In a rare move, Apple is directly adding support for its visionOS platform to the Godot open-source game engine. The move expands the range of tools that developers can use to build content for the headset.
Like the popular Unity and Unreal game engines, Godot is a collection of development tools that make it easy for developers to build real-time games and applications. Unlike the other two, Godot is fully open-source, meaning anyone can use the engine and distribute games built with it free of charge. Because it’s open source, developers can also contribute features and fixes to the engine for all to use.
In a rare move for Apple, the company is directly adding visionOS support to Godot, making it possible for developers to build and distribute Vision Pro content with the engine.
Apple software engineer Ricardo Sanchez-Saez recently shared the company’s plans to add visionOS support to Godot as an open-source contribution. He said the feature would come in two major parts, with the first set to allow games built with Godot to run in flat windows on visionOS, and a second to add support for building fully immersive visionOS applications with the engine.
Because of the open-source process, it will take some time for Apple’s contributions to get rolled into the production version of Godot, and there’s no hard timeline for the completion of the project.
Godot will join the likes of Unity, Unreal Engine, and first-party Apple tools like X-code, and Reality Composer Pro as a way for developers to build applications for Vision Pro.
Godot can also be used to build apps for major VR platforms like Quest and PC VR.
GHOST TOWN is the latest VR game to launch from Fireproof Games, a studio whose previous title, The Room: A Dark Matter, is one of the best and most rated VR puzzle games to date.
Although the game is based on a foundation of the supernatural, the studio stops short of calling it a ‘horror’ game. Rather, it emphasizes suspense and mystery as the backdrop to its puzzles.
The studio says Ghost Town has been in development for nearly four years, and represents a “significant step up for Fireproof Games in every way,” including a cast of fully motion captured characters.
The game is already receiving high praise for its visual fidelity, even on Quest headsets, with a setting that takes players to 1980s london.
Google released the schedule for its upcoming I/O developer conference, which includes developer-focused sessions promising to deliver more insight into its upcoming Android XR operating system. At least from the schedule, it doesn’t seem Google is getting that vocal about Android XR just yet.
Android XR has been squarely out of the limelight since Google announced it back in December alongside Samsung’s ‘Project Moohan’ mixed reality headset. There aren’t any firm release dates for either, although both are expected to launch publicly sometime later this year.
While the company has confirmed a number of Android XR features, including the much-awaited support for passthrough camera access, and has also released developer access to its Android XR SDK, we’re still waiting to see how it will stack up against more mature XR ecosystems, like Meta’s Horizon OS and Apple’s visionOS.
Samsung Project Moohan | Image courtesy The Verge
Google I/O will include a number of livestreamed keynotes from May 20th – 21st, although only two developer talks dedicated to Android XR have been announced, neither of which will be livestreamed. There will however be a ‘What’s New in Android’ livestream that promises to also touch on Android XR.
Failing any meaningful info from the livestream, the two developer sessions are all about Android XR, signaling that Google is hoping to make a developer-friendly push into XR as it further integrates into the broader Android ecosystem—albeit out of the public eye of a livestreamed keynote.
Here’s what we can tell from the contents of the talks (descriptions seen below):
Android XR is moving towards public launch later this year, and Google is prepping a new XR toolchain before it does, which will bundle Jetpack SceneCore and ARCore into its XR-specific version of Jetpack. Jetpack XR, which is now in developer preview, lets mobile or large screen Android app devs create spatialized layouts with the help of 3D models and immersive environments. Notably, the inclusion of ARCore with Jetpack XR suggests Google is consolidating its spatial computing tools, giving devs a unified way to build both AR and VR experiences.
The talks also focus on adding XR features to existing apps, like 3D models, hand-tracking, and stereoscopic video, which means Android XR is hoping to attract more than just game developers—fairly clear considering Google ostensibly aims to put Android XR at app parity with the broader Android ecosystem.
Google is also set to extend Jetpack Compose, its declarative UI toolkit, to XR, which suggests the company wants to standardize UI design across mobile, tablet, and XR, making it easier to port or adapt UIs for immersive environments.
Notably, the second talk (seen below) highlights upcoming AI capabilities being built into Android XR, which could mean features like real-time object recognition, scene understanding, or AI-generated environments could be on the horizon.
