Virtual & Augmented Reality news

Pokémon Go developer Niantic is running into trouble as it builds “the real-world metaverse.” Like so many other tech companies facing turbulent economic times, the company decided to let go of 8% of its staff, affecting about 85 to 90 people. Just seven months ago, the company raised $300 million at a $9 billion valuation, more than doubling its valuation from 2018.
In an email to staff, reported by Bloomberg, CEO John Hanke said that the company needs to reduce costs to best

A smaller number of people willing to buy an expensive product can really add up, as Valve has found with its high-end Index headset. At the third anniversary of the headset’s release—despite its age and never-discounted $1,000 price tag—the headset has continued to rank among the 10 highest grossing products on Steam.
Update (June 29th, 2022) Valve has been pretty quiet about VR in the last year, but its first and only VR headset, Valve Index, has shown impressive longev

Project Director Mike Traficante enjoys playing as the Imposter, even if he’s not very good at it.
It was just over 4 years ago that Among Us launched on Android and iOS devices. In 2020 the social deduction game skyrocketed in popularity, establishing itself as one of the most talked-about video games of the past decade.
So you can imagine the excitement among fans when it was announced that the game would be receiving an official VR remake for Meta Quest, PC VR, and PlayStation VR headse

Immerse, a startup focusing on teaching languages in VR, has launched their social app on Quest 2 which lets subscribers take part in live Spanish or English lessons, peer-to-peer conversation practice, and weekly community events.When Immerse first secured a $1.5 million Series A investment in late 2020 most of the world was working and going to school from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The idea: learn a language through full-immersion, with VR allowing you to talk face-to-face w

Flight information boards, especially the old electromechanical ones with their clacking letters, are often an iconic part of an airport. But just like flying today is quite different from 30 years ago, most airports have now moved to large LCD screens instead. Despite the fact that you could easily find all of this information on your phone, travelers regularly congregate around these signs to get up-to-date information about their flights.
At CES 2020, Delta Air Lines and Misapplied Sciences f

Walmart is expanding its array of virtual try-on services for shoppers with today’s news that it’s planning to acquire Memomi, an AR optical tech company and current Walmart partner offering virtual try-on experience for eyewear. Deal terms were not disclosed, but Memomi has enabled digital measurements for all Walmart and Sam’s Club customers since 2019, the retailer said.
This partnership had spanned more than 2,800 Walmart Vision Centers and 550 Sam’s Clubs. The techno