So you’re thinking about getting into VR and looking to do it on the cheap. Could a Quest 2 headset be worth buying in 2025? Read on for our no-nonsense recommendation.
Let’s make this real easy:
If you can find Quest 2 (128GB or more) for less than $100: Buy it
Why: Quest 2 is officially a last-gen headset, but that doesn’t mean it’s worthless. Quest 2 headsets in 2025 can still play 99% of the content in the Quest library, and Meta is still updating the headset with the latest software, for now. It’s easy to find a second-hand headset for less than $100 (make sure controllers are included!). At that price there’s plenty of fun and value to be had with everything the headset can do today. Not only that, but Meta’s latest headset, Quest 3S, is actually pretty similar to Quest 2. It’s just about the same size, same battery life, same lenses, and same resolution. For the most part it just has a more powerful processor which means it will be able to play games in the future that require that horsepower, but for now almost none of the Quest library needs that extra power.
If you can’t find Quest 2 for less than $100: Buy Quest 3S or Quest 3
Why: Every dollar you spend above $100 for a Quest 2 has diminishing returns in value compared to buying one of Meta’s newer headsets. Quest 3S and Quest 3 share a newer processor compared to Quest 2. Over the next few years developers will prioritize the newer headset, which means fewer games will run well (or at all) on Quest 2 over time.
Vertigo Games, the studio behind the Arizona Sunshine series and Metro Awakening (2024), announced it’s sold off SpringboardVR, the location-based entertainment (LBE) VR content distribution platform.
Vertigo Games acquired SpringboardVR in 2021, announcing at the time it was looking forward to “leading SpringboardVR into the future in this exciting phase of accelerating growth in VR.”
Now, leading provider of virtual reality LBE management software SynthesisVR has acquired SpringboardVR for an undisclosed sum, noting the transaction will take effect on February 1st, 2025.
“This acquisition strengthens the industry by providing a future-proof foundation for arcade operators and developers, setting the stage for sustained growth and innovation in the next era of VR,” the companies say in a press statement. “While both the SpringboardVR and SynthesisVR platforms will maintain independent operations and ensure business continuity, their combined presence under Deploy Reality demonstrates a long-term commitment to location-based VR, offering operators more options and resources. By bringing together two innovative platforms, this partnership plays a key role in the growth and success of VR arcades worldwide.”
Based in the Netherlands, Vertigo Games is best known for a rash of popular VR titles, including Metro Awakening (2024), Arizona Sunshine Remake (20204), Arizona Sunshine 2 (2023), but also LBE versions of Arizona Sunshine and Space Pirate Trainer, and a host of others, including multiplayer titles Eclipse and Ghost Patrol VR.
Despite losing its more direct pipeline to SpringboardVR, Vertigo Games says it remains “deeply invested in the future of location-based VR through its renewed long-standing partnership with SynthesisVR,” as the XR developer and publisher intends to continue producing LBE VR experiences alongside at-home consumer content.
“Vertigo Games is fully committed to the evolution of VR arcades,” said Vertigo Games CEO Richard Stitselaar. “With this transition, we are setting a course for the future—one where Vertigo Games can focus on content innovation and creativity while SynthesisVR drives platform advancements. By strengthening our long-standing collaboration, we’re ensuring that both operators and developers benefit from more powerful, forward-thinking solutions so we can offer audiences truly immersive, next-generation entertainment.”
While the news doesn’t suggest financial troubles as such, it does follow some economic turbulence in the industry, which this month alone has seen layoffs affect Sweden-based Fast Travel Games, known for recent VR releases Action Hero (2024) and Mannequin (2024), and Drop Dead studio Soul Assembly.
Other studios caught up in ongoing industry woes include Canada-based Archiact, which also reduced headcount in January 2024, developer behind VR port of DOOM 3 (2021), as well as social VR studio VRChat, which laid off 30% of staff.
Daisy Ridley, who played ‘Rey’ in the recent Star Wars sequel trilogy, has been tapped to star in an upcoming VR experience, which is slated to arrive on Quest in March.
As reported in a Hollywood Reporter exclusive, the experience is called Trailblazer: The Untold Story of Mrs. Benz, which recants the story of 19th century German automotive pioneer Bertha Benz—the first person to drive an internal combustion engine automobile over a long distance, and wife of Carl Benz, creator of the Benz Patent-Motorwagen from 1885.
Image courtesy Hiroyuki Tsutsumi, via Hollywood Reporter
The VR experience, which is slated to arrive on Quest 2 and above on March 7th, is being directed by Emmy-nominated Eloise Singer from UK-based Singer Studios, which also developed narrative VR experienceThe Pirate Queen: A Forgotten Legend (2024), starring Lucy Liu.
Ridley, who plays the role of Bertha Benz, will join Singer and Lesley Paterson as executive producers when Trailblazer is made into a film and graphic novel series.
