I've spent the past five weeks with Xreal ROG R1 glasses, a cutting-edge pair developed jointly by Xreal and Asus. As with all ROG-branded products, these glasses (also known as a wearable monitor) have a very specific design language, a near-ridiculous number of features, and a price tag that puts them squarely in "enthusiast" territory.

They also pose a rather interesting alternative to traditional monitors that I'm not sure smart glasses are quite ready to bridge yet: replacing a gaming monitor with a virtual one. That's not to say the picture quality, resolution, or even features aren't there — it's top-notch in these categories among any comparable pair, after all. Rather, I'm just not sure how many people are ready to make smart glasses a proper replacement for monitors.

But if you're seriously considering clearing off your desk or you just want a robust on-the-go virtual monitor solution, Xreal ROG R1 is the best pair of smart display glasses money can buy. It's the ideal combination of the Xreal One Pro's ease and the robust feature set of a ROG device. Here's everything you need to know before buying.

What is Xreal ROG R1?

Xreal ROG R1 is a pair of smart glasses jointly designed by Xreal and Asus, featuring industry-leading 240Hz micro-OLED displays and a unique desktop dock with multiple input options. ROG R1 also supports the Xreal Eye camera and prescription glasses inserts.

ROG R1 can be used independently of this dock, which is how I used them the vast majority of the time during my five weeks of use, including a week's vacation away from home and one particularly long travel day spent in airports and on planes with the glasses.

Xreal Rog R1 retails for $849.99 and can be purchased at Best Buy, Xreal's website, or Asus' website. The box includes the glasses, a USB-C cable for the glasses, a microfiber cleaning cloth, a manual, three total nosepiece shapes/sizes, a prescription glasses adapter, the desktop dock, plus two USB-A to USB-C cables for the dock.

Displays aren't the only headliner feature

The ROG R1's displays have a clear advantage, as they're the only pair of smart display glasses with a 240Hz display. That pair of micro-OLEDs runs at 120Hz when connected directly to any device, but connecting the glasses to the included ROG R1 dock unlocks 240Hz mode.

This is achieved through a special chip inside the R1 dock, which provides the extra horsepower needed to run at 240Hz. You'll need a device that can natively push 240Hz to take advantage, however, as the only interpolation mode supported on these glasses is upscaling 60Hz signals to 120Hz. There's no native way to scale 120Hz to 240Hz, which I was disappointed by, but I understand why it's a limitation.

Outside of 240Hz, the optics component of ROG R1 is essentially the same as in Xreal One Pro. When not plugged into the dock, it supports the same color and brightness output, plus the same 57-degree FoV via prism lenses. So, if you're not particularly interested in the 240Hz or dock functions, is there still a reason to choose these over Xreal One Pro? Yes, but only if you enjoy tweaking every last aspect of a device.

Xreal ROG R1 sports the most detailed OSD menu I've ever seen on a pair of smart glasses. There are very few glasses that offer a proper OSD menu — Xreal One was the first — and while I thought Xreal's previous efforts felt like a monitor, ROG R1 takes those options to the next level.

Honestly, the number of features available for both the glasses and the dock is borderline overwhelming. You'll easily spend 30 minutes just scrolling through everything to test them out and, undoubtedly, much longer figuring out your favorite settings.

ROG R1 supports several different presets, too, including custom ones you can save for later use. While I love all the additional (optional) settings, I really enjoyed the refreshed quick settings menu, which lets you instantly adjust brightness, lens tinting, speaker volume, screen size, and screen distance without having to dive through a bunch of annoying menus. Just click the minus button to open this menu.

The temples offer three angle adjustment options, and the left and right temples are independent, so you can find the display angle that best matches your face shape. The three different nose pads further enhance comfort, and the arms all use spring hinges, so they bend backward quite a bit to accommodate different head sizes.

Both Anchor and Smooth Follow modes use low-persistence black frame insertion to eliminate motion blur that can occur with spatially tracked virtual screens, and both 3DoF and 6DoF modes use PWM dimming at all levels. The 0DoF mode uses DC dimming at brightness levels 3-10, while levels 1 and 2 use PWM dimming.

These are 8-bit displays with no 10-bit support, so there should be no dithering at all. Despite the PWM dimming, I found these glasses quite comfortable with the prescription inserts. Normally, low-frequency PWM dimming (240-1000Hz) hurts my eyes and gives me a headache, but Xreal appears to be following the refresh rate here (120Hz), which typically doesn't bother me.

The dock changes everything

No other pair of smart display glasses to date ships with a dock like ROG R1. This dock sports two HDMI ports, one DisplayPort, and two USB-C ports on the back (one is power), plus a USB-C port on the front for your glasses. This means you can easily connect multiple computers or consoles to the dock and switch between them using the buttons on top of the dock, similar to a KVM switch.

Better yet, each button and joystick direction can be customized to perform virtually any feature or function toggle supported by the dock, so you can truly nail down your ideal configs and have them ready with a single press.

While the dock is phenomenal for providing 240Hz support and expanding preset and monitor parameter adjustment options, it's also a weird downgrade for spatial tracking and quick settings.

While the glasses alone support five quick settings for adjustment, plugging them into the dock removes the audio adjustment option. It's also cumbersome to switch between spatially-tracked modes and 0DoF mode, as you either have to set it to one of the quick buttons on top or dig through a few menus. Note that 6DoF requires the Xreal Eye attachment for the glasses, which can't be used with prescription lenses.

I also find it irritating that all the buttons on the glasses are disabled when plugging them into the dock. I understand that Asus/Xreal wants the dock to be the primary option, but it's still annoying for someone who switches between using the dock and plugging the glasses directly into portable devices.

Xreal should be able to address those issues in a firmware update, though, so while this is certainly annoying in its current state, there's no reason it needs to stay that way. Overall, the ROG R1 is an incredible pair of glasses that offers higher-quality imagery and more options than any other pair of smart glasses on the market.

If you're looking for an ultra-clean desk setup with no monitors, this is truly an incredible solution, especially given how well Xreal's spatial tracking system works. I'd still recommend the $450 Xreal 1S for most people, but the ROG R1 is an impressive enthusiast option for gamers seeking the highest-end solution.

The past two years have yielded significant advancements in smart glasses. Whether you're looking at a "wearable TV" or a pair of glasses with an AI companion built in, smart glasses have never made more sense to get than they do now. And as they continue to grow in popularity, they're only getting better and better.

Viture specializes in the "wearable TV" smart glasses segment and recently delivered its first pair of glasses with built-in spatial tracking. It also offers the best smart glasses ecosystem you can find today; that includes the only smart glasses that work with the Switch 2, a wearable spatial neckband, and several controllers.

I had a conversation with Viture's Optical Lead, Dr Deqing Kong, about the company's latest releases and learned about even more exciting products in the pipeline for the future. These represent the next generation of quality and eye comfort, and it won't be too long before they're ready to buy, too.

The roadmap to perfection

My biggest issue with smart glasses today isn't display quality or functionality; it's comfort. Smart glasses like Viture Beast offer built-in spatial tracking and a design that's significantly smaller and lighter than a VR headset, but the micro-OLED displays at the heart of the optics engine aren't always the most comfortable to look at for long periods of time.

For me, this is because I'm sensitive to low-frequency PWM dimming. Almost all smart glasses that use PWM dimming employ a 120Hz or 240Hz frequency, while RayNeo's most recent two generations offer 3840Hz (not a typo) PWM dimming. According to Dr Kong, this disparity is due to two factors: display quality and manufacturer specifications.

RayNeo uses SeeYa micro-OLED displays, a smaller firm out of China, while Viture and Xreal utilize Sony micro-OLEDs. Viture used SeeYa SY049 panels for the Viture One, but Dr. Kong told me that Sony panels offered greater color saturation and pixel density, so Viture switched to Sony for future product releases.

SeeYa panels have historically been more comfortable for me, in part because they use different dimming methods and, according to Dr. Kong, because Viture One's optics have a narrower FoV and higher pixel density. All major Viture and Xreal models released in the past year have a much wider FoV over 52 degrees, which lowers the pixel density of the glasses, but Viture's next glasses will more than make up for this.

Dr. Kong tells me that Viture's upcoming smart glasses, set to release later this year, will feature a large FoV with 2560 x 1600 resolution, a notable upgrade from the 1920 x 1200 resolution Viture's latest releases sport. The following year, we should expect a further bump in resolution, which may also coincide with an increase in FoV.

In addition to this, they'll feature up to 3840Hz PWM dimming, ensuring that people like me can find them comfortable no matter how long they're worn. That solves two huge problems in one fell swoop, and while there are plenty of other obstacles that'll need to be overcome to make smart glasses "perfect," these important steps will ensure that everyone finds the sweet spot as products evolve.

Pushing the boundaries of wearable tech

Every pair of smart display glasses (wearable TVs) you can buy today uses micro-OLED displays, regardless of which company makes the display or the glasses. While micro-OLEDs deliver some of the same great advantages of OLED TVs and smartphones, they also need to work a little differently because of the inherent nature of how lenses work on a wearable.

So while the latest Sony ECX348 micro-OLEDs can pump out an eye-searing 5,000 nits of brightness, that amount of light is cut by 1/5th — meaning your eyes receive around 1,000 nits — by the time it hits your eyes because of the glasses' birdbath optics. That number is even lower on VR headsets, and even though headsets like Galaxy XR and Apple Vision Pro use similar 5000-nit panels, their pancake optics reduce brightness down to under 200 nits by the time the light reaches your eyes.

For a VR headset, this low brightness level isn't a huge deal since most headsets block out external light, but smart glasses have to work around this differently since they don't obscure your vision. Glasses like Viture Beast and Xreal 1S use dimmable electrochromic film, which you can adjust in the glasses settings, adding tinting to the front of the glasses to reduce light interference with the display.

And while electrochromic film is very effective in reducing forward light, these glasses still have to overcome peripheral light leaks with higher brightness levels. Dr. Kong tells me the next Viture glasses will feature displays with a peak brightness of 8,000 nits, which, if the math stays the same, means they'll deliver an effective brightness level of 1,600 nits to your eyes.

Dr. Kong indicated that VITURE's display roadmap extends well beyond next-generation glasses, with further gains in resolution, brightness, and custom silicon on the horizon.

At the same time, we'll also see an improvement in color reproduction and capabilities. Current micro-OLEDs use 8-bit SDR color output, and while glasses like RayNeo Air 4 Pro are the first to debut with HDR10 support and 10-bit color, RayNeo's HDR10 implementation uses temporal dithering — a software flicker technique that simulates HDR.

VITURE's position is to wait for true panel-level HDR rather than ship a software workaround. Any flickering like this can cause headaches and discomfort for some people, so companies must offer ways to disable these techniques for affected users.

These upgraded micro-OLED panels will also feature RGB self-emission, which means they'll work more like the OLED screen in your TV or smartphone. Current smart glasses and VR-mounted micro-OLEDs feature white light pixels with RGB filters on top. Self-emissive color pixels will provide an upgraded color range and power efficiency.

I'm not privy to which of the two upcoming generations of glasses will support a wider color gamut, but Dr. Kong tells me that future Viture glasses will support 10-bit HDR output and 100% DCI color. Some of these improvements are tied to the coprocessor in the glasses, and Viture is working on a new, custom chip scheduled to debut in 2027.

That new chip will also support AI-based super-resolution, similar to AI upscaling on phones like the Galaxy S25 Ultra, but the quality upgrade will likely be even more pronounced because of the perceived size of the virtual display in Viture glasses.

Lastly, Viture tells me it's working on several other pain points for its users. Native color options, "professional grade color management," anti-aliasing, and anti-chromatic aberration are all in the pipeline for future Viture glasses. That last part, in particular, is music to my ears, as many glasses with larger FoV suffer from chromatic aberration around the edges of the lens.

This all spells an incredibly exciting future for smart display glasses, especially ones that focus on delivering top-tier image quality. Viture Beast was a huge step forward for the company's glasses, adding native spatial tracking and several other important features. The company's next steps look to take those improvements and combine them with the Luma line to create something even more impressive.

And if you absolutely can't wait, stay tuned for Prime Day (starting June 23) to check out some smart glasses sales. These kinds of products always go on discount for Prime Day (and similar sales events), which makes it the perfect time to pick up a pair.

In a move that I never saw coming, Supernatural is coming back from the dead, and its founders and coaches are starting a completely independent company for the relaunch.

The news sideswiped me mid-morning on Wednesday when the Facebook community's post (via Good Virtual Reality) was published, and it's the biggest VR news to hit since Meta closed most of its internal studios back in January.

As you probably guessed, one of those studios was Within, the house that made Supernatural and was acquired by Meta (then Facebook) back in 2021. Despite a landmark legal battle between the FTC and Meta over the acquisition, Meta washed its hands of what it used to claim was "the future of at-home workouts." But because of a thriving, outspoken online community, Supernatural is coming back, and this time it's fully free of Meta's clutches.

What made Supernatural special

Supernatural's original April 2020 launch couldn't have been more timely. Most of the world had shut down due to COVID. People weren't leaving their homes, weren't going to work, and definitely weren't going to the gym, but Supernatural quickly paved the way for people to stay fit at home and still get that coach-led experience they'd been sorely missing. My genuine first impression is pictured above, and it tells you everything you need to know.

Supernatural isn't (or wasn't) just a realistic-looking Beat Saber clone. Each day brought a new coach-led workout, filled with popular music, gorgeous vistas, and gameplay that rewarded those who put in 100% effort. As Russell Holly put it when he wrote about it that May, "I'm dripping in sweat, every inch of me is sore, and I have a huge smile on my face."

At the time, I had never gone to a coach-led gym class and, quite frankly, had very little interest in such things. Russell's recommendation, along with the fervent recommendations from the VR community at large, convinced me to try it. I spent the next several months playing it every day, and I quickly realized the power a coach's voice had. It, along with my wife, pushed me into a substantially healthier lifestyle than I had ever had.

And I'm far, far from alone in that sentiment. The official Supernatural Facebook community has over 113,000 members, and the responses to this week's news have been overwhelmingly positive. "No! I’m not crying at work!" reads one post, and nearly all of the replies are the same. "I cried too." "Definitely crying! This app changed my life." "I’m crying at work!!!!"

It's because Supernatural wasn't just an excellent, coach-led daily workout. It was an entire community of people who found a way to make working out fun and share in those wins together. People encouraged each other. They cried with each other. They won with each other, and the unceremonious plug-pulling that Meta did in January 2026 was more than just heartbreaking to those folks. It was the end of something that changed their lives for the better.

What's the new Supernatural going to look like?

Supernatural is returning, and while most important parts of the experience will remain, plenty of things will undoubtedly change. The team isn't shying away from saying that this isn't the same old app under new management. It's OG management taking back the reins and creating something new (and hopefully better) in the process.

Per the official Supernatural website, your favorite coaches will be back "on day one," new workouts and future features will be built using feedback, and the community will be central to the entire experience. Since the coaches need to be paid for their ongoing work, Supernatural will still be a subscription-only experience, but fans can lock in a "founder's rate" by registering interest in the relaunch, which is currently slated for the fall of 2026.

The standard rate is going up to $20 per month or $200 per year, but let's be real: there's no chance you'll ever find a coach-led gym class that's just $20 a month. Even if you need financial aid to cover the cost, Supernatural Scholarships will be available to help.

While specific platforms haven't yet been announced, Supernatural will still be a "VR workout app." That almost undoubtedly means Meta Quest first, since it's a fully standalone, wireless VR console, but now that Supernatural is free of Meta's funding and influence, it may also mean it comes to other VR platforms.

"We’re returning to our roots and plan to build major parts of the technology from the ground up as a much smaller company," says the Supernatural team, and that tells me that this game will almost certainly be less reliant on Meta's proprietary development tools and, instead, built in a way that's more sustainable for future growth.

There's no chance the core gameplay loop changes, although I imagine plenty of new ideas from the community can be implemented in this rebuilt Supernatural. As licenced, popular music was one of the core facets of what made Supernatural so uniquely powerful, I also doubt that we'll see any real change in the soundtrack.

Regardless of the specifics, one thing is certain: Supernatural is back, the community is on fire for the new direction of its favorite workout app, and VR fitness is about to have a full-on renaissance this fall. The real question is whether other now-defunct Meta studios will also see this kind of revival, as well.

When Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook bought Oculus back in 2014, the company billed VR as "a strong candidate to emerge as the next social and communications platform." Seven years later, in 2021, Facebook rebranded to Meta in an effort to become the de facto metaverse leader.

In the five years since then, a lot has changed at Meta, but one thing is clear: the original vision of VR as the next social and communications platform is becoming a reality, even if the path to get there looks very different from what was expected.

Instead of an all-encompassing capital-M Metaverse controlled by a single company (à la "Ready Player One"), a swath of free-to-play games from small indie developers has taken root, serving as social hubs for millions of Meta Quest gamers every month. Gorilla Tag began the movement in February 2021, and no one at the time had any idea how it would fundamentally transform VR in just a few short years.

"When we started our studio, we were building the wrong games," said Spencer Cook, CEO of Continuum, the studio behind the uber-popular Ug VR. The line came from a 2026 GDC panel where the studio helped explain what made Ug VR the success it has become and how VR is different from what seemingly everyone thought.

It's a powerful example of how each medium has its own draws, and how the same kinds of games that work on a TV-mounted console don't work on a head-mounted VR system.

Social first is how you win

For years, Meta and many VR-first developers chased the idea of creating the next Grand Theft Auto, Mario, Uncharted, or Halo. Meta poured billions into gaming development, creating genuinely phenomenal titles worthy of 5-star reviews. It stacked up big names like Batman: Arkham Shadow, Marvel's Deadpool, The Walking Dead, Assassin's Creed Nexus, and so many more, creating a powerful library of games any gamer should have been jealous of.

But it didn't work, and no one really understands why. Instead, VR gamers by the millions are coming back day after day to play social-first games that are (by developers' own admissions) simple experiences without "polished mechanics" or "clever gameplay ideas". It would sound damning if it didn't work so well.

Ironically, all of the biggest VR games these days follow the advice Andrew Eiche laid out when I interviewed him a few years ago. Eiche is the CEO of Owlchemy Games, creator of VR classics like Job Simulator and Vacation Simulator, and those games all follow the idea of letting you roleplay without letting exposition get in the way. In other words, you're not playing in the shoes of Cal Kestis or Kay Vess to save the galaxy; you're playing in your own shoes and a character of your own creation.

In addition, the most successful VR games in 2026 are almost exclusively designed to enable players to create and share content on the world's most popular social media platforms. From YouTube Shorts to TikTok, these games' videos amass millions of views and have created real success for the people playing them and having fun making content. It's an endless wheel of fun and success, and it keeps giving birth to more games like it.

For a few years, anything that looked or moved like Gorilla Tag was hastily referred to as a Gorilla Tag clone, but players have learned that this label is simply incorrect. Titles like Yeeps, Scary Baboon, Wizherd, Digi Gods, and Ug VR all share similar movement mechanics to Gorilla Tag, but there's often a special gameplay hook that separates these titles from the rest of the pack.

Last week, I spoke with Kyle Joyce, CEO of Enver Studios and creator of Scary Baboon, one of the most popular social VR games today. As you might expect from the name, this one uses familiar Gorilla Tag mechanics and the popular PS1-era art style, but blends it with horror-lite mechanics that fans of Five Nights at Freddy's and Poppy Playtime simply love.

The studio has expanded Scary Baboon recently with new co-op experiences that let players work together to solve problems, fight monsters, and explore the world. The key here is that players aren't fighting each other; they're working together to survive, and it's this concept that has also spawned the "friendslop" genre.

To date, seven million people have installed Scary Baboon (that's unique players, not installs), and Joyce told me the retention rate is impressively high. This tracks with the Ug VR GDC video I linked earlier, where Spencer Cook outlined a 70% retention rate among the game's audience. Scary Baboon's latest update lets players fight back against the monsters regularly haunting the halls. Still, players have to be smart about weapon usage because monsters can become enraged and invincible for a while if hit too much.

Scary Baboon's latest updates have been so popular that the company has been able to ink a deal with "a large, legacy IP" that'll debut in an update this July. Joyce says their numbers have consistently been up in recent months, owing to the success of both the latest updates and the shift from "frustrating PvP" to a friendlier co-op PvE experience.

"Our audience would rather play with their friends than against them," Joyce told me. I can relate to this, as I find myself gravitating toward non-PvP experiences more and more. This is especially the case with free-to-play titles like Scary Baboon or Animal Company, both of which I regularly play with my son and have regular content updates to explore.

Joyce says his studio has been focusing on community feedback and letting players drive the game's future, while also acknowledging that they can't please everyone. Joyce said this focus is why he started creating content for the game and participates in community events, helping other players feel involved in the game's creation.

Unsurprisingly, Ug VR's creators say "our success comes from knowing what entertains our players and from engaging with the community." It's a very different model from what has made games successful in the past, particularly because of the speed and voracity at which the community consumes and shares content.

It's taken a solid decade of learning and growing, but it's become clear that VR games do best when socializing or role-playing are the core experience. Given the impressive rate of growth of these types of games along with the stagnation of more traditional games, it's clear that VR's success will look different from what many initially thought, but players who embrace this change will find a unique, engaging experience that's truly different from what's available on any other video game medium.

It's been a long time coming, but we finally got to see Xreal Project Aura in action at Google I/O 2026. The hybrid smart glasses are designed to deliver a VR experience in a smart glasses form factor, so you get the full power of the Android XR platform without the bulk of a VR headset. Project Aura packs dual displays (one in each lens), speakers, and cameras to deliver an upgraded smart glasses experience.

To achieve this, Xreal Project Aura is designed a little differently than other smart glasses you can buy today. Instead of cramming all the electronics and battery into the glasses, Xreal will be shipping Aura specs with a small compute puck that fits comfortably in your pocket. This little puck holds the battery, Snapdragon processor, and most of the heavier components, so the glasses stay as light as possible and look more like a regular pair of glasses.

Xreal is still outfitting Aura glasses with an upgraded X1S chip and a set of cameras that allow it to spatially track your position, so you can get that full VR spatial experience. This upgraded X1S chip focuses on improved speed and multitasking compared to the X1 chip in the current-generation Xreal One glasses.

Fundamentally different from every other pair of smart glasses

Xreal released many of the first official details of Project Aura after the Google I/O 2026 show yesterday, a full year after the initial unveiling at last year's I/O. During a product briefing ahead of I/O 2026, Xreal told me to expect the glasses to make their commercial debut this year. Whether that'll be alongside the new Samsung-built AI glasses in the fall, or slightly closer to the holidays, is up in the air.

Since Tuesday afternoon's information release, there's been some confusion about how Project Aura works. These glasses aren't the same as current-generation glasses like Xreal 1S or Viture Beast. Those glasses are just a wearable monitor that you plug into another device, like your phone, laptop, or even a device like the Nintendo Switch 2.

Xreal Project Aura is intended to be used entirely on its own, though it also doubles as a wearable monitor, if you want. But normally, you'll plug it into the compute puck I mentioned above and get the full Android XR experience. That means full spatial tracking of your surroundings and hand tracking (to enable natural movement and interaction), plus support for all existing Android 2D and spatial apps.

You can see it in action at the link below (jump to 12:16 if the link doesn't do that for you).

The puck itself looks like a phone, but it's not. It's a clear evolution of 2024's Xreal Beam Pro, including the dual USB-C ports on the bottom.

Xreal stopped short of announcing a specific Snapdragon chipset for the compute puck. Still, since it's designed to offer the full Android XR experience, it's going to be far more capable than the chipsets found in all-in-one XR glasses like Ray-Ban Display or even the monocular display glasses Google and Samsung are working on.

Project Aura features a 70-degree field of view (FoV), which is about 15 degrees wider than the best smart glasses available today, but still about 20-30 degrees narrower than a VR headset like the Meta Quest 3. Whether you'll want to play VR games on this regularly remains to be seen, but the glasses should be perfect for mixed-reality games that overlay virtual objects onto the real world or use the real world as a backdrop.

Based on Android Central managing editor Derrek Lee's hands-on time and analyst Anshel Sag's notes, it's clear Xreal and Google have put some impressive work into translating the VR experience into a sleek pair of smart glasses. Sag says the narrower FoV is impressive and translates the Galaxy XR experience faithfully. As a regular Galaxy XR user, this is exactly what I was hoping to hear!

Additionally, the image quality and performance seem to be on par with the headset for daily tasks. Since the glasses have Gemini built in, they can detect faces and automatically dim the display so you can see the person standing in front of you best, making this feel even more like a magic floating display.

Project Aura doesn't have a final product name, price, or specific release date, but we expect it to be available later this year, likely at a similar (or slightly higher) price to the new Xreal ROG R1 glasses announced last week. Xreal is sending out the first 1,000 devkits for free, which means there's no real investment for developers to begin making Android XR spatial apps right now. The future looks very bright for this tech, and Aura will lead the way in the next big XR push.

This week, I plugged a pair of Viture Beast smart glasses into my Motorola Razr Fold 2026 to see what it would do. Most phones just mirror the phone screen onto a pair of smart glasses like this, but Motorola does something totally different. A special menu appears on the glasses, giving you a way to quickly launch games, movies, video chats, or even turn your phone into a full-fledged laptop replacement.

As smartphones have become more capable over the years, I've found my travel bag growing lighter and lighter. Smartphones have largely replaced dedicated cameras for the vast majority of people — I've even gone to more than one event without a big camera — and laptops may soon be on the way out, if my experience with the Razr Fold is anything to go by.

Using a phone as a laptop isn't a new thing, per se, but Motorola makes the transition effortless with Motorola Smart Connect, a piece of software they've been improving over the past few years that links all your devices. The brilliant part is that this works on more than just Motorola devices, as it's designed to let you carry over all your digital belongings and information, no matter which platforms you use.

Fulfilling the XR dream

For the past several years, we've seen new VR headsets launch with the idea that they were a "laptop for your face." Apple did it with the Vision Pro. Samsung did it with the Galaxy XR. Both companies were successful in their own ways with these launches, but the price proved prohibitive for most people.

