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- Ray-Ban Meta Glasses Just Got Smarter
Ray-Ban Meta Glasses Just Got Smarter
Sly Leap on Quest/PCVR, Spacious Places on VR, Beyond 2 headsets ship within days
XR = eXtended Reality (everything VR, AR, MR)
📣 If you only read one thing today 📣
📱 Meta is shutting down Horizon Worlds’ VR client on Quest, removing it from the headset and shifting the platform entirely to web and mobile.
📢 This marks a major strategic pivot away from Meta’s original metaverse vision in VR, signaling that even the biggest XR player is rethinking how (and where) immersive social platforms should live.
🕶 It’s a clear sign that VR’s future may lean less on “metaverse worlds” and more on apps, games, and mixed-reality experiences - reshaping expectations for what XR is actually about.
🥳 But there’s more:
🩸 Next week The Boys: Trigger Warning lands on Quest.
🕶️ Users can now trigger personalized Spotify playlists by asking Meta's AI smart glasses.
📈 In GDC’s State of VR update, Meta revealed Quest hit record usage in 2025.
eXtend your gaming:
Welcome to XR Gamer Digest #97
Discounts and Tips
🏷️ Through the "Finally Spring Sale," the Meta Horizon Store has significantly reduced prices on dozens of top-rated Quest titles, ranging from 10% to over 70% off.
XR Games
🕯️ In April’s new VR entry Little Nightmares VR: Altered Echoes, you’ll embody Dark Six and creep through puzzle-filled horror dioramas that bridge stories from Little Nightmares 1 and 2.
🏃 After debuting on PSVR 2, parkour slasher SkyLeap has vaulted onto Quest and PC VR with grappling, telekinesis, time trials, endless chases, and online leaderboards at a budget price.
🏎️ Via Nvidia CloudXR and visionOS foveated streaming, X-Plane 12 and iRacing will soon render on your PC but play on Apple Vision Pro, mixing in passthrough views of real yokes, wheels, and pedals for aligned cockpits.
🩸 Next week The Boys: Trigger Warning lands on Quest, thrusting you into Lucas Costa’s revenge-fueled missions where Temp V grants brutal telekinetic powers in a new story voiced by the show’s cast.
🛸 MoonMonster’s Space Control, a raunchy, Futurama-style VR job sim about grinding through absurd corporate gigs on a space station, deliberately clocks in on April 1st for Quest and SteamVR.
🔫 Firewall Ultra, PSVR 2’s troubled tactical shooter, will have its servers and limited PvE modes fully taken offline on September 17, 2026, ending all play barely three years after launch.
XR Entertainment
🧘 A calming relief from modern stress is provided by Spacious Places, a new VR wellness app that invites users to play virtual instruments within eighteen beautiful, nature-inspired environments.
🕶️ While looking at the world, users can now trigger personalized Spotify playlists by asking Meta's AI smart glasses to match the music to their current visual surroundings.
XR News
🎮 After a 12-year run as Zuckerberg’s de facto gaming chief, Jason Rubin is exiting Meta to pursue wildlife photography just months after the company shuttered several long-running VR game studios.
💸 John Carmack is publicly arguing that Meta’s 30% Quest store cut, combined with subsidies, creates “wasteful churn” and that an Epic-style low-fee, first‑million‑free model would better reward VR devs.
🕶️ Meta’s Ray-Ban Display glasses are getting their first big OS upgrade, layering in EMG-controlled minigames, Instagram Reels, widgets, a visual calendar, phone-call captions, and Spotify “soundtrack your view” integration.
📈 In GDC’s State of VR update, Meta revealed Quest hit record usage in 2025, nudging Horizon Store revenue slightly up and pushing more than 100 titles past $1 million in gross sales while IAP income broadened across more apps.
🧠 Bigscreen’s ultra-light Beyond 2 headsets now ship within days, and the eye-tracked 2e model has gained OpenXR foveated rendering support in sims like MSFS 2024, DCS, and iRacing for major performance wins.
💗 A University of Oregon study using the custom VR game Empathy in Action found players became more altruistic and cognitively empathetic after helping a boy search for his lost dog, even as affective empathy slightly dipped.
📱 Meta is killing Horizon Worlds’ VR client in June, delisting it from Quest and leaving only web and mobile access as it doubles down on flatscreen growth and abandons its much-mocked metaverse flagship in headsets.
🔍 Reports say Meta’s 2027 Phoenix headset will use 2560×2560 micro‑OLED panels - its first non‑LCD since the original Quest - aimed at ultra‑light, puck‑powered mixed reality and high‑end virtual monitors.
🧪 To earn the new Steam Frame Verified badge, VR titles must run standalone on Valve’s headset at a strict 90 FPS, signaling Valve’s priority on comfort and performance over having a massive catalog of portable-ready games.
Until next time, enjoy your other reality gaming!
Bobby Voicu
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