While the XR industry’s major hubs are concentrated on the West Coast of the US, the MIT Reality Hack hackathon has become a focal point for XR developers and entrepreneurs on the East Coast of the US. Now in its eight year, the event has expanded with new opportunities for industry discussion and networking thanks to the concurrently held EXPERIENTIAL Conference. Executive Director Maria Rice offers an overview of this year’s hackathon and winners.

Valve’s rumored standalone XR headset, codenamed ‘Deckard’, is practically the stuff of legend at this point, with speculation brewing since data miners first discovered mention of the alleged device in January 2021. Now, leaker and data miner ‘Gabe Follower’ maintains Deckard is coming by the end of 2025, priced at $1,200.

Gabe Follower, who also runs a YouTube channel, reports in an X post that “[s]everal people have confirmed that Valve is aiming to release new standalone, […]

HTC today launched VIVERSE Worlds, a 3D content platform that can be embedded on “any website for any device,” positioning it as a lighter, more flexible way of hosting and browsing 3D content across the web.

Unlike HTC’s existing Viverse metaverse platform—or Meta’s Horizon Worlds, for that matter—the key differentiator is Viverse Worlds focuses on 3D content distribution. Instead of requiring any sort of app download, the platform offers up a web-based interface for quick and easy 3D content browsing, supporting XR headsets and flatscreen devices […]

Meta released a new Desktop Editor for Horizon Worlds in preview, giving world creators a Unity-style game development platform for the first time. The PC-based editor is designed to be more robust, and make world creation easier and higher quality than its previous Quest-native VR editor, which Meta says it’s now deprecating.

Meta needs broader reach to make Horizon Worlds a success, which it ostensibly hasn’t found on Quest thus far. While the company made its metaverse platform accessible to mobile and desktop in 2023, bringing non-VR […]

Apple Intelligence, the company’s set of AI tools currently available on iOS and Mac, is coming to Vision Pro in April with the public release of visionOS 2.4. But if you’ve activated developer mode, you can already go hands-on.

As you’d expect, Apple Intelligence is slated to bring all of the latest AI features to Vision Pro, including writing tools, AI-generated images, smart reply messages, natural language search in Photos, AI summaries, and custom emojis—everything we saw released on iOS and Mac […]

Korea-based studio Pixelity announced it’s currently developing an XR game based on the hit ’90s anime Neon Genesis Evangelion (1995).

Pixelity says in a blogpost it’s signed an official licensing agreement with Studio Khara in Japan to make the XR game. Planned to release in three parts, and based on the story of all 26 episodes of the anime, Pixelity says the first installment is already in production and targeting release in 2026.

If you’re an unwashed Evangelion […]

Ghosts of Tabor studio Combat Waffle is nearing launch of Silent North, the studio’s next VR shooter that promises plenty of multiplayer zombie survival action, with Quest and Steam early access launches planned for March.

Published by Beyond Frames Entertainment, Silent North brings you high up in the Swiss Alps, forcing players to hunker down and survive a world not only overrun by zombies, but also your fellow man, who has a damnable penchant for killing and looting (just like you).

That said, players […]

Schell Games and Innersloth announced that flatscreen support is coming to Among Us VR (2022), which means crossplay for VR and PC players.

Additionally, the studios announced the VR game is rebranding to Among Us 3D, bringing a first-person perspective to PC users for the first time.

Schell Games confirmed Among Us 3D will allow PC users to join cross-platform lobbies with VR players across all supported platforms, including Quest, SteamVR, PSVR 2 and Pico headsets.

Notably, Among Us 3D is not compatible with the original Among Us (2018) 2D […]

Meta today announced a $50 million fund to incentivize the creation of new and improved content in Horizon Worlds, the company’s first-party social gaming platform. The move comes as many seasoned studios that build self-contained VR apps for the Quest platform are struggling to sustain themselves due to what Meta says is a shifting demographic of headset users.

Since the launch of Oculus Rift CV1 in 2016, self-contained VR apps have been the lifeblood of Meta’s VR platforms, and the primary driver of a growing audience […]

Niantic, the company behind Pokémon Go (2016), is reportedly in talks with Saudi Arabia-owned Scopely to sell its gaming division.

According to a Bloomberg report citing people familiar with the talks, the report maintains the companies are currently discussing a $3.5 billion acquisition price, which could conclude in the coming weeks.

This would include the transfer of Pokémon Go in addition to Niantic’s other mobile games, such as Monster Hunter Now and Pikmin Bloom.

Niantic is also known for Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, which attempted to replicate the success of Pokémon Go, but […]

Indie studio Chipo y Juan announced their Minority Report-inspired mixed reality game Detective VR is set to release on Quest next week.

Coming to Quest 3 and 3S on February 27th, Detective VR is a narrative-based MR game that lets you control time, collect clues and interview witnesses in Passthrough mode— bringing the investigation to your living room.

Promising a gameplay mix of Return of the Obra Dinn (2018), Immortality (2022) and Minority Report (2002), the studio says investigations won’t always be so […]

Meta announced its annual Connect developer conference is returning this year on September 17th-18th. While it’s probably still too early to speculate, there are a few things we’re hoping to hear about.

Meta typically fills out its speaker schedule closer to Connect, which may give us a better idea of what to expect come September. There’s also the long trail of leaks that inevitably crop up ahead of the event. So far, the company hasn’t provided any clues beyond the usual boilerplate:

“As in years past, we’ll […]

Another Axiom announced that Orion Drift, its follow-up to hit VR game Gorilla Tag, is set to launch in early access next week, coming to Quest 2 and above.

Orion Drift has been in closed early access since late last year, letting up to 200 players take on an activity-packed social VR space while blasting around and playing various mini-games with its Gorilla Tag-style immersive movement mechanic.

The star of the show is undoubtedly ‘Drift Ball’, which feels a bit like a low-gravity version of handball, albiet played in a […]