But a pair of XR smart glasses like Xreal 1S or Viture Beast are a different story entirely. While still a bit expensive, these glasses are a fraction of the cost of bulkier VR headsets and offer a much sleeker hardware profile, easily fitting into a travel bag and looking a lot less awkward when wearing in public.

Possibly even better is the fact that the glasses plug into your phone, meaning you don't have to remember to install all your favorite apps or copy your most important files over to another device. On top of that, Motorola's excellent Smart Connect software gives you a completely different UI when glasses are plugged in, and it looks just like your desktop or laptop PC.

For maximum productivity, I recommend slipping a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse into your travel bag. This brilliant Logitech keyboard ($24 as of writing this) has a laptop-style trackpad built into it, so you can get all the comforts of laptop controls without having to pack extra equipment. Just open your Razr Fold's Bluetooth settings and pair the keyboard to the phone, no extra configuration needed!

When you plug your favorite pair of smart glasses into your Razr Fold, a menu will appear, allowing you to quickly launch desktop, TV, video call, or gaming modes. The Razr Fold's screen will automatically turn into a trackpad for navigation, so if you don't want to go the keyboard and mouse route, this is a supremely convenient fallback.

Now, all you have to do is use your thumb (or any finger, really) to slide the on-screen mouse cursor over to your mode of choice, then tap the screen to perform a click. If you launch Desktop Mode, a familiar desktop UI will appear on screen, complete with a mouse cursor.

From this point, there's literally nothing your Razr Fold can't do. Play games, launch your favorite browser, open Google Drive or Gmail, and get some work done. Whatever floats your boat works here, and you can even scale windows, move them around, minimize them, etc., just like a Windows or Mac computer.

To make things even better, you can load up the GameHub app from the Google Play Store and play Steam games natively on your Razr Fold, replacing devices like a Steam Deck. I recently checked out the latest Viture Beast glasses and an accompanying Viture controller that are perfect for this functionality, replacing yet another device in your travel bag.

Now, your phone does it all, and thanks to smart glasses like Viture Beast or Xreal 1S, your neck won't hurt from looking down at a handheld gaming system or laptop for the entire trip.

Choosing the right pair of smart glasses can be tricky, but if you're looking at the "wearable TV" segment, no company has offered a better combination of products than Viture. Sure, Xreal and RayNeo offer compelling options and even won best smart glasses picks for several reasons, but Viture makes a whole ecosystem of products, while the other guys mainly focus on the glasses.

This past week, Viture officially launched The Beast, its latest pair of high-end XR glasses that feature native 3DoF spatial tracking, 1200p resolution, and a host of other great tricks. I compared them to the Xreal 1S back in January, but Viture's official retail launch on Amazon and Best Buy came with a firmware update that fixed nearly all of my complaints about the original release.

Not only that, but Viture partnered with ABXY to release a brand-new smart glasses gaming controller, giving users an upgrade over the previous Viture x 8BitDo controller released last May. When paired together, these turn your smartphone into the ultimate portable gaming machine, giving you ultimate comfort for your hands and neck, plus the power of a customizable controller.

Viture Beast upgrades

Viture Beast had a great start with its initial January release to early adopters, but they was missing some of the promised features. Now, with the full retail release, Viture has released a firmware update that delivers on all the initial promises, and it means this is now on par with Xreal's best offerings, and even better if you combine it with Viture's excellent ecosystem. Here's everything new:

• No more 3DoF drifting: Yep, it's true! 3DoF drifting has been fixed, which means your virtual monitor will stay in place in Anchored mode just as if it were a real monitor or TV mounted to a wall. This was arguably Viture Beast's biggest weakness at launch.
• 1200p resolution: Viture Beast launched with a 16:9 aspect ratio and 1920 x 1080 resolution. The glasses now default to 16:10 at 1920 x 1200, making them identical to the Xreal 1S in this regard.
• Upgraded side mode: Double-tapping the L1 button previously would shrink the virtual display to the bottom-left or bottom-right corner, making it easier to see through the glasses without missing what's happening on your screen. You can now shrink the display to the top-left or top-right, which might be preferable for watching cooking videos while cooking, for example.
• Instant display mode switching: You can now hold the left plus button to switch between default, ultrawide, 3D, and side mode. Previously, you had to open the menu and scroll for a bit to do this.
• Better memory: Annoyingly, the glasses previously would forget important settings like refresh rate, resolution, and positioning modes. Thankfully, Viture fixed this, and now these settings will all persist.
• Pro Neckband compatibility: Viture's Pro Neckband is a wearable computer that connects to your glasses, and now Viture Beast fully supports it. This way, you don't have to use your phone to use your glasses, which might be optimal for entertainment while traveling.
• Firmware changes and a new language: Firmware updates are now faster, although you'll still need to use a computer and update through Viture's firmware update website. Additionally, Mandarin is now available in the glasses' OSD menu.

Abxylute-ly the best controller

Abxylute has been making a name for itself lately with a host of fantastic, often unique controllers and handheld gaming systems. From Game Boy Advance SP-style controllers to the new S9V, this company makes something special worth a look. The S9V is the first controller I've used from them, and it's ready to dethrone my previous favorite, the GameSir G8 Galileo.

The design is similar to other Switch-style controllers, breaking a traditional controller into two "halves" connected via a spring-loaded bridge. That bridge sports a nice rubberized coating to better hold your phone in place while it's connected to the flexible USB-C port, which helps account for varying phone sizes and shapes. There are even a few adjuster pieces in the box to help level phones with oversized camera islands or that are too small to fit.

Abxylute ingeniously designed this controller with several replaceable parts, including three different d-pads in the box (each with a very different design), entire joysticks, buttons, and even the faceplates on the left and right. Those faceplates come off with a simple set of magnets, but are designed so they won't pop off while playing.

The buttons, triggers, joystick height and rigidity, and the contours of the controller are all perfect. The USB-C port that connects to your phone not only tilts to accommodate different phone shapes, but it's also quite long, so you can still use it with a case on your phone. Most mobile controllers forget that. Nothing feels cheap or half-heartedly designed, and that's something that's simply not always the case with mobile controllers.

But enough about the design, how about what makes this controller more unique: the ability to connect your Viture glasses to it. This gives you the advantages of USB-C controllers — lower latency, charging while playing, and no battery to charge for Bluetooth connectivity — while still letting you use your Viture glasses to get a massive floating screen in front of you, helping avoid neck and back strain after long gaming sessions.

All you have to do is connect your phone to the controller, then plug your Viture glasses into the glasses port on the inside of the right grip. No config, no nonsense. I did find that it works better with some phone models than others — Samsung, Google, and OnePlus phones all worked perfectly, while Nothing and Honor didn't display video, so your mileage might vary there.

In addition to that heckin nifty concept, you can remap buttons and even set specific macros to each of the two back buttons using the Abxylute app. Amazingly enough, you can even turn on gyro aiming and customize how it works, making this controller feel a bit more like a Steam Controller.

This one's currently available for $79.99 on the official Abxylute site, making it about $15 more expensive than the standard Abxylute S9.

Given the state of the gaming industry right now, it's always surprising when a gem comes along and blows me away. It's even more surprising that this has happened more than once this year, and TMNT: Empire City is just the most recent example of developers triumphing during a particularly tribulating era.

But given Cortopia Studios' pedigree, this shouldn't be all that surprising. The developer is responsible for games like Wands Alliances, Down the Rabbit Hole, Escaping Wonderland, and GORN 2, and it's great to see the company working its magic on an IP that's so close to my heart: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

I've been a turtle fan ever since I was a kid, and the number of excellent beat-em-up games the property has spawned over the years is nothing short of legendary. This latest title puts the action in first-person via a Meta Quest headset, letting you team up with three other friends — each embodying a legendary Ninja Turtle — to take down the Footclan once and for all after the death of the Shredder, and there's more to it than you ever could have hoped for, too!

Smells like teen spirit

After a particularly fantastic intro that takes you through all four turtles to learn their abilities, you learn that the Shredder is dead, but a new villain threatens to resurrect him in an even more powerful state, putting New York City into a state of emergency. As the city fills with portals to another dimension and the Footclan moves in to take over, you wake up safely in the sewer-bound Turtles' Lair alongside Master Splinter, April O'Neil, and even Casey Jones.

From the onset to the moment you finish it, the game feels like a living comic book. The visual style plays perfectly to this feeling, with thick cel-shaded edges, heavy shadows, and gorgeous hand-drawn textures. The game is impressively interactive throughout, too, with tons of collectibles to find, lots of optional side quests and activities to complete, minigames to play with friends, and plenty of objects to pick up and goof around with.

In many ways, this feels like a TMNT version of the latest PlayStation Spider-Man games. You get a sizable New York City to explore, complete with different neighborhoods and sections, underground sewerways, buildings you can enter to complete quests, random crimes and missions that pop up around the city as you roam its streets, and tons of ways to parkour and show off your ninja skills.

Like any good modern open-world game — particularly in VR — you can climb basically anything you want. Reaching for the side of buildings, windowsills, steel beams, light poles, etc., will present you with a white highlight of where to grab. This mechanic feels accurate for a Ninja Turtle, because you still have to grab specific places to climb, not just bare rock walls, but there's no shortage of ways to parkour up a building to get a better vantage point.

TMNT: Empire City rewards players who approach situations with a stealth-first approach, but you can always just rush in and go ham if you enjoy the traditional beat-em-up mechanics. As you would expect, each Turtle has its own weapon and skillset, with plenty of attitude and jokes to fill the gaps.

Combat is rewarding and visceral, albeit a little easy from the onset, but things get more challenging and varied as you progress through the game. You'll also come across tons of little puzzles along the way. Locked doors might require a keycard or just a conveniently placed computer to hack, or maybe even a power junction box that you need to rewire (via a fun laser puzzle).

You'll also find lots of junk lying about. Plastic parts, electronics scraps, and other pickups can be used in Donnie's machine back in the Turtle Lair to craft items and upgrades. You can hold several items at a time in your pouch, and players can equip two upgrades from a list of unlockables that suit the mission best. There's a ton here, and it deeply rewards players who enjoy exploring, something that's great to see in a game like this.

The new hangout

When I first joined a friend of mine in TMNT: Empire City, we high-fived each other and quickly realized how much fun it is to be a Ninja Turtle. The Turtle Lair is decorated in a way that feels legit. Each of the Turtles' rooms fits their unique personalities. There's even a chessboard in the living room with pieces you have to find throughout the game, eventually culminating in a board you can use to play with friends.

Running and climbing through the city with friends is a ton of fun, and between the minigames and strategizing your next attack, there's no shortage of things to do. And if you want to roleplay, there are tons of ways to do that, too. It's equally great for kids and the kids at heart.

One of the most surprising things to me was seeing a city faction map that constantly changes. When you start the game, the Footclan has taken full control of the city, but you can liberate it by completing missions and destroying outposts. The Clan will eventually rebuild these outposts and take the territory back if you don't defend it, so keep an eye on the crime meter back in the Turtle Lair.

As you clear Footclan outposts, special NPCs will appear in those safe parts of the city to offer you bonus quests and challenges. These can be anything from parkour races to basketball, and are all a blast to play with friends. They've all got leaderboards, too, so if your friends can't join you, you can always compete on your own.

I came into this game expecting a fun beat-em-up that lasted a few hours and was just fun for that brief time, but I came away realizing this is so much more than meets the eye. It's an impressive accomplishment in every way, from the visuals to the size of the city, things to do by yourself and with friends, and even the original story itself.

This is what I'll be doing for the next few Fridays when I play with friends, and I hope to see a ton of Turtles joining the fray as the game launches on the Meta Quest and Steam on April 31 for a crazy good $24.99. Plus, it's crossplay-compatible, so you can enjoy time with friends even if they're on a different platform.

For two solid years, a group of friends and I played Breachers every Friday night. It was something I looked forward to all week, and thanks to the game's regular updates, it took us a solid two years to finally call it quits. Since then, we haven't found something that all of us consistently want to play, but that's all about to change with the release of Forefront.

Unsurprisingly, Forefront is made by the same developers of Breachers. Just as Breachers borrows many of the best concepts from the Rainbow Six series, Forefront borrows many concepts from games like Battlefield and PUBG, all while still feeling unique and visceral in the way only VR games can.

I recently had the opportunity to play the final release build of the game with dozens of YouTubers and gaming journalists, and when I tell you this is the next big multiplayer VR phenomenon, I'm not exaggerating. By the end of the three rounds we played, there wasn't a single person who wasn't cheering and asking for another one.

It's a feeling I haven't had since Breachers came out, and while I've played many different (and excellent) multiplayer VR games since then, this is the one that's going to bring me back to consistently playing with my friend group, and I couldn't be happier about it.

Battlefield 2035

Forefront takes place in the year 2035 and puts players in 32-player battlegrounds, vying for control of different points on the map in one of two game modes. It channels classics like Battlefield and Tribes with plenty of bespoke mechanics for VR headsets and is available on Steam VR and Meta Quest platforms, with a PSVR 2 release in the near future.

As you might expect from a game like this, you can choose from one of four classes, each of which has its own special traits and equipment. Whether you choose the Assault, Medic, Engineer, or Sniper classes, you can pilot a dozen different types of vehicles, from jet skis to helicopters, ATVs, tanks, and more.

All vehicles allow more than one player to board, and several even allow players to operate large guns or other special equipment while riding. The environments are semi-destructible, including many buildings that can have walls blown up, as well as other obstacles that can be destroyed to open up new paths of attack.

As someone who poured hundreds of hours into Tribes 2 and Battlefield 1942, it's been a while since I've truly enjoyed a game in this genre. Don't get me wrong, I've tried several similar titles over the past 20 years since those games existed, but few of them have held my attention the way Forefront was able to.

Unironically, the same thing happened with Breachers, as the last time I played a similar type of game was Rainbow Six 3 on the original Xbox. Clearly, there was a time where I enjoyed these types of team-based multiplayer games, and that ship certainly sailed for a bit, but it appears it's back in port thanks to the immersion only VR can provide.

Being able to physically steer vehicles, hide behind walls, climb towers, and slap the paddles together to revive a teammate just hits different. Physically doing something feels objectively different than watching an on-screen character do it, and it's that difference that's reinvigorated these types of games for me again.

It also helps immensely that VR games like Forefront make communication so darn easy. All the equipment needed to talk to my teammates is built into the headset, no silly keyboard menus to navigate through, and no nonsense tech support to deal with just to get a microphone working, either. Just strategize with your teammates using your voice and they hear you.

Forefront has been in early access for several months now, and the difference between this version 1.0 release and the original release is pretty monumental. The odd lag or occassional jank that was present in earlier versions is gone, replaced with an impressively smooth game that delivers Battlefield-sized levels with 32-players, all minus hitching or lag. This is why I love gaming on consoles like the Quest 3, and it's great to see something made so well!

Developer Triangle Factory also introduced a combat bow with the version 1.0 release, and I couldn't be happier about how it feels to use it. Bows are already my favorite weapon to use in VR because of the highly tactile nature of the weapon, and this one is typically an instakill so long as you pulled back far enough on the string.

There's nothing quite as thrilling as setting an arrow sailing across the ravaged town square only to down an enemy in an instant. It's far more rewarding than using a gun, even if guns are more efficient.

I also loved operating vehicles, but will understand if some people need to have others drive. If you're prone to motion sickness at all, you'll definitely want to enable some of the supporting settings to keep that at bay while operating a vehicle. It can be intense.

I'm so happy to have a game like Forefront that reinvigorates this genre for me, and I can't wait to see what Triangle Factory does with the game over the next few years. Their support of Breachers over the years was legendary. Given the community that Forefront has already developed over the past few months of early access, I know big things are coming to an already impressively big game.

Samsung's Galaxy XR hasn't seen too many notable updates since the XR headset launched at the end of 2025, but that all changed last week when Google and Samsung brought the headset up to a recent security patch and added some nifty new features.

Leading the pack for consumers is a handful of quality-of-life features that make the headset more pleasant to use in many different ways. You can easily pin virtual app windows to walls, for instance, remote desktop sessions restore window sizes and shapes, and you can even tell Android XR to convert all 2D content to 3D.

It's that last feature that really caught my eye, as it sounds a lot like what Xreal and Viture have done on their latest smart glasses. The key difference here is that Android XR would be doing this at the system level, potentially allowing for greater quality and compatibility than the "simpler" solutions from Xreal and Viture. That turns out to be true when it works, and that last part is the worst part of the experience so far.

Auto Spatilization feels like magic

Take a look at the image above and tell me what you see. Since I can't hear you, I imagine you're saying Minecraft, which would be correct. That is, indeed, Minecraft running in a virtual window, pinned to my wall, via the Galaxy XR headset.

But further than that, the game is being auto-spatialized by the underlying Android XR operating system that runs the Galaxy XR. In short, that means the birch tree in the front looks physically closer to me than the oak trees further back. You might say, "Well, duh, Nick," but that's because you're not fully understanding what I mean.

With Auto Spatialization, Android XR takes the depth information it perceives in any app on the system and cleverly places pixels "forward" or "backward" in space to make me see depth. The OS uses a clever AI agent that understands objects and other similar things, which then translates a 2D image into something fully 3D. Since you're just looking at a 2D image above, there's no way to properly see (and therefore perceive) what's actually happening. Even a video won't do the trick.

Likewise, this YouTube video looks as if it were filmed with a proper 3D camera thanks to the same feature. It's an effect that works better for some apps than others, but it's implemented at the system level, and that's a true game-changer for this fledgling feature. Viture debuted the technology on its smart glasses last summer, and this is just the next evolution.

Being at an app level means everything can get the 2D-to-3D treatment, but it's clear this is still a "Labs" feature, as it doesn't always work. While I was playing Minecraft above, for instance, I would notice the window sometimes snapping between 2D and 3D versions of the game, and it was incredibly obvious the moment it happened.

The YouTube app was also very inconsistent with which videos it wanted to make 3D and which it would leave as 2D. I couldn't figure out why, and this is where the real frustration lies. Google will undoubtedly improve this feature over time, so, for now, it's mainly something Galaxy XR users can toy around with but shouldn't rely on.

How to enable Auto Spatialization on a Galaxy XR

As of this writing, Auto Spatialization is a Labs feature on the Galaxy XR. That means it's still technically in testing, and the inconsistent results I saw are fully expected. But if you still want to give it a try (and why not?), it takes just a few clicks to get the job done:

1. Make a pinch gesture with your thumb and index finger to open the home menu, then click Settings.

2. Scroll down to Advanced features on the left-side menu and tap it.

3. Select Labs from the right side.

4. Turn on Auto spatialization.

Once you enable the feature, it should be enabled in all apps. Just to make sure it's enabled, though, open any app you want to try the feature on (YouTube is a good start), then click the app icon in the control center above the app window. If the feature is enabled, you should see "Turn off Auto spatialization" in the menu.

Why Xreal is still better...for now

On a technical level, the Android XR/Galaxy XR implementation of the Auto spatialization feature is superior to everything else I've used, but that's only when it wants to work. As I said previously, I noticed several times when the feature simply wouldn't work at all, or would pop in and out even while I was playing a game or watching a video.

This is why Xreal's Real3D technology on its latest Xreal One series glasses remains the superior option for now. Real3D uses the X1 chipset on each pair of Xreal One, Xreal 1S, and Xreal One Pro glasses to turn everything into 3D content. The feature is either on or off, and there's no configuration to deal with. It just works, and you can even adjust the 3D strength within the glasses' menu, too!

The downside to Xreal's implementation is that everything is 3D, and that feels weird when opening menus or other content that simply doesn't translate well into 3D space. I like to assign Real3D to the shortcut key on the top of the Xreal glasses to help make this a convenient toggle.

I think Xreal will see its technology surpassed once Google and Samsung can get the Auto spatialization feature to work more consistently, though. The lenses, displays, and overall image quality on the Galaxy XR are substantially better than anything a current pair of smart glasses can produce, which means the 3D quality is simply better-looking than what Xreal can produce on its glasses chipset.

There's also the added bonus that Android XR does not limit the 3D feature to a specific framerate, while Xreal's implementation is currently capped at 30FPS. That makes Xreal's tech less ideal for games but just fine for most videos.

No matter if you've got a Galaxy XR or a pair of Xreal One glasses, seeing 2D content transformed into 3D content is an absolutely magical feeling. It's one of those AI implementations that makes a lot of sense, and it feels like living in a future when the content we play and watch feels like we're truly in the middle of it all.

The best Meta Quest headstraps have always balanced comfort and longevity, evening out the headset's weight and adding great features like rechargeable batteries and washable pads.

The BoboVR S3 Pro takes things several steps further by not only improving headset comfort with pads and adjustable components, but it also adds in a fancy fan that'll keep your head cool for as long as the magnetically detachable, rechargeable battery packs last.

I put it head-to-head with the AMVR BS1, a headstrap that looks similar but fails to match the quality and comfort of the BoboVR S3 Pro. You'll pay a bit more to get BoboVR's headstrap (roughly $10 more), but that extra price makes all the difference in the world for comfort and performance.

Comfort meets convenience

Everything about the BoboVR S3 Pro is a masterclass in VR headset comfort engineering. The headstrap comes with ample, removable, and easily washable pads, ensuring sharing your headset isn't a gross experience.

It also features several adjustable components that fit better thanks to a trademark design philosophy. BoboVR's headstraps not only slide onto the side arms of the Meta Quest 3 and Quest 3S, but they also don't connect to the top buckle on the headset. That allows the BoboVR S3 Pro to get a better angle than the connector would allow, and it also means the headset can swivel independently of the headstrap itself.

For me, that's an important differentiator as competing straps like the AMVR BS1 are locked at a specific axis, and that happens to be too low for comfort on my face. I've dealt with this problem on some other headstraps before, and I almost always replace them with something else in no time flat.

The back of the headstrap sports a removable battery dock that magnetically attaches to the battery packs. The base headstrap includes one of these 10,000mAh batteries, which is rated for about 5 extra hours of play time on the Quest. Battery life of the headstrap will be reduced depending on how often you use the built-in fan.

That built-in fan will keep your forehead cool in a way I haven't seen with any other headstrap. Fans on headstraps aren't unique, but this one sports a design that fully envelops my forehead and blows air over it at several adjustable speeds, all easily adjusted via the control wheel on the left side.

That control panel also displays the attached battery pack's percentage, so you know when your battery is about to run out. Like all other BoboVR headstraps, the battery will beep when attached or detached, so you don't have to take your headset off to swap out batteries.

This battery pack can be easily charged either via a USB-C cable or with any of the company's battery docks. For this review, I used the BoboVR PD100, which ships with the dock and one extra battery. This dock has an easy-to-read display that shows the battery percentage of the docked battery pack and even includes an extra cable to charge more than one battery at a time.

The charger operates at 30W, which means it will take about two hours to fully charge each battery pack. Considering the battery packs last around five hours each, there should never be a scenario where you run into having a dead battery, so long as you've got two of them. This battery is required to run the fan, so make sure you're using the battery with the headstrap if you want the full feature set.

The last thing I want to look at is comfort, and this is an area where the BoboVR S3 Pro particularly excels. It's great and all to have the fan, battery, and display on the headstrap, but there's no point in wearing it if it's uncomfortable.

The AMVR BS1 that I compared it to is generally uncomfortable, in my experience. It sits too low on my face and uses an angle that's constantly pushing the headset down on my cheeks. The BoboVR S3 Pro's forehead pad sits much lower on the strap, ensuring that all the weight is situated on this pad instead of my face.

You can see this difference in the image above, and while the angle doesn't seem like it would make much of a difference, the surprising reality is that it does. Both straps have a secondary hinge in the middle that swivels, allowing you to get a better angle for the pad on the back of your head, and I find that BoboVR's hinge is much tighter, ensuring it stays at the angle you want.

The one to beat

At the regular price of $89, the BoboVR S3 Pro sits squarely in the premium accessory market and makes no apologies for its price. BoboVR has long been a leader in the premium Meta Quest accessories space, and while the company offers less expensive accessories like the E3 and M3 Pro, people who want the best of the best should opt for the S3 Pro instead.

It's got more padding, more ways to adjust it to your comfort level, bigger batteries, and that all-important fan that keeps you cool and lens fog away for good. It's a winner for everything except maybe your budget, but there's something to be said about equipping your technology in a way that ensures long-term comfort.

This week, Meta announced the latest evolution in its Metaverse strategy, and while it's not totally unexpected, it is still a bit surprising. Horizon Worlds, Meta's Roblox-like Metaverse ecosystem for Meta Quest headsets, is officially being killed off on Meta's VR platform, with the last day of service happening on June 15, 2026. This was detailed in an email sent to Meta Quest account holders:

"Starting June 15, 2026, you will no longer be able to build, publish or update VR worlds." Meta initially said all VR access for Horizon Worlds would be suspended on that date, but Meta's CTO gave an update in an Instagram AMA, clarifying that existing worlds would continue to be playable in VR, but new worlds would be mobile only.

Meta spent much of 2024 and 2025 deeply integrating Horizon Worlds into the Meta Quest experience, going so far as to rename the Meta Quest's operating system to Horizon OS and making Horizon Worlds the first thing you see in the headset and on the companion mobile app. Meta recently announced that the Horizon feed would be sunset, and now it's fully pulling the plug on everything from the Horizon Central social hub and the Horizon Worlds app.

In other words, the Meta Quest experience is going back to the golden age of 2022 when the Meta Quest was a gaming-first platform. It's a move many (including myself) have been calling for for years, and proves Meta really is cleaning up all the junk and getting back to basics with the Quest.

What 'gaming-first' really means

Back in December, I wrote about how Meta was "cutting the fat" and getting back to basics. Based on what I knew, that meant abandoning the concept of an integrated Metaverse and going back to making big games to attract large numbers of gamers. Unfortunately, I was wrong about the latter half of that equation. Meta isn't the next Nintendo or Sony, and that's a real shame, considering the quality of the games we got from its first-party studios over the last decade.