“Bertha’s determination and courage are incredibly inspiring,” Ridley tells Hollywood Reporter. “It’s been such a privilege to step into her world and help tell her story. I hope audiences are as moved by her journey as I was while working on this project.”
Trailblazer: The Untold Story of Mrs. Benz is said to “invite audiences to step into Bertha’s shoes, explore her workshop and assemble the engine that reshaped transportation forever.”
While the VR experience first premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2022 and SXSW in 2023, that was before plans were revealed that Ridley would be attached to the project.
Mindshow, the real-time CG animation company, unveiled its virtual production platform for enterprise partners looking to use XR headsets to speed up the animating process. The company additionally announced the appointment of David Baron as Chief Operating Officer, a founding executive at Hulu, and industry veteran of Fox Digital Media, Paramount, and Microsoft.
You might have heard of Mindshow when it first launched on Steam in 2017, giving anyone with a PC VR headset the ability to animate and capture everything from short skits to entire shows thanks to its virtual production tools. The app was delisted from Steam in 2020, ostensibly pointing to the company’s ambition to turn its once consumer-oriented platform into a enterprise toolset.
Now, Mindshow has unveiled that enterprise production suite, which allows select industry partners to animate in virtual studio sets using XR headsets, including Apple Vision Pro and Meta Quest, merging real-time rendering with “asset ingest and character animation tools accessible across the entire production pipeline—from storyboarding to final pass,” the company says in a press statement.
Before its platform unveiling, Mindshow worked with a number of brands to create promotional videos and narrative content for Barbie, Hot Wheels, Monster High, and Enchantimals, as well as a slew of Cameos from Cheetos mascot Chester Cheetah.
While the company says it will continue to offer its full-service production studio though its Los Angeles-based location, the Mindshow platform is now available for licensing to select entertainment companies, sports organizations, and consumer brands.
The studio says Mindshow features proprietary lip-sync technology which converts pre-recorded audio into stylized animated facial performances and character movements. It also includes virtual studio cameras for in-app capture, motion capture for real-time character expression, and asset integration, allowing companies to rig existing 3D models for quick animation.
“Every step of animation requires a specialized tool—from assets to previsualization to rendering and review. This technical fragmentation bottlenecks creativity costing production teams time and money,” said Sharon Bordas, CEO of Mindshow. “Mindshow is purpose-built to integrate a growing ecosystem of virtual production capabilities as rapidly as cutting-edge content tools and technology hit the market, making studio-quality animation immediate and intuitive through a single platform.”
The company says its recent addition of streaming veteran David Baron as COO “underscores Mindshow’s commitment to scaling its enterprise software platform.”
Baron notes that Mindshow helps bands “move from concept to delivery in one production cycle, turning characters into multi-platform properties across social, streaming, previsualization, and beyond.”
In its quarterly financial results today, Meta revealed that its Reality Lab division saw its best ever Q4 revenue but, as before, this coincides with equally growing costs.
Meta’s Reality Labs division houses its metaverse and XR groups, and some of its AI initiatives.
During its Q4 2024 earnings call, Meta revealed that Reality Labs reached a record $1.08 billion in quarterly revenue, but also had its biggest quarter in terms of costs at $6.05 billion, resulting in a quarterly loss of $4.97 billion. This just barely beats the division’s previous revenue record of $1.07 billion in Q4 2023, and significantly beats it’s largest quarter for costs of operation in Q4 2023 at $5.72 billion.
During the company’s Q4 2024 investor earnings call, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that the “number of people using Quest and Horizon [Worlds] has been steadily growing,” and also that he believes 2025 is the year the company’s investments in improving the look and feel of Horizon Worlds will begin to pay off.
Regarding Q4 2024, however, Zuckerberg alluded to Meta’s Ray-Ban smartglasses as the main driver of the revenue milestone, saying that “Meta Ray-Ban are a real hit.”
But revenue is only half of the story, as Reality Labs’ growth in costs have far exceeded its growth in revenue. In Q4 2024, the division cost the company $6.05 billion to run. When offset by its revenue, that still puts the Reality Labs $4.97 billion in the red for Q4 2024.
To date, Meta has spent a whopping $69 billion on Reality Lab since Q4 2020, but it has only brought in $9.19 billion in the same period.
While the numbers are staggering, Zuckerberg continues to insist that Reality Labs costs are long-term investments that will eventually pay off; he’s previously warned investors that Reality Labs’ costs would continue to grow, and ultimately might not flourish until the 2030s.
Resolution Games, the studio behind XR fantasy board game Demeo (2021), announced they’re releasing a Dungeons & Dragons game in the same vein, called DEMEO X DUNGEONS & DRAGONS: BATTLEMARKED.