Granted, neither talk is being livestreamed, which could mean Google still isn’t ready to trumpet Android XR. We’re also hoping to hear more about Samsung’s upcoming ‘Project Moohan’ headset, which is slated to be the first headset to support Android XR.
In any case, we’ll be tuning in for livestreams and reporting on technical talks hoping to hear something new.
Dereck Bridié Developer Relations Engineer, Patrick Fuentes Developer Relations Engineer
“Join us as we introduce Jetpack SceneCore and ARCore for Jetpack XR, and guide developers through the process of adding immersive content such as 3D models, stereoscopic video, and hand-tracking to existing apps. Participants will learn about new features in the Android XR SDK developer preview, and gain essential knowledge for the public launch of Android XR later this year.”
Cecilia Abadie Senior Product Manager, Jan Kleinert Developer Relations Engineer
Discover the future of immersive experiences with Android XR. This session unveils the latest updates to the Android XR SDK Beta, launching at I/O, including enhancements to Jetpack Compose for XR and cutting-edge AI capabilities. Learn how your existing investments in large screen development can be leveraged to easily expand your reach into the exciting world of Android XR.
Avatar: The Last Airbender doesn’t have an official VR game, although you’d be forgiven for double-taking as you bend all four elements in the multiplayer action game Elements Divided, now available on Quest 2 and above and PC VR headsets.
Developed by Loco Motion and published by Fast Travel Games, Elements Divided lets you go head-to-head in online combat, or take on hordes of foes in co-op mode.
Like in the Avatar TV series, each element has its own fighting style, which includes 60 attacks and abilities across the four core elements—fire, water, air, and earth.
As you gain experience, you can also level up your character for even more devastating abilities, and customize your loadout and individual avatar.
“Every ability in the game can be summoned using immersive, gesture-driven controls that allow you to guide the flow of water, summon stone barriers, hurl yourself across arenas and more,” Loco Motion says.
At launch, Elements Divided offers:
Four Core Elements To Master: Study the ways of Water, Earth, Fire, and Air to cast powerful attacks and defenses.
Team Up Or Compete With Friends: Go online and battle others in a brutal contest of skill, or team up with others to defeat waves of AI enemies. Solo play is also available.
Unlock Powers & Cosmetics: Personalize your appearance to give your warrior their own flair, and unlock new powers as you progress through ranks.
Elements Divided is available starting today on the Horizon Store for Quest 2 and above and Steam for PC VR headsets, priced at $10.
Kluge Interactive, the studio behind hit VR rhythm game Synth Riders (2019), announced its upcoming VR fighting game, FINAL FURY, is landing in early access on Quest and SteamVR headsets next month.
Coming to Quest 2 and above and PC VR headsets on May 8th, Final Fury is an arcade-style fighting game that brings classic 1v1 action to VR with a unique gesture-based gameplay system.
Developed with input from nine-time EVO champion Justin Wong, the early access title offers a mix of hand gesture input and actual room-scale movement, letting you embody six fighters with unique moves and stages, with more promised to come post launch.
“When the team at Kluge Interactive first approached me about FINAL FURY, I was intrigued by their vision of integrating classic fighting game mechanics into a first-person VR experience,” said Wong. “After playing and providing feedback on elements like dashes, grabs, and character play styles, I’m excited to see how players will engage with the game when it releases into Early Access.”
At early access launch, the game will include:
You are the Fighter! –Fully immersive VR combat with real punches, dodges, and blocks
Innovative VR Combat –Nostalgic fighter mechanics reimagined for physical gameplay
Expanding Roster–Six fighters and counting, with unique powers, arenas, and styles
Arcade Mode Unlocks –Take on the AI to unlock a new fighter, stage, and cosmetics
Online Multiplayer –Cross-platform with rollback netcode for smooth, competitive play
Pulse-Pounding OST-Original soundtrack from Zardonic (SUPERHOT: MCD)
You can wishlist Final Fury over on the Horizon Store for Quest 2 and above and Steam for PC VR headsets, coming on May 8th and priced at $9.99.
PlayStation has kicked off its big ‘Big Games, Big Deals’ promotion today, putting a massive number of PS5 and PS4 games on deep discount. While there are only a handful of PSVR 2 and PSVR games among the lot, you can still nab some pretty great games at a steal.
