VR news of the week: Quest 3 Lite, Pico woes, SteamVR Theater, and a stacked November

VR information of the week(Image credit score: Android Central)As a part of a weekly collection, Android Central Senior Editors Michael Hicks and Nick Sutrich are rounding up all the information on {hardware}, sport bulletins, leaks, and funky updates associated to the Meta Quest 3 & 2, PSVR 2, and different VR headsets. Normally within the tech world, the hype and information crescendo when the product launches after which dies right down to a murmur. That’s completely not the case with the Meta Quest 3, which retains producing intriguing VR information and leaks. In the previous few days, we realized that Meta tried to deliver the Play Store to the Quest 2, however Google mentioned no; that the Quest 3 cannot add an eye-tracking mod; and that Meta needs to group up with Tencent to launch the Quest 3 Lite in China, immediately difficult the struggling Pico.We additionally know that Samsung has a set date for its XR headset of late 2024, with a really conservative gross sales goal in comparison with the Apple Vision Pro. Clearly, Samsung is taking a wait-and-see strategy earlier than going all-in on premium, productivity-focused VR. And one of many newest large sport releases, Powerwash Simulator, is a whole blast (pun meant).Beyond the headlines we have already coated, we have rounded up the VR information of the week for November 11 to maintain you knowledgeable! Let’s dive in. (Image credit score: Pico)Reuters stories that ByteDance has fired a whole lot of Pico staff engaged on its VR expertise, retaining many of the {hardware} employees whereas transferring most of its software program group again into different ByteDance divisions. UploadVR, in the meantime, stories that Pico’s unique Beat Saber competitor has been canceled and its builders laid off. VR developer CIX posted a leaked transcript of an inside ByteDance assembly on X/Twitter. ByteDance apparently needs to focus extra on “long-term value points and reduce investment in other aspects in the short term.” One obvious “short-term” division is “marketing services,” suggesting that Pico goes to attempt to promote {hardware} with out paying to promote it. That appears…ill-advised. I’ve obtained a leak of the interior assembly with Pico CEO Zhou Hongwei about subsequent steps of the corporate.The TLDR:”Market didn’t grow as fast as we anticipated. Cutting expenses to focus on R&D. Mobile team merged with R&D and Engineering.”Full transcript:”The following… pic.twitter.com/sZVggzhGb0November 7, 2023See moreAs I explained when I wrote up Meta’s Q3 earnings call, Meta’s Reality Labs division is still losing billions of dollars every year despite owning the most popular VR headset in the world, but can subsidize the R&D losses thanks to making billions on other software. ByteDance may not have that kind of economic patience or the same ability to afford an unprofitable VR division, if Pico isn’t growing at a rate they expected. This news also explains why Meta might feel comfortable selling its Quest 3 Lite in China, a market where Pico has dominated thus far. It’ll all depend on whether Meta and Tencent get “authorities approval” for their proposed partnership, according to the Wall Street Journal. Facebook is banned in China, and Mark Zuckerberg isn’t especially popular there because of his 2020 Congressional testimony that “it’s properly documented that the Chinese authorities steals expertise from American corporations.” CNBC reported in July that Chinese state media “rebuked” him when he expressed interest in selling Quest headsets in China.The Meta-Tencent partnership could break through this hostility, but the WSJ report said that the deal is “provisional” and was apparently “difficult” to put together, so there’s no guarantee it’ll go through. Still, with Pico metaphorically waving the white flag to focus on long-term goals, Meta and Tencent could really profit from this plan if it works out. Boz explains why the Quest 3 can’t add eye tracking laterIn a recent Instagram Stories AMA, Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth explained the difficulty of adding an eye-tracking accessory for Quest 3 owners willing to pay extra for the privilege (transcript via UploadVR):It’s something that we’ve thought about every now and then, because it would be nice to be able to enable that for people. For eye tracking, you need to have this illumination all the way around the eyes — you’re talking about replacing the eye cups. You need to have cameras in multiple positions, which are in kind of quite tight and sensitive areas. That’s pretty tough.With so many Quest 3 accessories that completely change its appearance and capabilities, and with Meta so willing to experiment with headset updates, it wasn’t an idle hope that the headset could add camera functionality too. But unfortunately, Boz says that only lower-face tracking would be possible as an add-on, which wouldn’t be especially useful by itself. Astrobeam has us excited(Image credit: Owlchemy Labs)Owlchemy Labs makes some of the best Quest games, and that’s not hyperbole: Job Simulator, Vacation Simulator, and Cosmonious High are all fantastic, charming experiences that we recommend to new VR gamers and younger users. So we’re intrigued what games will come out of Astrobeam, a new game developer founded by former Owlchemy CEO/CTO Devin Reimer. The announcement says their games will leverage “extremely pure and extremely interactive methods of socializing by focusing available monitoring and voice communication with each associates and NPCs.”That essentially sounds like more of the same, except with a greater focus on multiplayer over single-player experiences. We love our intense VR action and shooter games, but we also want to balance them out with joyful experiences, while also adding more solid hand-tracking games before the controller-free Quest 3 Lite launches next year. We do wonder if that childlike joy will persist when dealing with other people in multiplayer games, though. I’ve played Gorilla Tag; I know how bad things can get.November is bloated with new gamesJust look at our list of upcoming Meta Quest games, and you’ll know what we mean. Aside from games already out like Demeo Battles and Stride Fates, you have Assassin’s Creed Nexus VR for fans of the franchise — keep an eye out for our review next week — and that’s just the start!Beloved shooter Pavlov Shack finally jumps off of App Lab on November 14. Sniper Elite VR: Winter Warrior, from another popular non-VR franchise, looks intriguing as well. Then Stranger Things VR will close out November, along with some cool-looking indie titles like Ironstrike and Terra Alia. In fact, the only thing more stacked than November is December! At that point, you get Asgard’s Wrath II, Lego Bricktales, Arizona Sunshine 2, Bulletstorm VR, Racket Club, Arashi: Castles of Sin, and other cool-sounding titles. Basically, if you’re looking for things to ask for from family for Christmas, maybe ask for a Quest gift card. SteamVR’s Theater Screen makes it easier to play non-VR games on your Quest(Image credit: Steam)SteamVR Beta 2.1.1, announced on Monday, introduced the new SteamVR Theater Screen for “undocking screens from the dashboard.” SteamVR has had the Desktop Game Theater app for years that fulfills the same function, but this new version is supposed to let you “toggle the display off, darkish mode, display curvature, and controls to resize and reposition the display.”Plenty of third-party apps like Virtual Desktop allow you to play PC video games on a 2D theater display, however it’s at all times good to have a first-party possibility accessible in a single app! This function is barely in beta for now, however it ought to come to the total model quickly. You simply have to have SteamVR arrange in your Quest. 
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