September 21st, 2023

Welcome to this weeks’ edition of The Future of VR newsletter. Thanks for subscribing to our list! For the 1,500 new subscribers - 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 1-2 email newsletters 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:

Microsoft’s $22B Defense VR Headset Contract

Back in 2019, Microsoft won a $22B contract to supply the US Army with tactical defense AR headsets for soliders.

These HoloLens headsets have recently passed several fields tests and will be fulfilling on bigger orders by 2025.

One of our main priorities with the Future of VR newsletter is to help virtual reality gain mass adoption, which will require use cases outside of just gaming and the Metaverse.

Military operations, police officers, firefighters, and other people put into life or death situations represent one of the best use cases for VR. Many of the actions these people take can’t be simulated.

For example: many military special ops exercises can’t be simulated without killing people or spending millions (and years of time) building test environments.

Using VR headsets, the military can simulate exercises in a much more realistic way (similar to a video game).

Immersed Announces New Visor Headset

Immersed recently announced a new visor style headset that is designed specifically for work purposes. Fully refundable pre-orders are now open for $500 and $750.

Check it out here.

One of the coolest aspects of the new Immersed headset is its ability to have 5 different monitors open at one time.

Their goal is to allow users to bring 4K digital monitors with them everywhere they go (without having to carry a screen along with them).

They’re also placing a strong emphasis on comfort and design (making it lightweight and wearable for several hours at a time).

Leaked XBox Documents Show No Immediate XR Interest

XBox is once again not prioritizing XR for the current moment. XBox (owned by Microsoft) did not feel that the user base is large enough to warrant the significant cost investment that it would require to start producing XR based technology.

Although they have not written it off for the future, they do not plan to pursue it for the time being.

As many other companies like Apple, Meta, and Playstation are releasing products in this space, it’s certainly surprising that XBox is continuing to push back. We will see if this changes in the future.

Gaming

• Assassins Creed Nexus VR has a release date of November 16th

• Squid Game Multi-Player VR is coming this month

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!