The sale varies by region, so make sure to check out the sales section to see whether these games are currently on discount for you.
As it is, in the US, the following games are currently on sale from today until May 7th.
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered just released on PC and console, offering up a modern, refreshed version of Bethesda’s beloved 2006 open world RPG. And before we could even say “stop right there, criminal scum!”, VR players are already under the hood.
One of Bethesda’s most notable improvements has been bringing Oblivion to Unreal Engine 5 rather than the game’s original Gamebryo engine, meaning it not only featues improved textures, character, models animations, and lighting, but it’s also effectively opening up the game to modders who want to jump in thanks to ‘Praydog’s UEVR plugin (link below).
By now, UEVR is pretty feature-rich, including support for 6DOF head movement, full stereoscopic 3D, frontend GUI for easy process injection, support for OpenXR runtimes, as well as motion controller support. Still, intrepid UEVR users will need to tinker with settings to make a specific mod profile that plays well with the game—something YouTuber ‘LunchAndVR’ is doing right now.
Check out the gameplay video below to see LunchAndVR’s early attempt at bringing Oblivion to VR:
In the video’s description, LunchAndVR says these are still “very early tests,” noting they still don’t have full 6DOF profiles to share just yet due to motion controls causing some crashes.
Still, early tests look pretty promising, as LunchAndVR takes on rats and zombies in a richly detailed dungeon, replete with dynamic lighting, further noting the mod “runs really well indoors, but lower performance outdoors.”
Granted, the video above was created using a fairly beefy rig, and you’ll probably need one too. It’s only on medium graphics settings with DLSS, using a Quest 3 with Virtual Desktop’s VDXR runtime set on ‘Ultra’. As for PC specs, LunchAndVR is running the game at 72hz refresh rate via an Nvidia RTX 4090, Intel Core i9-13900 CPU, and 64GB of RAM.
While not finalized, VR users can jump into Oblivion today by downloading Praydog’s UEVR mod and possibly a few test profiles currently being shared. Namely, LunchAndVR has shared two specific profiles: a 6DOF profile from ‘Keyser’ thatadjusts for better performance in VR (Google Drive download) and a 3DOF profile from ‘Pande4360’ thatalso includes VR performance adjustments (Google Drive download).
You’ll of course need an original copy of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered for PC. LunchAndVR notes it will work with the version available on Steam, but also the version available through Xbox’s PC Game Pass.
POOLS (2024) developer Tensori announced last year it was developing VR support for its Backrooms Internet lore-inspired game. Mark your calendars, because on May 30th, you’ll be able to jump into the deep end on PC VR headsets.
Unlike other horror-themed walking sims, Pools isn’t about running from monsters or solving deadly puzzles. It’s just pools, and creepy ones at that.
Arriving as a free update to the PC game on May 30th, the VR version will let you play the entire game from start to finish, including the recently released ‘Chapter 0’ update, which landed on April 21st, bringing a whole new level to the game.
Upcoming PC VR support will be a free addition to the game on Steam; the PS5 version of the game will also get PSVR 2 support “later this year,’ Tensori says in a recent Steam update.
In the meantime, you can currently grab Pools over on Steam at a discount, available from now until April 27th at $6.36, or 35% off the regular $9.79 price. There’s also a free demo available, although it hasn’t been confirmed yet whether it will also come along with VR support when it launches on May 30th.
Zach Tsiakalis-Brown, developer behind the Vertigo series, announced that Vertigo 2 (2023) is getting its long-awaited DLC story expansion ‘Into the Aether’ this week.
In late 2023, the studio announced it was pushing its “final content update” to the game with the the Bottomless Update, bringing a level editor, modifiers, and new playable characters, extending the game well beyond the 10+ hour campaign.
Still, the final update wasn’t really final. In December 2024, Tsiakalis-Brown announced the award-winning shooter-adventure was getting its first paid DLC, Into the Aether.
Initially slated to arrive in March, Into the Aether was subsequently delayed to April with no specific timing on release. However now, Tsiakalis-Brown says it’s coming to the Steam version of the game on April 25th, priced at $10.
“Embark on an interdimensional expedition to the oldest and most mysterious universe, discover new weapons and tools, and defeat fearsome new enemies,” Tsiakalis-Brown says in the DLC’s Steam description.
