Industry Direct by Kit Navock

Industry Direct is our program for sponsors who want to speak directly to the Road to VR newsletter audience. Industry Direct posts are written by sponsors with no involvement from the Road to VR editorial team. Industry Direct sponsors help make Road to VR possible.

Hey friends, I’m Kit Navock, the new CMO at Immersed. Not long ago, I sold my company. And like a lot of founders post-acquisition, I was taking stock—trying to figure out what kind of work (and what […]

PresenZ is a professional-grade tool for converting cinema-quality CGI content for 6DOF viewing in VR. With the recently updated Immersix app for PC VR headsets, you can demo the tech with a fresh batch of newly released content. A streaming version made for Quest is also in development. We go to check out both versions first hand. The creators of the tech hope to give world-class CGI studios like Pixar and DreamWorks a streamlined way to make cinema-quality CGI content readily available to a VR audience.

So […]

Apple is rumored to be working on two versions of Vision Pro, however a new report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman alleges the Cupertino tech giant is aiming to beat Meta to the punch with a pair of AR glasses.

Citing someone with knowledge of the matter, the report maintains Apple CEO Tim Cook has put development of AR glasses as a top priority, as the company plans to release such a device before Meta.

“Tim cares about nothing else,” the source […]

Varjo, creator of high-end enterprise MR headsets, dipped its toes into the consumer VR market with the release of the Aero headset back in 2021. But now the company says its focus is narrowing on training sims and deeper integrations focused on enterprise customer needs, making a followup to the Aero headset is unlikely.

In an interview with Road to VR, Varjo chief product officer Patrick Wyatt talked about the company’s latest focus on deeper integrations of its headsets for specific use-cases.

Training sims, especially in military and […]

China-based PC VR headset creator Pimax has issued a statement addressing the impact of the recent US–China trade war on its operations, particularly concerning its Crystal Super VR headset. It’s going to be slightly more expensive for US-based customers, but Pimax’s recent subscription-based payment structure seems to be offsetting much of the costs.

Announced back in April 2024, Crystal Super is the company’s next flagship PC VR headset, offering a base 57 PPD version with QLED […]

nDreams, the studio behind free-to-play arena shooter FRENZIES, announced that the game is heading out of early access later this year, although it won’t be coming to PSVR 2 as previously planned.

The studio released a statement, saying it has “other exciting PS VR2 announcements coming” in lieu of Frenzies coming to PSVR 2:

“We’re excited to confirm that FRENZIES will be free-to-play when it leaves Early Access later this year! Since the start of Early Access on Meta Quest, we’ve seen a fantastic response […]

Valve’s rumored standalone XR headset, codenamed ‘Deckard’, has been the subject of speculation since mention was first discovered back in 2021. Now, information obtained by tech analyst and VR pundit Brad Lynch (aka ‘SadlyItsBradley‘) points to Valve gearing up production for the long-awaited device.

Deckard is still largely a mystery, although rumors suggest Valve’s next headset will be a standalone device that can also wirelessly stream PC VR games, ostensibly putting it competition with Meta Quest and […]

Is Quest’s hand-tracking good enough for a rhythm game, which genuinely needs low latency and precise input? After playing the early access version of BEATABLE, which gets you tapping, clapping and snapping to the beat, XR Game’s latest entry is definitely good enough for casual gameplay, although it left me feeling conflicted whether it was actually precise and sticky enough for now.

BEATABLE Details:

Developer: XR Games
Available On: Horizon Store (Quest 2 and above)
Reviewed On: Quest 3
Release Date: April 10th, 2025
Price: $10

Note: This […]

Maestro (2024), the VR rhythm game from indie studio Double Jack, today released a new DLC pack that includes tracks from Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings and HBO’s Game of Thrones, as well as some classical favorites.

Released on Quest, Pico and PC VR headsets last year, Maestro lets you step up to the podium and don the coattails of a true orchestra conductor, letting you play via hand-tracking or motion controllers to command the orchestra in a packed opera house.

Now available on Quest, […]

Silent North, the sandbox survival shooter from Ghosts of Tabor studio Combat Waffle, is now available in early access on Quest and PC VR headsets.

Like Face Punch Studio’s iconic PvPvE game Rust (2013), Silent North is an open-ended survival game that offers up a sandbox where you make the rules. Create allies, betray everyone, or just take in the game’s persistent world.

“It’s a completely different experience from Ghosts of Tabor, where survival is focused on high-stakes raids with an emphasis on tactical […]

Free Lives announced the comically violent combat sim GORN (2019) is getting its long-awaited sequel next week on Quest and SteamVR headsets, bringing even more bloody melee mayhem.

Developed by Free Lives and Cortopia, and published by Devolver Digital, GORN 2 is all about battling fridge-sized gladiators—just like the original—although this time around it’s promising even more weapons, arenas, traps, enemies and bosses.

The studios say their next fully physics-driven combat game will let players mercilessly strike down enemies with 35 weapons, taking you through a series of heavenly […]

Indie studio X82 announced it’s releasing a parkour game next month that’s throwing in a veritable buffet of unique locomotion styles, hoping to put Quest’s hand-tracking on par with controller-based movement.

Called FastHands, the multiplayer game offers up endless procedurally levels that let you run, jump, climb and glide, tasking you to progress through obstacle courses filled with moving traps, speed boosts, and its fair share of impossible jumps.

While you can play seated and with controllers, the game’s use of hand-tracking aims […]

Efficient text entry without an actual keyboard remains an industry-wide challenge for unlocking productivity use-cases in XR headsets. Researchers have created a comprehensive catalog of existing text entry techniques to codify different methods and analyze their pros and cons. By making the catalog freely available, the researchers hope to give others a head start on creating new and improved techniques.

Guest Article by Max Di Luca

Massimiliano Di Luca leads the VR Lab at the University of Birmingham, UK, […]