Demeo was already pretty D&D-esque when it launched on VR headsets in 2021, but now Resolution Games, in partnership with D&D creator Wizards of the Coast, announced they’re bringing Demeo’s action roleplaying system to the upcoming title, which is slated to be chock-full of authentic D&D lore.
Like Demeo, Battlemarked isn’t going to be the full D&D experience in VR, but rather what the studios are calling a ‘dungeon master-less system’ that focuses on “social strategy rather than social roleplay, encouraging group tabletalk focused on tactics and decision-making.”
Image courtesy Resolution Games, Wizards of the Coast
Also like Demeo, Battlemarked is slated to feature cross-platform support for up to four players across PC, console and XR headsets. Resolution Games hasn’t specified exact platforms just yet, although we’re speculating on the usual XR cohorts: Quest, SteamVR headsets, and PSVR 2.
It’s also coming with two story-based campaigns at launch with additional campaigns in different D&D settings planned as downloadable content in the future. Resolution Games also hasn’t specified when Battlemarked is coming, so we’ll be keeping our eyes glued to the game’s official website and YouTube channel in the meantime.
“With the launch of Demeo back in 2021, we began to grow an incredible relationship with the D&D player community,” said Tommy Palm, founder and CEO, Resolution Games. “Demeo and Demeo Battles quickly became a game night substitute for Dungeon Masters who wanted an out-of-campaign way to have fun with their groups, and for D&D players to introduce their friends and family to tabletop miniatures games. DEMEO X DUNGEONS & DRAGONS: BATTLEMARKED opens up that appeal even further by adapting the classes, actions, and lore of Dungeons & Dragons to this system for all new adventures and a whole new experience built from the ground up with D&D in mind.”
Miami-based VR publisher VRAL Games announced it’s acquired a 30% stake in PolarityOne, a Seattle-based indie studio developing the upcoming co-op VR shooter EXOSHOCK.
The studios say the investment aligns with VRAL Games’ strategy to expand its presence in immersive gaming, leaving PolarityOne to operate independently with publishing support from VRAL.
“We believe PolarityOne is among the most promising emerging studios in the world, leading the charge in VR game development,” said Rodolfo Saccoman, co-founder and CEO of VRAL Games. “Through our early days working together on EXOSHOCK, it was clear the studio’s founders were aligned with us on our mission of pushing boundaries in VR experiences, so it was a natural fit to enter into a deeper partnership. This strategic investment solidifies VRAL Games’ position as a prominent contender in the VR gaming industry.”
Founded in 2022, PolarityOne specializes in immersive experiences, with its first game EXOSHOCKreleasing initially as a playable demo on SideQuest in mid-2024.
The full game, which is slated to release in early access on Quest 2 and above in Q2 2025, aims to redefine cooperative VR combat, drawing inspiration from Halo, Doom, and Gears of War. Additionally, the studio says the upcoming co-op shooter features a “grimdark sci-fi universe teeming with corporate intrigue and galactic conflict, combining moody, cinematic visuals with an atmospheric soundscape.”
VRAL Games says it’s gearing up to showcase its portfolio of titles at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) in March, including past titles VRIDER SBK (2024) and Squingle (2024), as well as an exclusive preview of EXOSHOCK before its early access launch on Quest later this year. GDC is scheduled to take place at San Francisco’s Moscone Center from March 17th – 22nd.
Path of Fury – Episode I: Tetsuo’s Tower is an upcoming combat sim that’s all about punching your way through gangsters while making a one-way trip through the ’80s-inspired underworld. We went hands-on with the first two levels ahead of its March 12th release on Quest, so read on to find out more.
I grew up on a steady diet of films like Big Trouble in Little China (1986) and a countless parade of ’80s and ’90s Chinese kung-fu flicks as a kid, which means I’m somewhat of sifu myself—at least that’s what Path of Fury wants me to feel, as it tosses a Shaolin Temple’s worth of Cantonese and Russian-speaking gangsters to punch through as you make your way to increasingly tough underworld bosses.
Even after a quick intro, I’m still not quite sure why I’m blasting through armies of dudes, dealing out successive body shots, uppercuts and blocking kicks, but what I can tell you it’s definitely a workout. I can also say that, despite the game’s on-rails design, the world-building is very much on point, serving up a mix of low-poly, PS1-era baddies in a vibrant, varied world.
Without giving too much away, you start out by interrogating a captured gangster for information, leading you to start your first mission at Tetsuo’s Tower, a typical crime lair that’s fronted by a night club full of heavies. As I mentioned, it’s on-rails, which means every step forward is essentially an automatic teleportation through the corridors leading to your next gang of dudes. That did little to distract from the mission at hand though: punch, punch, block, punch.