Instead, Meta will focus solely on funding third-party games and studios, but, even then, it won't be the "gravy train" as it has been for the past few years. Meta said that Oculus Publishing shipped over 140 games in 2025 and has many more shipping this year, so while blank cheques will no longer be written, the company still appears to be serious about funding game development.

Unfortunately, the changes being made to Horizon Worlds also mean a few good projects will be tossed to the wayside. Back in November, Meta debuted social Hyperscape worlds using the updated Horizon engine, allowing users to socialize in hyper-realistic environments. This service will be sunset along with Horizon Worlds, but at least the scanning and building of Hyperscape environments in the original app will stick around.

And while it's sad to see some of these things go, the reality is that they have to die to save the rest of the ecosystem. Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth has stated many times that Meta "is a big company and can work on many things at the same time," but users only have so much time and attention, and it's clear that Meta's focus on a Metaverse-first platform is not what's been winning gamers over to the platform.

The gamers have spoken

To prove that the Quest is a gaming-first platform, Chris Pruett, Director of Games at Meta, spoke at GDC about the state of the Quest ecosystem. "Quest usage has been growing year over year, and in 2025, we hit our all-time highest numbers of unique users ever in our history." That's not a sign of a dying platform — quite the opposite.

In 2025, "over 100 titles generated $1M+ in gross revenue in 2025," and Pruett explained that "premium app sales remain the largest revenue driver for our ecosystem, but IAP grew significantly in 2025, by over 10%." That's great news for games, and what's particularly telling is that Pruett doesn't mention Horizon Worlds numbers once. Meta is no longer trying to justify funding a feature no one wants.

So instead of garbage-tier free content being thrust in your face the moment you turn on the headset, Meta looks like it's going back to promoting actual games that people are spending lots of real money on.

To back that up, Meta will continue expanding its Meta Horizon+ gaming subscription, which gives gamers access to over 100 games for only $8 per month. To make things even better, Pruett noted that Meta doled out over $20 million to developers who participated in the program in 2025, proving there's actually profit to be made for developers as part of the service.

Meta still maintains that its promotion of Horizon Worlds had a limited negative impact on game sales, but the data doesn't align with what developers have told me and other publications. Pruett noted that despite the low impact, promoting Horizon Worlds front and center "was universally unpopular with our developer community, so we've removed them from the Store shelves."

Meta is often criticized for acting "too Silicon Valley" in that it constantly tries new things and abandons them before users truly have a chance to accept them or change habits. "The cycle of experiment-learn-adjust is typical for Meta. We are cautious not to make assumptions we cannot prove, and when our assumptions are disproved, we change course."

Slow down

My advice to Meta is the same I gave last year regarding monthly software updates that were pushed out before being tested enough: slow down. The adage of the tortoise and the hare absolutely applies to gamers, who are infamously resistant to change of any kind, and Meta needs to start recognizing that.

This is going to be a weird year for VR gaming, undoubtedly, but plenty of amazing games are still on the horizon (pun intended), including the next VR Games Showcase next week (trailer above) and new hardware from several companies over the next year, including Meta itself.

While I think it's a massive mistake for Meta to abandon first-party game development, the company is still getting back to basics and focusing on gaming as the primary purpose of the Quest platform, and that's the right move at the end of the day.

As I rode my way down the elevator with my wirecutters, screwdriver, blowgun, and assorted other tools at the ready, I gleefully anticipated what my next mission would look like. Would I encounter AI-powered robots that were sure to blow my cover? Maybe take down a few fields of laser traps? Hack into the security cameras and gather my intel that way? The choices seemed infinite, and the best part was that I rarely knew what to expect next.

It was this sense of exploration and adventure that was most unexpected in Unseen Diplomacy 2, the surprising sequel to an incredibly niche VR tech demo from the original HTC Vive's 2016 release. I recall being enamored with the physical movement required to play the original title, and I showed it off to numerous people who visited. Still, that game was little more than a well-executed, unique concept that lacked any real gameplay depth.

The sequel is, quite frankly, one of the best VR games I've ever played. The visuals are not only impeccably stylistic and fit the mood very well — think back to the 2003 pseudo spy game XIII with its graphic novel style — but the concept is properly fleshed out and utilizes all of the Meta Quest 3's best and most unique hardware features. Full wireless freedom, the ability to map out your whole home and convert it into a playable virtual space, and the fantastic possibility that comes with moving your body like a real spy would, all without the potentially fatal consequences at the end of the day.

Time to suit up, agent

Like the original, Unseen Diplomacy 2 was designed around the idea that your home can become a virtual playspace that looks and feels totally different. This isn't a mixed reality game, although it does have mixed reality missions you can do if you like that sort of thing. This is still very much a VR game that transports you to new places, but the difference is that this release not only allows for the full range of physical human movement, but it also recognizes that not everyone has the space or physical ability to move around like a spy.

As you begin, I recommend two things right off the bat. First, if you're playing in full roomscale mode — which means you'll be walking around your room and relying on full physical movements — make sure the floor plan it shows you before playing is correct. My space worked best when I cleared the whole thing out and drew a long rectangle in my living room to play in.

Second, play the tutorial first. This is not the first game, which means there's a lot more going on. You'll need to familiarize yourself with all the gadgets in your inventory (and there are a lot of them). Otherwise, you'll get to a puzzle and be totally stumped in the real game.

After you've started, get ready to sink some serious time into this. You can play for as long or as little as you'd like, but I found the gameplay loop to be ridiculously addictive. Each day starts out at a sort of game board that loosely resembles a mix of Risk and Catan. Each day, pawns will move around the board, showing where spies are located throughout the world. Selecting a spy will give you a range of actions, including further movement, investigation, and mission execution.

You'll have 17 days to stop "doomsday" from occurring, so gathering intel and completing missions is paramount to this goal. Each mission takes place in a different location based on intel, and as you might expect, missions have individual goals. Sometimes you'll have to collect more intel and upload it back to HQ, while other times you'll be disarming missiles, sneaking into server farms or mansion basements, and fighting plenty of police bots along the way.

The best way to play the game is with roomscale movement, as the rooms and corridors are all fully scaled to fit within the physical confines of your home. But don't worry, these rooms don't work like "normal" rooms do. Doors take you to new areas through a clever mix of procedural generation and brilliant programming, requiring you to physically walk through them and into a new space, even though you've only walked in a circle in your living room.

It's enough to truly boggle your mind the first few hours you play the game, and it'll continue to bake your noodle throughout the entirety of the gameplay experience. That's not to mention all the physical puzzles like cutting wires and rewiring panels, ducking under and around lasers, climbing through vents, etc., that you'll come across, plus a multitude of hacking minigames, climbing up and down ropes, ladders, unmarked walls with McGuyver-style climbing gear, etc.

The campaign spans several different countries and continents, sports 3 different save slots, and half a dozen different difficulty modes, and even includes a dedicated fitness mode that gauges your level of movement and intensity with lots of follow-up stats to tie everything in. Plus, of course, the mixed reality room mode I mentioned earlier, adding yet another layer of depth to this package.

It's quite literally the full package and one of the most memorable bespoke VR games I've played in quite some time. Developer Triangular Pixels maintains a roadmap for new features, bug fixes, and general improvements, plus you can suggest new ideas on the Discord server. At $15.99 on both Steam and Meta Quest platforms, this one's a no-brainer day one buy when version 1.0 lands on March 16.

I didn't expect it, but the Samsung Galaxy XR has become the ultimate portable gaming machine. Not only can it natively play any Android game from the Google Play Store, but one free app even lets you run Steam games with no configuration or nonsense involved. No cloud streaming, no ridiculous subscription. Just your favorite Steam games, all running natively on the Galaxy XR (and even your Android smartphone).

If you haven't heard of GameHub yet, it's about high time you check it out. Available for free on the Google Play Store, GameHub is a fork of the popular Winlator app that integrates several cloud gaming services and social features, plus a friendly user interface and automatic configuration for every game you download. It's as easy to use as a Steam Deck, and the wearable hardware makes it even better.

Why choose an XR headset to play these games on instead of a phone or a portable system like a Steam Deck? Neck and arm comfort, mainly, as you don't have to look down at a system or hold it up high for hours at a time. The screen just floats in front of your face, no matter if you're sitting up or lying down. Really, it's as good as a portable gaming system can get. It's the sort of functionality you'll get on the upcoming Steam Frame headset, except you don't have to wait for Valve to release it.

Playing Steam games on the Galaxy XR

GameSir, makers of many of our favorite mobile controllers, debuted an app called GameHub on the Google Play Store last November. It's a customized fork of the popular Winlator app, which people have used for years to emulate Windows on Android, but it's more user-friendly.

In the app, you connect your Steam account, and it more or less ends up looking like SteamOS running within an app window on the Galaxy XR. Fire up the app, tap Steam, and your entire library is now fully playable on the Galaxy XR without any further configuration. I connected the 8BitDo Ultimate 2C Bluetooth controller to my Galaxy XR to play the games, but I'm sure GameSir would appreciate it if you used one of their controllers instead.

When the app debuted, it caught a lot of flak on places like Reddit for requiring too many permissions, but the latest version of the app doesn't require any permissions to get it running. Not even notification permission, although it'll harass you from time-to-time about enabling them. If you're concerned about telemetry data, someone forked a version on Github with that stuff removed. Another option is GameNative.

Once you've got GameHub installed, run it and sign into your GameSir account, or just use the modded GameHub Lite version linked above, which doesn't require an account. Then, you'll open up the menu on the left, select Steam from the list, and sign into your Steam account.

Now, any time you launch the app, you'll be greeted with a Steam button right on the front that takes you to your Steam library. Just like on a Steam Deck, find the game you want, hit the install button, and then you can just play it from there on out. No cloud connection needed, no subscription required. It's all running on the Galaxy XR.

If you're worried about compatibility or performance, you can run a check on each game before it's installed, which gives you a decent idea of whether the game will work or not.

You can also configure additional options if you want or need to make performance adjustments, but I found the default settings to be more than adequate for my needs. If you run into issues or just want to touch up on your GameHub knowledge, this YouTube video is an excellent resource and uses a phone that sports a processor slightly slower than what's in the Galaxy XR, so those settings (starting at the 4:50 mark) will help you get the best out of the system.

If you want to experiment with just one feature, though, I'd recommend enabling Snapdragon Super Resolution, which is available in GameHub's menu found when pressing the home button on your connected controller. You can also learn about it in the video linked above at the 9:18 minute mark.

I found performance to be incredibly similar to my Steam Deck, despite that this app has to translate x86 code to the headset's ARM processor. Portal 2, for instance, ran at a locked 60fps on both my Steam Deck and the Galaxy XR, but newer games like Resident Evil Requiem are simply too taxing to run on this level of hardware. We'll have to wait and see if the actual Steam Frame fares better with them since it has a faster processor.

Taking all the best Steam Frame features now

I recently wrote about how two of the Steam Frame's best features already work on the Galaxy XR, and now even the emulation of Steam games is possible on Samsung's Android XR-powered headset. That means three of the four big pillars of what's going to make the Steam Frame great — foveated streaming, a dedicated wireless network, and native Steam game compatibility — are available on the Galaxy XR right now. The only thing missing is running PC VR games natively, something the Frame might continue to stand out for.

The only thing you'll need for standard Steam games to work is a Bluetooth controller of some kind, like this GameSir Cyclone 2. For PC VR games, you'll want a pair of Galaxy XR controllers and the Virtual Desktop app on the Google Play Store. Once you've got those (and a VR-ready PC), you're all set.

It's pretty wild seeing the Steam Frame's best features already make their way to other headsets before Valve's next-generation headset even launches, but it's (ironically) all thanks to Valve and the work they've poured into Proton and FEX over the years.

Samsung's Galaxy XR is one of the most interesting VR headsets I've ever used, and I've been testing VR headsets for over 12 years now. It's far from Samsung's first VR headset — that would be the Gear VR, launched in September 2014 — but it's easily the best headset the company has ever made.

That all starts with cutting-edge hardware, excellent design, and an operating system that's made for the modern XR age. But you've probably heard all this at least once in the four months since the headset launched, so how does it hold up over time?

Mostly very well, and that's because this headset's real superpower isn't in the hardware at all. It's held almost entirely in the fact that this headset features seamless Android app compatibility through the Google Play Store. That means every app you already know and love to use is already available, and it works so seamlessly that it almost overpowers the negative aspects of the headset.

I've put a ton of hours into using the Galaxy XR and have made it part of my daily routine. While I may be at my desk part of the day, I also find myself working elsewhere in the house from time to time. When I'm on the couch, looking down at my laptop hurts my neck after a while. Using the Galaxy XR as a monitor is easy as can be, especially with apps like Virtual Desktop, which also make a perfect way to play SteamVR games on the headset.

Running my computer's virtual monitor alongside several Android apps means that I can put down my phone and do everything in-headset. That keeps me in the flow and focused on my work better than constantly being distracted by the phone next to me. It also means I can get everything done without regularly needing to juggle between devices. This headset does it all, and it does it extremely well.

Every single Android app I tried worked flawlessly on the Galaxy XR. Whether it was playing Minecraft or Roblox with my son on a giant virtual screen (using my favorite Bluetooth 8BitDo controller), or using Google's handy Quick Share to send and receive files between my phone, PC, tablets, and family's devices, I was constantly impressed with how well a Samsung device worked with all of my non-Samsung products.

In fact, navigation works so well that I often find myself looking at things in real life and attempting to pinch to select them as if they were part of the XR experience. If you're not aware, the Galaxy XR features eye-tracking capabilities on its lenses, allowing you to look at UI elements and select them with a finger pinch. Just like on Apple Vision Pro, you don't need to raise your hand like a laser pointer. Just leave it in your lap, and the cameras on the underside of the headset can see them just fine.

Samsung is also using built-in eye-tracking to automate lens spacing to accommodate various interpupillary distances (IPD). An incorrect IPD can lead to headaches and dizziness, so it's great to see the system doing this without the need for user intervention. The Galaxy XR also features biometric iris identification (yeah, that one), making it dead simple to log into all your services and pay with full security. This is another area where the Galaxy XR absolutely trumps Meta Quest headsets, especially when it comes to making it easy to log into all your favorite apps and services.

The OLED display behind the lenses is extremely crisp and sports plenty of brightness to make mixed reality content look great. While the PWM dimming on most Samsung Galaxy phones typically gives me a headache, the Galaxy XR only gave me mild discomfort if there wasn't enough ambient light in the room.

It's also incredibly easy to multitask between apps or run them side-by-side, although Android XR has a bit of maturing to do to properly compete with desktop operating systems. Snapping windows isn't as seamless as it is on Windows, Mac OS, or even a Meta Quest headset, and while it's dead simple to move them around and resize them, there are no advanced options for curving windows or anything like that.

This touches on the main area where Galaxy XR needs the most work: polishing. Taking a screenshot is easy, but you have to navigate through several menus to record the screen. Launching apps from the home screen is ridiculously easy, but Google's promise of a Gemini AI that can control everything simply isn't true. I found lots of things Gemini can't help with on the Galaxy XR, and that might have been the most disappointing thing of all, given the hype of this being the first version of Android "built for the Gemini era."

I'm also confused about Samsung's decision not to include controllers in the box. Yes, this headset is primarily designed for productivity or entertainment purposes, where controllers simply aren't necessary, but the lack of controllers means most VR experiences won't work without them. Buying them separately might also be fine if they weren't $250 for a pair, but both of these negative factors weigh heavily on the headset's value.

This one would easily be the best wireless SteamVR headset available if Samsung just included those controllers in the box, and the lack of default controllers has also created an environment where most VR developers won't port their games to the headset. In other words, you should only consider this for gaming if you also plan to buy the controllers.

I hate that this is such a huge downside to the headset, because I genuinely love the design, fit, comfort, and battery design, even if it won't work for everyone. The overall design is strikingly similar to 2022's Meta Quest Pro, offsetting the headset's weight with generous forehead pads and a built-in cradle for the back of your head.

But while Samsung improved the forehead pad design with modular, magnetically attachable pads, it didn't learn from Meta's headstrap design. Both headsets use a rigid plastic strap that is not detachable and cannot be rotated, so there's a specific way to wear them rather than allowing users to adjust them to their level of comfort.

For me, the design is great, but I can also see how some people would like to be able to offset the weight onto some other part of their head. That great design extends to the weight, which is made lighter by offsetting the battery's weight into a detachable pack that you can leave in your pocket.

This also makes it dead easy to plug into a wall for long-term "office work" or connect to another battery to keep playing for longer, a massive improvement on the Quest Pro's built-in, non-removable battery design.

If Samsung could just include controllers in the box, it would be substantially easier to recommend this headset. That's especially true now that Meta no longer has the first-party studio dominance it once had, meaning Android XR and the Galaxy XR could be the de facto alternative to Meta if developers started porting to the OS.

As it stands, the Galaxy XR's primary purpose is to be an "infinite canvas" for all your apps, and while it achieves that goal spectacularly well, it lacks the bespoke VR library that Meta Quest headsets have. Still, the capability to run all Android apps from the Google Play Store is a monumental achievement that ultimately makes this headset something truly special and achieves what Meta or Apple simply were unable to do: give you every app you love in infinitely resizable, movable windows anywhere you are.

For years, Meta has been trying to get Android developers to port their apps to the company's Meta Quest platform. It's a natural fit since the Quest's Horizon OS is built on Android, but most Android developers have never accepted Meta's generous incentives to port. The result is that Quest users mainly use their headsets for bespoke VR games rather than as "the next computing platform," as Zuckerberg and co originally intended.

Because of that, I wasn't entirely convinced that using a VR or XR headset was truly worthy of replacing my smartphone or laptop for my daily needs, but the Galaxy XR has proven me wrong. You see, at the heart of the Android XR operating system that powers the Galaxy XR is the Google Play Store. While that might seem like no big deal at first — afterall, most Android-powered devices have full access to Google's app store — it turns out that the app store is the killer app the Galaxy XR needs to succeed, playing to the headset's strengths nicely.

My realization of that success started last week. Right when Sony's State of Play presentation was about to begin, my son asked if I wanted to join him on Roblox. While I never need to pay close attention to these kinds of presentations — I'm a picky gamer, and only certain games really appeal to me — I also knew that Sony was bound to air something I wasn't comfortable with him watching. That's when the Galaxy XR's multitasking capabilities became the perfect tool for the next hour of my day.

The power of the Play Store

I hadn't downloaded Roblox on my Galaxy XR yet, so I quickly fired up the YouTube app, dragged it to the side, and got State of Play started so I wouldn't miss anything important. Meanwhile, I opened the Play Store and downloaded Roblox. As the first section of the Kena sequel trailer finished airing, I quickly logged into Roblox using the headset's built-in iris biometric identification and Google's excellent password manager. No fumbling with some silly spreadsheet or password manager. It just worked.

As the next trailer started, I turned on my GameSir Bluetooth controller and quickly paired it with the headset, then joined the Roblox game my son was already in. "Whoa, wait, Dad? You're in the game??" Yep, it just worked, and now I was spending quality time gaming with my son while also not missing a beat during State of Play (or letting him see some mature-rated game that'll give him nightmares).

Not only that, but the video and the game were on giant, resizable, fully movable screens. I wasn't straining my neck looking down at my phone to play, and I didn't have to watch the stream in some tiny picture-in-picture on it, either. The only other headset capable of this experience is the Apple Vision Pro, which is twice the price of the Galaxy XR.

I tried to use all of my Meta Quest headsets this way — including the Meta Quest Pro back in 2022 — but Meta was never able to nail this experience the way Google and Samsung have. It's impossible to downplay the significance of not just having all of my favorite apps at my disposal when I need them; it's also deep integration with Google services like the password manager and even Quick Share that have transformed this into a truly useful computing product.

Now, don't get me wrong, I wish there were more bespoke VR games on this headset, but that's what I have my Meta Quest for. Failing that, I've also got my PC to wirelessly stream PCVR games from, all of which are now better than ever thanks to two of the Steam Frame's best features, which are now possible on Galaxy XR.

Get into the infinite canvas

Moving and resizing windows in Android XR works surprisingly similarly to a desktop UI like Mac OS or Windows. You'll want to remember four things when multitasking with multiple apps at a time:

1. Performing the home gesture always opens the app drawer. You can launch any app this way.

2. Recent apps can be opened by holding the home gesture and moving your hand or controller to the right (the three vertical lines icon).

3. Move any window by gazing or pointing to the edge of the window, then holding and dragging the semi-transparent outline that appears.

4. Resize any window by gazing or pointing to any of the window's four corners, then holding and dragging the edge indicator that appears.

Windows can be placed anywhere in physical space and will stay there even if you get up and move around. This makes it easy to take normal breaks or to sit and stand without having to reconfigure your setup each time.

Any 2D app can be run side-by-side with other 2D apps, but immersive apps will take over your viewing space and hide 2D windows. When an immersive app is open, you can reopen a 2D window by opening the recent apps menu and selecting the app you want to see.

Being able to open any app from the Google Play Store is such an incredible convenience that makes this headset all the better for it, and I love the foundations Google and Samsung have built for making this the ultimate productivity device.

Back in 2014, when Google Glass was pioneering the future of wearable technology, some users gave Google's first pair of smart glasses a bad name. These people would often use the glasses' camera in inappropriate ways, give loud, obnoxious commands to Google Assistant in public, ignoring everyone in the room by staring at the glasses' built-in display, or just generally acting pretentious.

These people quickly became known as "Glassholes," and while Google Glass may not be something you see worn in public anymore, the type of person that embodied this term apparently hasn't gone anywhere. Smart glasses with cameras, like Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, offer an amazing way to capture memories while staying in the moment, but they can also be used in ways that don't consider other people's privacy.

Back in December, cruise line MSC banned these types of smart glasses from its ships, and now the U.S. Air Force is jumping on the bandwagon. As stated in the updated dress and personal appearance guidelines, "It is unauthorized to wear mirrored lenses or smart glasses with photo, video, or artificial intelligence capabilities while in uniform."

That clearly singles out any new smart glasses with cameras, including popular releases from Ray-Ban and Oakley, as well as competing brands like RayNeo and Solos. While there's a large gap in time between Google Glass's original release and these modern takes on the concept, it's clear from product sales that smart glasses with cameras are here to stay.

While the military certainly has the power to restrict the use of these devices among its ranks, things are much harder for ordinary civilians. Recording video with your phone is generally obvious, after all, but an inconspicuous pair of smart glasses isn't. That has given a few lawmakers a referendum to stem the tide of further privacy invasion.

During the 2026 Super Bowl, Ring aired an ad showing off its new Search Party feature to help find a lost pet using the neighborhood's Ring Doorbell cameras. It's a clever use of AI that Ring says is designed to help neighborhoods in meaningful ways, but not everyone thinks so.

Minnesota lawmakers are said to be looking into ways to prevent the sharing of Ring camera data with AI tools like Ring Search Party, but they're not the first to try similar measures. Features like Familiar Faces, found on both Ring Doorbell and Google Nest cameras, aren't available in every U.S. state due to potential privacy-related legal issues, according to the EFF.

Unsurprisingly, Google, Meta, Amazon, and other companies have already settled legal disputes with several states, including Texas and Illinois, over biometric data collection. This includes disputes regarding Nest cameras and automatic photo-tagging recommendations on Facebook.

Given the outcomes of these types of cases, it's clear that states and lawmakers have work to do to protect the privacy of citizens. Facebook shut down its facial recognition program everywhere back in 2021, and it's entirely possible that we may start seeing politicians campaign on these issues in the near future.

The question, of course, is whether anything will (or should) be done about camera-clad smart glasses. Just as some places don't allow flash photography or pets, I can see more places starting to adopt a "no camera glasses" rule. No shirt, no shoes, no service, in other words.

Whether culture ultimately cares enough about privacy, at large, truly remains to be seen. Would you actively support places that ban smart glasses usage, or do you think it's inevitable that most people will wear these types of glasses in the future? I'd love to hear your take in the comments below.

The video game crash of 1983 is legendary. Even if you weren't alive at the time (which I wasn't), you likely know that a perfect storm of overinvestment and poor quality games forced the entire video game industry into a deep depression. This phenomenon has long been studied and predicted to recur, and it's entirely possible that we just witnessed history repeating itself last month.

I'm specifically speaking about the ongoing challenges in the VR market over the past two years, as free-to-play games have turned Meta Quest's app store into a wannabe Google Play Store. A mixture of mismanagement and poor market conditions led Meta to close most of its studios in January. That led many to wonder if Meta was still interested in VR gaming, or if the Quest would be dropped in a toy box like Woody from the first Toy Story movie after Buzz — in this case, AI glasses — showed up.

While the market's dynamics in 1983 were wildly different from the video game market we all know and love today, the parallels between Atari's failures and Meta's handling of the Quest over the past few years are strikingly similar. Still, a small contingent of developers is seeing success, even if the swath of Gorilla Tag clones and Horizon Worlds slop continues to bury quality titles from would-be customers.

Simulating jobs

One of VR's earliest success stories is the game Job Simulator, which is widely revered not only for its on-point humor but also for its uniquely interactive qualities and mechanics that have held up over a decade of changing VR ideals. It's since been installed over 6 million times, and its multiplayer successor, Dimensional Double Shift (DDS), just crossed over the 1-million installs mark only a year after it launched in beta.

But DDS is achieving success in a very different market than the one Job Simulator launched in. Back in 2016, the game debuted on Steam and PlayStation VR, two traditional gaming platforms that appeal to a very different set of gamers than the current Meta Quest crowd, which often defaults to mobile-style free-to-play games over larger, more ambitious offerings.

Owlchemy Labs CEO, Andrew Eiche, had quite a bit to say about the evolving market and where things are headed in an interview I conducted with him this past week. Despite some major setbacks with Meta's studio closures and strategy changes lately, Eiche had a surprisingly rosy outlook on the industry and where VR gaming is headed next.

Speaking on the success of free-to-play games like his own Dimensional Double Shift, he told me the attraction wasn't just that it was free to jump in and play, but also its style. "If you look at the broader gaming landscape, there's a push towards play as play," Eiche told me. "We had a large push for many, many years towards competitive multiplayer games, and I think you're starting to see a little bit of a backlash."

