I had a very pleasant weekend, and I hope you did too. I had fun, but I also spent some time researching the best XR news of the week so that I could write this report for you. Enjoy!
Top news of the week
Valve is reconsidering the Steam Frame price and release date
We start this newsletter with some bad news for everyone who is waiting for the Steam Frame to be released (which is basically every XR enthusiast). Valve has published a blog post stating that it is re-evaluating the price and the release date of the Steam Frame. Which basically means that the device is coming later than expected and for a price that is higher than expected.
The company explains in the blog post that by now, it should have theoretically already announced the price and the release date of the device. That was the original expectation. But then the memory and storage shortages happened, and the situation kept getting worse. In case you don’t know, the shortage is happening because of all the memory chips that are required by the many datacenters that all AI companies are building. Because of this, the prices of RAM are skyrocketing, for instance, and also all PC prices are going up. This trend affects in particular the Steam Machine and Steam Frame, which are computers needing memory to work.
Valve has confirmed that it is still committed to releasing the devices in the first half of this year, but the shortage of components is causing delays and for sure will force Valve to increase the price of the Steam Frame to not sell it below cost. This will likely mean that the price of the device won’t be as low as some people were hoping, and probably will be more towards the $1000 that is the hard limit the company imposed on itself. I still bet on a price around $800-$900, which would mean a device for enthusiasts and prosumers, but not for all pockets. This is not a good thing: we saw in the past years that the price of a headset influences a lot its potential sales, so if the Steam Frame is going to cost more, it means it will likely sell less than the expeced.
The company has also shared thatit will sell prescription inserts for the Steam Frame later this year, after the launch of the device.
More info (Valve writing about delays related to the Steam Frame)
More info (Road To VR reporting the news)
More info (Prescription inserts for the Steam Frame)
Other relevant news
Boz confirms Meta still plans to ship two headsets
In his usual Q&A on Instagram, Andrew “Boz” Bosworth confirmed that Meta is still working on two headsets and also that they’re still funding 3rd party Virtual Reality content on the Horizon Store.
He reiterated that while painful, the decision to fire people and close the studios was the right one to ensure that Meta can continue working on virtual reality and ship the next two headsets. He said that VR is growing more slowly than expected, so the company had to remodulate its investments to account for the actual growth of the market. This part of his reasonings make sense, while the rest is a bit more confusing to me.
First of all, he said that they closed the first-party game studios because with them, Meta was competing with other developers on its own platform. On one side, this is true, on the other, it seems to me a corporate way to find a positive reason for something that is not positive. Meta funded first-party content for years; it seems strange to me that only now it comes to this realization. Plus, if Meta was so caring towards the developers on its own platform, instead of closing some game studios, these years it shouldn’t have copied products on its store (e.g. YUR, Virtual Desktop, BigScreen VR), putting out of business the startups working on them. And to be fair, big games are system sellers, and they make more users use the headsets, so they are also helping the whole ecosystem of developers on the store. That’s why all platforms have them. So, to be totally honest, I’m not a big believer in this narrative. Probably, they just realized that spending millions on games that weren’t attracting millions of users was not worth the effort.
It is surely good news that Boz confirmed that Meta is still funding a lot of 3rd party titles. But then I’m confused about the reason for all the recent 3rd party studios layoffs: they were famous studios that were probably expecting money from Meta and saw the check being canceled because of the cuts. If Meta claims to still be funding content, why were there all these ripple layoffs? May it be that Meta is still giving money, but with a new strategy? Maybe it is now more interested in giving small checks to indie titles instead of paying millions for big games?
I have another question: it is good to fund indie titles… but can an ecosystem thrive if there are no more new big games that attract users back to their headsets (e.g. Batman)? PSVR 2 now has a decent catalogue of games, but no exclusive big titles, and its adoption is not going great. It is true that now the Quest is mostly used by kids and they are more interested in a game like UG than in Batman Arkham Shadow, so maybe this strategy can work, I don’t know. I guess we’ll see…
There is one last thing I want to say, which is kinda personal, but I saw similar reactions in other members of the community. After what happened, I kinda lost trust in Meta and its top managers. The company is too unreliable, and it changes strategy every six months, and whatever they say may be true today, but be wrong in July. So when Boz says that two headsets are in the works, I’m happy, but the truth is that I don’t know if they will still be released because maybe in the second half of the year they change their mind. Maybe one headset is canceled, maybe they are delayed, maybe they will be substituted by something else. So I’m happy but doubtful. I think Meta should acknowledge this trust issue and do something about it.