While fairly simple, the punch and parry system feels delightfully like a retro game, giving off arcade cabinet vibes that feels like its drawing from mid-90s titles like Time Crisis (1995). Instead of ducking behind cover and reloading though, I’m parrying incoming punches by tapping a highlighted target on a fist or foot, and going in for a flurry of blows with the other.
Beating an enemy is as simple as timing your punch to the highlighted body part, and doing it at the required power; red for hard and strong, grey for quick and soft.
This effectively means you don’t have much freedom on how to take down bad guys, although the flipside though is Path of Fury is all about the sort of Instructed Motion you see in games like Until You Fall (2020) or Beat Saber (2019), which prioritizes making you feel like an expert badass at specific moments. And it totally does the job.
Path of Fury is being developed by Leonard Menchiari, the indie dev behind a slew of non-VR games such as side-scrollers Trek to Yomi (2022) and The Eternal Castle [REMASTERED] (2019). Looking at Menchiari’s previous titles, it’s no wonder why Path of Fury feels nailed the classic side-scrolling beat-’em-up feel. What’s more, despite being the developer’s first jab at the medium, it’s a really well-informed VR-native experience too.
Image courtesy Leonard Menchiari, Abonico Game Works
For now, I have very few gripes with the two levels I played. I didn’t leave me overly winded, but I can bet a full 30 minutes of punching non-stop will easily fill out your default daily activity goals. For being such a low-poly affair, it’s exceedingly good at setting up scenes and offering up detailed environments that I wish I could linger in and explore.
It does feel a little sparse on options at the moment, giving you only a pause and restart button during gameplay. The two-level taster I played didn’t feature a seated mode, and when you’re blasted too many times, visually reeling over can feel overly uncomfortable, which I would hope can be changed before the final game comes out in March. There’s also currently no difficulty slider of any sort, which is a bummer if you’re just looking to waltz your way through for the sake of the story.
That said, more than anything, Path of Fury feels like one of those cool and stylish additions to your workout routine that offers enough fun and engaging gameplay to trick you into getting your heart rate up, even if you weren’t planning to in the first place.
Path of Fury: Episode I – Tetsuo’s Tower is slated to launch on March 12th on Quest 2/3/Pro, priced at $9.99. You can wishlist it on the Horizon Store here.
Gaijin Entertainment, the studio behind War Thunder (2013), announced that its upcoming aerial VR combat game Aces of Thunder is headed to PSVR 2 and PC VR headsets sometime this year.
Announced in 2023, Aces of Thunder was originally supposed to launch in Q4 2024, tapped to bring a host of the world’s most recognizable World War planes to SteamVR and PSVR 2.
So far, Gaijin has shown off not only a wide range of WWII-era planes, but now also a slate of WWI-era planes too.
This comes in addition to the roster of WWII planes, including the American P-51 Mustang and P-63 Kingcobra fighters, the German Bf 109 and Fw 190 fighters, the Soviet IL-2 attack aircraft, the British Spitfire fighter and the Japanese A6M3 Zero.
While we don’t know exactly when Aces of Thunder is set to launch, the studio tells Road to VR it’s now “planned for 2025.” In the meantime, you can wishlist it on Steam and the PlayStation Store for PSVR 2.
There’s no pricing info yet, although we’re keeping our eyes on the skies for any and all new details about Aces of Thunder.
COLD VR was supposed to launch on January 21st, but was delayed last minute by developer ALLWARE and publisher Perp Games, which maintained it still needed a little more polish. Now the studios have announced the game’s new, definitive launch date: February 11th.
Couched as a spiritual successor to smash-hit game Superhot VR, Cold VR aims to serve up time-distorting action, albeit flipping the script somewhat.
Like Superhot, Cold VR’s movement mechanic is all about how movement interacts with the game clock; when you move, time actually slows, forcing you to think quick on your feet and never take too long to figure out your next move, otherwise the game’s enemies speed up.
Cold VR is coming first to Quest and PC VR headsets, available over on the Horizon Store for Quest 2/3/Pro and Steam for PC VR headsets, priced at $20.
The studio says its also bringing the game to PSVR 2 “soon,” which we tend to believe since you can already wishlist the game on the PlayStation Store.
OrbusVR (2019), the MMORPG for VR headsets, is shutting down, with creator Orbus Online stating it will stop sales on all platforms starting next month and shut down servers completely in April.
The studio released the news in a community update (seen below), stating that it’s pulling OrbusVR from Steam and the Horizon Store come February 10th, 2025. Servers are planned to go offline on April 6th.
Released first in Steam Early Access in 2017, OrbusVR was an ambitious project for the time, as it appealed exclusively to PC VR users—a population that wasn’t particularly ‘massive’, but very ardent in their support for the fledgling MMO.
With the birth of its full 1.0 version, OrbusVR took on the name OrbusVR: Reborn in 2019, bringing along with it a fair slice of free gameplay to get curious users hooked on the world’s overarching story, five-player dungeons, 10-player raids, enemies, jobs, and the community that supported it all.