In Into the Aether, you’ll claim artifacts of the Void to increase your strength and unlock new paths to explore. You’ll get the ‘Void Grappler’ for “the ultimate movement upgrade,” allowing you to attach to most surfaces and swing around like Spider-Man. There’s also the ‘Void Deflector’ as a new defensive option, allowing you to deflect attacks with precise timing, accumulating energy for a counterattack.
There doesn’t seem to be any active plans of bringing Into the Aether to the PSVR 2 version of the game, which was ported to PS5 by XR veterans Perp Games. Perp hasn’t publicly mentioned whether it’s been contracted to bring ‘Into the Aether’ to PSVR 2 either, so it’s shaping up to be a PC VR exclusive.
In case you haven’t played Vertigo 2, skip the box below to avoid spoilers.
SPOILER: In Vertigo 2, Brian unknowingly helped the Void Delegation’s attempt to invade earth. Now, he’s fighting against them at the side of the rogue realmwalker Kauboi. With the Delegation in disarray, Kauboi wants to attempt a rescue mission that would have been impossible before. Will Brian be able to pull it off?
Ever wonder what the best-selling Quest games are? Wonder no further, because Meta has published a section on the Horizon Store listing the current top 50 best-sellers of all time.
As you’d imagine, many of the ‘old reliables’ have taken the top spots, including Beat Games’ hit rhythm game Beat Saber (2018), Owlchemy Labs’ madcap parody sim Job Simulator (2016), and Superhot Team’s time-bending action game SUPERHOT VR (2017).
Granted, all three of these titles benefitted from massive traction on other headsets before landing as launch day games on the original Quest back in 2019, although they’re undoubtedly some of the best first games to snap up even today.
Notably, many of the regulars seen in Meta’s list of weekly top-selling games list aren’t on Quest’s all-time best-selling list. It seems free-to-play games such as Gorilla Tag and VR Chat, which generate revenue from in-app purchases, aren’t being counted here.
The only exception is BigBox VR’s battle royale shooter POPULATION: ONE, which is sitting pretty at spot number 19. Pop: One was actually a paid game before it went free-to-play in 2023 however, which could account for its inclusion on the list.
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We’re thrilled to announce that our VR game The ChicKing Dead is officially available in Early Access on the Meta Oculus Store! As a South Korea-based studio, Quantum Universe has poured years of XR development experience into creating this Free-to-Play VR multiplayer experience that fuses arm-based locomotion with tag-style chaos.
Who We Are – Q GAMES
We are Quantum Universe, a VR game development studio headquartered in Seoul, South Korea. Our team brings extensive experience across XR technologies—including VR, AR, and MR—from a wide range of past projects. The ChicKing Dead is our first flagship title, designed to blend fun, movement, and madness into one unforgettable VR experience.
What Makes ‘The Chicking Dead’ Special?
Our game embraces the latest VR trend—arm-based locomotion—where players use real-life arm swings to move, jump, and glide. But we’ve taken it a step further—with the ability to dash, boost, and chain movements together, you can dominate the battlefield in true chaotic style. The result? Fast-paced, fluid gameplay that’s thrilling from start to finish.
Zombies vs. Chickens – Tag Meets Survival
Each match begins with 9 players. One randomly becomes the Alpha Zombie, whose mission is to infect the rest—aka the Normal Chickens. Once infected, chickens switch sides and join the zombie team to hunt down remaining survivors.The round ends when all chickens are infected or time runs out. Whether you’re dodging and gliding to survive or strategically infecting others, every match is unpredictable fun.
LOCOROID System – Mobility Meets Strategy
One of our proudest innovations is the LocoRoid system: robotic companions that unlock powerful movement-based skills. Each LocoRoid brings unique abilities—like targeted dashes or vertical launches—that add customization and tactical depth to every round. Choose the LocoRoid that fits your playstyle and dominate the game your way.
Progression, Cosmetics & Customization
In Early Access, players can level up and earn Coins and Feathers, which can be exchanged for hilarious, stylish, or downright absurd cosmetics—from egg hats to full costumes. Whether you play as a survivor or zombie, your gameplay earns you rewards. It’s all about playing your way—and looking great while doing it.
