Back to Italy after my adventure at UnitedXR Europe, which has definitely been a good event for me. I met great people, tried interesting hardware, had meaningful conversations, and even had a few business talks! Plus in Bruxelles, I have eaten a lot of chocolate, and this is fundamental to keep me happy. At the Snap booth, they have even gifted me a full chocolate tablet! Now I’m back in Italy, I got sick, but I’m still finding the energy to work and to inform you all about the most important XR news of the week!
Top news of the week
Google unveils Project Aura, Likeness Avatars, and more!
“The Android Show — XR Edition,” hosted by Google and its partners, was definitely more interesting than I expected. It didn’t host any mindblowing news, but it contained various announcements definitely worth reading.
First of all, Google unveiled its Likeness Avatars, Google’s answer to Apple Personas, which will start to be deployed to Android XR users. Thanks to Likeness Avatars, Android XR users on supported devices (which have eye and face tracking) may be able to join calls on Zoom or Meet and be seen as a lifelike avatar by the other participants in the meeting. Creating a Likeness Avatar will be pretty easy and will just require a scan done with your phone.
While the news is for sure very positive for Galaxy XR users, it also starts to unveil one of the problems of Android XR, which is the same that taunts Android in the phone market, and that is fragmentation. Not all Android XR devices support Likeness Avatars, and not all phones can scan your face. Having to always check the model and provide fallback behaviour in case a feature is not supported is going to be a big pain for us developers.
There is also an ironic side to this piece of news: it is literally years that Meta has been teasing its codec avatars, showing that it is at the forefront of the avatar research, and in the end, Meta is going to be the last company releasing realistic avatars. This is going to be a big bummer: the choice of never releasing a proper headset with eye tracking has for sure influenced it.
Google also unveiled travel mode, which will let people with a Galaxy XR headset watch a movie even if they are in a vehicle. Google is also rolling out a beta version of PC Connect, a free first-party virtual desktop app for Android XR. I still remember when Guy Godin announced that Virtual Desktop was coming to Android XR, praising Google for being a company that supports its developers instead of competing with them. Oh, the irony, again… it seems these big companies are actually all just chasing their business interests.
Google also promised a feature which is simply amazing: Android XR should be able to take flatscreen content and convert it into 3D on the fly. And with “content,” I don’t mean photos, I literally mean all possible games. In a video demo, Google employees showed that they were playing a flatscreen game on a virtual screen on the Galaxy XR, and this game was converted live into spatial content that reacted to the user moving the head in space. We are all pretty intrigued by this feature, considering that Valve has not made it available on the Steam Frame. But considering this is a pretty big claim, we are all waiting for a serious hands-on session to evaluate performances and limitations.
Last but not least, we got more info about Project Aura, the upcoming glasses by XREAL. Project Aura is going to be birdbath see-through glasses connected with a tether to a puck running a powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon XR 2 Gen 2. The first hands-on sessions by XR journalists highlight how it seems to be pretty interesting. This is also the first example of the future vision where AR and VR will converge in just a single pair of glasses. XREAL Project Aura are see-through, but if you want to run some immersive content on them, the lenses are going to dim, so you are more isolated from the real world, and can play it in quasi-VR. If you want to enjoy AR/MR content, instead, the lenses will let you see the real world. The field of view is also 70° diagonal, which starts to feel usable for real-world applications.
I’m pretty excited by all these pieces of news, and I hope to be able to try some of these amazing features, maybe already at CES!
More info (Google details Likeness Avatars and travel mode)
More info (Likeness Avatars)
More info (Google PC Connect)
More info (Android XR can turn any content into 3D)
More info (XREAL Project Aura hands-on)
More info (First clips about Project Aura)
Other relevant news
Has Galaxy XR sold only 15K units?
A Redditor tried to estimate the sales numbers of Galaxy XR from the number of installs of the most famous XR apps. The most used XR app on Google Play is Immersive View, which is basically the immersive version of Google Maps, and currently it features 10,672 installs. The 2nd and 3rd in this classification, the XR photo viewer and YouTube VR are at around 9K installs. Considering that every user of Galaxy XR has most probably tried at least a couple of these apps, we can safely estimate that the number of sold Galaxy XR after one month on the market may be around 10–15K units.
