Niantic’s WebAR Creation Platform ‘8th Wall’ Goes Open Source as Hosted Services Go Offline

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Niantic Spatial has now made its WebAR creation platform ‘8th Wall’ free and open source, which also comes alongside a shutdown of hosted services.

Previously a paid service, 8th Wall allows users to create Web-based XR content for a variety of target devices, including smartphones, computers and XR headsets.

Now, as a part of releasing the underlying codebase, the company has officially shut down hosted services, including user logins, the cloud editor, and the web-based XR Studio.

The transition has been rolled out in stages, the company says in a recent blog post. In January, the team released the Distributed Engine Binary, which includes simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) under a binary-only license for both commercial and noncommercial use. However, certain capabilities, such as VPS, Maps, and Hand Tracking, were not included.

Now, the newly released open source version of the engine framework is available under an MIT license, though this does not include SLAM. Instead, it provides the core architecture and major AR modules, including Face Effects, Image Targets, and Sky Effects, the company says.

The team behind 8th Wall says we can expect further releases to include documentation, desktop tools, and runtime components the coming weeks as the project continues its transition to a community-driven open source model.

Niantic acquired 8th Wall in 2022 as part of its push to build a broader AR developer ecosystem around its Lightship ARDK platform. At the time, the company said it was its “largest acquisition to date.” Shortly after the deal went through, 8th Wall became part of Niantic’s developer stack, integrating into its Lightship as a standalone product.

Since then, Niantic sold off of its gaming division for $3.85 billion to Saudi Arabia-owned mobile game developer Scopley, which included the transfer of the company’s most well-known titles, including Pokémon GO, Pikmin Bloom, and Monster Hunter Now.

In turn, this has left Niantic Spatial to operate as a separate, independently-owned spin-off focused on geospatial AI and XR technologies.

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Meta Faces Lawsuit Claiming Ray-Ban Smart Glasses Sent Private Footage to Overseas Reviewers

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Meta is facing a class action lawsuit in the US over privacy concerns tied to its Ray-Ban smart glasses. The company is accused of sending private camera footage to a Kenya-based subcontractor for manual review to train its AI models.

Allegations stem from an investigative report from Sweden’s Svenska Dagbladet and Göteborgs-Posten, which is said to have uncovered a subcontractor in Kenya tasked with reviewing and labeling images and videos uploaded from the glasses.

Sources within the subcontractor report seeing videos of everything, from sexual activity, handling of financial information, to a host of other private activities inside homes.

“In some videos you can see someone going to the toilet, or getting undressed. I don’t think they know, because if they knew they wouldn’t be recording,” a facility worker told Svenska Dagbladet.

Array of Meta smart glasses | Image courtesy Brad Lynch

These so-called ‘data annotators’ are said to manually process and tag images: “draw boxes around flower pots and traffic signs, follow contours, register pixels and name objects: cars, lamps, people. Every image must be described, labelled and quality assured,” the report maintains.

Following these revelations, a class-action lawsuit (via TechCrunch) was filed in a US federal court accusing Meta of misleading consumers about the product’s privacy protections.

“Meta chose to make privacy the centerpiece of its pervasive marketing campaign while concealing the facts that reveal those promises to be false,” the lawsuit states, further noting that Meta’s own “face anonymization” layer does not work to obscure the private nature of the transmitted videos.

Meta did not offer a comment to TechCrunch on the litigation itself, however, spokesperson Christopher Sgro provided the following statement:

“Ray-Ban Meta glasses help you use AI, hands-free, to answer questions about the world around you. Unless users choose to share media they’ve captured with Meta or others, that media stays on the user’s device. When people share content with Meta AI, we sometimes use contractors to review this data for the purpose of improving people’s experience, as many other companies do. We take steps to filter this data to protect people’s privacy and to help prevent identifying information from being reviewed.”

While many use Meta’s smart glasses as Ai-assisted sunglasses, its Ray-Ban smart glasses line can be specifically fit with a variety of prescription lens types, which allows users to wear them all-day as corrective glasses.

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Valve Confirms Steam Frame is Still Coming This Year, Now Marked as “coming soon”

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Valve’s upcoming standalone VR headset Steam Frame is still shipping sometime this year, the company says, as it is now marked as “coming soon” on the Steam backend.