While some people certainly enjoy the high-skill nature of competitive games, lots of people simply don't have the time to get good enough to compete. In many of these games, Eiche notes that players need to "play your role, or we're going to accuse you of throwing the game, and we're going to get very mad."

The communities for cooperative and "slop" genre games, such as R.E.P.O, Lethal Company, Dimensional Double Shift, and Among Us, are often distinct. Rather than push players to win at all costs, the goal is "I guess you could play the game if you want and we'll gently push you towards our goals," which is exactly what Dimensional Double Shift does. The point is to have fun with other people and enjoy the limited time you might have to play video games. Imagine that!

The perils of free-to-play

Meta's handling of the Quest's app store has been called into question many times over by gamers and developers alike. The switch to allowing pure shovelware to release alongside big-name titles like Batman: Arkham Shadow or Skydance's Behemoth has been critiqued to kingdom come, and rightly so, as it has caused a substantial drop in sales on the platform compared to two years ago when the store was highly curated.

Meta's shift to promoting Horizon Worlds content over paid experiences has pushed lifetime gamers away from the platform, and Gen Alpha's adoption of Quest as a more fun way to play has drastically shifted the audience to one that often chooses free-to-play content first.

While this is great for games like DDS, it's very bad for many others. Meta's CTO, Andrew Bosworth, has admitted that mistakes were made and that the company is working to turn things around, but it's too little, too late for many people.

Eiche has been around the VR scene for even longer than me, so, of course, I had to ask him what he thought about what's happened this year. "My theory is that, at the worst, this is 1983, and we're in our Atari moment where a company has potentially put out too many tendrils in too many places and moved a little too fast and now has to back up. Whether Meta ends up as the Atari of VR is TBD."

Unsurprisingly, Bosworth has a more positive take on the changes at Meta. "We're still investing more in content than anyone else. We're even investing in more content than I think we were even a year ago," he told viewers in an Instagram AMA on February 3, 2026.

There's certainly plenty of truth to Meta having invested more in VR than anyone else, but the degree to which the company is actually investing is anyone's best guess. We do know that Reality Labs spending isn't changing in 2026, despite Meta's studio closures, but the company is anything but transparent about how it spends its cash.

While there's plenty of debate about what the future of VR gaming looks like, many parties remain very positive about the future of VR hardware and experiences. Eiche says he's "very excited for the Steam Frame and Project Aura," two huge 2026 releases expected to alter the XR landscape for years to come.

Meta is also working on a substantially smaller, lighter headset that's reportedly going to be released next Spring. Rumors say they look like a pair of glasses rather than a VR headset and are called Project Phoenix, as pictured above. Boz briefly teased it on the February 3rd AMA, saying "not just the next one device, but the next two devices that we're [building] are very exciting."

The real question is whether Meta can fix the Quest store in time for an exciting new hardware release. "The way the store is structured has an enormous impact on what the games look like," Eiche told me, and he's very right. The current store design is just like a mobile app store and "drives prices to free and consolidates around a few large players with smaller teams finding success in bursts." Whether this or the Steam model is the real success in the end will be anyone's best guess.

Some gamers thrive on competitive multiplayer experiences. Battlefield, Call of Duty, Fortnite, and plenty of others have built a community of millions of players through this concept, and while I can enjoy a few rounds in these games from time to time, I've never been a competitive person by nature. Thankfully, there are a lot of people like me who would rather join forces with other players rather than compete against them.

A surge of new co-op games has appeared in recent years, with titles like Lethal Company, R.E.P.O., PEAK, and Doors (to name a few) that encourage players to work together to achieve a goal. These titles are often referred to as "friendslop" games because the real goal of the game isn't to complete the goal, per se. It's to spend time with your friends and turn funny moments into lasting memories.

It evokes that feeling of you and your childhood friends venturing into the woods to do something stupid, and everyone remembers those moments for the rest of their lives. Recently, I've come across Deadly Delivery, a Meta Quest game with friendslop vibes that I simply can't get enough of, and it's made special not just by the fact that it's in VR, but that it has a unique gameplay loop while still feeling familiar to fans of other games in this genre.

What if Amazon employed goblins?

In Deadly Delivery, your job is to deliver packages to the places no one else wants to go. After all, someone has to fulfill those orders, right? We're talking denizens of the deepest caves, the darkest caverns, and the most dangerous haunted forests. They want their packages, but they don't want you hanging around.

So what's a goblin delivery person supposed to do? Grab a few friends and take them along for security, of course! Deadly Delivery sports three save slots, so you can keep your progress separated between friend groups, or just keep a save slot free for those nights when you want to join up with random players.

Each round begins at your living quarters, a sort of hostel with chicken legs (more on that in a moment) that allows you to customize your character, buy new cosmetics, purchase items before your next run, and even upgrade your character's skill tree. Once the team is ready, you select one of a dozen different locations from a globe near the exit and hit begin.

That hostel you live in is actually the famous Baba Yaga house from Slavic folklore, which explains the chicken legs and its ability to travel to different parts of the world. When the doors open at your new location, you and your friends will grab as many packages as possible and venture forth to deliver them to any door you can find.

This is where Deadly Delivery VR differs from extraction games like Lethal Company, R.E.P.O., or even the Roblox game by the same name. Instead of scavenging levels for treasure to bring back, you're bringing packages into each labyrinth-like level. The only thing you're tasked with collecting is the delivery fee for each package. Apparently, cave-dwelling monsters don't use PayPal.

As I previously mentioned, these denizens might want their packages, but they certainly don't want you sticking around, and they don't want anyone randomly wandering into their caves, either. Because of this, you'll come across any number of traps and monsters along the way, most of which you'll need to avoid or face certain death. Even ringing the doorbell will often trigger a trap of some kind, making each delivery a hazardous affair.

Each player has a number of slots on their body where they can store packages or items, and special items like carts can be purchased for you to take more into the dungeon at a time. When a player dies, they drop a crucifix that can be picked up by any other player and dropped into a sacrificial fire to resurrect the downed player. But beware, some of these fires require a sacrifice in addition to the crucifix, and that often means you'll lose a hand in order to resurrect your friend.

Each goblin's work week consists of three days to achieve a monetary goal. Bigger packages are often worth more to deliver, but require two hands or a cart to drag them to their destination. Successfully meeting the goal will allow you to work another week, unlock new areas, and even special cosmetics that are only available after consecutive weeks of service.

Fail to achieve your goal each week, and the corporation will remove you from service. Permanently. Once you and your team all fail this weekly task, your money and level progress will be reset, but you get to keep the skills you've unlocked and any cosmetics you've been awarded. Now you have the opportunity to do it all again, but this time, in style.

Of course, Deadly Delivery wouldn't be a proper friendslop game without crazy hijinx or wacky physics-based nonsense. Huge packages are unwieldy and make navigating through caverns difficult (or extra easy to step on land mines, depending on your perspective). Carts don't always behave like you think they might in real life. You can even climb up your friends as they climb up you, making an infinite ladder to the stars.

It's all good, silly fun with a bit of terrifying horror to keep players in check. I enjoy that there's nothing overly violent, no foul language, and nothing really inappropriate for younger players, all while still delivering a unique art style that doesn't look like low-budget trash. Too many games fall into that last category these days.

I've been obsessed with this game since Christmas and can't wait to jump back in with friends tonight. Ideally, you'll want a total of four players so you have the best chance of hitting your goal, but I've played with two or three players and it scales just fine. Good luck out there, especially when you hit your first blood moon.

Xreal and Viture are two titans of the smart glasses industry. Both companies make what's known as "XR Glasses," an evolution from smart display glasses that aim to put a giant virtual screen in front of your eyeballs anywhere you go.

Xreal 1S just debuted at CES, a follow-up to the excellent Xreal One released last February. Its upgrades over Xreal One include a 100-nit brighter micro-OLED display, 2g lighter weight, a new real-time 2D-to-3D conversion mode, and a $50 lower price tag. But Xreal's biggest competition, Viture, is ready to spice the market up with The Beast, the company's first pair of XR glasses with a dedicated spatial computing chip inside.

That enables Viture Beast to perform native 3DoF tracking, something that was only previously possible with the company's Spacewalker software on a computer or smartphone. Viture Beast is $100 more than Xreal 1S, but it also packs in a camera and compatibility with the wider Viture ecosystem. Which comes out on top? Let's take a closer look.

Spatial tracking and 3D conversion

One of the reasons I preferred Xreal One over every other pair of XR glasses on the market last year was its native 3DoF spatial tracking. Xreal 1S uses the same X1 chip as Xreal One and Xreal One Pro, so you can expect the same excellent, stable virtual monitor experience that those glasses delivered.

Viture Beast marks the first time Viture offers a pair of XR glasses with the same capability, but Viture's implementation isn't quite as reliable. To get the best performance, you need to have your glasses sitting undisturbed for 10 seconds after you plug them in for the sensors to calibrate. Xreal 1S doesn't need this to achieve the same stability. Viture told me it's working on better 3DoF stability, but for now, this area is a clear win for Xreal.

Viture Beast also features a front-facing camera for 6DoF tracking, but this capability isn't enabled. Xreal 1S can perform 6DoF tracking today when you pop an Xreal Eye camera into the slot on the underside of the glasses, and it doesn't need any extra software to do it.

This same concept extends to the new Real 3D tech introduced on Xreal 1S. Real 3D uses the X1 chip and an AI algorithm to convert all 2D content to 3D in real time at 30FPS. That means any game console suddenly becomes a Nintendo 3DS, and all movies and videos immediately have depth. All you have to do is enable Real 3D in the glasses OSD menu.

Last summer, I tested Viture's Immersive 3D tech, which has been available on its glasses via the company's Spacewalker software. The results are impressive and run better than Xreal's Real 3D solution, but that's because it's running on a computer or smartphone instead of the glasses.

This also means Viture's Immersive 3D is more limited than Xreal's Real 3D, as it can only convert some content on compatible devices. Xreal does everything in-glasses, albeit at a reduced framerate, although Xreal says performance improvements are coming in a future firmware update.

Display quality, comfort, and FoV

Here's an area where things aren't quite so clear-cut. Starting with comfort, I've found that Viture Beast's display is more comfortable at high brightness, while Xreal maintains better comfort at medium to low brightness. Both glasses run at a 120Hz refresh rate with a 120Hz dimming rate. Viture's superior comfort at high brightness comes from the use of DC dimming, but the glasses switch to PWM dimming below 80% brightness.

Xreal 1S uses a hybrid of DC dimming and PWM dimming across the entire brightness spectrum. If you're not aware, OLED pixels are self-lit but always have to refresh their light every refresh cycle. Some companies use PWM dimming to manage this brightness change, but PWM dimming causes headaches, nausea, and other health problems in some people (like me).

I'm not sure I'd recommend either pair of glasses to flicker-sensitive people because of this. Instead, the Viture Luma line is better, as they use DC dimming across the entire brightness range.

Xreal is using traditional birdbath optics on the 1S, while Viture is employing what it calls "a hybrid approach combining both birdbath and waveguide." Viture's lenses offer a slightly wider FoV at the expense of some clarity at the left and right edges of the screen. Both Xreal 1S and Viture Beast support a range of prescription lenses. I've got my prescription attached to both, which you can see in the photos.

In general, I've found that Xreal 1S's display is better for productivity. Things like spreadsheets are simply clearer on the Xreal 1S, and text is generally more legible. Viture Beast's display offers punchier colors, deeper contrast, and slightly higher resolution at 1200p compared with Beast's 1080p. Viture will offer 1200p in a future firmware update, but for now, Xreal is slightly higher resolution because of the taller 16:10 aspect ratio.

I preferred using Viture Beast for entertainment purposes because of the color tuning on the display. Both glasses offer various color options, but Viture's punchier colors look nicest to me for games and movies.

In my testing, Viture Beast offers full 120Hz performance on its glasses, while Xreal 1S seems to top out at 90Hz. Viture Beast defaults to 60Hz, but you can quickly switch to 120Hz in the display settings menu on the glasses.

Viture's display is also notably brighter than Xreal, something that's often coveted for games and movies. But while the screen tech itself is brighter, Xreal 1S is actually easier to see in any lighting, thanks to a darker electrochromic film implementation on Xreal's lenses.

A wearable monitor

One of my favorite things about the Xreal One line is that it offers an OSD menu like a proper monitor. Viture Beast now offers a similar monitor, and while it doesn't offer quite as many options as Xreal, Viture is planning on expanding this menu's options in future updates.

Viture also offers more buttons on the glasses, giving you more ways to quickly adjust things like brightness, electrochromic dimming, volume, and even display size. Xreal requires you to sift through menus a little more, and since it has half the number of buttons, you often have to cycle through options before finding the one you want.

Overall, Xreal offers better value and more stability than Viture at this time. Both companies have offered superb support and regular feature updates over the past few years, and both of these glasses will see substantial upgrades over time. But it's hard to argue with saving $100 by choosing Xreal, unless something in Viture's excellent ecosystem (like the Pro Mobile Dock or 8BitDo controller) that often only works with Viture's own glasses.

From 2019 to 2024, Meta's app store was a world-class effort. It took the best pieces from every digital gaming marketplace on the planet — the consumer-friendly return policies from Steam, developer relations and Q&A teams from companies like Sony and Nintendo, plus several other traits — and made the Quest a platform worth investing in as a VR gamer and developer.

That all began changing the moment Meta opened the floodgates for App Lab in mid-2024. I spoke with DrakkenRidge developer Cyril Guichard about the changes over the years, something he knows a lot about, as he's shipped 5 games since the days of the Oculus Go. Guichard shared that developing for Meta's Start Program from 2019-2022 was "the best experience I've ever had working with a publisher." But, since then, things have gone downhill.

Meta's goals began shifting after this time, and continued to change seemingly every six months, never long enough to see any goal properly executed. Meta is known for chasing trends as fast as it can and often moving without understanding the true repercussions of its actions. As Meta's Mark Zuckerberg once said about new Facebook features back in 2014, "move fast and break things."

And broke things, they have. January 13, 2026, will go down as a date that no one in the VR community will likely forget. Android Central reached out to Meta for comment on this article, but didn't receive a response in time for publishing.

A virtual bloodbath

On January 13, 2026, Meta closed most of its first-party game development studios. The few employees remaining at studios like Within and Camouflaj will likely be holding "maintenance" duty on live service titles like Supernatural, while Camouflaj's remaining developers are said to be working on an onboarding tutorial that users will experience when they start up the next Meta Quest headset.

After speaking with many developers, many of whom wanted to remain anonymous for this story, I was told that Oculus Publishing has also seen substantial cuts. Many developer relations contacts within the Meta Horizon Start Program, a developer incubation and funding program, have been laid off, with "just a handful" remaining, per one source. Almost certainly, this means that the $60 million Meta has allegedly spent to fund VR games so far in 2026 is the last we'll see from the program.

As such, the massive shift didn't just affect first-party Oculus Studios development. Cloudhead Games, maker of the uber-popular Pistol Whip rhythm shooter VR game, laid off 70% of its workforce. Skydance Games has reportedly also canceled an official Harry Potter VR game due to funding program shifts within Meta. The total extent of the fallout remains to be seen, but it's not looking pretty.

As Anshel Sag, Principal Analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy, told me, "I think Meta is destroying all of the goodwill it created as the 'savior' of VR gaming. I think Meta is causing irreparable damage to the industry, both in how it acquired these companies and how it's run them and their properties."

The VR gaming recession has begun

What does all this mean for VR gamers and developers? For starters, Meta no longer seems to be interested in making first-party games, but there's no evidence that Meta is abandoning VR altogether or even exiting the hardware market. If anything, Meta seems to be taking a "Valve approach" to gaming, which means it'll focus on a wild west-style digital marketplace and only develop hardware.

Valve rarely invests in projects unrelated to its own ambitions, mostly of which comprise its IPs like Half-Life and Counter-Strike, plus software investment into tools like Proton and FEX, the latter of which makes the upcoming Steam Frame standalone VR headset possible. Valve has publicly stated it does not have any VR games in development, and Meta seems to be following the same tactic.

Meta recently announced that Horizon OS, which powers Quest headsets, will no longer be going third-party, which means it'll only be built for Meta's own hardware. Project Phoenix, pictured in a mockup below, is said to be the Quest 4's form factor, favoring a more smart-glasses-like size and shape with VR headset capabilities.

When I made predictions about the XR market in 2026, I didn't expect the industry to shift focus so hard and fast, particularly for Meta. Not only is Meta seemingly abandoning the idea of becoming the next Nintendo or Sony, but it's pivoting hard to trying to become the first company to produce truly mass-market smart glasses by doubling or tripling the output of its Ray-Ban and Oakley glasses this year.

The result is that we're almost certainly not going to see big-name titles hit VR headsets for a long while. Meta-funded AAA titles like Assassin's Creed Nexus VR, Batman Arkham Shadow, Asgard's Wrath 2, Deadpool VR, and many others of its caliber relied entirely on Meta funding, which has now significantly dried up.

Even indie games will be affected, as several developers have historically relied on the Meta Start Program to fund their salaries during development. "Nearly every indie megahit in the last 5 years came from the Start program first," VR developer RJ told me in a written interview on X (formerly Twitter), and that spells trouble for future releases.

Cutting off your nose to spite your face

Many people are, understandably, pissed off at Meta, and with good reason. More than one developer has now told me that they're considering dropping future development for all Meta hardware, including any potential smart glasses apps, because of the way Meta has handled things over the past 2-3 years. January 13 was just the straw that broke the camel's back.

One developer simply said, "Give me one reason to keep building for Meta Quest and/or Meta wearables." While some responses have been positive, most people seem to feel like Meta just blew its last ounce of goodwill with this move. Meta has, essentially, put itself in Google's unenviable position of being accused of killing projects too early.

While some investors and financial publications have been calling for these moves for years, Meta has largely resisted full-on cuts like this because it seemed to be aiming for a specific vision of the future, but never truly stuck with a plan long enough to bear fruit.

Circling back around to Guichard and his development experience over the lifetime of the Quest family since 2019, it's clear the "wonder years" were from 2019-2022. Once Meta began changing tactics and laying off staff, things (unsurprisingly) got worse.

The magic of the curated Quest store started evaporating overnight when Meta got rid of its curation system in Summer 2024. Games that used to have to pass rigorous QA processes were now greenlit after "the most basic of VR tests," according to several developers I've spoken to. Swaths of Gorilla Tag clones suddenly flooded the market, and Meta started prioritizing Horizon Worlds over paid content, causing legitimately good games to be drowned out.

Several months later, developers banded together to help solve the "visibility crisis." While Meta has somewhat helped clean up the curation process in the 18 months since these choices were made, the damage was irreparable. Despite delivering the bigger, better games Meta was calling for from its Start Program developers, the company seemed to have forgotten to follow through on its promises.

Of course, the reason we have so many VR releases these days is because of Meta's Start Program. As VR analyst Brad Lynch said, "The market has been inorganic and propped up. Everyone was fooled."

Meta has long provided excellent opportunities for VR developers to make games people care about and want to play, and for its part, deserves credit in attempting to solve the "chicken and egg" scenario VR has been in for years.

In other words, without Meta's critical funding, we likely never would have seen the AAA titles we got, but years of fiddling with the Quest's digital marketplace may very well have driven out any real chance of long-term success.

While Batman Arkham Shadow exceeded internal sales expectations, even those numbers are substantially lower than what's needed to sustain a thriving AAA ecosystem like what's enjoyed on the PS5. Even big indie games like DrakkenRidge are selling 15x lower numbers of units than the developer's previous games, a direct result of Meta's toying with things rather than trying to maintain stability.

From here on out, it's clear that VR developers will need to be cautious about investments and which platforms to prioritize. Without Meta's financial backing, projects that were once zero risk will now suddenly face big stakes. If boutique VR publishers also pull out, as some fear they might, it's going to be another long, quiet road for VR until the next round of funding hits in a few years from now.

Until then, I'll keep enjoying excellent VR games like Walkabout Mini Golf and Deadly Delivery with friends.

Several years ago, Nintendo debuted a new generation of VR games and accessories with the company's experimental LABO kits. These clever cardboard contraptions have gamers start by assembling a unique controller, then using it in a bespoke game. One of these LABO kits was a VR headset.

While LABO is no longer made, the VR functionality in games like Super Mario Odyssey, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker, and several other games remains. Now that the Switch 2 is out with more powerful hardware, a higher-resolution screen, and upgraded versions of all these games, it makes sense to me to give them another shot in VR.

So I went and ordered the best-looking Switch 2-compatible VR headset from Amazon and got to downloading the Switch 2 updates for all the games that support VR mode. While the concept of offering hybrid VR functionality in AAA Nintendo games is an excellent concept, the execution still leaves a lot to be desired.

Setup is simple, but it doesn't get much better from there

Pictured above is the STARTRC VR headset for the Nintendo Switch 2. It's one of many identical-looking headset accessories for Nintendo's system, and, unsurprisingly, none of them seem to be available for purchase now. At least they'll have one unit once mine is returned.

I've been a VR gamer for over a decade now and, from everything I can tell, this is as good as Switch 2 VR headsets get. It's got pads for your head and face in the right locations, adjustable lenses that can correct for IPD and mild focusing issues, and a proper place for the Switch 2 to be docked. It's better than LABO if, for no other reason, you don't have to hold it up to your face the entire time.

But that's where the positive traits end. Firing up BOTW, Mario Odyssey, or Captain Toad in VR for the first time promises to be glorious, but with this hardware, you shouldn't bother trying it at all.

I'm not someone who gets dizzy or motion sick from VR, but I could feel the head pressure immediately as soon as I put this headset on. That's a shame, too, because seeing Captain Toad wave to me as if I were physically present in the game was pure magic, and it reminded me of the joys of Astro Bot on the original PlayStation VR.

The Virtual Boy accessory for the Switch 2 might offer a better experience when it launches in mid-February, but without having tried it myself, I can't make any guarantees. At the very least, the $25 Virtual Boy cardboard unit looks to have higher-quality lenses than the $35 headset I bought from Amazon.

There's still hope for a proper VR experience from Nintendo

Maybe, at some point, we'll get a proper VR system from Nintendo that feels on par with the Meta Quest 3. The fact that Nintendo is still dabbling in things like the Virtual Boy and leaving VR modes in Switch 2 versions of its games gives me hope that this is still a possibility.

After all, Nintendo hasn't debuted a "dedicated" portable system since the 3DS. Maybe the next time the company decides to try something new and interesting, that could happen. Until then, it makes a lot more sense to spend money on a Meta Quest 3S — which regularly goes on sale from $200-250 and is a completely standalone console — or to pick up Viture's Switch 2-compatible mobile dock and enjoy your Switch on a massive virtual screen inside private smart glasses.

Grade: A

By all accounts, 2025 was a monumental year for XR. The term XR, which stands for eXtended Reality, covers VR, AR, and everything in between, constituting one of the few umbrella terms the industry seems to agree on. Everywhere you looked, the wearable face computer industry grew in 2025, and that all starts with VR.

Last year was pivotal for big-name VR releases, and while some of that continued into 2025 with titles like Deadpool VR, Alien: Rogue Incursion, Thief VR: Legacy of Shadows, and more, the real winners were the indies. That's because, for whatever reason, Meta Quest gamers seem to mainly gravitate toward smaller titles that get big word of mouth on social media.

Case in point is Animal Company, which garnered "over 1 billion views organically" on TikTok, according to a Meta developer profile blog post. That drove it to achieve the 5th-highest first-year revenue for a VR game, boasting over 1 million active monthly users and spawning a ton of clones. UG VR is another success story following the same mold of free-to-play titles with in-app DLC content.

The shift has made smaller teams happy, but it's also driven several companies out of business. Meta laid off several employees across its first-party VR development studios, and we also saw studio closures at established houses like Toast Interactive and WIMO Games. The silver lining here is that the Quest once again outsold most major consoles this Black Friday/Cyber Monday, according to publicly available info, a trend that's been a regular holiday tradition for years now.

All of this came to a head in early December when Meta decided to slice 30% of Reality Labs' budget starting in January 2026, a move that had been a long time coming as the department's spending had grown out of control over the years, while other Meta departments have taken 10% year-over-year cuts since 2022.

While that sounds bad initially, it's paving the way for a better, leaner Meta Quest. Two lead product and UI designers from Apple joined Meta in early December, and word on the street is that they'll have a hand in redesigning the Quest UI and in making the Quest 4 an ultra-light, sleek, gaming-first headset.

We're also seeing this shift because Meta finally has some real competition in the sector. Apple released a souped-up Vision Pro with a refreshed chipset and a more comfortable headstrap in August. Plus, Samsung finally launched the Galaxy XR headset alongside Android XR.

And to make things even better, we got to try Android XR running on Xreal's Project Aura smart glasses, which are set to release in 2026. That's a full VR headset operating system on a pair of light and comfortable smart glasses, and it's going to be a massive game-changer next year.

To top things off, Valve even announced a new VR headset called the Steam Frame. Frame runs a new version of SteamOS that's capable of not only running Windows VR games on a mobile chipset, but also Android games natively, as well. It's expected to make big waves, you guessed it, in early 2026.

The year smart glasses won

The VR industry has never seemed busier, but the smart glasses segment has never seen the success it had until 2025. Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses were the inflection point the industry needed, and Meta doubled down on its efforts to rule this segment for years to come.

The company ramped up production of its glasses back in February, then released a bevy of new glasses to glowing reviews in the fall. Ray-Ban Gen 2, Oakley Meta HSTN, Oakley Meta Vanguard, and Meta Ray-Ban Display Glasses all made huge waves and likely even better sales, solidifying Meta as the de facto smart glasses company after years of spending billions on R&D.

But the real standout was Meta Ray-Ban Display Glasses. These are the first consumer-ready pair of Meta's smart glasses with a display, and while they're expensive, they mark a pivotal point in the smart glasses race.

This was also the year we saw Google get serious about smart glasses again. We got our hands on Google and Samsung's prototype smart glasses back in May, and a follow-up Android XR event in December gave us even greater insight into the company's big plans for 2026.

