Notice anything different about SteamVR games today? No? New tie, or haircut, perhaps? Actually it’s just that the Valve Index icon is now featured on compatible games’ store listings. In fact, VR support on the wider Steam platform seems to have had a bit of a minor refresh. Index is already listed on a huge...
Author: ssvar
Swiss Society of Virtual and Augmented Reality
Magic Leap Claims He Stole Augmented Reality Ideas as an Employee, but Who Is Chi Xu, the Founder of Nreal?
When I first found out about Nreal, back in the spring of 2018, the most interesting thing about the company’s story was the founder’s background. Chi Xu, the CEO and founder of Nreal, previously worked at Magic Leap as a software engineer. Earlier this year, when I met Xu a second time in Barcelona, Spain...
Ninja Legends Is A Wave Fighter Featuring Slow-Mo Dismemberment
We’re now over three years past the launch of the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive, but developers are still making wave-based combat games. Although I initially wrote off Ninja Legends as just another wave-based VR game recycling assets and gameplay mechanics, it’s actually really fun and well-made with an addictive slow-motion system and satisfying ways...
Mini-Mech Mayhem Review: Fiendish Tabletop Tactics Reward Dedication
Having conquered a single-player match against the game’s toughest AI, I ventured into Mini-Mech Mayhem’s multiplayer mode relatively assured. Several hours of practice paired with earlier multiplayer matches for previews had me confident. My first opponent? A kid that couldn’t have been any older than 13. Fine by me – easy victory, right? He ran...
Rec Room iPhone Beta Roll-Out Begins
The first wave of invites are on the way for the Rec Room iPhone early testing program. The addition of Apple’s handhelds to the cross-platform social service represents a major expansion for Against Gravity, the Seattle-based startup building Rec Room. The service encompasses a set of activities including paintball, dodgeball and cooperative quests. There are...
Hands-On: Ascend Has The Potential To Be The Next Hot VR Esports Title
Back at the USC Games Expo in May, I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to try out a game called Ascend, which was developed by students at the University of Southern California. All of the games presented at the USC Games Expo were made by development teams made up anywhere from two students...
Niantic Sets Launch Date for Harry Potter Augmented Reality Game, Releases New Trailer
After more than a year of teasing and testing, Niantic and Warner Bros. are finally ready to release Harry Potter: Wizards Unite to muggles of the world. Niantic has announced that the game will launch on Friday, June 21 starting with players in the US and UK, with other regions to follow. Along with announcement,...
Google Courts Advertisers with Virtual Makeup for YouTube, Immersive Display Ad Format, & 3D Editor for Poly
After building a tech empire on revenues from search advertising, Google is not about to sit back and let Snapchat, Facebook, 8th Wall, and others draw all the AR marketing attention to their platforms. This week, at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity (basically the Oscars plus SXSW of the marketing industry), Google unveiled...
Falcon Age Dev Wants To Know If You Want The Game On Quest
As we learned last week, Falcon Age is coming to PC VR headsets this summer. Outerloop Games’ debut adventure is coming to the Epic Game Store with SteamVR and Oculus support. After that, though? We might see the game on Oculus Quest… if you ask for it. Outerloop’s Chandana Ekanayake recently took to Twitter to...
VR Awards 2019 Finalists Include Quest, Astro Bot, Vader Immortal
The VR Awards 2019 are gearing up to take place in November. That’s a little ways off, but the group is ready to announce finalists this week. Some 12 categories feature in this year’s show. They include Hardware of the Year, which features contenders like Oculus Quest, HTC’s Vive Pro Eye, and HP’s Reverb. Meanwhile,...