It’s rare that a video alone can make me motion sick, but yikes. This mod from RaYRoD TV puts you in the driver’s seat and is free to download. RaYRod has already put together similar mods for Star Fox 64, Sonic Robo Blast 2, and more. But something tells me this is the one most likely to make you lose your lunch.
As Microsoft continues its Xbox “reset,” the pared-down Game Pass bundle that arrived recently as a benefit for Discord Nitro is now also included in the 7.99 monthly / $59.99 annually Quest subscription. The starter edition also includes 10 hours of cloud gaming access to try some of the 50-plus games it unlocks before downloading them.
Meta also said that soon its Meta Quest Touch controllers will be able to emulate the Xbox gamepad, although anyone who has a real Xbox pad can just pair that to their headset immediately.
Apple is suspending work on a display made in partnership with Samsung Display for an entry-level XR device, according to a machine translation of a report by The Elec (which we saw thanks to MacRumors). Seems like Apple is moving away from headsets in favor of glasses.
With the VR app, you can still chat with friends on Discord using other platforms. Check the app out on the Meta Store.
Meta and Discord announced last year that the app was in the works.
Virtuix announced a new version of its Omni One treadmill that now supports the Meta Quest 2 and Quest 3 headsets directly as part of the Made for Meta program. For $2,595 you can physically run, walk, jump, and crouch to navigate VR games using the Omni One for Quest without crashing around your living room.
Literally — the upcoming visionOS 27 update lets you add a glowing, animated Siri AI ball anywhere on your workspace, and ask questions when you look at it. It’ll even shine light on any nearby surfaces, making it truly feel like part of the environment.
So says Meta spokesperson Che’von Lewis. Senior was previously Meta’s Product Lead for its Studio and New Vertical portfolios. You can read more about Supernatural’s forthcoming era here, and catch up on the buff ladies who worked so hard to save it here.
Supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, in a post today: “The Apple XR headset and smart glasses roadmap I put together about a year ago is no longer a useful reference. For now, only two smart glasses products remain visible in the roadmap.”
Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, this weekend: Apple is developing “a slimmer and lighter headset to succeed to the $3,499 Vision Pro.”
Whatever actually pans out, it seems like 2025’s M5 upgrade might be the last for the Vision Pro.
The New York Times and Reuters report that a memo was sent to Meta employees on Monday reassigning 7,000 of them, and said that “As org leaders worked on the changes, many of them incorporated AI native design principles into their new org structures.”
The memo told employees to work remotely on Wednesday, when it will lay off about 10 percent of its workforce, roughly 8,000 people, with emails sent at 4AM local time.
Meta says the event will offer “the first glimpse of what’s coming to the next computing platform,” with an “evening keynote” and “developer sessions where we’ll share the latest in VR, wearables, metaverse, and AI.”
At last year’s event, Meta debuted its smart glasses with a display.
It supports foveated streaming, which will show you the sharpest image right in front of your eyes, according to an iRacing blog post.
If you’re more of a flight sim person, there’s also now a public beta of X-Plane with support for the Vision Pro, too.
[iRacing.com]
DirecTV now supports mixed reality with its new app for the Quest 2, 3, 3S, and even Pro headsets. There’s live TV for subscribers, plus on-demand and ad-supported content anyone can watch, available in the app store or through the Horizon TV hub Meta launched last year.
Unity already powers the “majority” of the top-selling VR games on Meta’s platform, according to a statement from Unity’s COO.
“This update improves network performance, allows streaming up to 4K resolutions, and allows you to dynamically adjust the curve of the display in panoramic mode,” Valve says. But the app doesn’t support VR content — it’s intended for streaming 2D games.
This time it’s at Polyarc, creator of PSVR, Meta Quest, and SteamVR darling Moss (and its sequels). Polyarc will “significantly reduce the size of the company.” We called Moss one of “the 14 best games to download for your new VR gaming headset” back in 2019.
Khan’s FTC tried to expand the scope of antitrust law. Meta’s floundering VR ambitions shows why that mattered.
Meta announced last month it would be shifting its strategy to go “all-in on mobile” for Horizon Worlds, and today, the company shared exactly when the VR version of the app would be going away.
Update: Linked to Meta’s website about the changes.
During GDC on Tuesday, Nvidia announced that visionOS 26.4, expected later this spring, will include support for Nvidia’s XR streaming platform CloudXR 6.0, allowing users to play games like X-Plane 12 and iRacing on the Vision Pro. Developers will soon be able to test their games over the cloud, too, with GeForce NOW Playtest.
If you don’t already own the game, which is still arguably one of the best VR games ever, you’ll be able to play it as part of the $7.99 per month subscription starting this month, Meta says.
I was impressed with foveated streaming on the Steam Frame, which, when you’re interacting with games streamed to the headset, renders what’s right in front of your eyes at the highest fidelity. I hope it’s just as good on the Vision Pro.
Apple announced visionOS’s foveated streaming as part of the first developer beta for visionOS 26.4.
[Apple Developer Documentation]
A passionate group of women rediscovered fitness in VR. They’re furious with Mark Zuckerberg for killing their community.
Jason Rubin became Oculus’ game studios boss in 2014, shortly after Facebook bought the company, and led VR content ever since, as well as brokering deals that might’ve led to a killer app — like Rock Band, Assassin’s Creed and more. But over a decade later, Meta’s gutting its studios. Rubin is leaving in March because “this seems like a good time.”
Ryan Payton confirmed to The Verge that he was impacted by this week’s job cuts affecting Meta’s Reality Labs division.
Aftermath previously reported that Camouflaj studio heads had been let go and that the developer is now just “a handful of employees” working on “the new user experience for upcoming hardware.”
The studio, Camouflaj, hasn’t been “completely laid off,” as one Arkham series fan page reported; Camouflaj experienced layoffs but is not shutting down, Meta spokesperson Tracy Clayton tells The Verge. The team is now “just a handful of employees” working on “the new user experience for upcoming hardware,” former Meta employees tell Aftermath.
Update: Added Aftermath’s reporting.
Stratechery’s Ben Thompson says Apple just doesn’t understand Vision Pro after the first live NBA broadcast on the device bounced from camera to camera, rather than offering an immersive, courtside experience:
Just let me sit courtside and watch an NBA game. I don’t need a scoreboard, I can look up and see it. I don’t need a pre-game or post-game show, I can simply watch the players warm-up. I don’t need announcers, I’d rather listen to the crowd and the players on the court. You have made a device that, for this specific use case, is better than TV in every way, yet you insist on producing content for it like it is TV! Just stop!
[Stratechery by Ben Thompson]
Apple and Spectrum have released the schedule of the Lakers games you can watch in the Apple Immersive format inside a Vision Pro. The first game takes place this week on January 9th, with the Lakers taking on the Milwaukee Bucks.
Meta had already announced the streaming service was coming to its headsets, but now it’s here.
They’re available “starting today,” Google says. And system-level “autospatialization,” which turns 2D content into 3D, is coming next year, Google announced during its Android Show presentation.