In a hardware news update last month, Valve announced that Steam Frame, Steam Machine, and Steam Controller are all being affected by the wider RAM and storage component shortage. Parts woes notwithstanding, Valve said in February that its goal was still to ship in the first half of 2026.

Now, according to the Steam backend (via SteamDB), Valve ha marked all three of its forthcoming products as “coming soon.”

Whether that means “soon soon” or “Valve soon” remains to be seen, although the company gave another vote of confidence in release plans in last week’s 2025 Year in Review.

Photo by Road to VR

“We shared recently that there have been challenges with memory and storage shortages, but we will be shipping all three products this year. More updates will be shared as we finalize our plans,” the company says.

Notably, Valve still hasn’t indicated prices for Steam Frame, Steam Machine, or Steam Controller. At its November reveal, Valve told Road to VR that it expects Steam Frame to be ‘cheaper than Index’, although the company didn’t qualify its pricing logic. This could put it somewhere between $1,000 (Index headset, controllers, SteamVR trackers) and $500 (Index headset only).

As for Steam Machine, YouTuber ‘Skill Up’ confirmed with Valve back in November the PC won’t be subsidized like a console. Alternatively, Linus Tech Tips has suggested the lowest configuration could fetch somewhere around $700, which was based on a custom PC built on comparable parts.

Whatever the case, we expect a ‘buy now’ button to unceremonious appear on the Steam Frame page at some point, as Valve isn’t exactly known for the typical sort of fanfare seen with other companies.

Looking for more Steam Frame news?

Valve Unveils Steam Frame VR headset to Make Your Entire Steam Library Portable: Valve shows off Steam Frame, the standalone headset that can stream and natively play your entire Steam library—with only a few caveats right now.

Hands-on: Steam Frame Reveals Valve’s Modern Vision for VR and Growing Hardware Ambitions: We go hands-on with Valve’s latest and greatest VR headset yet.

Valve Says No New First-party VR Game is in Development: Valve launched Half-Life: Alyx (2020) a few months after releasing Index, but no such luck for first-party content on Steam Frame.

Valve is Open to Bringing SteamOS to Third-party VR Headsets: Steam Frame is the first VR headset to run SteamOS, but it may not be the last.

Valve Plans to Offer Steam Frame Dev Kits to VR Developers: Steam Frame isn’t here yet; Valve says it needs more time with developers first so they can optimize their PC VR games.

Valve Announces SteamOS Console and New Steam Controller, Designed with Steam Frame Headset in Mind: Find out why Valve’s new SteamOS-running Console and controller will work seamlessly with Steam Frame.

Steam Frame vs. Quest 3 Specs: Better Streaming, Power & Hackability: Quest 3 can do a lot, but can it go toe-to-toe with Steam Frame?

Steam Frame vs. Valve Index Specs: Wireless VR Gameplay That’s Generations Ahead : Valve Index used to be the go-to PC VR headset, but the times have changed.

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XR’s “Must-go” Conference Expands Gaming & LBE Focus for 2026

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AWE USA 2026 is returning to the Long Beach, CA on June 15–18. As the most important annual XR event on our calendar, we’re excited to once again be able to offer an exclusive 20% discount on tickets as the event’s Premiere Media Partner.

Since I started attending AWE USA in 2018, the conference has grown in scale and scope, offering increasingly more interesting and valuable sessions, exhibitors, and networking. It has steadily evolved into what I consider the must-go event for the XR industry. It carries the torch of passion that ignited the XR space back when it was little more than kickstarters, meetups, and those crazy enough to believe that immersive tech was not only possible to build, but worth building.

That’s why I’m proud to announce that Road to VR is once again joining AWE USA 2026 as the event’s Premiere Media Partner.

In addition to our usual reporting from the event, we’ll be highlighting the most interesting sessions and exhibitors ahead of the show, and offering an exclusive 20% discount on tickets to AWE USA 2026. Super Early Bird passes are available until March 19th—there won’t be a better deal!

AWE USA 2026 will be held at the Long Beach Convention Center in California from June 15th to 18th, and it’s expected to draw more than 5,000 attendees, 3,250 exhibitors, 400 speakers, and feature a 150,000 sqft expo floor.

This year the conference is further growing its gaming and location-based entertainment (LBE) segments.