Now Live – Early Access Celebration Events!
To celebrate our Early Access launch, we’re running a series of special in-game events! From login challenges to holiday-themed cosmetics (including limited-time rewards), players can earn exclusive items just by joining the fun. All event details and updates are available through our official Discord server, come to join us and be part of the chaos!
Exciting Updates and Future Plans
Looking Ahead We’re just getting started. After the Early Access launch, we’ll be using community feedback to refine and expand the game. We plan to introduce leaderboards, seasonal events, and competitive league play as part of our ongoing development. Our goal is to create not just a game, but a vibrant player-driven community.
As our debut VR title, The ChicKing Dead represents our commitment to fun, experimentation, and innovation in virtual reality. We can’t wait for players to experience the madness, the mayhem, and the magic of being a chicken in a zombie apocalypse.
Metanaut, the studio behind Rube Goldberg-inspired physics sandbox Gadgeteer (2019), announced they’re releasing an anthology of virtual and mixed reality experiences designed to mesmerize.
Called Wonder, the experience is slated to land on Quest 3/S within the “next couple of months,” aiming to deliver what Metanaut calls a “perfect escape” from your busy life.
Initially announced back in late 2021, Wonder is set to feature three experiences when it launches this Spring, with more coming post-launch:
Ancient Ruins:your familiar space morphs into a mysterious cave that gets swallowed up by a blackhole.
Jellyfish Bloom:a mesmerizing deep-sea spectacle filled with bioluminescent jellyfish that lights up your walls and furniture.
Parallel Worlds:where reality-bending portals reveal alternate versions of your environment in ice, dots, and more.
Metanaut says Wonder is being developed with “clever and advanced rendering techniques” that is pushing Quest 3 to deliver photorealistic visuals thanks to the inclusion of scanned room meshes. It’s also a hand tracking-only title, letting you put down your controllers.
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Image courtesy Metanaut
Image courtesy Metanaut
Image courtesy Metanaut
“This technical achievement is paired with custom-crafted, beautiful audio from award-winning music studio, Ictus Audio, whose accolades include winning the John Lennon Songwriting Award,” the studio says.
“The XR industry seems to have shifted from serving adults to kids, and from high-quality premium titles to free-to-play slop,” says Peter Kao, founder of Metanaut. “With Wonder, we wanted to create a magical experience for an underserved audience—one who is older and one who wants to experience the highest audiovisual spectacle possible on latest headsets.”
Wonder is now available for pre-order for $4, and is expected to increase in price as more content is released after launch. You can pre-order it here exclusively for Quest 3 and Quest 3S.
Missed Meta’s big Quest Savings sale last month? Good news—you can still nab 50% off top VR games, experiences, and bundles in Meta’s new ‘Reality Bytes’ sale.
There are currently over 200 games on sale, available from now until April 27 at 11:59 PM PT (local time here).
You’ll find top VR games like Survios’ shooter adventure Alien: Rogue Incursion (2025) for just $20 (50% off), Schell Games’ roguelike melee game Until You Fall (2020) for $14 (44% off), Space Bullet Dynamics Corporation’s mech battler Vox Machinae (2022) for $18 (40% off), and Stress Level Zero’s physics sandbox Bonelab (2022) for $32 (20% off).
Outside of those guaranteed awesome games, take a look at this curated list of some of the best Quest titles currently on offer:
There are also a few choice game bundles on sale right now, all of which benefit from dynamic bundle pricing, meaning if you already own a game in the bundle, you’ll see a lower adjusted price at checkout.
Survival Skills 101:What do the Amazon Jungle and Medieval Bohemia have in common? You. Craft, build, and tame the wilderness with nothing more than your wits. Stay alive and master your surroundings in these story-driven sandbox survival games.
Brutal Brawlers:All the fun parts of a close-quarters throwdown without the black eyes and police reports. From seedy bars to the sands of the arena, jump in and get your guard up.
Cocktails & Cooking:Can you keep up with the dinner rush?Chop, mix, and keep those tickets from piling up the best you can. Try not to spill and keep your fingers in one piece with these virtual culinary playgrounds.
Flights of Fantasy: Skip the security lines and fly. Master a range of airplanes and helicopters as you race, fight, or just break through the clouds and cruise the open skies with the wind at your back.