Unlike many traditional MMOs, OrbusVR wasn’t subscription-based, but rather a one-time purchase. At launch, that was $40, however the studio since lowered the all-in price to $20 across PC VR headsets via Steam and all Meta headsets via the Horizon Store.
The studio also relied on in-world purchases for a continued revenue stream, including in-game shop with items such as mounts and cosmetic pets for sale, as well as through ‘Mini Story’ expansion packs, which included new zones, NPCs, and questlines.
Here’s the studio’s message in full:
We wanted to start off by thanking the community. Since the start of development in 2016, to our launch into Early Access of OrbusVR in December of 2017 all the way through this last year, we have always been blessed with the best community. This community has supported us through the last 8 years and allowed us to create the game and social environment that we are proud of. For that and everything you all have done for us, we are forever grateful.
With that said, it saddens us to announce that on February 10th 2025, we will be stopping sales on all platforms, with the server officially going offline on April 6th 2025. While we as a company have tried to sustain the game as long as possible, we have made the difficult decision to take this next and final step.
In the coming months leading to the server shutdown, we will be planning a few farewell events, including increased drop rates on legendaries, unlocking the DLC for all players that may not have experienced it yet, and hosting the last official Mage Tournament in-game. While we are truly sad to say goodbye to this game, we want to celebrate the fun, friends, and memories that have been experienced in our games’ long history. We plan on doing an end of game wrapup, sharing stats like total hours played, monsters killed, etc., in the coming months.
While there are still many things we would like to highlight like standout moments we have had from playing and interacting with the community, to favorite places, or even some of the lesser known lore of the game, this will not be the last post.
We are still hopeful this market gets the love and attention it deserves in the future, and wish all future developers the greatest of success in reaching their goals! We hope this game has given you more friends and memories than one can count. We are so proud of the work we have all put into this game, along with being part of pioneering the future of VR in our small way.
Thank you for making every second of this journey worth it,
Meta Quest Pro wasn’t really the prosumer hit it was chalked up to be, leading the company to discontinue its first mixed reality headset a little over two years after release. Now Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reports Meta is not only working on an ostensible Quest 3 consumer follow-up, but also a “high-end” model that could succeed Quest Pro.
Citing insider sources, Gurman also reported that Meta is “working on Quest 4 VR goggles, as well as a new high-end model that could eventually become a successor to the Quest Pro mixed-reality headset.”
Released in late 2022, Quest Pro marked a significant departure from Meta’s line of consumer standalone headsets, which, at the time, ranged around the $300 mark.
Meta Quest Pro | Photo by Road to VR
Initially priced at $1,500, the ‘Pro’ level headset offered a host of features over its concurrent Quest 2, such as color-passthrough, pancake lenses, and both face and eye-tracking. Less than five months later though, Meta decreased the price of Quest Pro to $1,000 in an effort to attract more prosumers.
Then, in July 2023, The Information released a report claiming Meta was discontinuing the Quest Pro line entirely, which Meta CTO and Reality Labs chief Andrew Bosworth was quick to contest, stating “don’t believe everything you read.”
An additional report from The Information from July 2024 suggested Meta was switching its ‘Pro’ efforts to instead develop a lightweight mixed reality device resembling “a bulky pair of glasses,” codenamed ‘Puffin’—reportedly set to target a 2027 release date. This comes in addition to Meta’s claim it’s hoping to release a pair of AR glasses before 2030 which will be similar in functionality to its Orion AR glasses prototype.
A follow-up report from The Information released shortly afterwards further claimed a Quest Pro 2 prototype, codenamed ‘La Jolla’, had also been shelved. Bosworth later went on record to confirm that it indeed cancelled La Jolla, and is developing Puffin, although didn’t make mention of whether the company was abandoning its Quest Pro line for good.
– – — – –
Meta’s iterative approach to product development involves spinning up and shutting down prototypes, which Bosworth has outlined in the past as a way the company prioritizes exploration over immediate commercialization. Where projects, like Quest Pro 2 and others, currently are on that continuum is a mystery, making it difficult to tell whether reported stops and starts are actually stepping stones or dead ends, respectively.
Whilst refuting the earlier claim that the Quest Pro line was cancelled, Bosworth noted “there might be a Quest Pro 2, there might not be. I’m not really telling you, but I will say don’t believe everything you read about what’s been stopped or started.”
Meta already has a way to watch your own content on Quest, although browsing through a file system and viewing on a windowed panel is decidedly less immersive than a proper home theater. Now the company says it’s experimenting with the idea.
Mark Rabkin, VP leading Horizon OS and Quest, says in a recent X post that Meta is currently working on a home theater environment for Horizon OS, which is not only Quest’s operating system, but the soon-be-the OS used on a host of third-party headsets.
