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

🥳 But there’s more:

🏀 Just Hoops Nano was released on Meta Quest for $7.99 ahead of its originally planned summer window.

⚽ An AI-powered immersive fan engagement platform has been deployed at Newcastle United's stadium.

💻 After nearly seven years away, Acer is back in XR with two new devices.

eXtend your gaming:

Welcome to XR Gamer Digest #105

XR Games

🎵 To mark its eighth birthday, Beat Saber has received three free tech-dance tracks on Quest and SteamVR - including an original song from the game's own level designer.

🏀 Just Hoops Nano, a hand-tracking mixed reality mini basketball game where players pinch and flick shots from their desk or couch, was released on Meta Quest for $7.99 ahead of its originally planned summer window.

🎮 Three new titles - Trombone Champ: Unflattened, Maskmaker, and Outta Hand - are being added to the Meta Horizon+ subscription catalog in June, all accessible to subscribers for $7.99/month.

🐱 After a May 6 shadow drop, I Am Cat claimed the top spot on the PSVR2 download charts for both North American and European markets, a first-month result driven by its near-perfect 4.9-star rating across other platforms.

💪 Spun out of Meta and revived by its original founders, Supernatural is returning this fall as an independent app under the new Supernatural Health company - though subscription prices are doubling, from $10 to $20 per month.

XR Entertainment

🏙️ Signed as part of Sandbox VR's first push into U.S. franchising, a three-unit Manhattan deal with operator JLG Ventures - anchored by an 11,000-square-foot lease on Seventh Avenue - marks the location-based VR chain's long-awaited entry into New York City.

⚽ An AI-powered immersive fan engagement platform, built by Lenovo, Invisionary Media, and Intel, has been deployed at Newcastle United's stadium, turning physical spaces into interactive environments with gesture-controlled games and virtual kit try-ons.

XR News

 🍏 Blocked by unsolved weight and cost challenges, the Apple Vision Pro successor has been placed "on ice" with no expected launch before late 2028 or 2029, as Apple redirects its mixed-reality teams toward smart glasses instead.

👓 From navigation and live translations to real-time image analysis, today's AI-powered smart glasses are turning into always-on personal assistants that bring contextual computing directly into users' line of sight.

📱 Four new smart glasses models - including a Ray-Ban refresh and an Oakley variant - are being readied by Meta for release across the second half of 2026, alongside a separately developed AI pendant due for testing next year and a target of 10 million wearable units sold.

💻 After nearly seven years away, Acer is back in XR with two new devices: the AR Vision GR0 tethered display glasses starting at $500, and the GI0 AI Glasses with Google Gemini integration starting at $300.

🕶️ Under a new sub-brand called xbx, XREAL has unveiled its a01 AR glasses - a 62-gram, 50-degree FOV device with 1,600-nit brightness and 120Hz refresh - priced under $300 and set to ship in July.

🌐 Citing unsustainable infrastructure costs, Spatial is shutting down its Creator platform on July 27, ending nine years of open metaverse ambitions while pivoting the company entirely to enterprise clients and its in-house game studio.

🎮 SteamVR games can now be streamed to Apple Vision Pro with foveated rendering support via KRVR, a $15 visionOS app that also adds passthrough cutouts and multi-monitor PC desktop integration.

🚀 As part of a six-year collaboration with the European Space Agency, two Meta Quest 3 headsets are headed to the International Space Station to train astronauts for spacewalks using a microgravity-adapted version of the headset's Travel Mode.

AI News

📿 Built on the technology of Limitless, an AI wearable startup acquired in late 2025, an AI-powered pendant is being developed by Meta - with testing expected to begin within the next year.

🤖 Tasked by Zuckerberg with transforming Meta's 70,000-person workforce into an AI-first organization, CTO Andrew "Boz" Bosworth has become the blunt, unapologetic force behind the company's most disruptive internal changes, from eliminating managers to recording employee keystrokes.

💻 Unveiled at Computex, Nvidia's RTX Spark "superchip" - a 1-petaflop CPU designed to run AI agents locally and securely - will power a new wave of AI PCs from Microsoft, Dell, HP, Lenovo, ASUS, and others, shipping this fall as Nvidia bets on a $200 billion CPU market.

Until next time, enjoy your other reality gaming!

Bobby Voicu