Hands-On Mischief: Who doesn’t like to cause a little trouble? Use your weirdest instincts to solve outlandish puzzles and don’t be surprised when it all goes sideways: It’s supposed to do that.
Save the Day Shooters:Grab a gun and be the hero. Choose from an arsenal of powerful weapons and blast through intense, arcade-style action in this pair of white-knuckle shooters.
Meta’s Reality Bytes Sale is already in full swing on the Horizon Store, and goes until April 27th. Follow the link above to find every game currently discounted.
Many of Rockstar’s most beloved titles have never gotten proper VR support, however modder ‘Holydh’ has now released a modified UEVR plugin for the PC version of GTA: San Andreas – The Definitive Edition (2021) that brings the updated 2004 classic to PC VR headsets.
The mod, called the ‘GTA San Andreas Definitive Edition – 6DoF UEVR Plugin’ brings full first-person VR along with 6DOF motion controls to the Steam version of the game. Holydh notes it doesn’t however work with the Epic Games Store or Rockstar launcher versions.
Based on the Unreal Engine VR (UEVR) plugin by ‘praydog’, the mod includes a number of new features that UEVR alone doesn’t. Without Holydh’s plugin, the game’s camera rotates by itself to follow CJ’s moves.
It also includes all on foot movements (crouch included), all vehicle driving (yes, also the jetpack), various camera comfort tweaks, auto-handling of UEVR camera settings for cutscenes, as well as motion controller-supported weapons. Sniper scopes also work, all of which allows the game to be played from start to finish in VR.
Check out the mod in action below, courtesy Holydh:
You can get Holydh’s mod over on Nexus Mods for free, which only requires a few hoops to jump through to make it work with the Steam version of the game. Outside of owning a copy of the Steam version, you’ll also need to Praydog’s UEVR Nightly 01042 build, which is conveniently linked in the Nexus Mods page.
As for required specs, some users report NVIDIA RTX 2080s working well with the mod, although it does come with several graphical settings to adjust too if you’re running an older GPU.
While the project is open-source, and available for copy and/or modify via GitHub, Rockstar Games’ parent company Take-Two is known for having been fairly litigious with similar mods in the past. In 2022, Take-Two took down a slate of Luke Ross’ most popular Rockstar mods, including VR mods for GTA 5, Red Dead Redemption 2, and Mafia Definitive Edition.
Admittedly, the DMCA takedown wasn’t issued to Ross himself, but rather to Patreon, as the prolific modder was effectively releasing early access to the mods behind paid support tiers. That’s not the case with UEVR or Holydh’s plugin since it’s free, so it’s likely your best bet for long-term enjoyment of GTA: San Andreas on PC VR headsets.
Meanwhile, GTA: San Andreas has been delayed “indefinitely” on Quest, so don’t count on an official version coming to the standalone platform anytime soon.
Location-based VR destination Sandbox VR announced it has surpassed $200 million in lifetime revenue as it continues its rapid global expansion, with 29 new locations planned for this year.
Founded in 2016, Sandbox VR is one of the few out-of-home VR attractions to survive the COVID-19 pandemic, having reemerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy in late 2020 after being forced to lay off a majority of staff and effectively close doors for much of that year.
Now, Sandbox VR says it’s reached the $200 million revenue milestone, bringing in $75 million in sales in 2024 alone from over 1.4 million players across its growing slate of global locations.
A good slice of overall revenue is thanks to the company’s in-house-developed marquee content, such as its recent Squid Game VR attraction, which has generated $30 million in revenue since launch in 2023, contributing significantly to recent growth. Its fully-immersive multiplayer VR experiences typically cost between $50-$60 per-person, hosting up to six players at a time.
This recent success has prompted the company to open 29 new locations this year, representing around a 50% increase in total footprint, with its 60th location opening this month in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
According to the franchise’s prospectus, target markets in 2025 include the USA, multiple European countries, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Egypt, Canada, Malaysia, India, The Philippines, Australia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, South Africa, South Korea, Mexico, Chile, and Turkey.
Since the beginning of 2024, Sandbox VR has sold 83 franchise units, bringing a total of nearly 150 total units in development with 34 operators today. The company says this represents a sixfold increase in deal signings over the past 12 months.