In response to a post wondering why such a first-party effort doesn’t already exist, Rabkin says the team is “[w]orking on all that, experimenting with lighting and other effects to see what’s best. Also trying to figure out awesome sound.”
This wouldn’t be the first time Meta developed its own theater environment. In 2014, Meta (then Facebook/Oculus) launched Oculus Cinema for Samsung Gear VR, which would later morph into Oculus Video for Gear VR and Rift, presenting a more cohesive way to watch your own content in addition to renting movies for on-device viewing. Released in late 2015, Oculus Social was another early attempt, allowing up to five users to connect and watch Twitch and Vimeo streams in a variety of virtual theaters.
Now-defunct Oculus Video app | Image courtesy Meta
Without rehashing ancient history (the list of now-defunct home theater apps goes on), Meta’s most recent attempt was in Horizon Home on Quest, which was updated in 2021 to allow multiple users to join your home space and do things like watch videos and launch into VR apps together. This however didn’t include many of the features associated with a dedicated home theater app, such as custom environments or advanced playback controls.
And while the content on offer varied over time, all of those apps had one thing in common: they put enough friction in the way between users and traditional content that it essentially shunted users to support more open alternatives, like Bigscreen and Skybox, but also dedicated apps serving up Prime Video, YouTube, Hulu, Netflix, etc.
That said, Meta’s next attempt at a dedicated theater environment probably won’t unite those fractionalized apps into a monolithic theater environment, although having a built-in, easily accessible way to immersively watch your own content might just be enough.
Sony released its annual wrap-up of top downloads across its various PlayStation platforms for 2024. And while there hasn’t been a lot of movement in comparison to PSVR 2’s first year, we can’t really say we’re particularly surprised at the outcome.
PSVR 2 is nearly two years old now, and while some have claimed the company’s PS5-tethered VR headset was sorely neglected following its February 2023 release, owing to its lack of exclusives and tight developer support we saw with the original PSVR, ardent fans of the headset would disagree.
To its credit, PSVR 2 is a very capable headset, allowing developers to push render resolutions and visual complexity above even Meta’s reigning champ, Quest 3. It also lets you play PC VR games, with Sony releasing a wired adapter last June. Still, when it comes to the pool of games people are actually downloading on the PlayStation Store, the proof is in the pudding.
Check out the chart below, which we modified to include original release dates:
PSVR 2 Top Downloads 2024
US/Canada
EU
Beat Saber (2018)
Beat Saber (2018)
Among Us VR (2022)
Pavlov (2023)
Pavlov (2023)
Arizona Sunshine 2 (2023)
Arizona Sunshine 2 (2023)
Among Us VR (2022)
Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge – Enhanced Edition (2023)
Horizon Call of the Mountain (2023)
Job Simulator (2016)
Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge – Enhanced Edition (2023)
Creed: Rise to Glory – Championship Edition (2019)
Job Simulator (2016)
Swordsman VR (2020)
Creed: Rise to Glory – Championship Edition (2019)
Metro Awakening (2024)
Metro Awakening (2024)
Legendary Tales (2024)
Swordsman VR (2020)
The ever-popular Beat Saber (2018) took the top spot in North America and Europe, which isn’t an indictment of the platform in the least—it’s one of the first games we’d recommend new users try.
The only games to make the list actually that launched in 2024 was Vertigo Games’ Metro Awakening, which admittedly didn’t have much time to climb the charts following its November 2024 release, and Urban Wolf Games’ Legendary Tales, which launched its 1.0 release across all major VR platforms in February 2024 after a lengthy Early Access period on Steam.
That’s not entirely fair though. Vertigo Games’ impressive zombie shooter follow-up Arizona Sunshine 2 (2023) was released in December 2023, giving it less than a month to make the top downloads in the year prior.
Still, there are a lot of familiar faces. For comparison, check out the top PSVR 2 downloads for 2023, noting that it was its first nearly full year following its release in February of that year:
US/Canada
EU
Pavlov
Pavlov
Beat Saber
Kayak VR: Mirage
Kayak VR: Mirage
Beat Saber
Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge
The Dark Pictures: Switchback VR
Horizon Call of the Mountain
The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners – Chapter 2: Retribution
Job Simulator
Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge
The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners – Chapter 2: Retribution
Snap, the company behind Snapchat, is making its latest Spectacles AR Glasses more affordable to students and teachers with a new educational discount that cuts the $1,200 launch price in half.
Initially released in September 2024, the company’s fifth-gen Spectacles (called Spectacles ’24) are primarily targeted at developers, priced at $100 per month for a one-year commitment.
