Weekly roundup

It was a busy week in the AR/VR/XR space. In case you missed them, here were the top stories:

• Apple is designing a standalone VR headset that will act as a precursor for its more mainstream AR headset. According to Bloomberg, it would be released next year and cost more than rivals like the Quest ($299) and Valve Index ($749).
• Chinese AR startup Rokid has unveiled a new AR headset with waveguide optics, Rokid Vision 2.
• Immersive concert company Wave will shutter its VR-only app on Steam and Oculus at the end of March.
• Valve is developing more games following the success of last year’s "Half-Life: Alyx," president Gabe Newell confirmed.
• VR game revenues rose by an estimated 25% in 2020, according to a new SuperData report.
• Ubisoft said its upcoming "Splinter Cell VR" will likely have multiplayer capabilities.
• An Israeli project is seeking funding to integrate Holocaust survivor testimonies into virtual reality.

Andrew Bosworth, Facebook's VP of AR/VR, released an internal memo in which he calls on the company to prioritize privacy over product experience. His memo, titled "The Big Shift," says the way Facebook has operated in regards to privacy “is no longer the best way to serve those who use our products.”

More:

• Bosworth compared Facebook to Microsoft in the 2000s, when its products were more prone to viruses. Microsoft made a dramatic shift toward privacy that regained the trust of its users, he said.
• “I think this is a model for us at Facebook,” Bosworth wrote. “We should become the undisputed leaders in providing privacy-aware software.”
• Bosworth said the global sentiment toward privacy has shifted and now people are more willing to accept sacrifices in product quality. “We need to consider the consumer experience holistically rather than at optimizing for each individual feature," he added.
• In a follow-up memo, Bosworth told employees that Facebook will reverse the way it develops products. Rather than envisioning those products and trimming them down to fit with modern data privacy/security standards, it "will start with the assumption that we can’t collect, use, or store any data."
• Oculus has faced criticism over its requirement that all new headset users must log in through Facebook, which has some major privacy implications. It also has the capacity to collect biometrical/3D user data from its VR devices, which it could presumably use to identify users or target them with ads, for example.

Immersive Tech plans to launch location-based VR attractions this summer. UNCONTAINED VR will be a free-roam, hyper-immersive VR arcade that's built into transportable shipping containers, which could be deployed at fairgrounds and other public areas.

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• Immersive Tech said UNCONTAINED will "fill the void" left by The Void, a VR arcade company that has struggled financially and is in danger of shutting down. It hired senior Void members to help create the experience.
• UNCONTAINED's containers will accommodate up to six players, who will be able to move freely and interact in VR as a team. Each player will experience environmental haptic feedback through motion floors, object interactions, and bursts of heat and cold.
• To maintain safety during COVID-19, each container will have UV lights, disposable VR headset masks, antimicrobial surfaces, air recirculation, and air scrubbing filtration, the company said.
• The shipping container can be mass-produced and transported to different locations, such as malls, fairgrounds, and "other public high-traffic areas."
• Vancouver-based Immersive Tech is planning an IPO for the first half of this year.

"Beat Saber's" newest update includes 90Hz support on the Oculus Quest 2. Developer Beat Games also added Oculus "Group Launch" to the Quest version, allowing players to enter multiplayer mode directly from an Oculus Party.

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• The news comes after Facebook brought its formerly experimental 90Hz refresh rate to the Quest 2’s system software in November. Developers have been updating apps to run at 90Hz, higher than the headset's 72Hz and 80Hz modes, for a more fluid and immersive experience.
• Beat Games launched multiplayer mode for PC VR headsets and Oculus Quest back in October. Now, the studio says it's finalizing multiplayer for PSVR, which it expects will be ready for testing next week.
• Here's the full list of improvements included in the latest update, which was rolled out across all platforms.

VR visual novel "ALTDEUS: Beyond Chronos" will launch on Steam for PC VR on Feb. 19, followed by PSVR on April 15. The game will cost $29.99 on both platforms.

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• The game, released last month as an Oculus Quest and Rift exclusive, is set 200 years after developer MyDearest’s first visual novel in VR, "Tokyo Chronos."
• It has a 94% five-star rating on the Oculus store, with one user commenting that "If you are a fan of anime, or the light novels which anime are based upon, you will love this game."
• The 15-hour+ storyline includes both English and Japanese voice acting. It has "mech battles for moments of actual interactive gameplay and even lets you attend 360-degree virtual J-Pop concerts," according to UploadVR's Henry Stockdale.

QUICK HITS:

• How are companies deciding on privacy management solutions in 2021? This eGuide breaks it down.*
• VR gladiator game "Gorn" is coming to the Oculus Quest on Jan. 28. UploadVR released 12 minutes of gameplay for the Quest version, which it called "gloriously gory and ridiculously slapstick."
• Pinterest launched a new AR feature for trying on eyeshadow from Lancome, Urban Decay, and other brands.
• Paramount’s Futurist Ted Schilowitz and XR consultant/author Charlie Fink are now hosting a podcast, This Week in XR, available on Spotify, iTunes, and YouTube.
• MarketWatch columnist (and VR enthusiast) Cody Willard argues that VR will become a trillion-dollar marketplace within the next half-decade.
• Twinfinite's Tom Hopkins explains how to play the new "Hitman 3" in VR on both PS4 and PS5
• AMVR's headset/controller display stand and Logitech's VR gaming earphones were among the best Oculus Quest 2 accessories chosen by Forbes.
• In case you missed it: Ubisoft is hiring for future VR games based on the "Assassin’s Creed" and "Splinter Cell" series.
• Nexo manages $4B in assets and has over 1M users. See why fintech consumers are banking on crypto.*

* This is sponsored content.

Tweet of the Day: YouTubers Cas and Chary VR tried out NextMind's brain-computer interface, which you can use with VR headsets to play games with your mind.