“Reaching $200 million in lifetime sales represents a significant achievement for Sandbox VR and validates our mission to deliver immersive, social VR experiences that bring people together,” said Steve Zhao, CEO and founder of Sandbox VR. “As we continue to expand globally through our franchise model, we’re seeing unprecedented demand from both operators and consumers who recognize the unique value of our offering.”
Notably, the company says an average of 117,000 total players visited Sandbox VR each month in 2024, with the company projecting that average to increase to 150,000 in 2025 as it rolls out new global locations.
ILM and Lucasfilm today revealed gameplay of their upcoming Quest 3 game, Star Wars: Beyond Victory – A Mixed Reality Playset, which offers up both virtual and mixed reality gameplay.
In partnership with Meta, the studios served up a first hands-on with the game to attendees at ‘Star Wars Celebration 2025’, taking place April 18-20 in Tokyo, Japan. Along with it comes a good slate of gameplay revealed its first teaser.
Still in development, the studios say Star Wars: Beyond Victory takes place around the time of Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018), further revealing the game will feature three distinct modes when it launches on Quest 3 and 3S.
Image courtesy ILM, Lucasfilm, Meta
This includes a VR/MR combination story mode following podracer ‘Volo’, an arcade mode that brings mini-podracing to a mixed reality holotable, and a ‘playset’ that lets you decorate physical environment in mixed reality with a collection of unlockable virtual action figures and vehicles.
“We’re calling this a Playset because it isn’t just a game; it’s an entirely new way to experience the Star Wars galaxy and the worlds we create at ILM,” said the game’s Executive Producer Alyssa Finley. “This new mixed reality experience blends the physical and digital worlds in a way that’s unlike anything we’ve done before and we’re so excited to share a special first look with our incredible Star Wars community.”
If you’re heading to the event at the Makuhari Messe in Tokyo starting this Friday, you can get a chance to go hands-on with Star Wars: Beyond Victory at the ILM and Meta Quest booth, located in Hall 4, Booth #20-5. Demo stations also include the studio’s previous XR titles Vader Immortal and Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge.
There’s no release date yet, although like all things VR created by ILM for the Star Wars universe, we’re expecting a slow drip of info leading up to launch, so stay tuned.
It’s been over a week since Sid Meier’s Civilization VII – VR (2025) launched on Quest 3, and although developer PlaySide Studios has issued a performance update following its April 9th release, players are still struggling with poor performance and crashes of the $60 VR port.
Developed by PlaySide Studios in partnership with original developer Firaxis Games, Civilization VII – VR brought the sprawling real-time strategy game to VR for the first time, including both solo and online multiplayer matches with other Quest 3 and 3S players.
Things didn’t go off without a hitch though when the game launched earlier this month, with many users initially reporting persistent stuttering issues when using the game’s war table both in virtual and mixed reality modes.
An update released on April 11th was aimed at fixing “some of the performance issues,” the studio said in a reply to a Horizon Store user review, although the game is still apparently not out of the woods just yet.
Some of the most recent user reviews mention continued issues with stuttering when playing in VR mode, although there are also now numerous reports of the game crashing both during gameplay and upon startup.
“We’re aware that some players are experiencing crashing with Civilization VII – VR and we’re currently investigating,” the studio said on Monday via its official Discord (invite link).
While Firaxis suggests contacting support, the tide of complaints hasn’t come to an end, garnering the Civ VII Quest 3 port an accumulative user rating of [2.8/5] on the Horizon Store. Worryingly, the game has only managed to attract around 200 user reviews at the time of this writing.
Firaxis says in a Discord news announcement it’s going to release more info “ASAP,” however with no update log available, or public roadmap of issues currently being fixed, there’s no telling what to expect and when. That said, it’s difficult to tell whether it’s entirely a VR-specific issue at this point.
Civilization VII has similarly received ‘Mixed’ user reviews of the non-VR version via Steam, some which stem from initial performance issues, and others based on expectations incumbent upon its $70 price tag. Others, such as PC Gamer’s Nick Evanson, found the non-VR’s late game too CPU intensive for many PC rigs shortly after it was released.
We’ve reached out to developer PlaySide Studios for comment on this issue, and will update as soon as we hear back.
