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OpenXR Opens Shared Space

OpenXR Opens Shared Space

Pre-orders for Loony Laps, XREAL 1 Pro+ on sale, Meta AI in new countries

October 24, 2026

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

📣 If you only read one thing today 📣

🇪🇺 The European Commission is set to exempt wearables like smart glasses from the EU's user-removable battery mandate, a carve-out Parliament could still block within two months, while BEUC warns it sets a dangerous precedent and privacy regulators ready a surveillance report.

📢 This quietly decides whether the entire smart glasses category can keep shipping sealed, ultra-light designs in the world's second-biggest consumer market — a design constraint that would have forced every maker from Meta to Google to Samsung into thicker, heavier hardware for years.

🕶️ Fans get to keep the glasses they actually want: 40-50 gram frames that look like eyewear, instead of a battery hatch bolted onto your temple.

🥳 But there’s more:

💰 PAYDAY: Aces High will be released on Steam and Quest on November 5 for $24.99.

🌐 Listed on Steam by SideQuest as free to play, the revived AltspaceVR is slated to enter Early Access this month.

🏃 Virtuix sells its $2,595 Omni One treadmill bundled with a Quest 3 or 3S for an extra $599 or $349.

eXtend your gaming:

Welcome to XR Gamer Digest #120

XR Games

⚔️ Owners of the $18.99 Story Pass received Knights of Fiona’s concluding Chapter 6 at no extra cost on October 20, as the free-to-play co-op JRPG also cut loading times by up to 80% on Quest and PC VR.

👻 Anyone buying Daumier: Lila & Ghost on Quest during its first month gets a second key to share, since the story-driven puzzle game splits two players across separate timelines.

🕵️ After five months in Early Access, Innerspace’s time-rewinding spy thriller Spymaster has reached full release on Quest and Steam, with four new missions that complete its campaign.

🏎️ Pre-orders are open for Loony Laps, a $12.99 die-cast toy racer from solo developer Paulo Cunha whose 29 tracks will run in VR or across your own room when it hits Quest on December 15.

🏢 Set in an alternate-1960s company where a new hire rotates through desk stations, Good Morning [Employee Name] VR is a seated, Severance-flavored psychological mystery that Shababeek Labs is targeting for late 2026 on Quest and PC VR.

🎭 In Fabula Rasa, arriving on Quest on November 12, you play a prisoner who must convince AI-powered NPCs, whose personalities were shaped with help from improv comedians, to help him escape.

💰 PAYDAY: Aces High will be released on Steam and Quest on November 5 for $24.99, although its free two-heist demo closes on October 26 and a PS VR2 version remains only a possibility.

XR Entertainment

🌐 Listed on Steam by SideQuest as free to play, the revived AltspaceVR is slated to enter Early Access this month, with Steam Frame named in its recommended specs and desktop or Android play possible without a headset.

🎤 Shot through Ray-Ban Meta glasses worn by Doja Cat and her crew across seven European countries, the 12-minute documentary MA VIE WORLD TOUR premieres October 23 on her YouTube channel, while Meta Lab LA displays her stage outfits and custom glasses through October 25.

🧩 Thanks to new Layout, Gaze and UI Set SDKs, 2D Android apps on Quest and the upcoming VR Glasses can gain spatial windows without going fully immersive, while Disney+ will add 3D media and environments in November.

XR News

🕶️ Brighter at 1,200 nits instead of 700, with AI HDR, redesigned nose pads and 60fps 2D-to-3D conversion, the XREAL 1 Pro+ refresh of its tethered flagship AR glasses is on sale now for $599.

🎙️ Reports that Ray-Ban Meta glasses were waking Meta AI without the “Hey Meta” phrase have been answered by Meta with a two-sentence statement calling the issue resolved, though it gave no cause, affected version or fix date.

🏃 Now an official Meta reseller, Virtuix sells its $2,595 Omni One treadmill bundled with a Quest 3 or 3S for an extra $599 or $349, after Quest support roughly tripled sales.

⭐ Robert Downey Jr. was named Snap’s honorary chief customer experience officer for the $2,195 Specs AR glasses, starring in a series of promotional episodes while also helping shape Lenses, content and hardware.

🪟 Borrowing an idea from Vision Pro’s Shared Space, OpenXR’s newly ratified “spatial containers” extensions will let XR apps switch between a bounded multitasking mode and full immersion, with implementations expected across Quest, SteamVR and Android XR devices.

AI Games

🖥️ Meta’s new 816-billion-parameter Muse Spark Open is designed to run locally on Apple silicon, but you'll need a Mac with at least 1TB of RAM to use what Meta calls the most capable US open-weight AI model.

📲 With 10.2 million US downloads in its first 40 days, Meta’s Muse agent joined a club of only 11 other apps, while also keeping users at higher rates than ChatGPT, Claude and Grok.

🌏 Quest owners in the UK, Australia, Japan, Mexico, South Korea and Singapore are getting Meta AI through the gradual Horizon OS v2.9 rollout, yet Germany and France remain excluded despite seven newly supported languages.

Until next time, enjoy your other reality gaming!

Bobby Voicu