But that doesn't just mean AI glasses to compete with Ray-Ban and Oakley Meta smart glasses; it also means utilizing partnerships with existing smart glasses companies. Magic Leap smart glasses powered by Android XR were shown off in October and will compete with Meta Ray-Ban Display Glasses, and Xreal Project Aura is going straight for the throat with a full VR UI in a comfortable pair of smart glasses.

Speaking of Xreal, the company launched the best smart display glasses we've seen to date all the way back in February, and the competition hasn't been able to keep up since.

Xreal One smart display glasses look similar to previous Xreal glasses from the outside, but they come packed with the first dedicated chipset for a pair like these, enabling spatial tracking for any device you plug them into. That's a game-changer because it means the virtual display looks and feels like a real display, anchored in physical space, no matter how you move.

Viture launched the Luma line, culminating in the Luma Ultra, and while they don't offer native spatial tracking like Xreal's glasses, they can give your Switch 2 an OLED on the go when paired with a Viture Pro Mobile Dock. And when paired with the Spacewalker mobile or PC apps, they can turn any 2D video into 3D using AI.

Rokid launched new AR glasses, with a second, more powerful pair teased in September. And folks looking for an affordable pair of smart display glasses can finally pick up $250 RayNeo models that don't feel like a compromise.

The wearable computer segment has taken a bit longer to "get good" than most tech pundits would have liked. But 2025 has proven that good things take time, and XR wearables are definitely getting really, really good.

The best year since 2020

The last time we saw this level of interest and excitement in VR (and XR as a whole) was back in 2020, when COVID kept everyone home, and the Oculus Quest 2 revolutionized VR gaming. While a significant number of announcements toward the latter half of the year won't materialize until early 2026, none of those products are vaporware, and they represent significant improvements in Meta's competition.

But it was also the year Meta continued to solidify its dominance across VR and smart glasses. The company has spent more than any other in this category, and it shows. Thankfully, that stranglehold on the market hasn't produced poor products. Rather, Meta's consistency has spurred competition, even in companies like Google, which we were very sure would never launch another pair of smart glasses or VR headsets until Android XR was announced.

If you're a VR enthusiast, exciting times are ahead as Meta, Valve, Apple, and Google aim to push the boundaries of what we've come to expect from standalone hardware. And anyone looking for a great pair of smart glasses already has several to choose from, with the proper killer pair of AR glasses (Xreal Project Aura) seemingly just around the corner.

Ever since the PS1 classic Metal Gear Solid came out, I've been a huge fan of the stealth genre. While stealth's golden age is squarely in the mid-2000s with releases like Metal Gear Solid 3, several banger Splinter Cell games, and the Thief series (I would even argue Deus Ex fits in there too), a crop of new releases on the Meta Quest platform have given the genre the reinvigoration I've been hoping for.

Thief VR needs little introduction. It's the first mainline Thief entry in over a decade, and it's created by a pair of veteran VR developers in collaboration with the original developers and voice crew at Eidos Montreal. This time around, you play a new protagonist with the familiar voice of Garrett guiding your way.

Meanwhile, Espire MR Missions is the mixed reality follow-up to Espire 2, one of the best Meta Quest games. This Metal Gear Solid-inspired game distills that classic formula to its core and uses the power of mixed reality to transform it into something wholly unique.

The return of the Thief

Thief VR: Legacy of Shadow is my single-player VR game of the year. I had high hopes for it, given that Maze Theory and Vertigo Games were behind its development — two names you'll be familiar with if you play VR games — and the final product is basically what I'd hoped for.

Like Assassin's Creed Nexus VR, Thief VR feels like a proper return to the series' roots while still maintaining the fresh feeling that a change of perspective can deliver. It's not trying to add a massive world to immerse players in, change up the gameplay, or turn it into a roguelike or some mixed-reality playground. It's just Thief, in first-person, with a new playable character, and with the immersive nature of physically moving around rather than sitting on a couch. You can even set your mic to "immersive mode," and the guards can hear you talk or make noise!

You can, of course, play while seated, but it still requires some movement and interactivity not afforded by a controller. Take, for instance, one of the many times I found myself behind a door with guards on the other side. I'd slightly open the door to get a quick peek, then plan my attack by using the door, effectively making it a moving wall.

This feeling never got old, and the game doesn't drag on for 60 hours or somesuch nonsense. Most players will finish it in around 8 hours, which, for me, is the perfect game length. I'm 40, have a family and a full-time job, plus plenty of other activities, friend circles, and the like. I don't have time for 900-hour games anymore, and even when I do play them, I often stop between the 20 and 40-hour marks because I get bored.

Because it's this length, the mechanics never wear out their welcome. Opening a window to crawl through feels brilliant every time. Bopping a guard on the head and dragging his body into the shadows is always harrowing and fun, especially when you play on hard difficulty. It's even fun to use the Mechanical Eye to mark guards or see how the gates are wired up to sabotage them, Deus Ex or Batman Arkham style.

Shooting one of the half dozen arrow types to knock out a guard, put out a fire, or even grapple to a specific shortcut is generally a lot of fun. I say generally because there's an unnecessary learning curve to the bow's mechanics. It just feels weird to aim, but it's something you adjust to by the end of the third level.

I found myself dreaming about Thief's levels more than once. Because of their immersive nature, VR games tend to cause this effect more often than traditional games, and it's always fascinating to experience. The game is even quite nice visually on the Quest 3, and I found that the gamma and environments were nicely tweaked to work best on the Quest 3's LCD, while the SteamVR version was just too dark.

If you're a fan of classic stealth games, Thief VR may just be the revival you've been looking for. I certainly know it was for me, and I count myself fortunate for having been able to finally experience another proper Thief series game again after such a long, long wait.

There's a Solid Snake in my house

Once I finished Thief VR, I was craving more stealth. Laser Dance certainly fulfilled the Mission Impossible laser-dodging aspect of that, but I was still looking for a game that let me sneak around and take out bad guys, Metal Gear Solid style. That's where Espire MR Missions came in.

The Espire series is pure Metal Gear Solid through and through. I'd say it fits almost perfectly within Metal Gear Solid 2's mechanics, including multiple playable characters. But the MR missions are a little bit different. It still follows the same stealth concepts, but the difference is that the level is now your home.

That probably sounds boring to some of you, particularly if you don't have a spacious place. My home is on the small side, but I found Espire MR Mission's mixed-reality gameplay was enough to keep me from feeling confined to my living and dining rooms the entire time.

Espire MR Missions uses the home scan your Meta Quest headset performs before entering mixed reality space. This scan takes only a minute and automatically identifies furniture, walls, doors, and windows, making them all usable with Espire's mixed reality engine.

The game then takes all those features of your room and turns them into objects that belong in the Espire universe, depending on the mission requirements. Walls often become bay doors to the Espire universe, with enemies lurking just outside your walls, ready to burst in if you alert them to your presence.

Like Laser Dance, you'll dodge plenty of lasers and have to solve several puzzles to complete missions or make progress in one. These all require you to physically move around your room, giving the game a physicality that most simply lack. There's no virtual movement here, and that changes everything.

Since the game shifts and morphs to fit your play space, you can take your Meta Quest 3 anywhere you want, and it'll feel like a brand new game every time. That doesn't have to mean a park or someone else's house, either. It can just be moving to a different set of rooms in your house.

Twenty-one of the game's 29 missions can be played in any size space, while the remaining eight require a specific size to complete. The game is just $8.99 for new players, and Espire 2 owners receive it totally free. Plus, since it's early access, development is still ongoing, which means you'll get more content over the next few months and years. Now that's a real win!

This past week, a frenzy of news posts and analyst critiques focused on Meta's "deep cuts" across its Metaverse division. This new division of Reality Labs, launched just one month ago, was created to cleanly split Reality Labs into more tangible business goals, and it was clearly put in place ahead of the big moves we saw in the past two weeks.

According to a Bloomberg report, Meta may be making 30% cuts to the division starting in January. That was enough for plenty of outlets to circle the wagons and cry that "VR is dead" once again, a mantra that far too many tech-forward publications love to scream year in and out. But the reality doesn't fit that narrative at all. In fact, reality is exactly the opposite of what these places purport.

Meta just hired two top-tier designers from Apple right before this news broke, and that news came just days after fresh leaks pointed toward a gaming-focused, high-end Meta Quest 4 in the works. Unironically, this is all happening as CTO Andrew Bosworth's promise that 2025 will be “the work of visionaries or a legendary misadventure" is about to expire, signaling that the company's focus on Horizon Worlds as the go-to "metaverse" was the problem all along.

Getting back to basics

The main Reality Labs division was formed on August 25, 2020, just ahead of the Meta Quest 2's launch. Since then, this division has been responsible for developing VR headsets, smart glasses, Horizon Worlds, sEMG gesture bands, the Horizon operating system, next-generation realistic avatars, and more.

Meta spends billions on Reality Labs technology investments each quarter, with spending growing from about $2 billion in Q4 2020 to a whopping $6.05 billion in Q4 2024. Since 2022, over 50% of Reality Labs' budget has been spent developing true AR glasses like Meta Orion, though the closest Meta has come to releasing a consumer product is the Ray-Ban Display Glasses.

Since the end of 2022, Meta has been cutting spending in most divisions by around 10% per year to get costs under control. Because of Reality Labs' unbridled spending growth, Zuckerberg reportedly requested a 20% spending cut by the end of 2025. That apparently never happened.

Now, the division needs to cut spending by 30% to match the 10% annual cut plus the 20% 2025 cut that didn't happen. That's not a deep cut; that's an alignment with every other division within Meta.

Meta isn't abandoning VR at all, far from it. But I do believe the company is making important shifts away from failed projects like Horizon Worlds and toward the development of a new pair of mixed-reality glasses. The December 4 report from Business Insider aligns with this view, and new leaks about a gaming-focused, ultralight Meta Quest 4 further complete the picture of what's happening at Meta.

Now, does that mean Horizon Worlds is going away tomorrow? Absolutely not. Meta has significantly redesigned the operating system that powers the Meta Quest (called Horizon OS) to revolve around using Horizon Worlds as a central social platform. Some elements of this transition have proven to be a boon to the Quest's OS, such as easier ways to connect and chat with friends and less friction for new users.

Instead, I think Meta will now begin to focus more on game developers again as it attempts to rekindle relationships it tanked when it went all-in on Horizon Worlds integration. VR games have been obscenely difficult to find on the official Meta Quest store because Horizon Worlds content has been front and center for the past 15 months or so, causing real problems for developers and Meta Quest game sales.

With all of that now in focus, it paints a much clearer picture of what Reality Labs is doing and what Meta's future products are going to look like. For now, Meta Quest headsets, along with smart glasses like Ray-Ban Meta Gen 2 and Oakley Meta HSTN, are going to continue pulling in around a billion in revenue each quarter, with Meta hoping for more growth in these segments as it starts to significantly trim spending.

That's not Meta giving up on VR or "the Metaverse," as many like to purport. That's the company ensuring that the products and services people care about are here for the long term and continue to evolve as customers use them. Services like Horizon Worlds are on the way out, and ultralight hardware with the same capabilities we know and love today (like Android XR's Project Aura) is the new hotness.

In the meantime, Quest gamers can still expect to enjoy blockbuster games like Batman: Arkham Shadow, Deadpool VR, Assassin's Creed Nexus VR, Metro Awakening, Asgard's Wrath 2, and many more as the company continues to pour money into VR development through its Oculus Publishing group. And hey, who knows, maybe we'll even get lucky enough to see beloved classics like Echo VR return if the company aligns with the goals of its hardcore base.

When I got the Ray-Ban Stories back in 2021, I imagined a world where I would wear my glasses all day and freely document my daily life. While battery life still hinders this dream from becoming a reality, I often wear my AI glasses (as they're now known) whenever I leave the house or go for a run.

Like a smartwatch (which I also don't wear 24/7), my Oakley Meta HSTN smart glasses have given me a new way to document my most special workouts and provide real insight into how I'm progressing over the course of my lifelong fitness journey.

I recently wore these glasses during a 5K Spartan Race and recorded every obstacle and running segment on the course. This means I can go back and check my exact performance on each obstacle the next time I run a Spartan — something I do multiple times per year — and highlight what I need to improve for the next run. It's an invaluable tool that's become part of my regular arsenal, especially now that Meta has substantially improved video recording stability via a free software update.

This is Sparta

For the past few years, I have worn a bevy of fitness-tracking equipment at Spartan Races. This is mainly because it's my job to track these sorts of events and compare devices, but this year has seen a new addition to the collection: Oakley Meta HSTN smart glasses. The first time I ran with these was in early August at a rather muddy Spartan Race, and this time was on a perfect, cloud-free, extra-sunny 70-degree day.

The experience couldn't have been more different, but both times, Oakley Meta HSTNs made it all the way through the race without missing a beat. Now, that's not to say it recorded the entire race. The maximum recording time for a video from any pair of Meta AI glasses is 3 minutes, and I never recorded long enough to reach that limit.

Instead, I long-press the recording button before approaching any obstacle, then tap it again to end the recording. This ensured that I had enough battery to record every obstacle, plus some running segments, but just barely so. I ended the 1-hour and 9-minute race with 4% battery remaining on the glasses after all the videos and photos had been synced with my phone.

In total, I recorded 31 minutes and 49 seconds of video, all captured at 30FPS, 1700p resolution, and in HDR with stabilization. As I showed in my initial batch of testing with Oakley Meta HSTN glasses, using the "1080p" setting provides the best balance of quality and stabilization, while also allowing for longer battery life — something that's very important during an event where you can't just stop and charge the glasses.

But this also shows that there are still substantial limitations to these glasses. Being able to record every obstacle in a race this long is great, but I couldn't have done that in any of the longer Spartan Races offered. Apparently, my stamina matches that of Meta's AI glasses, but more seasoned runners will likely find this battery life to be inadequate.

The most obvious modern "solution" to this would be to get a newer Garmin watch and enable the new Garmin x Meta integration, something my colleague Michael Hicks tested during a recent marathon. This would ensure that clips are recorded only at specific milestones, such as every mile marker or at the end of the race. It then stitches together a nice montage video that's easily shareable on social media.

But as Hicks points out, the clips are "mostly stitched-together footage of random moments of my runs, none especially noteworthy unless I took them myself." That doesn't sound like a good fit for a Spartan Race to me, though I'd need to test that specifically once I get a newer Garmin watch.

But aside from video, I really like how Meta AI summarizes the runs. Not only does it get relevant data from the run itself — fueled by the Garmin Watch integration and visual data from the glasses — but it also ties in recent workout data to give you a better explanation of your overall performance.

In my case, I'm simply not a runner, but I'm working on improving that part of the workout. This Garmin x Meta integration clearly does a good job of summarizing what's been going on with my recent workout data, something I'm not particularly good at on my own.

Even with an older Garmin watch, the integration automatically imported my run and stored it in the Meta AI app's "workouts" section, complete with a Meta AI summary of my progress and associated media I captured. Since I haven't run a race like this with the watch before this test, it didn't have much data to work with, but it makes me excited to see what it cobbles together next time!

Aside from running, which I already knew I struggled with going in, I realize I need to work on pulling my torso over higher obstacles (6 feet and higher walls), as well as the niche skill of throwing a javelin into a bale of hay. Without the video evidence, I surely would have forgotten these things by the next time I have to run, and that's a huge part of why I love wearing Oakley or Ray-Ban Meta AI glasses during these events!

FAQ

Back in the day, Meta used to require all users to log in with a Facebook account when they wanted to use their Oculus Quest 2 headsets. That silly policy has been long dead for many years, but it still remains as easy as ever to log in to your Quest with your Facebook account. But before you hit the easy button, don't.

While it might sound nice and tidy to link all your Meta experiences together — that includes Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Quest, Ray-Ban, and more — putting all your eggs in one proverbial basket means that all of them crack when the basket is dropped.

To use more straightforward language, if someone happens to steal one of your Meta accounts this holiday season, or you get banned for some silly reason because of Meta's famously dumb moderation tools, you'll lose access to everything you own from the company. Yes, that even means your precious Meta Quest headset. Here's what you need to do.

Keep it separate, keep it safe

The best way to go about this process is for new owners to create a Meta account specifically for Quest use. You can do this through the Meta Horizon app (Android, iOS) that's used when setting up a new Meta Quest, or go to Meta's login page and create a new account from there. Only use this account on your Meta Quest and don't follow the tantalizingly easy prompts to log in with one of your other Meta accounts.

Existing users should head on over to the Meta accounts center page, tap Accounts under Accounts settings on the left menu, then remove any accounts that are linked to the Meta account you use on your Quest. This will ensure that anything that happens to your Instagram, WhatsApp, or Facebook account doesn't negatively affect your use of your Meta Quest headset.

What's the deal with linked accounts, anyway?

Many times when you log into an online service, you can choose to make an account by logging into your Google, Apple, Meta, Amazon, or other major service instead of creating yet another account and password to keep track of. This is a wonderful service that's also a useful way to ward off account breaches since someone would have to have access to your "master" account in order to access linked accounts.

But because of the way Meta handles linked accounts through its many products and services, one banned account means you lose all access forever. Yes, that even means you'll lose access to games you've purchased since those digital licenses are tied to that account.

It's heinously stupid and unfairly punishes too many people, since there are plenty of known instances of people's Facebook accounts being erroneously banned. Things are made worse by the fact that companies like Meta, Google, and others don't normally have a way to talk to a human being without jumping through tons of hoops.

I wish Meta handled things differently or, at the very least, gave Meta Quest users a way to offload their purchases onto another account if something happened with a linked account. While some people certainly deserve to be banned from using Facebook forever because of bad behavior, it doesn't make sense to take away all their purchases from an unrelated gaming console like a Meta Quest in one fell swoop.

Unfortunately, too many Meta Quest users have faced this terrible reality and, more often than not, it causes them to swear off the Quest forever. I certainly can't say I blame them, but you can learn from their unfortunate circumstances.

Trying to get a trillion-dollar company to change things like this is difficult, if not impossible. Thankfully, you can take just a few small steps to protect yourself and your gaming investment by unlinking your Facebook and other related Meta accounts from the account you use on your Quest.

November is always full of tentpole releases for any gaming system. From heavy-hitters like the recently released Deadpool VR to the return of classics like Thief VR, there's no shortage of games to play on your Meta Quest this holiday season. But one stands out from the rest for me because of its polish and near-perfect gameplay execution: Demeo x Dungeons & Dragons: Battlemarked.

This long title, which I'll just shorten to Demeo x D&D from here on out, builds upon the successful turn-based strategy card battler Demeo with the expansive universe of Dungeons & Dragons. While I played it on the Meta Quest 3 the entire time, the game is also available on Steam and PlayStation in both VR and non-VR versions, so you can play with all of your friends, no matter their platform of choice. Yes, that means VR players can play with non-VR players just as Demeo allowed.

Demeo is out now on Steam, PlayStation, and Meta Quest for $29.99 USD, an unbelievable value when you consider that the substantially shorter Demeo was $39.99 for the longest time.

Demeo x D&D: the basics

In Demeo x D&D, players can join up to three others to scale massive turn-based D&D campaigns that take place in familiar locations like Neverwinter, Icewind Dale, and more. Each battle takes place on a "board" composed of movement squares, but each board is lavishly decorated to look like a convincing location rather than a simple board game.

During a battle, players can choose to carry out two actions per turn. Each player has a hand of cards that contains attacks or items to use, or an action point can be spent moving on the board. If you've played D&D, you'll be immediately familiar with some of the mechanics, although the card-based abilities shake up gameplay in a meaningful way from standard D&D.

Like D&D, you may randomly come across an encounter or trap that requires you to roll a die to either pass or fail the test. Each of the eight playable classes can specialize in a number of different traits, and each of these traits plays a role in combat, traps, and even dialogue.

The game features two main campaigns at launch, each of which spans dozens of hours and locations to complete. Players can save and stop at any time, resuming their saved campaign with or without other players. Developer Resolution Games recommends always starting with four characters when playing a campaign, and these characters can be controlled by you or other human players.

Combat isn't the only thing players can do here, either. During each campaign, players will visit locations like taverns that allow them to chat with NPCs, investigate locations and objects, accept side quests, and more.

Three "one-shot" campaigns are also included in the launch game, adding even more variety and replayability to the game. The game can be played in VR or on a traditional TV/monitor system setup, giving you freedom to choose how you prefer to play this epic strategy title.

What's different from regular Demeo?

The base battle gameplay is similar to Demeo in that each character on the board takes turns moving and attacking, with players utilizing abilities from a deck of cards in their hand. But the basic structure of the rest of these games is quite different.

In Demeo, players choose from a half-dozen campaigns to play through. Each campaign is made up of three "floors." The first floor is usually a medium-sized area, the second floor is typically a much larger area with more challenging groups of enemies, and the third floor is a boss battle. Players stop at "Cleepto's Bazaar" between each floor to shop and trade cards with the merchant NPC.

In Demeo x D&D, players always begin at a map of the campaign's world and choose areas to visit from there. Each area is bespoke and has no set size. Some sidequests may be made up of a single forested area with a handful of enemies, while other sidequests may be multi-floor dungeons with dozens of enemies. You'll also come across plenty of areas where fighting is not an option, allowing you to move freely around to investigate areas or talk to NPCs.

Demeo x D&D has a much more traditional RPG structure in this respect. You can follow the main campaign or get sidetracked as often as you'd like, exploring each of the game's diorama-sized areas to your heart's content. Cleepto's Bazaar still exists in Demeo X D&D, but now it's a dedicated part of the world that you can visit any time you head back to the world map.

The game saves very often, making it easy to pick up and play. One of the best additions to the original Demeo was a later update that added save slots, allowing you to stop and save, then pick up the action at a later time. Demeo x D&D supercharges this mechanic by dropping a save slot on each player's system, allowing them to continue the campaign you were playing together on their own or with completely different people.

It's a brilliant mechanic that gives you the freedom to play when you want instead of having to perform a miracle and get all four players' adult schedules lined up. Public multiplayer lobbies are available just as they were in the original Demeo, and I'm hoping the crowd is just as friendly.

And unlike Demeo, the characters in Demeo x D&D are customizable. You can paint colors on them in a basic way, and each character has a skill tree that you'll build out as you progress through the campaigns. As you might hope, those skills transfer between campaigns and can make things much easier as you go. One-shot campaigns use new characters each time, which is typical of D&D.

How about a local Demeo x D&D night?

One of the very coolest features of Demeo x D&D is the ability to play the game together with other people in the same room. Using the built-in co-location feature, Meta Quest players can place the board on a real table as if it were a real board game. Everyone sees the same board in the same exact location, so this works as you'd expect (or even just hope to expect).

I recommend players use only a Meta Quest 3 or Quest 3S for this, as the color passthrough is a significant upgrade over the nasty, low-res, black-and-white passthrough of the Quest 2. This will make it feel like a "proper" D&D night with friends, albeit with no one having to take the helm of dungeon master.

And that's another area where Demeo x D&D shines. It features several of the stat-based random encounters of D&D, including environmental hazards and enemies alike, plus lots of dialog choices that players can all vote on. It's an incredible way to get that D&D feel without having to put in all the dungeon master work (and that crap is a lot of work).

All of these new additions and the fact that there are two full campaigns, plus three "one-shot" campaigns, add significant variety to an already impressive game. I also love that this still uses the tried-and-true Demeo style of combat and movement, which helps it feel different from traditional D&D, all while still maintaining enough of that property's soul to feel like the branding belongs here.

The polish on the visuals, dialogue, voice acting, and gameplay all combine to make this my favorite VR game of the year. Of course, if you're not a VR gamer or have friends who might be interested in playing the game (but don't have a VR headset), don't worry, as Resolution Games ensured cross-platform play works perfectly. I played with some friends using the non-VR Steam client, and things were as smooth as I had hoped. It's a must-have title on the Meta Quest, for sure, and a must-buy game for D&D and strategy gamers, as a whole.

FAQ

Last night, I lay in bed playing Lumines Arise til my arms started to ache from holding my Steam Deck in the air. This afternoon, I placed my Meta Quest 3 on my head and seamlessly continued my progress in the game, this time with an unparalleled sense of immersion that my Steam Deck could never hope to offer.

It's this type of hybrid play-as-you-please gaming haven that Valve planted the roots for when it launched the Steam Deck several years ago, which is now entering the blooming stages as the Steam Frame launches in early 2026.

The Steam Frame, as the new VR headset is called, is a standalone "Steam Deck for your face" that plays VR and non-VR games alike. It doesn't care how you want to play games or what you want to play; it just wants you to play them everywhere and gives you full access to the Steam library you already own, making it a powerful addition to any gamer's household.

Play what you want, how you want, when you want it

The real beauty in products like the Steam Frame isn't inherently the hardware, although PC Gamer's hands-on delves into Valve's engineering mastery and what makes this headset stand out from the rest. No, the real draw here is the versatility of the Steam library.

When I finish a long day of work but recognize that I need physical exercise or movement and not another few hours of sitting on my butt, picking up a Steam Frame and playing a great VR game may just be the answer. Other times, I might want to wind down for the night in bed with a round of Peglin or solving some puzzles in Islands of Insight on my Steam Deck. No matter what, Steam has my back.

For me, it's this versatility that matters most. Sony is close to having a similar ecosystem with the PS5, but the company falls short in several ways. The PSVR 2 requires a cord to work, online multiplayer requires a monthly paid subscription, and Sony's digital games purchasing policy is squarely anti-consumer. Valve's ecosystem suffers from none of these issues.

Like the Meta Quest, Valve's game purchase and return policy is second to none. Don't like a game or want to return it for any reason? You have two weeks from the purchase date or two hours of "trial play," whichever comes first. It's great, and it makes me feel good about spending money on digital games that I'll never have the chance to sell.

The PS5 has the ability to play physical games, but many games only get digital distribution, particularly the indie titles I enjoy playing most, meaning this isn't a situation where the PS5 has a full advantage.

The obvious upside of an all-digital library is that I can play my games on any hardware I want, which is something Steam is particularly well-suited for. The Steam OS that runs on Steam Deck and Steam Frame is built to play any Steam game, even ones made for X86-based PCs. The only real hamstring is the hardware power, which will require you to use a PC or cloud service to stream more detailed games.