The gaming section of the show floor is not only growing to accommodate more exhibitors and attendees, but there’s a brand new LBE space dedicated to VR attractions, arcades, and activations.

Alongside the extra show floor real estate attendees can also expect a broader range of presentations and panels in the gaming & LBE track, with a full agenda coming soon. If you’re interested in featuring your game or LBE experience at AWE USA 2026, be sure to check out the upcoming webinar to learn more about the opportunities at the event.

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VR Pioneer nDreams Announces Studio Closures & Layoffs Amid “challenging” Games Market

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nDreams, one of VR’s most senior game studios, announced plans to close two internal studios responsible for some of its most forward-thinking VR projects, which could also include a sizable number of layoffs.

While nDreams hasn’t officially shuttered Near Light or Compass at this point, the company says in a LinkenIn post that it could soon see a reduction of 78 roles across “all levels and multiple teams, including senior leadership.”

“Despite every effort to make our existing structure a success and avert this outcome, the VR games market remains challenging, making further changes necessary to ensure a commercially viable and sustainable future,” nDreams says.

nDreams spun up Elevation in 2022 to produce ‘AAA’ quality VR games. Elevation released its debut solo title Reach (2025) across all major VR headsets last year, making for a strong opening bid as the company’s remote-first studio.

That same year, nDreams acquired Near Light, a Brighton, UK-based studio known for virtual travel experience Perfect (2016) and single-player arcade shooter Shooty Fruity (2018). More recently, Near Light released PvP shooter Frenzies, which launched into early access in Quest in 2024.

In early 2025, nDreams opened internal an additional internal studio called ‘Compass’, which melded staff from both its nDreams Studio Orbital and nDreams Studio after a layoff round in late 2024 that affected 17.5% of the company.

Founded in 2013, nDreams has released a host of VR games over the years as both developer and publisher, including Phantom: Covert Ops (2020), Fracked (2021), Ghostbusters: Rise of the Ghost Lord (2023), and Vendetta Forever (2024).

This follows wider turmoil in the VR games industry, most recently precipitated by Meta’s reorganization of its Reality Labs XR division and rash of first-party studio closures, which included the shuttering of Armature Studio (Resident Evil 4 VR), Twisted Pixel (Deadpool VR), and Sanzaru Games (Asgard’s Wrath).

Here’s nDreams’ full statement below:

Our team was today informed of proposals to restructure nDreams, including a significant reduction in overall staffing levels. These changes would impact all levels and multiple teams, including senior leadership.

Since 2024, our staff have been divided across three internal studios: Elevation, Near Light, and Compass. At the core of the restructured business will be Elevation, which currently has around 120 staff engaged on unannounced projects. nDreams will also retain a lean group dedicated to XR R&D. Together, we will remain focused on delivering world-class VR and XR games.

Regrettably, the proposals include the closure of the Near Light and Compass studios, and a reduction in our Facilities, Talent, Shared Technology, and Executive teams, with 78 roles at risk of redundancy. Despite every effort to make our existing structure a success and avert this outcome, the VR games market remains challenging, making further changes necessary to ensure a commercially viable and sustainable future.

We’re committed to exploring every option to retain talent and will now enter a collective consultation process with the people impacted by these proposals. We recognise that this will be stressful and challenging for everyone affected and will be offering support throughout the process.

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Upcoming ‘Project Helix’ Xbox Will “Play Xbox and PC Games,” But PC VR Support is Unconfirmed

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Microsoft today announced the codename of its next Xbox gaming console: Project Helix. Details are very light, but the company says Project Helix will “play your Xbox and PC games.” Naturally that’s got us curious about whether or not PC VR games could be in the mix, but there’s no word yet.

Xbox’s newly minted CEO Asha Sharma today teased the company’s next-gen Xbox. She confirmed the device is codenamed ‘Project Helix’.

“Project Helix will lead in performance and play your Xbox and PC games. Looking forward to chatting about this more with partners and studios at my first GDC next week!” she said on X.

Aside from this brief tease, it seems there’s no other official info being revealed, though we’ve reached out to the company for comment. The line about the company seeking to chat with “partners and studios” suggests this is the first time Project Helix is even being mentioned outside of internal conversations. Rumors suggest the console will launch in 2027.