While Snap’s latest AR glasses made some key improvements over the fourth-gen device released in 2021, including a wider field-of-view, better resolution, the addition of hand-tracking, and an overhaul to its software stack, the price seems to have been a sticking point for students and teachers looking to build and learn about AR apps.
Snap Spectacles ’24 | Image courtesy Snap Inc
Now, the company is rolling out a new student discount that cuts the total price of Spectacles in half—just $49.50 a month for 12 months ($594), or a single payment of $594 and an additional $49.50 payment one month after ($643.50).
Those interested in nabbing the deal need a .edu email address, or other email address from an accredited educational institution. Students and teachers in all supported regions can take advantage of the discount too, which includes the US, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Austria, and the Netherlands.
You can learn more about about Snap’s latest Spectacles in our deep dive explainer from last year, including specs, capabilities, and software.
Samsung Unpacked didn’t have any big XR revelations this year, although the South Korean tech giant has finally shown off the near-final version of its Android XR headset, codenamed Project Moohan.
We went hands-on with Moohan at the headset’s unveiling last month, the company’s upcoming mixed reality headset built on the newly announced Android XR platform.
At this year’s Unpacked, we were holding out hopes to see a more detailed look at Project Moohan and maybe even controllers, which so far haven’t made an appearance. We were also hoping to confirm rumors of a device reportedly aiming to rival Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses.
While none of those things materialized, Samsung did show off a near-final version of Moohan, safely positioned out of reach. So no demos beyond those early, closed door hands-ons allowed last month. Check out the video below, courtesy of The Verge:
Drawing design and software cues from Meta Quest and Apple Vision Pro, the device features a rigid strap, eye-tracking, pancake lenses, and ergonomic design, which we thought was pretty close to Quest Pro in terms of comfort.
Though not as advanced as its competitors in field-of-view or lens quality, Moohan excels in AI integration. Powered by Google’s Gemini AI, the headset offers real-time contextual assistance, memory retention, and immersive functionality, making it a significant contender in the MR space.
Moohan is expected to launch sometime this year (and hopefully have an actual name). In the meantime, you can learn more about Project Moohan in our detailed hands-on, which discusses everything from our impressions of the hardware to its integration of Android XR.
Poland-based indie Immersion Gamesare getting ready to launch their next title later this month, which puts a fantasy gameplay twist on some tried and true VR fitness mechanics.
Called Fitness Fables, the game promises a host of features you’d expect to see in your bog standard fantasy game, including 80 levels, 16 boss fights, and bonus challenges galore, promising 24 hours of total gameplay.
The on-rails experience also puts a heavy emphasis on its 24 exercises, such as power squats, rope swings, sky presses, battle ropes, punching, rowing, and more.
Image courtesy Immersion Games
As a new entrant in the VR fitness subgenre, it all sounds like a pretty attractive package for anyone who doesn’t gravitate towards rhythm-based games, such as Beat Saber (2018) or Synth Riders (2019), or guided workout games, like Supernatural (2020) or Les Mills Bodycombat (2022).
What’s more, Fitness Fables isn’t coming out of the blue either. The Poland-based indie has developed a rash of VR games in the past, including the well-received PvP combat gameDivine Duel (2023), puzzle action game Extreme Escape (2022), and sports adventure game Disc Ninja (2021).
Fitness Fables is launching on Quest on January 30th. You can pre-order on the Horizon Store for Quest 2 and above, priced at $12.
Even with onboard AI, Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses aren’t as smart as they could be, since the glasses lack any sort of display for doing simple tasks, like reading incoming messages. Now, a report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman maintains Meta is not only looking to expand its line of smart glasses with the inclusion of a sportier model this year, but also a high-end model that includes a built-in display.
According to sources familiar with the situation, the report maintains that Oakley-branded smart glasses designed for athletes are set to launch this year. Additionally, Meta’s Reality Labs is reportedly preparing to release a new pair of high-end smart glasses featuring a built-in display, targeted for a 2025 debut.
Reportedly codenamed ‘Hypernova’, the high-end smart glasses will again be built in collaboration with EssilorLuxottica, the French-Italian creator of a host of eyewear brands, including Ray-Ban, Oakley, and Persol.
Meta’s Orion AR Glasses Prototype | Image courtesy Meta
The report also makes mention of touch-sensitive frames or wrist strap controls as input methods, the latter of which was shown off with Meta’s Orion AR glasses prototype.
Provided reported details are true, the effort represents Meta’s next step in creating all-day AR glasses. Unlike Orion however, Hypernova is said to include a “small display,” according to a Financial Times report from December, which would likely to be used to show notifications or responses from Meta’s virtual assistant—not the sort of full-featured, stereo depth overlay expected from AR glasses.
If you wan to learn more about the differences between AR glasses and smart glasses, check out our handy primer.
The potential Samsung smart glasses reveal is rumored to take place at its January 22nd Unpacked 2025 event, where the South Korean tech giant is also expected to officially announce its line of Galaxy S25 smartphones.