Valve even thought of that when building the Steam Frame, as it includes a dedicated streaming USB stick in the box. This stick enables not only Wi-Fi 6E-grade wireless bandwidth, but it also uses a dedicated antenna on the Steam Frame to stream your PC games wirelessly to the headset. That ensures you never run into network traffic issues on your home network since it bypasses that completely.

The Meta Quest 3 can also stream any Steam game from your PC to the headset, including using a dedicated wireless streaming box like this one I've been testing for months, but the Quest wasn't purpose-built for this and doesn't provide the same ultra-high quality streaming that Steam Frame can.

What's more is that Steam Frame can sideload Android APKs just like the Meta Quest series can. Steam Frame isn't running Android, but Valve's unique Proton and FEX emulation layers allow it to run Android apps and games just as well as it can run Windows apps and games, something that gives the Frame a unique position in the market.

Samsung's recently released Galaxy XR headset can also run Android apps natively since it uses the Android XR operating system and has a unique advantage in that area since it comes with Google services built in. Some apps don't work at all without Google services, which is why this sort of thing never caught on with Meta Quest owners despite its ability to run Android apps natively.

Steam Frame vs. Meta Quest 3

Now that I've brought up the Quest 3, it's important to take a look at the two of them side-by-side and see which one is more worth your money. The biggest issue right now is that we don't know the price of the Steam Frame, although Valve says it's aiming to come in at under the $999 price of its previous headset, the Valve Index.

So we'll throw price out the window for now and just look at the biggest experiential differences between the two systems. The Meta Quest 3 is purpose-built for VR and mixed reality games. Meta owns just over half a dozen game development studios and uses them to pump out AAA VR games like Batman: Arkham VR, Deadpool VR, Asgard's Wrath 2, and even helps fund titles like Assassin's Creed VR, Thief VR, Metro Awakening, and more.

Valve doesn't fund any VR game development and isn't even making a new VR game, which means the latest and greatest is still the 5-year-old Half-Life: Alyx. That also means we're not getting Portal VR, Counter-Strike VR, Team Fortress VR, DOTA VR, or any other Valve IP I forgot about. If you want AAA VR gaming, the Meta Quest is the obvious headset to buy.

If you're more interested in modding VR games like Fallout 4, Skyrim, or just playing VR Chat with the Steam Frame's built-in eye tracking, Valve's headset might be right for you. With a 144Hz display and lighter build, the Frame is designed with PCVR games in mind from the start. Valve calls it a "streaming-first headset" because it recognizes that Steam VR players primarily use the platform to play visually complex games, something a standalone system cannot compete with.

But that doesn't mean it can't play these VR games without a PC. The company hasn't offered long enough play sessions to make an opinion on this yet, but my guess is that most PCVR games will run fine enough on the Frame in local processing mode, so long as you turn the visuals down. For someone like me, that's just fine. I use a Steam Deck because I prefer the ability to play anywhere I want. Graphics simply aren't high on my list of priorities.

Both Valve and Meta have crafted headsets that are designed to be modular, but the Steam Frame seems like it'll win a competition in this area. The front module of the Steam Frame can be easily removed, which contains the lenses and all computing elements. It's just 190g for that module since there's no battery inside, ensuring this headset can be used for years to come without having battery issues.

Valve also designed the controllers to be a fascinating hybrid of a traditional gaming controller and VR motion controllers. Time will tell if this was a good idea or not, but the company says, "We see it just as a new way to play your entire Steam library," which makes this decision a lot more sense. Given that controllers are easily mappable natively in Steam, this should work nicely for VR titles, too.

The problem here is that the Steam Frame only has black and white passthrough vision out of the box, while the Meta Quest 3 has full color passthrough. That means there's no chance you'll want to play non-VR games on a Steam Frame while seeing your room, and that's going to be a huge disadvantage for Valve until a color passthrough add-on is sold. Yes, Valve made a port for camera add-ons on the headset.

Whether or not Steam Frame gives PCVR a development boost is up in the air, but it may not take much to move that needle. The Steam Deck, as popular as it seems, has only sold around 5 million units to date, yet it has significantly influenced the world of PC games development in a way that prior PC handheld hardware didn't.

Regardless of its influence over the PC VR space, I'm excited to play hybrid VR titles like Lumines Arise on this. Being able to play the same game in my bed with a Steam Deck before going to sleep or be fully immersed in it with a Steam Frame is an incredible value proposition, and it makes my Steam library feel even more valuable than it already did. I can't say the same about any other gaming ecosystem on the market.

FAQ

When I got my iPhone 17 Pro Max a few weeks ago, I couldn't wait to tear open the box. No, that's not because I love using iPhones — quite the opposite, really. It was because I couldn't wait to test out the spatial photo and video capture that comes built-in to the phone's camera app.

You see, when Apple launched the Vision Pro in 2024, it understood that most people with a Vision Pro wouldn't wear them on their heads 24/7 and, therefore, wouldn't use its powerful spatial cameras to capture everyday memories. That type of experience is reserved for the phones in our pockets, and recent iPhone models can capture this kind of content.

On the Android side of things, the only way to capture spatial photos or video is to buy an Xreal Beam Pro. This neat little gadget is perfect when paired with a pair of Xreal One glasses, and it's also perfect for capturing spatial photos and video of any kind throughout your day. The obvious problem is that it's a second device you'd have to remember to charge and take with you at all times, and that's just not realistic for most people.

A spatial future

Last month, Google and Samsung launched the new Android XR operating system alongside the Samsung Galaxy XR headset, ushering in a new era for VR headsets. The new OS can run all Android apps in VR space, making it the best new XR operating system and outpacing both Meta and Apple in this particular metric.

Galaxy XR is an entertainment powerhouse, and one of the pillars Google touts of this experience is the ability to view 3D — better known as "spatial" these days — photos and video right in the headset. The problem is that no modern Android phone can record 3D photos or videos, just the ancient EVO 3D and, of course, the Xreal Beam Pro sidekick device.

Google attempted to solve this problem through the magic of AI by automatically converting existing 2D photos and videos to 3D, but the end result isn't quite as good as if it were captured natively with a binocular phone camera system.

Meta introduced a similar feature back in May, which includes automatically converting Instagram content to 3D as you scroll. The effect is quite impressive, although again, it's not quite as good as if you were watching native 3D or spatial content.

For that, you'll need an iPhone 15, 16, or newer iPhone 17. Not only do these phones capture spatial photos and video impressively well, but the Meta Horizon app makes it dead simple to import them onto your Meta Quest headset.

To do this, open the Meta Horizon app on your iPhone, select the menu button in the top-left corner, tap gallery, then click the upload button in the top right. Once you give the app access to your camera roll, you can slide over to the Spatial tab and easily select any spatial photos and videos you've captured on your iPhone.

On the Android side of things, the instructions are the same, but there's no Spatial tab to be seen. Even on the Xreal Beam Pro, I don't have a Spatial option, as the app doesn't recognize the 3D side-by-side content the device captures as "spatial" photos or video. Rather, it thinks these are panoramas, and that's reflected in the in-headset experience.

Now, I can load a gallery app on the Meta Quest that allows me to view side-by-side photos as 3D images, but I have no way of natively viewing them with the built-in gallery app or uploading 3D video natively through the Meta Horizon app. That all seems to be locked to iOS because of Apple's official spatial capture standard.

Another green bubble for Android

This is where Google needs to catch up. Without a properly supported standard, Android users are effectively stuck in "green bubble land" again, just using a different subject matter. At the very least, Samsung introduced a hidden feature in its Camera Assistant app that lets you capture 3D pictures and video specifically for Galaxy XR, but I don't understand why Samsung wants to hide it so badly. This should be a standard mode or feature on all Samsung phones.

The worst part is that Samsung has already one-upped Apple by offering users high-quality selections for 3D video and photos. Even better, the Galaxy S25 Ultra can capture 4K spatial video, while even the mighty iPhone 17 Pro Max tops out at 1080p. Again, why hide such a fantastic feature? I just don't get it.

The images I captured using this feature on a Galaxy S25 Ultra upload just fine to the Meta Quest app, but videos aren't selectable at all yet. That one's on Meta, but it still shows that Android users have to jump through unnecessary hoops to get a second-rate experience compared to how things are on an iPhone, and I hate that.

This past week, Samsung and Google launched the Android XR platform on the Galaxy XR headset. This powerful combination shows us what Google's dedicated XR platform is capable of on a mixed reality headset, but how about a pair of smart glasses?

If you haven't heard yet, Android XR is a versatile new version of Android that works on a wide variety of XR devices, ranging from powerful VR headsets to lightweight AI-powered smart glasses. So far, we only have one product on the market that uses the OS, but we know a lot more are coming, and the next big wave is going to be in a smart glasses form factor.

Samsung told us that it would be building the Google smart glasses co-branded with Warby Parker and Gentle Monster, a revelation that wasn't clear when we first tried these smart glasses at Google I/O 2025. Knowing that Samsung is behind all of the hardware that's been seen so far helps paint a clearer picture of what to expect when the first products land sometime in 2026.

What they will be

The glasses you see above are Magic Leap's first prototype Android XR-powered smart glasses, showcased at the Future Investment Initiative (FII) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on October 29, 2025. They look similar to the ones developed by Samsung that were showcased at Google I/O 2025 and will undoubtedly be among the most popular smart glasses form factors going forward.

These smart glasses feature a display in one lens, similar to Meta's Ray-Ban Display Glasses. This display uses a holographic waveguide that's visible to the glasses wearer but not to anyone looking from the outside. They have a limited field of view and are primarily used to display notifications, turn-by-turn directions, music playback controls, and other features you might be accustomed to seeing on a smartwatch.

So far, Google has only shown off glasses that use Gemini voice controls to navigate on the device. That means you need to say "Hey, Google" any time you want to do anything on the glasses. It's a great way to interact while driving or when both of your hands are busy, but it's not ideal for any situation with lots of background noise or when you need to be quiet.

Cameras mounted on each side can capture photos and record video, giving you a hands-free camera that can be activated in a split second. That can be particularly useful when you're trying to capture something funny your kids or pets are doing, for instance, while a phone takes much longer to pull out of your pocket, launch the camera, and hit record.

Samsung's glasses will almost certainly be entirely reliant on your phone, similar to a Bluetooth-only smartwatch. The glasses will have some local functionality — capturing photos and video, and maybe locally stored music playback — but they aren't designed to replace your phone. At best, I expect them to be priced slightly lower than Meta Ray-Ban Display Glasses, since they won't be able to do as much with voice-only input.

Essentially, I expect these glasses to operate almost identically to Ray-Ban Meta Gen 2, albeit with a display that can visually show you Gemini's feedback and notifications. That visual component could make all the difference to some people, though, as even a camera viewfinder on the display could make it significantly easier to frame your photo or video like you want.

And I also expect Samsung to launch glasses without this in-lens display, allowing for more affordable options.

What it won't be

The screenshot you see above is what I saw when demoing Meta Orion at Meta Connect 2024. Meta Orion is a pair of smart glasses that feels more like a full "face computer" in a compact form factor. In essence, it's a VR headset without the bulk or immersive mode.

Samsung's smart glasses will not be a Meta Orion competitor. Not yet, at least. They won't replace your phone, and they likely won't play games or do anything more than you might use your smartwatch for. They're effectively a nice wearable camera with an AI assistant attached that can also make phone calls and display notifications. A way to stop looking at your phone so darn often.

Warby Parker and Gentle Monster smart glasses made by Samsung almost certainly won't have the ability to track the space around you like a VR headset (or Meta Orion) can, meaning they won't be able to use that in-lens display to overlay virtual imagery on the real world. There's also no evidence showing that Google or Samsung has any sort of input device like the Meta Neural Band. This is a voice-only experience.

Because of this, they also won't be terribly expensive. Meta Ray-Ban Display Glasses are only $799 because they cut out a lot of the uber-expensive components that make Meta Orion as capable as it is, and the inclusion of the Meta Neural Band in the box only adds to that cost. If I'm being hopeful, Samsung's display glasses should come in at less than $799.

If we've learned anything about Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, smart glasses without a display likely won't cost much more than a standard pair of designer-brand frames with lenses, making them a reasonable option for glasses wearers who want more out of their daily specs.

Despite both of these types of glasses running Android XR, I don't expect to see them running full Android apps. Almost certainly, Android XR on smart glasses will operate like a cut-down version of Wear OS, relying on companion apps or smartphone app connectivity to do all the heavy lifting.

Even without full apps running on the display, I can guarantee these will still be an impressive experience that'll augment your everyday life. Whether that's being a tourist and asking Gemini about what you're seeing in a foreign country (see the above image), or asking it how to improve your golf swing, there's a very real reason these will become the next big thing in tech.

That's going to be especially true if Google and Samsung end up getting the "remember" feature from demos working on the final product. No matter what, we're likely only a few months away from them landing, and it's going to be great to see this space quickly improve and iterate the way we saw smartwatches evolve over a decade ago.

FAQ

The long-awaited Samsung Galaxy XR is finally here, and it debuts the incredible new Android XR operating system. But there's a huge barrier to entry that's going to require a lot of convincing for people to accept it: the price. At $1,799, the Samsung Galaxy XR is expensive, no matter how you frame the argument.

On the bright side, it's half the price of the Apple Vision Pro while retaining many of that headset's best features, including a cutting-edge micro-OLED display, eye-tracking capabilities with iris biometric authentication, and more.

But at 3x the cost of a Meta Quest 3, is it really possible to justify the cost of Samsung's headset over Meta's? Yes, especially if you fall into one of the three following categories.

I need my space

One of the best reasons to watch movies, TV shows, or play games in VR is the personal nature of the experience. Say you get home from work, have a nice dinner with your family, and then are ready to sit on the couch for some much-earned relaxing time... but your kids want to watch KPop Demon Hunters for the 346th time. No shade on KPop, but sometimes you need a break from the same old thing.

That's where Galaxy XR comes in. Pop this sweet headset on and you're instantly transported to the entertainment and relaxation you want, without having to fight over who is using the TV tonight.

It's your own TV, and you can do whatever the heck you want with it, even play those mature-rated games or watch HBO shows without your kids having to see or hear it before they're ready.

Better for work

I've used a lot of smart glasses over the years, and while some of the best smart glasses offer incredible ways to give yourself a personal theater (see the above section), their field of view is limited.

Take Xreal One, for instance. The screens in those glasses offer a 50-degree FoV, while Xreal One Pro ups that to 57 degrees. That's impressive for smart glasses, but the Samsung Galaxy XR offers a 109-degree FoV. That's double the field of view, and it means your workspace looks like real life through the Galaxy XR's lenses rather than through a small window.

When you're using apps or working with your headset on, this wider field of view truly matters. The experience feels like you're sitting at a desk with monitors that you can move around at will, kind of like Tom Cruise in Minority Report. The difference here is that your windows aren't restricted to a 2D plane; you can move them anywhere you want in space.

Not to mention the fact that Android XR supports every single Android app on the Google Play Store, so you're not going to be worried about missing that important app you use every day. That makes Galaxy XR massively more appealing for work, especially when comfort is involved.

While it's a long way from the diminutive weight of smart glasses, Galaxy XR's headset design mimics my favorite productivity headset, the Meta Quest Pro, taking all the weight off your face and making it easy to eat and drink while wearing it. Don't discount that last part as a big deal; it's seriously a game-changer.

Gaming

Samsung isn't selling this as a gaming VR headset, but that doesn't mean it isn't excellent for gaming. Ironically, the optional Galaxy XR controllers are now backordered into December because owners clearly want to game on this thing.

And why not? Android XR supports the OpenXR standard, which means developers can port their existing Meta Quest games to Galaxy XR with relatively little work if they use the OpenXR API. But don't just take my word for it, here's what the developers of Walkabout Mini Golf had to say:

"Android XR was a medium difficulty port, mainly because the game was written before things like OpenXR was well supported, so there were a few systems that had to be replaced with newer standards. It's good housekeeping for a game like ours to keep our tech stack up to date and ports like this are part of that practice.” — Lucas Martell, CEO of Mighty Coconut

Gaming on a Galaxy XR isn't just about native VR games. You can play any Android game on Galaxy XR on a giant, resizable screen, so no more squinting down at your phone trying to read the text in Stardew Valley or trying to snipe across the map in Fortnite.

And Galaxy XR's incredible eye, hand, and face tracking technology all transfer to your PC when you use the Virtual Desktop app from the Google Play Store. This means that you can play amazing SteamVR games like Half-Life: Alyx or jump into the wide world of Resonite or VRChat and get full facial tracking capabilities to enhance your social skills. It's the ultimate wireless PC VR headset!

Just the beginning

As Android XR adds more functionality and gains more XR-native apps, we'll start seeing more reasons Galaxy XR is worth its high price. Just as you pay extra for a big, foldable phone to get a premium experience, the Galaxy XR's hardware, display, and bespoke Android XR software make it a superb premium headset for VR and mixed reality.

If you're picking up a Galaxy XR this year or thinking about picking one up, what's your biggest reason for doing so? Let us know in the comments below!

Imagine yourself in a plane surrounded by seven other people. Everyone is suited up to jump out, and just as the bay doors open, a brown backpack is thrown out that looks a lot like a parachute. Unfortunately, you don't have time to wonder if the thing on your back is a real parachute or a fake, because the plane has already ejected everyone, and you're now free-falling at 10,000ft in the air.

Knowing what's likely going to happen, it's pretty clear to you that you're not going to be the one landing without a parachute. For the next several minutes, all eight of you battle it out in the clouds, using your arm-mounted rockets and grappling hooks to catch other players and keep the backpack until the end.

The game is Project Freefall, and its unique nature isn't just the gameplay; it's also the fact that you can play on a Meta Quest headset, a Steam Deck, or any of the other non-VR platforms the game supports, all flying together in a fairly rare cross-platform quest to reach the bottom.

Battle royale against the clock

Developer Schell Games has long made some of the best Meta Quest games. The veteran VR studio is behind well-known games like I Expect You to Die, Among Us VR, Silent Slayer: Vault of the Vampire, Until You Fall, and many more. While Among Us VR eventually became Among Us 3D with crossplay support between VR and non-VR systems, Project Freefall is designed for crossplay from day one.

The game launched in "earliest access" this week during Steam Next Fest, with a demo on the Meta Quest and a demo on Steam that you can download right now. Since the game is multiplayer only, I recommend visiting Schell Games' Discord server and joining any one of the active sessions posted there.

Project Freefall is simple enough in concept, but certainly one of those games that'll become increasingly complex as players master the unique movement systems. As you're falling through the air, you not only have those arm-mounted thrusters, but each hand has an independent grappling hook that can be used to grab items or pull yourself toward obstacles.

Why are there giant Ninja Warrior-esque obstacles falling through the air while you skydive? It's a video game that's not afraid to be a video game, that's why! Any number of objects can fall, from giant shark statues to literal Ninja Warrior-style obstacle courses that you can pull yourself through to avoid being tagged.

Grabbing the backpack is as easy as simply running into the player wearing it, from whence you'll immediately boost away wearing the coveted prize. Schell Games told me this small boost was introduced in early testing to help avoid the pitfalls of backpack juggling, giving players a brief moment to collect themselves before being chased.

Along with those giant obstacles that help make movement more complex in an otherwise empty sky, you'll find a smattering of power-ups and items that help you achieve the goal of holding the backpack the longest.

Whether it's a paint grenade to blind your opponents, Mario Kart style, or a bat that you can smack them with and stun them, these items are all about increasing the competitive nature of the game.

And that brings me to the unique qualities of playing on each supported platform. VR players will find that they have a distinct movement advantage, as they can easily aim each of their arms in different directions or even blind fire toward an obstacle while faking movement toward another. It's a classic juke movement that's made even more chaotic by the freedom of movement VR allows.

But non-VRs aren't at a disadvantage, despite being a little stiffer. While the VR version plays out in first person, the non-VR version is entirely done in 3rd-person. This gives the non-VR version a distinct perspective advantage, as you can more easily see everything around you without having to whip your head around constantly.

Schell Games told me it worked around the clock to balance these two distinct gaming perspectives, ensuring that neither platform has an overwhelming advantage. Some players will simply choose one over the other based on either convenience or their own strengths. If anything, playing it on a Steam Deck made it feel more chill, while the VR version felt far more active and chaotic, effectively highlighting the strengths of both systems.

The full early access period begins on October 21 and is fully free to play. A fairly standard skin shop is set up for players to purchase unique skins if they want, although in-game currency ensures that you will be able to earn skins and plenty of other fun cosmetic prizes without having to bankroll your character.

Check out the demo now and give it a shot! I was thoroughly impressed with how much fun it was, and the unique movement concepts make it feel substantially different in a flooded market of games that too often feel the same.

The term "immersive" isn't an adjective you'd normally use to describe watching videos or playing games on a smartphone. Craning your neck down at a 6-inch rectangle simply doesn't fit any definition of the term. But one game developer is hell-bent on turning that little black rectangle into a portal that defies expectations.

Waltz of the Wizard might not be a name you're familiar with unless you own a Meta Quest 3 (or an older headset). It's a classic VR title that's been around for a long time but has seen regular updates over the years, often injecting impressive levels of innovation into a seemingly simple formula.

The game has enjoyed a huge revival over the last year thanks to social media, and developer Aldin Dynamics is launching the first mobile version on iOS at the end of this month. Yes, I know, it's more than a bummer that it's not available on Android yet, but it's still an impressive way to take a VR game and make it available for a significantly larger audience of gamers to try.

Bash some Skullies

After toying around with the game for quite a while, I knew I had to chat with the developers to find out how they ported a VR game so successfully to a mobile platform. After all, Waltz of the Wizard deeply relies on both physical and voice immersion to drive the experience, but it turns out the pace of the game allows this to translate to mobile quite seamlessly.

Hrafn Thorisson, the co-founder and CEO of Aldin Dynamics, told me the company has always been about "making realities that make you feel like this isn't a game." For Aldin, this means adding a "high degree of interactivity to characters, thousands of reactions for them," and, maybe most notably, "speaking to them verbally by using your voice."

That last part is something not often seen in the world of smartphone gaming, unless we're talking about having a chat between friends on Discord while simultaneously playing a game. Waltz of the Wizard almost completely revolves around a disembodied human skull named Skully, whom you talk to constantly.

Whether it's asking about the properties of an object in the world and what you can do with it, or even asking Skully to conjure up some magic to create items, this sarcastic, borderline rude skull is the key to Waltz of the Wizard's unique personality as a game.

Unlike some other VR games that have started experimenting with LLM robots to create unique dialogue, Waltz of the Wizard uses a more "classic AI model," as Thorisson puts it. Skully is built to react to things in a specific, hand-hewn way that has required developers thousands of hours to build, complete with a fully-voiced personality.

Thorisson says Skully is "the most interactive character you'll have on mobile now," with "thousands of thousands of reactions" for you to find. Whether that means bashing him against the wall a few times or feeding him some weird potion you just concocted is entirely up to you.

Translating the interactivity component of the VR classic to a mobile touchscreen interface was a better fit than a traditional console. "In some ways, we're able to do things with a mobile device that we can't do with a console, where the standard is to have buttons and joysticks." Plus, being able to utilize the natural "drag and drop" nature of a touchscreen meant the interaction paradigm fit better on a phone than a console.

Phones also have the added advantage of a front-facing camera and built-in microphones, which allow Skully to not only hear you, but also see you making facial expressions. Make an angry face or wink at him, and he'll probably notice.

Furthermore, Aldin Dynamics is utilizing the rear camera on the phone in a way I've ever seen before: using your physical hand to interact with the virtual world. Some of my favorite casual Meta Quest games use hand tracking for simplicity, but Aldin is using it here for something unique in the smartphone world.

Thorisson stresses that this mode is "not exactly like a fully fledged mode yet" and Aldin Dynamics is using feedback to further polish the experience, but he hopes this gives "people a taste of what VR is like."

There's nothing quite like using your own hand to interact with a game, which is something VR is typically uniquely built to handle. This becomes quite clear as you play around with the mobile game's mixed reality mode, as it doesn't always track your hand perfectly and often doesn't nail interactions like the VR version.

However, Aldin's quest to deliver a VR game on a mobile platform is surprisingly successful, based on the hours I've put into Waltz of the Wizard on mobile so far, and the experience is impressively full and immersive, despite the relatively small screen. Keep an eye out for Waltz of the Wizard on iOS devices later this month, and hopefully, we'll see the magic land on other Android devices in the near future.

I just finished touring Gordon Ramsay's home kitchen. Yes, the Gordon Ramsay. Of course, he has no idea who I am or what I'm doing in his kitchen, but Meta lets me see everything via its new Hyperscape app on Meta Quest headsets. Someone at Meta specifically visited Ramsay's house and used a Quest headset to map the space, presenting it in hyper-realistic 3D for the entire world to see.

Google did something similar with Photosphere back in 2012, but that technology only allowed you to capture a spherical panorama. Meta's new Hyperscape app lets you not only walk around and scan anywhere you want, but also allows you to virtually walk around the area and see everything in full, hyper-realistic detail afterward.

Walking through a world that quite literally looks real sounds like the future of VR, but Meta is making it happen today.

A walk in the park

I live right by the Biltmore Estate, the largest home in the United States. I most often visit the picturesque grounds for camera reviews, but this time I came toting my Meta Quest 3, instead. I got a few strange looks and questions from guests, but it was all for science.

Now, whenever I want to show someone how gorgeous the house looks, I don't have to drag them to the grounds. I can show them in VR. Hyperscape makes it easy to scan any location and recreate it in 3D as you walk around and inspect the place.

It's truly remarkable to see how much can be accomplished with a clever bit of AI and the right hardware. All you need is a $299 Meta Quest 3S headset and a few minutes to walk around. Suddenly, you're creating impressive virtual spaces that you will soon be able to invite people into. It's a fascinating look at how the metaverse is evolving before our eyes, and it proves that you don't need a powerful gaming PC just to get something that looks this good.