For comparison, Apple sold an estimated 150–200k Vision Pro units in month one, while Quest 3 moved around 300k units. This would mean that Galaxy XR sales have been pretty underwhelming. Honestly, this does not surprise me: the headset is expensive, was launched without too much fanfare, and it is currently available just in two countries.
Google seems to me also more interested in building an ecosystem than in succeeding with its first device. So, honestly, these numbers don’t worry me too much.
Quest was again the most successful console during Black Friday
After the negative pieces of news about Meta from last week, I was imagining that all magazines would have started again with their “VR is dead” lament. Instead, Janko Roettgers, an experienced tech journalist, wrote a piece on The Verge and his newsletter Lowpass highlighting how VR has surely its share of problems, but it is actually “doing fine”. In particular, he shared that Quest was again the most successful console sold during Black Friday, and it is one of the most successful gaming products on Amazon in general:
The best antidote to VR doomsday scenarios is a look at actual device sales: Publicly available data shows that Meta sold at least 120,000 Quest VR headsets through Amazon.com in November alone, once again outselling every major video game console on the site. Some of that can be attributed to a Black Friday promotion that brought the price of the Quest 3s to $250. However, even selling at its full price of $300, the device currently ranks as the 8th-best-selling video game product on Amazon.com, just two spots behind Nintendo’s Switch 2 and ahead of Sony’s and Microsoft’s consoles.
120,000 headsets sold in November is not bad. And it is great to read that Quest is selling in general more than Sony PlayStation and Microsoft XBOX, which are considered mainstream devices. VR is not so dead, after all…
News worth a mention
Some news from UnitedXR Europe
As I’ve told you, UnitedXR was very good on my side. I was able to try some interesting gadgets and write hands-on articles about them, like:
- The Vive Eagle AR glasses, which are well-thought-out for enterprise
- Neural Balance Innovations’ system to remove motion sickness through Galvanic Vestibular Stimulation. This has absolutely been my highlight of the show because it felt like black magic
- SkyjetVR, which is an LBVR installation that lets you live the experience of flying on a jetpack in VR
- Youbiquo, an Italian headset meant for the low-end B2B market
- … and other things I’ll write about in the next days!
But it has not only been about me. There have been other pieces of news you should read about, like SenseGlove launched some haptic gloves for robot training. And AIXR had its famous award gala in which it gave the prestigious XR Awards to many companies and products that deserved them.
I’m adding some links below to let you explore all the previous pieces of news. Enjoy!
More info (Vive Eagle)
More info (Neural Balance Innovations)
More info (SkyjetVR)
More info (Youbiquo)
More info (SenseGlove)
More info (XR Awards)
Meta may increase the price of its headsets
Last week, I reported to you about Meta changing its plans for XR… again. One of the possible consequences of the new plans is that Meta may increase the price of its headsets; however, it is unclear whether the report refers to the current headsets (the Quest 3 family) or the future ones (Puffin/Loma/Phoenix, Quest 4, etc.). In any case, this is not great news, because we know how the market is sensitive to the price of devices. Anyway, I can understand the reasons behind this decision: the VR market is stagnating, the tariffs are increasing the costs of manufacturing, and the prices of some components like RAM are skyrocketing. Let’s see what is going to happen in the next months…
Enjoy two VR bundles
If you like to buy cheap VR games, this week you can enjoy two amazing VR bundles:
- The Upload VR Winter 2025 on Humble Bundle
- The Build Your Own HyperVR bundle on Fanatical!
It’s time to get some games…
Watch the Ruff Talk VR Gaming Showcase
When you thought that VR showcases were done for this year, Ruff Talk VR decided to run its own gaming showcase dedicated to indie games. Watch it and enjoy news about Maestro, Codebreakers VR, Syberia VR, Laser Dance, and many other XR games!