So we have essentially no details yet on what the company means when it says Project Helix will be able to ‘play PC games’. But the possibility at least exists that this could open the door to compatibility with PC VR games too.

Granted, PC VR lives almost exclusively within the Steam ecosystem thanks to Valve’s ongoing support for the SteamVR platform. And while it’s technically possible that VR games could run on Project Helix without Steam (thanks to OpenXR), VR on Project Helix would be largely a non-starter if the console can’t somehow access the Steam library, because that’s the only active marketplace for the distribution of PC VR content.

If Project Helix can be ‘fully unlocked’ and operate like any normal Windows PC, there’s no reason to think that Steam and SteamVR content wouldn’t be able to run on the console. But if Microsoft plans to keep the system’s PC support locked down in some way, then practical support for PC VR content is unlikely without the company’s express interest in allowing it.

Microsoft has a storied history when it comes to VR. Not only did the company make a significant attempt at entering the market with its Windows Mixed Reality platform (only to abandon that project after several years), but back in 2016 the company officially said that its upcoming Xbox One X would include support for “high fidelity VR” gaming. By the time the console actually reached the market in 2017, those plans had been scrapped.

While we don’t expect an about-face on VR support from Xbox itself, it will be interesting to see if Project Helix retains full PC capabilities, and thus the ability to run PC VR content.

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This Company Wants to Refresh Workers by Sticking Them in Tiny Pods With VR Headsets

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South Korea-based XR company NP Inc showed off a unique solution to combat employee fatigue at Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona this week, combining a small pod with a VR headset.

The News

NP, developer of the MUA app for Quest, unveiled MUA’H (MUA Home) this past week, a single-person pod unit designed to provide an immediate “digital detox and psychological restoration right in the middle of the corporate workspace,” the company says.

It’s not just a small box with a Quest 3 headset though. NP says Mua Home uses “non-contact sensors” to monitor six vital signs in real-time, including Heart Rate Variability (HRV), heart rate, blood pressure, and body temperature.

All of this pairs with a VR headset to deliver a customized XR meditation experience via data fed into NP’s own ‘MIND-C AI’, NP says.

Image courtesy NP Inc

What’s more, the Seoul-based company says its Mua Home platform will also let management identify stress levels and proactively manage employee burnout risks, albeit using anonymized data so a boss can’t essentially spy on their employees individual health or wellbeing concerns.

At MWC this week, NP showed off a prototype version of the VR-pod, which featured carpeted floors, cushions, and sliding privacy door. Check it out in action in this YouTube Short.

My Take

Like many places, burnout is a pretty big deal in Korea. Recent statistics maintain that around 30 percent of young Koreans suffered from burnout over the course of 2024. It’s a multifaceted issue spanning stuff like excessive workload, bad company culture, perceived fairness, etc—but one of the common denominators in almost all modern offices is the open floorplan.

Open floorplan offices are supposed to create better flow, allow coworkers to collaborate more efficiently, and give managers more direct supervision. In practice though, they could even be counterproductive, as they tend to create noisy environments that lack privacy—two things that can reduce productivity and cause constant stress.

Sadly, the question isn’t how companies can reorganize their offices for better mental health outcomes from the start—if that were the case, open floorplan offices would be a thing of the past—but how they can make the largest impact with the smallest investment. That’s where our slightly dystopian cube comes in, which is actually trading on the idea of how small it is, and how simple it is to construct and place in an unused corner.

Image courtesy Amazon

Granted, NP isn’t the first company to think of ‘mindfulness nooks’. Many companies, including Google, Apple and Nike offer employees quiet rooms for things like mediation, naps, and silent prayer. Enclosed pods however color the issue in a slightly more malignant light. Amazon tried telephone booth-style pods back in 2021, and was widely mocked for essentially creating cheap ‘cry closets’, as the company is know for high burnout rates and some of the most draconian employee performance metrics.

Even in the context of a cramped Korean office, I’d consider these sorts of compact pods essentially a band-aid to a larger problem. To Mua Home’s credit, it at least has the ability to simulate a larger area while focusing on worker health and wellbeing in the process. Still, the optics are objectively terrible, as it conjures up images of stressed workers climbing into what is essentially a capsule hotel for their company-mandated mood correction. It’s all maybe a little too Severance for comfort.

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