More info (Boz addresses the layoffs in Reality Labs)
More info (Boz says Meta will keep funding content)
Samsung glasses are planned for this year
During the Q4 2025 earnings call, a Samsung representative confirmed that Samsung is working on glasses and that they should come out in 2026. Talking about the topic, Seong Cho, head of Samsung’s mobile experience division, said, “For XR, we plan to deliver rich, immersive, multimodal AI experiences through diverse form factors such as next-generation AR glasses.”
In my opinion, the first device won’t be AR, but will be AI smartglasses, like the prototypes that Google showcased in the various talks in the past months. Augmented Reality is more the end game, like it is for Meta or Apple.
Still, it is good news to see Samsung glasses being released this year. Together with the Steam Frame and Snap Spectacles, they are currently one of the devices I’m waiting the most.
News worth a mention
Apple acquired Q.ai
Apple just acquired Q.ai, reportedly for $1.6 billion. Q.ai was working on a “silent speech” technology, which, in my opinion, can be a game-changer for voice input. We all know the advantages of communicating with devices using our voice: it is natural and easy to do. But we also know the disadvantages: it is not good for privacy, and no one of us would like to type a private email by voice on a busy metro. With “silent speech” technologies, you have the best of both worlds: since you only “pretend” to speak, without actually emitting any audio, you have the ease of vocal commands, but with your privacy being preserved. This can be a great input method for XR devices, and I’m pretty sure that Apple made this acquisition exactly for this purpose.
Arcturus Studio is working on fully volumetric sport broadcasts
One of the most reshared videos this week has been the super cool teaser that Arcturus Studio published about the work it is doing. The company is working on recreating sports matches using Gaussian Splatting technology, so you can see the action from all possible points of view. The plan is very ambitious and requires installing many cameras in each stadium, but if it works, it will be able to provide a sport immersive experience like never before.
More info (Arcturus Studio trailer — Twitter post 1)
More info (Arcturus Studio trailer — Twitter post 2)
You can now connect Clawdbot with your Ray-Ban Meta glasses
A developer has created an opensource plugin to connect Clawdbot with Ray-Ban Meta glasses, so that your friendly bot assistant can have “eyes” and see what you are seeing. This is very cool, but considering the privacy concerns around the bot, it can also become a bit scary.
Two leaks about Meta
Noridoesvr, who seems to be another VR leaker now in town, has published two interesting leaks this week:
- The render of the puck of the upcoming Meta lightweight Puffin headset
- A version of Beat Saber that was made for Horizon Worlds mobile. It looks… weird, it is not Beat Saber at all, it is more like a running game
More info (Puffin leak)
More info (Beat Saber leak)
An update on AltspaceVR
Danny McLellan, the person who is trying to reboot AltspaceVR, went to Reddit to give a brief update to the community about the work still going on. He is trying to gather the trust of the community, but people are still quite suspicious about the project. Especially the fact that the new social network will support cryptocurrency is making people scared that it may be a crypto scam. I’m remaining neutral: I wait and see what happens before judging it. For sure, it would be great if Altspace could come back…
UG’s investors want to invest in new games
While we wait to know if Meta is going to fund third-party content, it is good to see that there are other companies ready to jump in to support creators. ENVER and Trass Games, who partnered to help fund the top-grossing Meta Quest title UG, have confirmed up to two million dollars in investments for ‘emerging VR studios’ building social-first, original experiences. Basically, they are looking for the next UG. The details on this initiative are still scarce, though, and it is not clear how to access this funding.
Join the Logitech hackathon
Logitech has announced Logi DevStudio Challenge, an online hackathon with prizes up to $10,000 (plus support from Logitech, hardware, and other perks). There is one specific track about the Logitech MX Ink and its use with the Meta Quest, so all of you XR developers and creators should consider applying!
