September 16th, 2023

Welcome to this weeks’ edition of The Future of VR newsletter. Thanks for subscribing to our list! If you’re new to the list - welcome! Before diving into updates, do you mind doing us a quick favor? We just launched the Future of VR Twitter page. Shoot us a quick follow - we’re giving out a free Meta Quest 3 for one lucky follower (full details on this will come after Meta’s connect event on September 27th).

We’re planning to stick to one email newsletter per week, however, if you’re interested in getting daily updates, our Twitter account will be a better place for it. With that out of the way, let’s dive into the biggest updates this week in VR:

VR For Healthcare?

One of our top priorities for Future of VR is to show ways that VR will benefit the world and ultimately gain mass adoption. Aside from VR gaming and the Metaverse, what ways will it effect day to day life.

VR for healthcare is one of the biggest fields where this will play a role.

Orthopedic surgeons are currently being trained to do surgical procedures using a Quest 2 headset (which walks through a simulation of the surgery).

VR allows surgeons to practice and learn in an environment that has zero risk. Ultimately this creates a safer surgery for the patient.

Another way that VR headsets are currently leveraged is for pain treatment. Basically VR headsets can serve as a distraction for patients in severe pain. The US Department of Veterans Affairs is currently using VR headsets at more than 160 facilities to help with this.

Apple’s Vision Pro Shipping Early 2024

During Apple’s livestream earlier this week, Tim Cook confirmed that the Vision Pro is still on track to start shipping early next year.

According to sources at Bloomberg, Apple plans for a very slow rollout. Production of this headset has proved to be very challenging and they have faced many roadblocks.

The plan is to initially sell the Vision Pro only in Apple stores in major US cities (such as NYC or LA). Then eventually it will be rolled out to the UK, Canada, Asia, and Europe by summer time.

Cook referred to the Vision Pro as a “spatial computer” rather than a headset and plans to sell it at a $3,500 price point (which is substantially higher than pretty much everything else on the market).

New Quest v57 Update

The Horizon home page has always been a bit…intriguing. Most Quest headset users have never been a particularly big fan of it.

Rather than seeing a list of apps available on the home page (similar to an iPhone), users are routed to an Explore page with content that’s not particularly relevant to users.

There will also be updates for avatar creation, social gatherings, app multi-tasking, video recording, and much more.

The v57 update started last week on September 11th and will be phased out slowly.

Gaming

• Ghostbusters VR is coming to Quest 2 and PSVR2 in October

• Resident Evil 4 VR is coming to PSVR 2 this winter

• Horizon Worlds to Launch on iOS within a few weeks

Metaverse

Clockwise has launched the first office space in the Metaverse (known as Clockwise Campus). People will work and have meetings using their personalized avatars.

Clockwise currently owns 15 flexible workspaces across the UK and wants to combat the loneliness and lack of community associated with remote work.

They ultimately want to create authentic interaction for employees (while remaining at home).

VR Job Opportunities

Sandbox VR is hiring for a variety of roles including a Senior 3D artist and Director of Franchise Development.

Click here to see Sandbox VR openings.

Unity is looking to hire for several XR related roles including Software Engineers and Developers for XR Features and Foundations in both their San Francisco and Austin offices.

Click here to see Unity openings.

That’s a wrap for this week. Watch out for our next newsletter coming next Sunday!