Good morning XR Brief readers. Welcome to our weekly roundup of key advancements from immersive, web3, and real-time. August 01 2022 Edition.
New! Prefer to listen to your brief? It’s now available on your favourite podcasting platforms with AIXR Host, Zuri Lives.
Top Stories
Starting in August, Meta’s Quest 2 VR headsets will go up in price by $100.
Meta said, through a spokesperson, that they are “adjusting the price of the Meta Quest 2 headsets to enable us to continue investing in ways that will keep driving this increasingly competitive industry forward for consumers and developers alike.”
VRChat has had a difficult week
After announcing that it would be implementing a new anti-cheat system that would ban all client modifications. This has led to a large number of players threatening to leave the game for other social VR games.
The Venice International Film Festival unveiled its selection for Venice Immersive.
The exciting lineup includes the upcoming Peaky Blinders VR experience, alongside Space Explorers, The Soloist VR, and many more. The immersive selection will now include 360-degree videos, XR installations, live performances, and virtual worlds, each in its own subcategories.
The FTC is suing to block Meta’s acquisition of VR fitness app.
Claiming that the deal would violate antitrust laws. Meta is a leading provider of virtual reality technology, and the acquisition may give it a monopoly in the VR fitness app market. The FTC is concerned that Meta would be able to raise prices and stifle innovation.
In Funding
Condense, a Metaverse infrastructure company raises $4.5m seed. The funding will be used to develop technology that allows live, real-world events to be streamed into virtual worlds.
Variant doubles down on Web3 with a $450m raise. They will focus on the “user-owned web” and continue to invest in their existing portfolio.
Coinfeeds a social media monitoring app for web3 and NFT, raises $2m. The application is targeted to anyone from the average user to professional investors.
Keep an eye on
- A glimpse into the Pico 4 standalone VR headset. As well as Pico 4 Pro with added face and eye tracking.
- VR Awards will announce their 2022 finalists this week. On August 3rd, 2022, VR Awards will announce their 2022 shortlist at 6 pm BST and 10 am PDT.
- A new survey from PWC explores the Metaverse and how businesses can address Metaverse risks from the report.
- Snap launched its first in-Snapchat augmented reality game, a spooky “found phone” title called “Ghost Phone”.
- VReps uses Virtual Reality as a Basketball Training Tool, turning playbooks into training that is more interactive and gamified.
Events to be at
- Aug 8-11 Vancouver | Siggraph 2022
- Aug 23-28 Cologne | Gamescom
- Aug 26-27 Shanghai | AWE Asia – Exclusive 20% off code
- Aug 31 – Sep 10 Venice | Venice Film Festival
- Sep 22-25 London | EGX London
- Sep 22 – 23 London | Zebu Live – Web3 & Crypto Conference
- Oct 3-4 San Fran | Metabeat
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Our best wishes for a productive day. Please send any news, comments, and a hamper of chocolate to [email protected].