Setup is easy

To try it yourself, download the free Hyperscape Beta app onto your Meta Quest 3 or Quest 3S headset, then click "create world" on the main menu. You start by walking around any area you want to map with the headset. Since you can see the world around you through the headset's cameras, this should feel pretty normal.

As you scan the room, the Quest will overlay a blue grid on top of all the objects, walls, floors, and ceilings. When you're happy with the amount of space you've scanned — I have yet to find a limit — click the Next button to head to step two.

The next step is detail refinement, where you'll walk around once more and provide more mapping information. As you walk around, that blue grid evaporates to let you know the map no longer looks like basic PS1 geometry and is now in full-fledged realism mode.

The third step is almost optional and involves looking at the ceiling while walking around, which isn't applicable when mapping tall or outdoor spaces.

And that's it. Now you can take your headset off and carry on with your day while Meta's AI-powered servers put all the data together. You don't need to know how to write code or spend hours learning a complicated new program.

The Meta Horizon app on your phone will notify you when it's done, allowing you to fully walk around in the space you've just mapped. It feels like magic, and it's going to enable a whole new era of virtual visits to all sorts of places.

Meta also has several examples of other spaces — like Gordon Ramsay's home kitchen — as well as a collection of the worlds you made. In the future, it's expected that you'll be able to share these spaces with others, inviting friends, family members, or anyone else into each virtual space as a way to remotely converse without having to look down at 6-inch rectangles.

Massive potential

It's hard to express just how impressive this tech really is without seeing it for yourself. While most Meta Quest games are stuck in the PS2 or PS3 graphics eras, Hyperscape sometimes feels like jumping into a PS6 world. Things aren't perfect yet; some textures aren't ultra-high-res, sometimes you'll find ghost geometry in complicated places (like trees), and calculation errors can be seen on text or other places. However, the lighting and even fine detail on complex objects, such as plants, are stunningly impressive.

I could easily see Meta rolling this out to Horizon Worlds or other spaces once it gets the backend systems ready for sharing. This tech requires a lot of server-side streaming, so it's important for Meta to get the co-location of players right.

This has massive potential that I can see not just for social spaces, but also for businesses and other functions. I can easily imagine real estate agents using this to virtually showcase homes for people looking to move out of town. Businesses and restaurants could use it to give people an idea of the vibe or look of the space in a way Google Maps doesn't. You could even use it to revisit your first house or favorite place years later.

Meta dabbles in so many experimental ideas with its Reality Labs department, and Hyperscape is clearly one of the big ideas about to deliver a serious payoff, if my experience with it is any indication.

When was the last time you dropped a quarter into an arcade machine? If you're like me, the memories of arcades are mostly relegated to childhood. If you're young enough, you may never have had the chance to experience the unique atmosphere of a 1980s neon-lit arcade, but one Meta Quest accessory is bringing that feeling right to your living room.

The slightly-difficult-to-type X-Arcade Arcade2TV-XR is an arcade stick like none I've ever used, and it's built specifically to work with everything from a PlayStation 5 to a Meta Quest 3. One look at it might make you think it's only for serious Street Fighter 6 tournament enthusiasts, but this black, white, and red beauty is built for so much more.

It ranks right up there with the best Meta Quest accessories for me, as it not only provides a unique experience for all types of games, but it's dead easy to setup and regularly play on. It's made me fall in love with pinball games all over again, and it's the perfect accessory for emulation lovers like my co-worker, Andrew Myrick.

A home arcade

As you might gather from the image above, the X-Arcade Arcade2TV-XR is a hefty arcade stick setup with 2-player functionality and several different input options. My unit came with an adjustable metal stand that's impressively sturdy (and very heavy), complete with wheels on the back so you can move it around without too much trouble.

The unit plugs into a custom 2-port USB plug (that only takes up one wall outlet port). It comes with both globe and bat-shaped joystick heads, a set of connectors and adapters that help make it compatible with a range of home consoles, and a clever Bluetooth adapter that plugs into a Meta Quest headset's USB-C port.

This dongle means there's zero configuration required to get the Arcade2TV-XR working with supported games on your VR headset. To put it simply, I did not expect this. I low-key dreaded having to set up a bunch of stuff just to get it working and was beyond surprised when I found out there wasn't any real setup required at all.

Let's start with Pinball FX VR since that was the main draw for me here, anyway. You fire up the game and find yourself in the middle of a giant pinball arcade you can virtually walk around in. The moment you fire up the game, it recognizes that you've got an X-Arcade unit. We're already off to a good start!

As I walked up to a pinball table, I got another message telling me to dock the controllers into the physical X-Arcade unit and press the side buttons simultaneously. The moment I did this, the game pulled the pinball table right up to my hip and placed my virtual hands on the flipper buttons.

As you might assume, these buttons were in the exact same spots as the physical X-Arcade unit standing in front me. I was immediately impressed because it just worked. If I had a dime for every time I said that about a game that needs some kind of connected accessory to work, I'd be quite poor.

The next few hours saw me racking up high scores while enjoying the physical tactile feel of an arcade cabinet, all without the grunge on the buttons from years of misuse. It's so incredibly well-built it feels like it'll withstand just about anything I'd throw at it (even literally), and the buttons and joysticks are all made of the same high-quality materials you'd expect of a proper arcade cabinet.

The height adjusts so that it's comfortable for both standing and seated players, which further widens the appeal. I also love that it has docking stations for the left and right Meta Quest controllers, as it makes it dead easy to switch between inputs and perfectly align virtual cabinets with the physical X-Arcade unit.

I'd recommend picking up an official Meta Quest 3 open facial interface if you find you really love mixed reality gaming with this. Pinball enthusiasts can even order a haptic adapter set that adds spring-loaded plungers, vibration motors, and more.

X-Arcade also makes its own app for the Meta Quest called Arcade Ranger. A free copy of the game comes with every Arcade2TV-XR arcade stick and is designed to be your personal virtual arcade. In this app, you have an entire arcade that you can customize. You can even jump into sandbox mode and turn a completely empty room into the arcade of your dreams, or just stick to mixed reality mode and use your own physical room.

The app makes it easy to download emulator cores, but you'll need to supply your own ROMs (as expected). Just drop ROMs into a folder, tell it where to look, and it'll load things up. It works like any other emulator experience you've ever delved into.

Emulation isn't exactly my forte as it requires more configuration than I have patience for, but I was happy to see that you could also connect the arcade stick to a PC and use it as a regular X Input device, meaning it's perfect for playing anything on Steam VR if you've already got a great emulation setup on your PC.

The obvious advantage over a physical arcade cabinet (or multiple cabinets) is that this saves a ton of space and also gives you a way to play many other types of games that wouldn't normally be supported on an arcade cabinet setup. That includes big ol' pinball tables. Heck, you can even recreate your childhood and play Donkey Kong Country on a 20-inch CRT TV within the Arcade ranger app, if that's your jam.

It's an expensive setup, no doubt, but competing emulation arcade cabinets with a physical display will cost something like 4x the price of this unit, making it a surprisingly good deal. Plus, with the ability to use it on any console or PC with a simple adapter, it's an investment that'll last a long time for any gamer that loves a good arcade stick.

Quest headsets took a back seat at Meta Connect 2025. Zuckerberg focused on smart glasses and signaled that Meta will shift its VR focus to 3D media like Avatar. But in my time at Connect, it only took a few minutes of Star Wars podracing, Dungeons & Dragons battles, and Deadpool carnage to remind me of VR gaming's magical effect on me.

Demoing the Meta Ray-Ban Displays and running with the Oakley Meta Vanguards was exciting. It's just a different kind of excitement, focused on convenience and blending technology into your everyday experience or workouts.

When I dove into the demo for Star Wars: Beyond Victory, though, I was transported back into childhood memories of podracing on the N64 or playing with my little Star Wars collectible figurines. And the new Demeo x D&D VR game brought me back to my high school days of tabletop roleplaying.

It's a reminder that even if the Quest 3 and Quest 3S aren't cutting-edge or Meta's number-one priority, they remain as immersive and transformative as ever.

Recapturing the imaginative joy of Star Wars

ILM's game has a bit of a generic name, but Beyond Victory is essentially a cross between Podracing VR and Star Wars Action Figure VR. And both of them sent me to a faraway galaxy in different ways.

The main story mode has you joining the podracing circuit under the tutelage of Anakin's old nemesis, Sebulba. But it doesn't put you inside a cockpit in first-person view, as you might expect for VR; instead, it's more of a top-down racing style where you have to react quickly to obstacles and power-ups floating into the play space.

Fans of the N64 game might have preferred a first-person game with cockpit immersion, similar to Squadrons. Instead, ILM went for the same kid-friendly vibe as driving Hot Wheels toy cars on motorized loop tracks.

I need to hone my reflexes to improve at the game, but I felt that same nostalgic joy as when I podraced on the N64 or first watched the film as a kid.

The Playset mode, meanwhile, has a simple premise: what if you want to put a Stormtrooper in a Karate Kid pose, dueling C-3PO holding a lightsaber, or have a Godzilla-sized Darth Vader stomping on tiny rebels? The answer is, you can, and I did!

It's not "gameplay" in the traditional sense (though you can fire weapons to "kill" figures). Beyond Victory's Playset mode gives you a sandbox limited by your imagination, best suited for the Gorilla Tag demographic, but still a fun diversion for kids-at-heart, recapturing their imaginary games.

D&D, Deadpool, and the good old days

I already got a chance to try the Deadpool VR demo earlier this year, and loved the creatively gruesome combat, snarky meta-dialogue, and the impressive comic-style graphics. I played it again at Connect 2025, just to reexperience the violent adolescent joy.

When I play video games these days, I often have one eye on my phone or listen to a podcast. I lack time to sink hours into games or fully immerse myself in a world, and I feel too grounded in real-life concerns and busyness to escape.

When playing Deadpool and Batman: Arkham Shadow in VR, though, I get that refreshing feeling that I've stepped into the comic book pages and I'm roleplaying how they'd act and fight. VR games like these still have that special quality of transporting me somewhere else, the way I used to.

I also enjoyed playing Demeo x Dungeons & Dragons: Battlemarked with three other people — dungeon-crawling through a tabletop environment and taking down foes as a shifty rogue — for similar nostalgic reasons.

I used to play my fair share of tabletop RPGs (mostly D&D) and board games, but my friend groups switched to lunches and bars when they found it hard to commit hours to rolling dice and roleplaying.

Demeo isn't complex or narrative-driven like Baldur's Gate 3. Instead, Resolution Games made a sit-down-and-play style game that brings back that feeling of sitting with HS friends around a table on the weekends, without being too complicated.

The VR gaming magic's still there

After spending a handful of seconds on the VR games above, Zuckerberg spent much more time discussing "3D storytelling," the new Horizon TV app, and how VR films will push a new generation of users to Quest. They even invited James Cameron to come on stage and talk about his vision for 3D content.

I'm not surprised by this reprioritization: Meta's Chris Pruett talked at GDC 2025 about selling Quests to 30-something dads who want to watch TV instead of gaming, and we already have hints that the Quest 4 will be redesigned to prioritize 3D films.

But even if VR isn't considered as mind-blowing as it was during the pandemic days — when people used it to feel less isolated — it's not any less powerful an experience.

My colleague Nick has also written about XR games bringing back youthful joy, specifically tabletop-style games where you place plastic soldiers, toy trains, or Legos. And I'm sure others who haven't given up on VR feel the same.

The Quest 3 and 3S do the hard work of creating imaginative templates that I might have once conjured up from nothing as a kid, but can't anymore. And thanks to full-color mixed reality, these games almost feel more real than full VR worlds because they're inserted into my living room.

I don't blame folks for being pumped about the new Ray-Ban and Oakley smart glasses. But I hope they don't give up on VR, either!

Meta Connect 2025 happens in less than a week! The annual event takes place this year on September 17 and 18, and we're expecting some huge announcements from Meta as they continue to advance their lead in XR and AI.

Last year, Meta used the platform to announce the Meta Quest 3S, alongside some huge updates to its Horizon OS platform. Oh, and we can't forget the bombshell that was Meta Orion, the first full-featured pair of smartglasses from the company that represents Meta's vision of the future of computing.

This year, we're expecting Meta to further solidify its lead in smart glasses after recently launching Meta Oakley HSTN last month. Announcements should include a few additional pairs of smart glasses — one with a display in a lens! — as well as Meta AI updates and maybe even a new VR headset from the ASUS ROG brand. Here's everything you should expect from Meta Connect 2025!

What we'll most likely see: Smart glasses and AI

We're expecting a trio of smart glasses announcements from Meta at this year's Connect. The most exciting of which is Meta Hypernova, which will be Meta's first consumer pair of smart glasses with a display. While we got to test out Meta Orion at last year's Connect, that pair was never intended to be a product you could walk into a store and buy.

Meta Hypernova may be called Meta Celeste when it launches later this year, but we'll need to wait for Connect to be sure. Essentially, Meta Celeste can be considered a hybrid between a smartwatch, smartphone, and existing smart glasses. A small display is said to be in one of the lenses, which can show notifications, turn-by-turn directions, and even some apps.

The glasses are rumored to ship with Meta's most popular apps preinstalled (WhatsApp, Messenger, etc) and will connect to your phone to sync relevant information. Just like a smartwatch, it should have its own OS, processor, and a unique input system that relies on hand tracking and a gesture bracelet to make virtual interaction feel seamless.

We're also expecting Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses Gen 3 to make a debut at Connect, and it seems like Meta is doing something interesting with this release. Instead of three different frame styles with your choice of lenses in each, it's rumored that Meta is making separate sunglasses and prescription glasses frames to widen compatibility with lenses.

Some users were unable to use Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses because they don't support strong prescriptions, something a dedicated pair of prescription Ray-Ban frames would be able to do. Meta should be launching a new version of Meta AI with these Gen 3 Ray-Bans, as well as Meta Hypernova, which allows Meta AI to see the world around you for much longer.

This would enable Meta AI to give you personalized memory-based responses. For instance, you may be able to ask Meta AI where you left your keys or where it last saw your phone. It's even said that Meta AI will be able to remember people's names and faces with this update.

Meta has a lot of upcoming competition, including a rumored pair of smartglasses from Amazon and upcoming Android XR-powered smart glasses from Google's partners. Amazon is said to be developing glasses that will directly compete with Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses — so something Alexa-powered that features a camera and Bluetooth connectivity, as well as a pair of smart glasses with a display in the lens.

Google is running the gamut of options, as well, including partnerships with well-known brands like Gentle Monster and Warby Parker. We've already had the chance to go hands-on with Google's AR glasses and can't wait to directly compare them to whatever Meta announces at Connect this week!

What's least likely to make an appearance: A new VR headset

VR has been a little slower over the past year than Meta would like, but that doesn't mean the company is slowing down its VR R&D department. Last April, Meta announced that the Horizon OS that powers Meta Quest headsets would go third-party, meaning other companies could make a headset and use Horizon OS to power it, similar to how Android works.

Rumor has it that we might finally get a sneak peek at the ASUS ROG Tarius, the first fully custom headset developed under Meta's new program. This would be different from the Meta Quest 3S Xbox Edition, which was just a "reskinned" Meta Quest 3S with some extra goodies in the box.

The ASUS ROG Tarius is said to sport more advanced hardware than the Meta Quest 3, making it the most premium Horizon OS-powered headset. That includes a faster processor, eye tracking and face tracking, and upgraded displays featuring either QD-LCD or micro-OLED technology, per Luna on X.

Meta Connect is just a few days away, so we won't have long to find out!

I've been obsessed with the idea of mixed reality gaming ever since the Meta Quest 3 debuted almost 2 years ago. I have no idea how this thing is already two years old, but it's taken that time for me to amass a significant number of truly intriguing mixed reality games that are laying the groundwork for smart glasses gaming.

While we're expecting the first major commercial pair of smart glasses with a display to debut this month, the latest batch of rumors point to the Meta Quest 4 looking a lot more like a pair of tethered smart glasses than a VR headset. That's excellent news for mixed reality games, which will be even more fun with lighter, slimmer headwear.

Meta Quest developers creating mixed reality apps are catering to gamers today and in the future. When smart glasses have the display and capability to run games, they'll be running many of the same types of games we're playing on Meta Quest 3 today, all without the bulk of a VR headset.

Banners & Bastions

Banners & Bastions is a new bite-sized roguelike real-time strategy game from the creators of Airspace Defender. Like that game, everything takes place in a "half snow globe" of sorts, placed conveniently on your lap. You can move this half-globe anywhere you want, so it's just as good a tabletop board game as it is a compact lap game you can play on a plane.

The gameplay is a bit similar to Steam favorite Bad North, but with several different recent roguelike gameplay trends blended in. Each level begins with a preview of the number and type of enemies that will appear, as well as each spawn point's estimated movement direction (handy for putting up walls).

Players choose units from a random collection of cards that appear on screen, tying into the roguelike nature of the game. You've got a finite amount of money to spend on units, so it's uncommon to buy more than 1-2 cards each turn. Units can be placed anywhere on the map and moved at any time, so while it's important to plan ahead, you can always move things around during combat.

Levels are completed in a linear fashion and awarded the traditional 3-star mobile score model. Stars can be used to unlock a sizable skill tree, and you'll unlock new cards and units as you progress in the game. Plus, emergency powers like raining down meteors or calling up reserve soldiers can be used to help keep your units intact between rounds.

The real draw of playing this in mixed reality is the degree of control you have over the action. The game is hand-tracking-only, which makes it far more convenient to play than most VR games since you only need to put the headset on and launch the game. Hand tracking is phenomenal these days. Even my son, who has historically hated hand tracking because it used to be very finicky, found Banners & Bastions' hand tracking to be super effective.

Building a mixed reality game that relies on hands instead of controllers ensures that, in a few years, smart glasses with displays and game-ready hardware will be able to play this kind of game on the go with no issue. It's so much better than squinting and struggling to tap the right unit on a phone screen. I also deeply appreciate the game's quick levels, which typically take only a few minutes each to complete, making it a perfect fit for portable gaming.

Mythic Realms

Mythic Realms is one of the most full-fledged mixed reality games I've played to date. While it starts off as a seemingly simple mixed reality game where you battle monsters in your own physical room, you quickly learn that this game isn't just a combat simulator.

Rather, this is a full roguelike RPG in the vein of The Elder Scrolls: Blades. In fact, the gameplay loop is incredibly similar to that title, down to the concept of heading out on quests to gather resources and money to rebuild the town you call home. From blacksmiths who will improve your equipment to daily random events that'll keep you coming back to see what's happening, there's always something fun to do.

I actually audibly gasped when I realized the depth of the game, as many similar mixed reality titles with fantasy combat and randomized room layouts often just focus on combat and little else.

The town itself is fully virtual reality, so while that portion would need some adjustment to work properly on mixed reality glasses, I could see the company adapting the town concept to a diorama size that's a bit more manageable in mixed reality. I really enjoy seeing the town in VR, though, so it feels excellent in its current configuration for Meta Quest 3 and 3S headsets.

The way Mythic Realms transforms your playspace — even if you only have a small bedroom with very little walking space — is nothing short of incredible. Doors and windows become portals to another world, letting you see "outside" to a place that otherwise might not exist. Even the ceiling is replaced by open sky, which is peaceful and lovely until a fire-breathing dragon inevitably comes along and ruins your day.

But while the visuals are impressive enough, it's the gameplay loop that keeps bringing me back. I love the concept of a roguelike that mixes battle, crafting, and harvesting mechanics into one game. Every other roguelike I've ever played always just focuses on combat, while Mythic Realms offers plenty of combat-free situations throughout each run.

We're less than a month away from Meta Connect 2025, where we're rumored to see Meta's $800 Hypernova smart glasses with a single display in the right lens. I expect plenty of people will balk at buying smart glasses with "only" one display. But having tried both monocular and binocular smart glasses, I think Meta is making the right decision — and Google would agree with me.

The original Google Glass had a monocular display, and a decade later, when I tried Google's Android XR reference design at I/O 2025 (see the photo above), they had only one display. This isn't a coincidence!

Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth explained why monocular smart glasses are so much easier to create during an August AMA (via UploadVR): "They're affordable, they're lighter, and you don't have disparity correction, so they're structurally quite a bit easier."

Switching to binocular displays "more than doubles the cost" because, on top of a second display and eye-tracking camera, you have to ensure perfect interpupillary distance and prevent any disparity between what the user's two eyes see.

It's why Meta's monocular Hypernova glasses can (allegedly) cost less than a grand and blend in as somewhat "normal" glasses. Would people care as much about them if they cost $2,000?

Meanwhile, its Meta Orion prototype needs thicker frames for the extra power and battery demands of two large displays. And while Orion's $10,000 cost mostly comes down to silicone carbide lenses, that cost would be more than halved with one display.

The concern with a monocular display is "binocular rivalry," Bosworth says, because "one eye is seeing something, the other eye isn't seeing it, and your brain has to reconcile that, and different people experience that very differently."

But again, having tried Google's latest monocular glasses, I'm mostly unconcerned. And I don't think you should knock them until you try them.

Trust me, we don't need two displays yet

Out of everything I heard at Augmented World Expo 2025, every AR expert agreed that there's no one set path for smart glasses, but that any binocular glasses or "smart goggles" like the XREAL One Pro aren't going to blend in as normal glasses for years. The form factor simply can't fit in the battery, holographic tech, cameras, and other vital tech without ballooning in size.

There's a reason why Meta has teamed up with Ray-Ban and Oakley, while Google partnered with Warby Parker and Gentle Monster. Smart glasses need to look good and familiar, or not enough people will wear them to make money. The thicker they get, the harder it is for people to see the resemblance.

Most importantly, smart glasses need to function without a display. Assistants like Meta AI and Gemini will be your primary controller and source of information, with the display there to show their data in a more accessible way. So adding a second display, which will drain your battery life more quickly until you can't access the assistant at all, is a poor allocation of resources. Smart glasses can only replace normal glasses if they're worth wearing all day, not just at odd moments.

That said, Google's monocular Android XR glasses genuinely impressed me, proving that a display can be subtly helpful. You get a seamless pop-up showing Gemini answers to questions, calendar entries, recent Messages, live translations, and other data that's easily readable but doesn't take up your entire vision.

It's like being able to glance down at your smartwatch for a notification, only with a more subtle downward glance. And in fact, the Android XR version of Google Maps shifts from a basic directional guidance to a full-on map when you look downward, signaling to the glasses that you want more information.

Maybe some people will be more bothered by a monocular display — especially if they're not right-eye dominant — but it felt totally natural, sitting in my vision without any blurring, but not feeling so distracting that I couldn't focus on what's in front of me.

Binocular AR glasses might make these pop-ups even clearer, but they'll have to reconcile the image in the center of your vision, and while that's great for extended displays for gaming or streaming while you lay in bed, I don't know how much more helpful it'll be outdoors when you're walking around.

That's why I think monocular smart glasses are the best way to introduce this tech to wider audiences. It's simpler to pull off, and you don't need to worry as much about things like interpupillary distance when trying to give people a clear test demo.

So long as Meta, Google, and the rest remember that about 30% of people are left-eye dominant and sell a smaller portion of left-display glasses, I don't think people will have any trouble adapting to monocular smart glasses. Either that, or they'll just keep buying normal smart glasses like Oakley Meta HSTN or Ray-Ban Meta Gen 3s that don't even need a display.

Updated to clarify that the game always takes place in Stellar Cafe, not additional locations, as the original interview with Astrobeam suggested otherwise.

As I sat across the table from a soothsaying robot, I pondered exactly how this robot actually "thinks." Does it know the "future" because it was programmed to, or is it using a complex neural network to determine a possible future based on all the knowledge it has in its seemingly endless database?

But then it dawned on me: I was talking to an actual robot. It didn't matter how it thought; it was all about how realistic it felt and how close this was to the sci-fi movies we've all grown up watching. These robots were seemingly pulled straight out of the Star Wars universe and could not only function within their designed parameters, but could also psychologically process and respond to any question I asked them.

This was more than just a ChatGPT moment for me. It was a surreal representation of a future I didn't genuinely think I'd ever live to see; yet, before me was a collection of robots, each with its own job and seemingly functional brain.

The only way this could have felt more realistic to me is if these were physical robots in front of me in a cafe, but thankfully, their heavy mechanical bodies were still confined to the boundaries of my Meta Quest 3 headset. For now, at least. And soon, everyone will be able to check out the full experience in Stellar Cafe when it launches on the Meta Quest platform later this year.

Just another day in Stellar Cafe

My demo opened with me sitting in an elevator. As the doors opened to Stellar Cafe, I could see the friendly bartender wave to me in an attempt to usher me into the room. But, like those strange dreams we all sometimes have, none of my appendages (or virtual inputs) seemed to be working.

So I asked my handy virtual assistant how to get to the bar and, much to my surprise, my assistant warped me to it. Now I know I can move around just by asking, and the future-forward flavor of this demo has only just begun.

Immediately, James, the bartender, introduces himself and asks me what I want to drink. Having never visited Stellar Cafe before, I thought my safest bet was to order from the menu, so a Meteor Mocha it was. That is, until I read the ingredients on the side of my cup and realized it had oat milk in it.

Upon telling James I was allergic to oats, he profusely apologized and whipped up a new Meteor Mocha with synthetic milk instead. None of this was scripted, and it's not something a developer would likely think of to build into a game in the first place. Heck, I've been to more than a few coffee places that didn't even realize someone could be allergic to oat milk, and you'd think they would be the ones on top of that stuff.

My conversations with the three other robots in the room were similarly impressive. One robot was sitting next to a scenic view of a few planets, and I wondered if it would know more about them. Turns out it did, and not only that, it wasn't just hallucinating answers the entire time. After describing the planet Golga (I think it said Golga) as "a soulless planet filled with corporate resorts and pristine beaches," I asked it which planet it was referring to.

To my surprise, it not only told me that the purple planet was Golga, but the green planet next to it was "just some backwater mining colony" that seemed to provide all the resources needed for the corporate overlords running the planet next door.