The Midnight Walk won at the Game Awards
At the highly anticipated “The Game Awards”, in the category for the Best AR/VR Game of the Year, the winner was The Midnight Walk. Probably its innovative art style helped it succeed. Some of the hardcore VR community members were not that happy with the choice, though, because this is more of a flatscreen with VR support than a native VR game. Personally, I think that it is a game deserving some love from us XR people, so I’m not against this decision.
Some news about content
- ARVORE is launching on Quest a game dedicated to the popular TV series “The Boys”. The game is called “The Boys: Trigger Warning,” and it is going to make you meet with some of the most popular characters of the series, voiced by their real actors. It is slated to land on Quest and PSVR 2 sometime in Spring 2026
- Meta is partnering with Coldplay and is going to host a big virtual concert of theirs in Horizon Worlds at the end of the year. The partnership spans multiple products, and we are going to see Coldplay’s songs also in Meta-controlled games like Beat Saber and Supernatural
- Ubisoft and Sugar Creative are developing two Assassin’s Creed location-based XR experiences for New York and Boston using Niantic’s VPS to anchor historic moments to real-world sites. The experience is called Assassin’s Creed Echoes of Revolution. It is good to see Ubisoft continuing to experiment with AR/VR
- Among Giants is an open-world (25 square kilometers) VR adventure from a solo developer that’s heading to Quest 3 and 3S in the first quarter of 2026
- Pocket Lands, a mixed reality sandbox game where you can create miniature worlds, is out now in early access on Quest for €10
- Transmission: Shortwave, a casual VR delivery driving sim set in a retro-futuristic Great Britain, is now available on Quest for $5
- Free-to-play multiplayer racer Boom Karts VR is out now on Quest, supporting crossplay with the mobile edition
- Star Citizen has finally added experimental VR support. The stable one is coming in the future, but VR enthusiasts can already start playing around with it
More info (The Boys: Trigger Warning)
More info (Coldplay & Meta)
More info (Assassin’s Creed Echoes of Revolution)
More info (Among Giants)
More info (Pocket Lands)
More info (Synthwave Courier)
More info (Boom Karts VR)
More info (Star Citizen VR)
Some reviews about content
- From a preview of the game, Road To VR judges the upcoming game in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles universe to be promising. It seems it is really bringing the vibes of the cartoon into VR
- The Thrill of The Fight 2 may need some improvements, and especially some calibration, because the single player campaign is too hard. If a few things get fixed, this can become a classic like the previous game
- Thief VR: Legacy Of Shadow is a good adaptation of the flatscreen game, but sometimes it feels rough around the edges
More info (TMNT)
More info (The Thrill Of The Fight 2)
More info (Thief VR: Legacy Of Shadow)
Other news
Viverse claims to have now one million monthly active users
Boz has written a very corporate (i.e., bland) post about what Meta did in 2025 and what the vision is for 2026
Scott Stein has written a detailed article describing the smartglasses market, with all the hype and the doubts about this technology
Charlie Cochrane gives suggestions on how to remove the “Loading screens” in VR games
I just discovered that there are “Reebok smartglasses” out there
Someone is trying to make a sort of open-source version of Horizon Hyperscape Capture
News from partners (and friends)
Instrument Studio XR Early Access Launch
If you want a virtual recording studio to record your musical performances, now you can! Skywatcher VR is launching in early access on December 18th on the Quest Store Instrument Studio XR, which will let you play virtual musical instruments and record music with them!
These are the features, according to the creator:
- A Complete Mobile XR Recording Studio for Quest, Play and Record in VR, MR or Enhanced VR Video Modes.
- The biggest and most advanced XR music app ever built, with many new features.
- You can now play in time, with the fastest, lowest latency Instruments in XR.
- Dynamic multi-sample and synthesized Sounds, using variable Haptics and 3D Audio Visuals.
- Includes Drums, Percussion, Bodhran, Acoustic, Electric and Bass Guitars, Full-scale Grand Piano, 2 Sampler Keyboards, Click Track, 8-Track Sequencer, Effects,
- Full Sound Generation Synthesizer, Blending 4 Oscillators, 8 Waveforms, ADSR, Effects, and 4 Low Frequency Oscillators.
