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

🥳 But there’s more:

 OrbusVR is shutting down in April

Chris Pratt and Chris Hemsworth are promoting Ray-Ban smart glasses

Samsung unveils Project Moohan

eXtend your gaming:

Welcome to XR Gamer Digest #49

Discounts and Tips

😎 Snap is offering a 50% educational discount on its Spectacles ’24 AR glasses, reducing the $1,200 price to $594 for students and teachers in select regions.

XR Games

🏺Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is getting an unofficial VR mod by Luke Ross, adding stereoscopic view and 6DoF head tracking, with a release coming soon on Patreon.

🗼The Smurfs – Flower Defense, a VR and MR tower defense game, launches on Quest 3 in May 2025, featuring strategic gameplay, boss battles, and classic Smurf characters.

🛩️ Set to launch in 2025 on PSVR2 and SteamVR, Aces of Thunder adds World War 1 aircraft, including the Red Baron's Fokker DR.I, to its expanding lineup of fighter planes.

◾Into Black is expanding to PlayStation VR2, with more details coming soon, while its latest update enhances performance and introduces six additional language options.

🏴‍☠️Pirates VR: Jolly Roger offers a visually charming but shallow adventure, now on Steam for $20, with a PSVR2 release in Q2 2025.

⚒️ Dumb Ways: Free For All adds the free Beanulon Prime DLC, featuring 25 zero-gravity mini-games, now available on Meta Quest for $19.99.

🤖 Darknet: Remastered, the classic VR hacking game by E McNeill, is now available on Quest for $9.99, bringing its cyber-strategy gameplay to a new generation of players.

😔 OrbusVR, the first VR MMORPG, is shutting down in April, with sales ending February 10, marking the end of one of VR’s longest-running multiplayer experiences.

📱 Elsewhere Electric, a co-op VR game where one player uses a headset and the other a smartphone, launches on Meta Quest and PC VR between spring and summer 2025.

❄️ COLD VR, the time-bending game inspired by Superhot VR, now launches on Quest and PC VR on February 11 for $20, with a PSVR2 release coming soon.

🦇 Batman: Arkham Shadow's third major update adds New Game+, an epilogue, infinite combat modes, and various improvements, possibly marking its final major update.

⚔️ Resolution Games unveils Battlemarked, a VR Dungeons & Dragons game with turn-based combat and co-op campaigns, coming to multiple platforms with no release date yet.

👊 Path of Fury: Episode I – Tetsuo’s Tower, a retro-style VR beat-'em-up with arcade-inspired combat, launches on Quest 2/3/Pro for $9.99 on March 13.

💀 The physics-based puzzle game Hide the Corpse, already a hit on Quest, is coming to PS VR2 and Steam in 2025, bringing its chaotic, time-pressured gameplay to new platforms.

XR Entertainment

🎺 Trombone Champ: Unflattened adds a new winter environment, custom song support on Quest, and quality-of-life improvements in its latest update, available now on Quest, Steam, and PS VR2.

🕶️ Meta is bringing A-list celebrities Chris Pratt and Chris Hemsworth to promote Ray-Ban smart glasses in Super Bowl ads, signaling a push toward mainstream adoption.

🐪The Horizon of Khufu is a VR experience in New York that transports visitors to Ancient Egypt, offering an immersive journey through the Pyramids of Giza and the world of King Khufu.

🎶 Synth Riders debuts a Kendrick Lamar Humble Experience on Apple Vision Pro for Super Bowl LIX, launching February 6 as a timed exclusive before reaching other VR platforms later.

🐟 Craftrium, a free Apple Vision Pro app, lets users create a personalized spatial aquarium, blending mixed reality with immersive underwater experiences.

XR News

ᯅ Samsung unveils Project Moohan, an AI-powered XR headset with a 3,000 DPI micro-OLED display, Android XR support, and smart device integration, launching later this year for around $999.

💲Into The Radius 2 has earned nearly $3M in Steam Early Access, with CM Games focusing on core gameplay before expanding to other platforms, targeting full release in early 2026.

🕶 Vuzix unveiled two new AR platforms and an ultra-thin 1mm waveguide at CES 2025, aiming to enhance AI-powered smart glasses with advanced display technology.

🥽 DPVR expands into India through a partnership with Aedificium Technologies, bringing its VR headsets to arcade gaming, training, and simulation markets.

⚙️ Meta is reportedly developing a high-end Quest Pro successor alongside Quest 4, signaling continued investment in advanced mixed reality hardware.

💰 Haptikos emerges from stealth with €2.6M funding, unveiling a high-precision XR hand exoskeleton and AI-driven haptik_OS to enhance realistic touch in virtual experiences.

😔 Fast Travel Games is laying off 30 employees — 60% of its staff —after lower-than-expected sales in 2024, consolidating into a single development team to ensure stability.

🎢 VRAL Games expands its VR portfolio by acquiring a 30% stake in PolarityOne, enhancing its position as a leading VR publisher with the upcoming Exoshock shooter.

💲Meta Reality Labs hit a record $1.08 billion in Q4 2024 revenue, driven by Quest 3S sales, but continues heavy investment in XR, with profitability expected in the 2030s.

Until next time, enjoy your other reality gaming!

Bobby Voicu