Google’s announcement of Android XR last month was largely met with excitement, but there was a notable undercurrent of concern about Google’s long-term commitment to the platform. The company has a storied history of launching new products and platforms, only to drop them a few years later—often leaving third-party developers in the lurch.
Google has earned a reputation among third-party developers as a company that will tout the launch of exciting new platforms, only to cancel them unless they achieve breakout success.
The site Killed by Google maintains an active list of the company’s cancelled projects, currently totaling 296. While Stadia—Google’s short-lived cloud game streaming service—is probably the most recognizable example in recent years, the XR industry already has first-hand experience with the practice.
Google Daydream, announced back in 2016, was Google’s first attempt at entering the XR space proper. The company created the Daydream View headset in which Android smartphones could be inserted for a VR experience similar to Samsung’s Gear VR headset at the time. Third-party developers could build made-for-Daydream apps and distribute them via the Play Store right alongside other Android applications.
Image courtesy Google
Over the next two years Google made efforts to refine Daydream View, including adding more supported phones, releasing an improved version of the headset, and even making one of the first 6DOF standalone VR headsets in partnership with Lenovo.
Lenovo’s Mirage Solo, made for Daydream, was one of the first consumer-available 6DOF headsets. But it launched with a 3DOF controller and hit the market too late to change Daydream’s fate. | Photo by Road to VR
Google’s abandonment of the platform was surely a tough pill to swallow for third-party developers who had believed in the company’s vision and spent time and money building applications for the platform.
Now, five years later, Google is suddenly back on the scene with Android XR.
Samsung’s ‘Project Moohan’ headset will be the first with Android XR | Image courtesy Google
And while there’s certainly been excitement about the company’s return to XR, many developers have expressed hesitation about getting involved with the platform. The saying “fool me once…” could hardly feel more relevant.
So we asked Google about these concerns directly. A spokesperson for the company shared the following:
We’ve been investing in this category for over a decade and we are fully committed to Android XR. While the platform is new, you can see the work we’ve done over the years in products like ARCore, Live View in Maps, the Geospatial API, Google Lens and more. We’re excited to work with the community to build a thriving XR ecosystem like we do for phones, TV, Auto and Wear.
AI has been a long-term investment area for Google and we believe XR headsets and glasses are a great form factor for Gemini’s multimodal, conversational capabilities.
We’re making sustainable and scalable investments for developers. For example, we’ve worked hard to enable all compatible 2D Android apps from the Play Store to work on our platform from the start with no effort from them. We’ve also built XR capabilities into the developer tools Android developers already use. By partnering with Unity and focusing on open standards like OpenXR, we’re providing a clear path for immersive experience developers to easily take advantage of our platform.
Additionally, while we cannot share specific details, we’ve provided support to some of our partners for development ahead of the Android XR announcement. We’re exploring more ways to support our developer community as we prepare for the official release, and we’ll share more when we are able to.
During an interview with Road to VR last month, Google’s VP of XR, Shahram Izadi, also acknowledged that the company has work to do to regain the trust of developers.
“Number one, I think you’re right, there’s trust to be built with developers. You know with Daydream and Gear VR before that, there’s been some stops and starts. We never sort of disengaged with this community and this industry,” said Izadi. “ARCore is a good example of us kind of just continuously pushing and wanting to have developers onboarded with the promise of going from smartphone to headsets and glasses in the future. So one difference, I think, is the fact that [Android XR is a main branch of Android, not just a layer on top like Daydream]. It’s an Android vertical.”
Izadi further highlighted the buy-in of Samsung and Qualcomm as close-knit partners on Android XR.
“You then layer in Samsung and their connection to this, and Qualcomm and their connection to this, and the fact that they’re migrating Snapdragon Spaces and Android XR together. There’s kind of a developer reach that we’re starting to establish that shows our commitment to developers. The second piece, I think, is just making really simplifying the developer flow. So whether it’s onboarding developers from the Unity and OpenXR side, just being kind of respectful of the VR developers that are out there, and ensuring that they have an on-ramp,” he said.
“And then on the Android side, flat [apps] are kind of the stepping stone, the sort of gateway… [after that, expanding flat apps to take advantage of spatial] is the next step. […] once you start to spatialize your app, we [spent time making it easy for developers] to do things like add environments, add 3D objects, etc. So, I think all of these things will come together to show that we’re trying to do things differently and that we’re committed to this space,” Izadi told Road to VR.
It remains to be seen whether these remarks will build confidence among developers, but one thing is certainly clear: buy-in from third-party developers is an essential ingredient for any platform, and Android XR will be no different. Google will also be competing for developers against the likes of Meta and Apple, both of which need a critical mass of great valuable third-party XR apps to succeed in the long term.
