tricky thing about Microsoft’s headset is that they won’t actually let anyone turn them on yet. What We Know: In our world its easy to forget sometimes that Sony is much more than just a gaming company. Oculus (Facebook).

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Road to VR

AUGUST 28, 2017

Microsoft today announced a bevy of information regarding their upcoming Windows VR headset launch, which will see headsets from Acer, Dell, HP, and Lenovo coming this holiday season starting at $400. Microsoft Edge. Sony Pictures. Next Reality. Dark Legion. Defend the Bits. Dreadhalls. Fantastic Contraption. The Rose and I.

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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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Road to VR

DECEMBER 6, 2019

Though it’s Facebook’s newest headset, Oculus Quest may be the company’s most popular so far, at least as far as search volume is concerned. Released earlier this year, Oculus Quest has entered the fray and made a big splash. Data courtesy Sony, chart by Road to VR. Peak search volume for Quest in the US was 1.6

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UploadVR Between Realities podcast

JUNE 8, 2017

The Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) is in Los Angeles, CA next week and it’s always one of the largest events of the year for gamers, giving giants of the industry including Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo the chance to show off the latest hardware and games to drive the next generation of consumer interest. What We Know .

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The Ghost Howls

JANUARY 11, 2022

PlayStation VR 2 Logo (Image by Sony Interactive Entertainment). I’ve seen what companies are doing nowadays to use tracked props on the Oculus Quest: they have to add bulky mounts to install the even bulkier Touch controllers on them. Oculus Quest 2 ) to know the pose of the fingers. Qualcomm and Microsoft partnership.

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UploadVR Between Realities podcast

JUNE 2, 2017

It’s here that titans like Sony, Microsoft and others do their best to wow us with new announcements on both the software and hardware front. How will Microsoft flaunt Project Scorpio’s VR capabilities? It would be a huge missed opportunity for Microsoft. And will we see the next big game for PSVR?

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The Ghost Howls

MAY 25, 2020

Image by Oculus). Oculus Quest becomes 1 year old, and Facebook makes many announcements. The Oculus Quest is now one year old. But the greatest feature is that finally Oculus is accepting hands-tracked applications in the Oculus Store from the 28th of this month! Happy birthday, Oculus Quest!

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The Ghost Howls

FEBRUARY 7, 2022

These are huge numbers for VR: if you look at the most recent SteamVR survey, you get that Oculus headsets are now at 67% of the whole PCVR market. A report from Insider states that Microsoft may have canceled its plans for HoloLens 3. It’s basically a monopoly. But there is also bad news to talk about. Some updates on Meta products.

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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. Image by Sony). While we were all considering a 2022 release as a given, when asked directly about the matter, Sony declined to answer.

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Road to VR

NOVEMBER 11, 2016

In the US, stores like Microsoft, Gamestop, and Micro Center host Vive setups offering public demos, while you can find the system in Europe in locations like Currys PC World, GAME, and Scan Computers. Oculus Rift, Touch, and Gear VR. Find an Oculus Rift and Touch Demo Location. PlayStation VR (PSVR).

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The Ghost Howls

JANUARY 27, 2020

What is interesting the most are not the features, that more or less are the same as most other headsets: integrated headphones, halo+headband, IPD adjustment, etc… It seems a mix of a Samsung Odyssey and an Oculus Rift S. Or that Microsoft is working on a new reference design that fixes the issues of the first one?

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Road to VR

APRIL 23, 2020

“VR Headsets Cost $1,000” Image courtesy Oculus. The most popular headset used on Steam right now is the Oculus Rift S [Amazon] which costs $400 brand new. Microsoft and partners like HP, Asus, Samsung, Acer, and Dell launched a batch of ‘Windows Mixed Reality’ headsets [Amazon] a few years ago.

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The Ghost Howls

JANUARY 20, 2021

And in fact, some weeks ago Sony has made everyone understand that it has delayed the launch of the PSVR 2 because the market is not there yet. The Oculus Quest 2 is selling incredibly well because it offers the right combination of affordable price, good hardware, and a good software ecosystem. The Quest will still be the king.

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The Ghost Howls

APRIL 13, 2020

On the other side, this is massive for Apple, that mixing the data of Apple Maps together with all these point clouds detected by the rear cameras when in use, will be able to create an AR Cloud ecosystem probably even before Facebook, Microsoft, and Google. Microsoft releases Azure Remote Rendering. supports VR. 3D artists rejoice!

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Road to VR

OCTOBER 19, 2020

If you’re looking to play content that’s exclusive to the Oculus PC library (like Asgard’s Wrath ) you can use the free but unofficial Revive mod to play Oculus PC content on Valve Index. Value Pick: Oculus Quest 2 with Oculus Link (and Elite Strap ) – $350. Oculus Quest 2 Specs. Oculus Touch v3.

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Road to VR

JUNE 22, 2020

The 17 year old game studio is most recently known for its acclaimed VR titles, Lone Echo and Echo VR , both published by Facebook’s Oculus Studios. The company’s first Oculus-exclusive VR title, Lone Echo (2017) , is one of the best rated games in the company’s PC VR library.

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Road to VR

DECEMBER 12, 2017

Amazon’s US store is either the first, or the only retailer currently to offer the Oculus Rift for its Black Friday-reduced price of $350, a $50 discount off the now normal MSRP of $400. Oculus Touch controllers (2). Oculus Sensors (2). Oculus Rift headset. Photo by Road to VR. What’s in the Box.

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The Ghost Howls

FEBRUARY 9, 2020

These are pretty cool, also because the Snapdragon XR 2 is much more powerful than the 835 mounted by the Oculus Quest. Considering that this number doesn’t count the Quest users connected via Oculus Link, the actual number of VR users on Steam is even higher. Still no news on Oculus For Business program and Multiplayer SDK for Quest.

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