- Separate Vocal, Headphone and Instrument Audio Recording.
- Mix and Master your Recorded audio clips with the 8-Track XR Digital Audio Workstation(DAW)
- Mic and Headphone Note and Frequency Detection.
- XR MIDI system for Drums (learn by following hands, teach, record and playback).
- Playback your Audio using Music Player, Spatial Audio Sphere, or Stereo Splitting Spatializer Spatial Concert PA System.
- Play along with your 2D, VR180 or 360 Videos.
- Write, Save and Load Lyrics with the in-app Text Writer.
- Upload and use your own music, samples, videos, images and text files.
- Easy to use for beginner or pro, with guides for each Instrument and Module.
- The successor to Instrument Studio VR for Rift, with Instrument Studio XR now mobile on Quest, the journey continues, with much more to come…
Check out the trailer and the Quest Store page using the links below!
Learn more (Instrument Studio XR Trailer)
Discover FM DUO camera!
Meet the FM DUO, a VR camera that is capable of filming up to 12K @30fps, and 8K @60fps. With built-in RTMP live streaming and 5G connectivity, the FM·DUO will immerse your viewers in real time! The FM·DUO features 2 full-frame CMOS sensors, with 6000 x 6000 pixels each. This allows for high-resolution zooming capabilities. Not only can you narrow in on one subject, but you can also focus on singular details of the subject’s facial expressions, clothing textures, and a multitude of other small details, enabling a much more immersive experience of VR video.
Visit Product Website
Some XR fun
Keeping the “no profit” promise…
Funny link
Donate for good
Like last week, also this week in this final paragraph I won’t ask you to donate to my blog, but to the poor people who are facing the consequences of the war. Please donate to the Red Cross to handle the current humanitarian situation in Ukraine. I will leave you the link to do that below.
Let me take a moment before to thank anyway all my Patreon donors for the support they give to me:
- Alex Gonzalez VR
- DeoVR
- GenVR
- Eduardo Siman
- Jonn Fredericks
- Jean-Marc Duyckaerts
- Reynaldo T Zabala
- Richard Penny
- Terry xR. Schussler
- Ilias Kapouranis
- Paolo Leoncini
- Immersive.international
- Nikk Mitchell and the great FXG team
- Jake Rubin
- Alexis Huille
- Raghu Bathina
- Chris Koomen
- Cognitive3D
- Wisear (Yacine Achiakh)
- Masterpiece X
- Dimo Pepelyashev
- Carol Dalrymple
- Keith Bradner
- Jennifer Granger
- Jason Moore
- Steve Biggs
- Julio Cesar Bolivar
- Jan Schroeder
- Kai Curtis
- Francesco Strada
- Sikaar Keita
- Ramin Assadollahi
- Juan Sotelo
- Andrew Sheldon
- Chris Madsen
- Horacio Torrendell
- Andrew Deutsch
- Fabien Benetou
- Tatiana Kartashova
- Marco “BeyondTheCastle” Arena
- Eloi Gerard
- Adam Boyd
- Jeremy Dalton
- Joel Ward
- Alex P
- Lynn Eades
- Donald P
- Casie Lane
- Catherine Henry
- Qcreator
- Ristband (Anne McKinnon & Roman Rappak)
- Stephen Robnett
- KaihatsuJai
- Christopher Boyd
- Don Williams
- Giuseppe Pippi
- Mark Frederiksen
- Ken Lin
- Sebastien Poivre
- Ixn91
- Sb
- Boule Petanque
- Pieter Siekerman
- Enrico Poli
- Vooiage Technologies
- Caroline
- Liam James O’Malley
- Hillary Charnas
- Wil Stevens
- Francesco Salizzoni
- Alan Smithson
- Steve R
- Brentwahn
- Michael Gaebler
- Tiago Silva
- Matt Cool
- Mark G
- Simplex
- Gregory F Gorsuch
- Paul Shay
- Matias Nassi
And now here you are the link to donate:
Support The Red Cross in Ukraine
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