Some news about content
- Tower defense game Orcs Must Die: By The Blade will now release on February 12
- Evangelion: Δ Cross Reflections will be shown at the franchise’s 30th anniversary event this month in Yokohama, Japan
- An unofficial VR port of the classic N64 first-person shooter Perfect Dark is well underway
- The latest Beat Saber shock drop is Me Porto Bonito by Bad Bunny
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Empire City is launching on Meta Quest, SteamVR, and Pico this spring, priced at $24.99. Pre-orders are now live on Meta Quest, where buyers can take advantage of a 20% early-bird discount
- Polyarc announced the first official tournament for Glassbreakers: Champions of Moss, with a $1000 prize pool
- The studio behind GOLF+ is working on a version of the game to be played in physical locations with a real club and a real ball, to help professional players train indoors
- InnerspaceVR, the studio behind popular titles like Maskmaker and A Fisherman’s Tale, just announced a brand-new VR game titled Spymaster, where the player controls three agents in order to save the world from an evil organization
More info (Orcs Must Die: By The Blade)
More info (Evangelion: Delta Cross Reflections)
More info (Perfect Dark)
More info (Beat Saber)
More info (TMNT: Empire City)
More info (Glassbreakers)
More info (GOLF+)
More info (Spymaster)
Some reviews about content
- Aces Of Thunder is a version of War Thunder with just a few planes. Its quality is very good, and the game is very enjoyable
- Catana: Red Flowers is a nice game, but it provides a weird mix between a hectic action game and a restaurant management sandbox
More info (Aces Of Thunder)
More info (Catana: Red Flowers)
Other news
Meta and the University of Utah are exploring how to use the Meta Neural Band for accessibility
Nintendo’s upcoming Virtual Boy library may be playable on the old Labo VR
According to the GDC 2026 Survey, 8% of game developers are working on some XR application, and the most used headset is the Quest
Khronos Group is working to integrate Gaussian Splatting inside the GLTF format, to facilitate the sharing of this type of content
News from partners (and friends)
An opportunity from Futures Lab
I copy-paste a long statement that I got about an opportunity coming from Futures Lab, via Qinetiq:
Next‑Gen Indirect Vision Systems: Futures Lab Call to Safeguard Aircrew from Laser Threats
Pilots are increasingly at risk of being dazzled by powerful commercial lasers during critical flight phases (such as take off and landing), which can cause dangerous disorientation.
To address this, Futures Lab and the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) are seeking innovative indirect vision systems such as XR devices with video passthrough, that may protect aircrew from laser threats. They’re inviting industry to help shape the next generation of airborne safety solutions.
Why Indirect Vision May be a Game Changer
Traditional laser protection gear like visors and spectacles filters harmful wavelengths, but modern laser threats now span such a broad spectrum that full protection is nearly impossible.
Indirect vision systems would solve this by removing direct exposure entirely. Aircrew could view a high fidelity, real-time camera feed inside a mixed reality headset, blocking laser light while preserving situational awareness.
The MOD wants to explore these kinds of technologies, aiming for solutions that might be mature enough to demonstrate.
What Futures Lab Is Looking For
The call is open to anyone with technology that could contribute to a fully head worn, standalone indirect vision system. Responses should explain how their proposed solution may potentially approach some or all these criteria:
- No aircraft integration
- Excellent visual performance
- Compatibility with existing aircrew helmets
- Comfort and safety
- Unhindered cockpit operation
Alternative or complementary technologies are welcome too, just not traditional direct vision filters.
What Happens Next?
Every response will be evaluated and may be shortlisted if seen as a promising solution. Those selected will be invited to a Dragons’ Den style pitch event in March 2026 in the UK. From there, one or more organisations may be chosen for further funding and development, including building concept demonstrators for a deep technical evaluation.
To apply, organisations have until 12 February 2026 to submit a short response (plus optional datasheets). All submissions will be treated as confidential background IP.
To request full details of the Expression of Interest, please email: (email protected).
Email David Taylor to learn more
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Visit Product Website
Some XR fun
Some fun stories of people smashing controllers
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
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And now here you are the link to donate:
Support The Red Cross in Ukraine
(Header image by Valve)
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