XR = eXtended Reality (everything VR, AR, MR)

🥳 But there’s more:

✈️ Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 will come to PlayStation VR2

🎥 A new slate of third-party Apple Immersive Video content is coming later this year.

🤖 OpenAI is reportedly considering the development of ChatGPT-powered smart glasses as part of a broader push into AI hardware.

eXtend your gaming:

Welcome to XR Gamer Digest #80

Discounts and Tips

🤩 Don’t forget you can get up to 25% discounts when you buy a game from the Meta Quest store. Go here and look for your game (we’re not affiliated with the website, but it’s a great tool).

👻 Subscribers to Meta Horizon+ can anticipate two thrilling titles for October: the acclaimed supernatural puzzle adventure Ghost Town and the single-player RPG Vampire: The Masquerade - Justice.

XR Games

🤝 Hideo Kojima's studio has partnered with Niantic Spatial to create a geolocated multiplayer AR game inspired by Death Stranding, aiming to connect people with the real world.

👹 A Moss-inspired VR adventure, My Monsters, has been announced, in which players guide a small monster with a hand-painted art style to battle inner demons across 70 puzzle maps.

🔫 With visuals and gunplay being compared to Half-Life: Alyx, the VR shooter Gunman Contracts is poised to deliver a high-stakes, run-and-gun experience.

🏎️ Super RC, a new remote-controlled car racing game from the developers of Ultrawings 2, is set to bring high-speed thrills and a track creator mode to Quest on October 1st.

✈️ Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 will launch on PS5 on December 8, with a free PlayStation VR2 update to follow in 2026.

🎯 The long-awaited Hitman PC VR update introduces the rogue-like Freelancer mode and achieves feature parity with the PSVR 2 version, significantly enhancing gameplay.

⛳ The prestigious 2025 Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black has been fully integrated into the VR title GOLF+, immersing Quest players in the tournament's unique atmosphere and competitive course conditions.

🕵️ The groundbreaking roomscale spy adventure Unseen Diplomacy 2 is now available in Early Access on Meta Quest, challenging players to physically crawl, leap, and dodge through procedurally generated missions adapted to their living room.

🦾 Exclusively for Quest and SteamVR, the high-flying co-op adventure Titan Isles has launched, arming players with unique traversal and combat Exo Suits to battle colossal robotic Titans.

💣 The massive 32-player Battlefield-style VR shooter, Forefront, is set to launch its open beta from October 9th to 20th, with full support for Quest and SteamVR headsets.

🔎 Following a quiet launch, Sherlock Holmes: The Master Detective VR is now available in early access on Quest 3 and 3S, inviting players to investigate crime scenes and unravel a conspiracy.

🗡️ Thief VR: Legacy of Shadow proves a capable contender in the stealth genre, leveraging immersive VR mechanics and the return of a familiar voice actor to successfully revitalize the iconic series.

🔫 The highly anticipated PC VR remaster of Zero Caliber 2 has locked in an October 30 release date, though the substantial upgrades prevent crossplay functionality with the Quest version.

🔪 Crafting Crimes, a new VR true crime experience for Meta Quest, allows players to investigate historical cases by virtually building and stepping inside miniature, forensically accurate dioramas.

XR Entertainment

🍻 The official Oktoberfest social VR funfair, now in its full release on Meta Quest, offers a variety of multiplayer attractions, rides, and fairground games for users to enjoy with friends.

📖 The short VR experience Out There, available on both Apple Vision Pro and Quest 3, is being praised as Apple's best story, using an immersive three-act tale to highlight themes of family and space.

🎬 Blumhouse has launched an Enhanced Cinema app on Quest 3, which allows users to watch movies like M3GAN and The Black Phone on a large virtual screen with immersive effects that spill from the screen into the virtual environment.

🎥 A new slate of third-party Apple Immersive Video content, including documentaries from Red Bull, CNN, and the BBC Proms concert series, is set to be released on Apple Vision Pro later this year.

 🚗 Caradise, a new spatial car museum app exclusively for Apple Vision Pro, allows users to place highly detailed supercars like Ferraris and Bugattis, rendered in realistic lighting, into their physical environment at miniature or life size.

🐦 Following its early access launch on Quest, the cozy photography simulator Birdseed VR invites players to photograph realistically rendered bird species and track their progress in a cooperative multiplayer mode.

XR News

💬 Discord is officially coming to Quest in 2026 as a native app, a new feature announced by Meta's Head of Content Samantha Ryan.

🤖 Despite previous public skepticism from CEO Sam Altman, OpenAI is reportedly considering the development of ChatGPT-powered smart glasses as part of a broader push into AI hardware.

🇰🇷 Samsung's upcoming mixed reality headset, Project Moohan, is reportedly set for a launch in South Korea on October 21 for an estimated price of around $2,000, positioning it as a competitor to the Apple Vision Pro.

🏰 Disney is exploring a prototype AI park guide that would use Ray-Ban Meta glasses and the new Meta Wearables Device Access Toolkit to assist guests at its theme parks.

⚙️ The Pimax Dream Air SE, an all-in-one VR headset with a high-resolution micro-OLED display, built-in SLAM tracking, and integrated eye tracking, weighs less than 140 grams and is priced at $899.

🧠 Michael Abrash, Meta's Reality Labs Chief Scientist, has described a future in which Meta's smart glasses will have an always-on "contextual AI" that creates a dynamic 3D map of a user's environment to provide proactive assistance.

📦 The Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses are set to be released on September 30 in the US, with their launch in the UK and Europe delayed until early 2026.

🛍️ The Meta Lab is expanding its retail presence with a new flagship store in Los Angeles and pop-up locations in New York and Las Vegas, all of which will offer demos for AI glasses and Quest headsets.

🔗 By launching the Steam Link PC VR streaming app on Pico and HTC headsets, Valve has introduced an APK to broaden support across the Android XR ecosystem.

🍎 The FCC's recent listing of a new Apple headset model substantiates reports of an impending Vision Pro refresh featuring a powerful chip upgrade and a Thread radio for smart home integration.

💲 Despite a chaotic launch that left early adopters struggling to secure units, the $800 Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses, which include a monocular HUD and are controlled by the Meta Neural Band, sold out almost immediately, prompting Meta to promise fast restocks and more retail locations.

Until next time, enjoy your other reality gaming!

Bobby Voicu