Similarly, all the robots remembered my name as Devin, a misnomer that occurred when I was interviewing Astrobeam's CEO, Devin Reimer, and the game overheard me asking him about something at the bar. Apparently, James asked me my name, and I didn't have the heart to correct him, although it would have been easy enough to do so.

But Stellar Cafe isn't just some LLM experiment that you'll want to play for 5 minutes and move on to the next thing. Reimer told me the game always takes place in the cafe (hence, the name), but the robots you'll see are always changing. Like a normal cafe, there might be some regulars, but there are plenty of fresh faces (or face screens, as the robots call them) to meet all the time.

The demo's main objective was to convince all the robots in the room to RSVP for that evening's party. The demo ends once you complete this task, but the full game will venture on to that party and introduce a whole host of new characters and places. Regardless of your location, your goal is to chat with robots and help solve problems through conversation — a core tenet of being human, I'd say.

A uniquely stellar game

Throughout the entire experience, I couldn't get over how profoundly different it was to navigate with my voice. To date, I haven't seen any other games — VR or otherwise — that used voice quite like this. Oftentimes, when you see voice interaction in games, it's just to complete commands.

In Espire 2, one of the best Meta Quest games, you sneak around like Solid Snake in Metal Gear Solid, and can tell guards to "put their hands up," or "freeze," to make them surrender. But these are very specific commands, and you can't just ask your in-game robot companion to go do something for you.

In Stellar Cafe, that's the whole premise behind the concept, something Reimer says the studio has been working on for the past two years. LLMs like ChatGPT are based on natural language input, and Reimer says the team has constructed a bespoke model that runs efficiently enough to make this a one-time purchase title. Not only that, but it's fast enough to keep responses from making you wait. Ask a robot something, and it replies right away. It's pretty stellar.

Not only can you ask your virtual assistant, Visor, to transport you around the room, but you can make these commands with as much or as little knowledge as you might have of the game's content. "Bring me to the window with the orange robot" works just as well as "Sit me at the third seat at the bar with James," or "take me to that fortune teller robot."

Keeping the conversations compelling and feeling natural relied on an input that felt more natural. When gamers feel bored during a conversation in VR, they often "run around and jump off of stuff," as Reimer noted.

So if the script is flipped and you can't do that, you'll find yourself fidgeting in your seat, twiddling your thumbs, or picking up objects as you have a conversation, instead. "It's like what you do when normally chatting with people you're seated across from," Reimer added, and I couldn't agree more.

After spending 30 minutes convincing robots they needed to go to the biggest party of the year, I was convinced that I needed to play the full Stellar Cafe game when it debuted later this year. Reimer's previous chops are rooted in Job Simulator and other Owlchemy Games titles, and it shows in his new company's first release.

Gone are the days of dialog trees and repeating NPC talk in games. Instead, these characters feel like actual sentient beings in a fantasy world. It's a new era of VR gaming and a unique chapter in the history of the medium, as well, and I can't wait to be a part of it!

So there I was, alone in a diner with the corpse of a man I've never met. Before I could get my bearings straight, I heard the police on the scanner announcing that a murder had been called in and they'd be at the diner in 4 minutes. I panicked.

Before I knew it, the body was stashed somewhere I hoped no one would find it. With seconds to spare, I cleaned up my fingerprints, stashed the mystery man's belongings, and slowly opened the door to greet two officers who had weapons drawn on me.

Just 30 seconds later, I was pronounced innocent and allowed to go on my merry old way. Except, I found that hiding this guy's corpse was more fun than I had anticipated and, apparently, the universe was giving me an unlimited number of times to replay this scenario. It was like the movie Groundhog Day with a dash of Weekend at Bernie's thrown in for good measure.

If you hadn't already guessed it, the game is called Hide the Corpse, and it's available on the Meta Quest platform for just $15. It'll give you several hours of dark comedy goodness, and PSVR 2 players will soon get to join in on the fun on August 18 when it launches on the PlayStation Store.

A puzzle game like no other

Hide the Corpse is sort of an elaborate game of reverse hide-and-seek. The game has over half a dozen levels, each with at least six different places to hide the mystery man Gus's corpse.

Despite what the subject matter might make you think, Hide the Corpse is a strangely family-friendly title that has no foul language, no violence (other than dragging a corpse around, I suppose), and little else that might trigger you to hide its existence in front of your kids.

That, of course, meant that my son and I spent hours laughing until we cried as we struggled to drag around Gus's insanely heavy corpse without running into the furniture in our real living room. Seriously, it's a hilariously good time that's guaranteed to make you laugh.

Dragging Gus around is entirely physics-based, and since he's supposed to be the weight of an average full-grown adult, that means Gus is quite challenging to move around. Even more so given that you only have four minutes to somehow bring him to a legit hiding spot and cram him into whatever dimensions said spot allows.

The intro level takes place in an apartment where you can hide Gus in strangely conspicuous places like the bathtub, the armoire, under the bed, and three other spots I don't want to ruin. You'd think the cops would find him in these places, but they're, thankfully, no Sherlock Holmes.

The goal is to just hide Gus's corpse from plain sight, a goal that becomes zanier and zanier as you progress through the levels. And I promise that you never realized how heavy a corpse could be in zero gravity until you get to the space level!

Gus isn't the only object you'll need to hide, though. The man somehow has several of his belongings scattered randomly in each level, including his comb, wallet, favorite record (this is 70s themed), driver's license, and a few other nicknacks. Each of these also needs to be hidden from plain sight to get the best score.

Oh, and don't forget to erase every single one of the fingerprints you left along the way. Seriously, those little blue fingerprints appear on anything you've touched, even if you didn't realize you'd touched it. It's an almost overwhelming amount of stuff to do in just four minutes, but it results in some gratifying gameplay in a short span.

When the time is up, either at the four-minute mark or when you open the door for the cops, you'll get graded on your performance. I'm not sure who grades someone on their ability to hide a corpse, but I hope I never run across them in real life.

Once you find enough hiding spots in each level, you'll unlock a new level to play in. The scenarios are incredibly varied, ranging from the apartment you start in to the diner I spoke of earlier, a zero-gravity space station, an art museum, and more. The latest update in mid-July added a ton of new modifiers, including a heavier Gus and the ability to double the hiding time.

Alone or with friends, it's a riot

While it's a single-player game, I found it to be the most fun when casting the gameplay to a TV while others in the room were watching. This always elicited people asking to try it and then spending multiple sessions in the game until someone pried the headset from their cold, not-dead hands. Definitely not dead. That only happens in the game.

It's the kind of zany, whimsical, unique fun that I love seeing from indie developers and a reminder of the late 90s and early 2000s era of gaming, where just about any theme or concept could make a game, no matter how surreal or ridiculous. Plus, at just $15, it's tough to say no to for a few fantastic hours of entertainment with friends and family.

Christmas 2024 might have been a record time of sales for Meta's virtual reality and augmented reality products, but 2025 is proving to be a very different year for the company's Reality Labs division.

So far in 2025, we've seen two quarters where Meta's CFO, Susan Li, told investors that Reality Labs' revenue was "driven by increased sales of Ray-Ban Meta glasses, and partially offset by lower Quest headset sales." This exact line was delivered nearly verbatim in both the Q2 2025 earnings and the Q1 2025 earnings calls, and it likely cements a shift in consumer interest that we've been seeing since Meta revamped the Quest Store last Summer.

From what we know, the next 6-12 months are going to be huge for Meta's Reality Labs division. We're expecting another pair of Oakley Meta smart glasses based on the Sphaera style, a third generation of Ray-Ban Meta Smart glasses, and the company's first pair of commercially available smart glasses with a screen in the lenses.

Meanwhile, the Quest 4 has been reportedly "canceled" in favor of a radical new design that is supposed to look a lot more like goggles than a traditional VR headset. Since we don't expect this Quest until at least the end of 2026, all hopes are riding on smart glasses to continue to push Meta's XR hardware revenue toward continually better places, especially when Android XR's launch is right around the corner.

Things aren't going as planned

It's clear that Meta's Quest ambitions aren't going as planned. While the Quest 2 was a dramatic entry into the market that outsold the Xbox, the Quest 3 line hasn't seen the same level of success. We don't know what the exact sales numbers are for the Quest 3, but many Quest 3 exclusive games have lower player counts than their Quest 2-compatible counterparts, and Meta's admission of lower-than-expected sales also helps reveal that reality.

The company revamped the Quest store (now called the Horizon Store since it'll eventually be available on non-Quest-branded VR headsets) last Summer, allowing indies to jump straight to the main listings instead of being kept in the App Lab section. Meta has also been more transparent with developers this year, offering up important insights like how to develop for the "Goldilocks" session time and suggestions to push for free-to-play content.

All of this shows that Meta's initial push for big, long AAA-quality games like Asgard's Wrath 2 didn't pan out, but similar titles with big names like Batman Arkham Shadow and the upcoming Deadpool VR show more promise. Plus, the hardware partnership with Xbox has driven a lot of eyes to the Quest brand among gamers, with the Xbox Meta Quest 3S selling out at Meta's website in a matter of days.

However, maybe more importantly to the company's current goals, AI glasses have proven to be a hit with consumers. As of February 2025, Meta sold over 2 million Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses and has ramped up production to sell 10 million a year. Considering these glasses sell for as much as a Meta Quest 3S, on average, and cost a lot less to manufacture, there's reason for Meta and its investors to get excited about 2025.

The recently released Oakley Meta HSTN smart glasses have substantially improved image stabilization and better battery life, and we're expecting even more improvements from the rest of Meta's fall 2025 smart glasses lineup. The company just invested another $3.5 billion into EssilorLuxottica, the parent company behind Ray-Ban and Oakley, with plans to invest even more as both companies release more smart glasses.

But while AI glasses have taken off, I don't believe for a minute that Meta expected to have such success. Meta AI wasn't ready for the initial October 2023 Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses launch and didn't even publicly launch until April 2024. At that point, it felt like the product transformed into something completely different, and the sales reflected that over the course of 2024.

Where do we go from here?

Over the years, a common complaint about VR headsets is that they're too big, too heavy, and too "dorky looking," for lack of a nicer term. While many people have no problem wearing a VR headset, there's still a social stigma that comes with having something that large on your head.

So Meta has pushed to make its VR headsets look more like glasses, and several new prototypes (via UploadVR) give us an idea of what to expect. Something like what you see above is what Meta spends a whole lot of money every quarter developing, and while it's still several years away, the company's investment in the AR/VR industry is helping it deliver commercially available products ahead of the competition.

Even if this particular vision of a standalone glasses-like form factor is still several years out, the current crop of rumors points to the Meta Quest 4 looking more like Meta Orion smart glasses than the current Quest headset design. That seems like a far better way to deliver mixed reality and virtual reality gaming to consumers who don't like traditional VR headset designs and is a real sign of things to come.

Ultimately, the intersection between regular glasses and a VR headset is where Meta is headed for the next few years. "Puffin," the current project hardware that's believed to become the Meta Quest 4, is essentially a pair of smart goggles that weigh less than 100g and have all the battery and computing technology in a pocketable iPod-like device.

Compare that to the current Quest 3, which weighs just over 500g, and you'll understand the difference this is going to make. Until that happens in late 2026 or early 2027, though, Meta is going to be sending a barrage of smart glasses in multiple form factors and price tags to see what sticks.

Will Meta Hypernova, with its single-lens display and sEMG gesture bracelet, catch on at a smartphone price level, or are consumers mainly interested in these glasses because they don't cost much more than a normal pair of Ray-Bans? We'll find out in less than 12 months, that's for sure.

Screen time has become a bit of a taboo in the modern world. Too many people often have their faces buried in their phones even when they're in the same room as other people, but a new Meta Quest game is encouraging a unique use of screen time that I've never seen before.

Elsewhere Electric is a new asymmetric $25 Meta Quest game that tasks one player with donning a VR headset and infiltrating a mysterious office, while a second co-op player spends the entire session decoding puzzles on a bespoke phone app by the same name.

These two players work together in what can sometimes become a rough and tumble conversation, trying to figure out what the heck you're supposed to do, all while solving elaborate puzzles to make it to the next room.

The game oozes with atmosphere that I've rarely felt outside the hallowed backrooms of Portal 2, where Cave Johnson's backstory is juxtaposed with bouncy moon physics goo. Like Portal, there's no combat to be had here, but the gadgets employed make this no less exciting, and the need for descriptive communication with your partner certainly brings up memories of when GLaDOS lied to me about cake.

Delivering the power

Games like Split Fiction and It Takes Two have significantly popularized the "forced" co-op game sub-genre, but Elsewhere Electric does things differently. Instead of playing on the same screen or even on the same platform, one player uses a smartphone app while the other is fully immersed on a Meta Quest headset.

Despite the VR player doing "most" of the work, there are very few moments of downtime for the smartphone player. In VR, the game always begins in the desert just outside of the facility you're supposed to enter. The player on the smartphone begins by opening the van door for the VR player so they can fill up their "power glove," as I'll call it.

Aside from vaguely resembling the NES Power Glove accessory, the glove you wear in VR holds a small amount of liquid electricity that's used to power the puzzles you come across in the game. Once your glove is full, you'll turn around and head to the facility where the smartphone player will have to "hack" the elevator to send you underground.

Most puzzles in the beginning of the game revolve around the two players decoding strange symbols to activate a station of some kind. The VR player sees each symbol at a station, and the smartphone player has a list of several pages of symbols to choose from. Since the smartphone player never sees exactly what the VR player sees, you'll need to work on your communication skills to accurately describe what you see.

Right off the bat, I noticed that most gamers I played this with were able to figure out how the game works in a matter of minutes. The smartphone UI is the hardest part to understand, as there's no explanation offered for what you're supposed to do. Poking around will reveal flashing icons that should be pressed from time to time, but this is never particularly obvious.

I played the game with my son and with a few other non-gamers, and all of them had the same frustrations. Without me specifically showing them what to click and where to go, they got annoyed enough to quit before helping me solve more than a few puzzles. Developer Games by Stitch has a nice walkthrough for the first few floors in the YouTube video below, but it's a long video that could have been shortened to a few prompts in an intro tutorial.

If you have the patience to get through the first three or four floors, you'll be greeted with one of the coolest co-op games I've ever played. The style of this game is wholly unique, in my experience, and while it feels familiar at times, it never feels like more than maybe an homage to something amazing.

The 1970s-esque technology and decor found throughout the facility, plus the groovy soundtrack, lend to the already strange and palpably thick atmosphere. This place feels eerie, yet somehow comforting, in a way the vacant halls of Severance do on a happy day in the office.

That is, of course, until you come across your first invisible enemy. No doubt, the smartphone player will notice something amiss first, as a strange creature lurking behind the glass on the first floor can't be spotted by the VR player. If the pieces don't connect by the second area of floor 2, your VR friend is in trouble.

In this way, Elsewhere Electric requires the patience of a game like Dark Souls, as you'll often die or fail an area only to have to come back and try it again. As with any puzzle room game, you'll get through the area faster in subsequent attempts. Thankfully, though, this isn't rogue-like and you'll never have to solve the same room twice once you progress beyond it. The elevator always takes you to the most recent floor.

I dare not reveal too many of the game's secrets for fear of spoiling some of the coolest things you'll encounter in your time, but I will say that you need to be in the right mood to play this game. It's one that uniquely hinges on quality communication, patience, and teamwork in a way I've never seen from co-op games.

In a way, only the Biped series of games requires this much constant teamwork and, even then, it's a very different kind of teamwork from what's expected of players in Elsewhere Electric. The only thing I want to see changed is the addition of a tutorial section. If Games by Stitch can get that added in a post-release update, this will easily be puzzle game of the year for me.

I'll be honest, when I first got the new Viture Luma Pro smart glasses, I wasn't prepared to be impressed. The list of spec improvements seems mostly rudimentary, like that boring phone "upgrade" you made that doesn't really feel any different from your old one. But then I stumbled upon Viture's Immersive 3D feature, which just debuted on Android a few short weeks ago.

Immersive 3D is a new software feature from Viture that automatically displays your favorite media in 3D without any kind of official support. You don't even need to convert it before watching! Plug your glasses into an Android phone like the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, launch the Spacewalker app, then open YouTube, Hulu, or any photos and video stored on your phone itself, and be greeted with glorious 3D footage that wasn't 3D just a moment before.

I didn't expect this to work very well at all, considering it's just software-driven and many claims about AI enhancements have been overblown in the past. Apple has something similar on its $3,500 headset, but few want to pay that much for the experience. Meta also has something similar on its much more affordable $299 Quest 3S, but it's only easy to access while scrolling Instagram. Viture offers this Immersive 3D feature on all its glasses, including the very affordable $199 Viture Lite, with a single app install.

3D is in vogue again

With the increasing popularity of smart glasses, people have seemingly rediscovered 3D content again. The obvious issue is that, outside of a few videos and movies that were made over a decade ago when manufacturers were pushing 3D TVs, there's not a ton of native 3D content. There's not even a good way to just play games in 3D, even though that should be a relatively simple task in an era where millions of VR headsets are used every day.

That's where Immersive 3D comes in. It uses AI to calculate the depth of a 2D source, be it a video, photo, or even a game, although gaming is currently only available for very powerful gaming PCs at the moment. To get a sample of what gaming would feel like, I fired up a full playthrough of Hogwarts Legacy on YouTube and was blown away by the definition and detail I saw through Viture.

On Android and iOS, Immersive 3D is just another button to press in the Spacewalker app. On a PC or Mac, it's a separate app to install and run. In my experience so far, it's much easier to use the feature on a PC or Mac since everything is converted to 3D, whereas you have to load up specific sources through the Spacewalker app on Android or iOS.

The bright side of having a dedicated app is that it's much easier to use. Running Immersive 3D on a PC or Mac is simpler and appears to "just work" after launch. I've been using a special pre-release version of Immersive 3D that works very well on Snapdragon X Elite PCs, but Viture says that gamers who want to use this should be using at least a GeForce RTX 4070, something I don't have access to.

Immersive 3D was released on Android only a month prior to me writing this, and the experience needs a little bit of work before it feels more natural to use. Spacewalker is a decent app and better than what's provided by other smart glasses companies, but that doesn't mean it's a great experience.

My biggest beef with it is that it doesn't support all apps on your phone; only a handful that Viture has ensured work through its built-in Firefox-based web browser. That's actually an Android security feature, not something Viture can easily bypass without you having root access to your phone. On Windows and Mac, it just works differently.

That also means services like Netflix won't work because there's no proper DRM translation through that web browser. Netflix works on the iOS version of Spacewalker with Immersive 3D, and Viture tells me it's working on compatibility for Android. At the very least, it's a reminder that this is still the early days of smart glasses technology, and the software needs further maturation.

After selecting one of the available services, or a local video or photo, a new hovering button will appear in the bottom-right corner of the screen to launch Immersive 3D. Tap that, and the UI on your phone will change slightly, displaying the video's timeline at the bottom, along with a settings button that allows you to choose between three different 3D settings to optimize your experience.

Viture maintains a short YouTube playlist and provides a handful of example photos that you can use to test out the automated 3D translation feature, all of which look very good.

Still early days

It feels like I'm a broken record when I say "it's still early days," because I said this about VR gaming for the first several years until those titles hit their stride somewhere around 2020. The same mantra goes for XR hardware in general, including VR headsets and smart glasses, and I'm not sure the software side of the equation will be fully solved for smart glasses until Android XR starts shipping on them.

Now, the current Spacewalker process isn't terrible by any means, even if it is limited, but I've found it to be somewhat unreliable and just generally kind of clunky feeling. Several times while surfing through different YouTube videos, the Immersive 3D button would disappear. I usually had to completely shut down Spacewalker and reopen it to get the button back.

I've also found that it's finicky on some phones, but this isn't always Viture's fault. The app regularly crashed for me on the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra, while it ran on the OnePlus 13 and Honor Magic V3 just fine. This is a fresh install on all these phones, so I know it's not some weird cache issue with an older version of the app.

My hope is that Viture can get Spacewalker and/or Immersive 3D upgraded to support all Android apps, not just a very small, select few. This type of compatibility is exactly why Google is developing an entire operating system revolving around XR devices rather than just using an app, the way the company did in the Google Daydream days. I don't think this is possible because of OS-level security, though, and may require separate hardware or an Android XR app to make it happen.

For now, though, this is a really cool way to reexperience 3D content all over again, even if you don't opt to pay $499 for the latest Viture glasses. It'll be particularly interesting to see how well Immersive 3D holds up once Viture launches its official 3DoF/6DoF capabilities on the Viture Luma line of glasses, as a shifting perspective may not hold up as well with this 3D effect as the current pinned-in-place image does.

We love smart glasses at Android Central. The category has so much potential and covers a surprisingly wide variety of uses, from freeing up your hands to capture pictures and video to watching movies or playing games on the go. A pair of smart glasses on your face is great for everyday use.

But selecting the right smart glasses is a tough job. Not only do you have to contend with different categories of glasses (AI glasses, smart display glasses, true wireless glasses, etc), but you also have to consider whether your devices work properly with your choice of glasses. The best smart glasses are typically plug-and-play, but a few companies like to make things difficult.

I'm looking at you, Nintendo. With the Switch 2, Nintendo has yet again made it impossible to plug a pair of smart glasses directly into the system and play, even though the company included a perfectly good top-mounted USB-C port.

Thankfully, I've tested dozens of smart glasses and know exactly what combination you need to play your Switch 2 games on the go with a gorgeous OLED display right in front of your face — no neck pain involved! I've also tested them on several other systems and handhelds, including the Steam Deck, PS5, and plenty of smartphones, tablets, and laptops. Here's what you need to get gaming with smart glasses on the go!

Best smart glasses for the Nintendo Switch 2

The Switch 2 is the most difficult system to pair with smart glasses because Nintendo loves locking things down. This problem existed with the original Nintendo Switch and, unfortunately, means that you'll likely always need some kind of adapter or dock plugged into your Switch 2 to use a pair of smart glasses with it.

Thankfully, Viture's got your back. A Viture Pro Mobile Dock can be plugged into your Switch 2, tricking the system into thinking it's plugged into a TV. You'll then plug a pair of smart glasses into the Viture dock and enjoy gaming on a giant virtual screen. As a bonus, this dock has a 10,000mAh power bank built in, so you'll get several additional hours of gameplay compared to the Switch 2's normal battery life.

Of course, like with anything involving Nintendo hardware, you'll have to take an extra step to get things working properly the first time around. Follow these steps:

1. Once you get your Viture Pro Mobile Dock, you'll want to visit the Viture firmware update page on a PC or Mac using a Chromium-based browser (Chrome or Edge are fine).

2. Plug the mobile dock into your computer using the short USB-C cable that came with your Viture dock, then click the connect button.

3. Select Mobile Dock from the pop-up list of devices and click connect.

4. Select the firmware that says For Switch 2 Only from the list of available firmware versions. As of this writing, that is version 2.01.03.0.02_20250613.

5. Click the update button to switch your Viture Pro Mobile Dock over to the Switch 2-compatible firmware.

6. If it was successful, you'll see a pop-up message that says "Your firmware is now on the selected version."

Now, your Viture Pro Mobile Dock has the right security keys to work with the Switch 2. You'll have to swap this back to the older firmware if you want it to work with the Switch 1 again. The firmware update website tells you which version works with the original Switch, so just follow the above steps and swap out the firmware with the other version if you need to do that.

Time to pick your smart glasses! Viture obviously hopes that you'll use its smart glasses with its dock, but this dock is designed to be a universal accessory that works with any glasses or monitor you plug into it. My recommendation is to use RayNeo Air 3S, as these are the least expensive smart glasses you can buy and offer 3840Hz PWM dimming at all brightness levels, making them an excellent choice for your wallet and your eyes.

While I might normally recommend Viture Pro smart glasses, the company has a new pair coming soon that you should probably wait for. At the very least, a new pair of glasses should mean the older pair sees a good discount.

Xreal Air glasses also seem to work fine with the dock, but for some reason, Xreal One and Xreal One Pro don't. You'll just end up with a yellow and red display on these if you try to plug them in. As these products are made by different companies, it's not terribly surprising to see incompatibilities from time to time.

Xreal has a product coming later this year called Xreal Neo that works quite similarly to the Viture Pro Mobile Dock, except that it won't need its firmware switched to work with all systems. Yes, that includes a Switch 2. At the least, if you already have a pair of Xreal One glasses and don't fancy buying another pair just to work with your Switch 2, I'd recommend waiting until the Xreal Neo adapter comes out later this year to get things working.

Best smart glasses for the Steam Deck, ROG Ally, Lenovo Legion, etc.

The Steam Deck, ROG Ally, etc, are all essentially just portable computers that are ready to be plugged into a monitor or TV for bigger play. In this case, we're plugging a pair of smart glasses into the USB-C port, which the system thinks is just another TV or monitor. That means the best smart glasses for systems like the Steam Deck mainly revolve around your own needs rather than some complicated tech workaround.

I recommend Xreal One Pro or Xreal One smart glasses for the Steam Deck, ROG Ally series, Lenovo Legion Go series, AYANEO 2S/3, MSI Claw, or most other handheld gaming systems. The Xreal One series is so good because it's the first set of smart display glasses with a custom chipset built in, which creates a fully tracked virtual screen in front of your face.

Here's what that means. When you plug most smart glasses into a Steam Deck, for instance, the screen that appears in front of your eyes follows your eyes at all times. If you move your head around, that screen never leaves your center of vision. While this is OK for sitting on the couch or lying in bed, it can be a little nauseating to some people in a moving vehicle.

With Xreal One, the virtual screen is pinned in 3D space, much like a TV is mounted to a wall. If you move your head around, the screen stays where it's supposed to, no matter where you're looking. If you prefer it to stay pinned to the center of your vision, a quick tap of the side button will cycle between display modes, so you can choose what works best for the situation you're in.

Xreal One also includes a bevy of additional calibration tools and options built into the glasses that can be toggled via the buttons on the underside of each arm. In every way you can imagine, they feel like a proper "monitor for your face," including all those extra options you find in a monitor's settings menu. Other smart glasses require separate hardware or software to do anything similar, and most don't offer the same options even with those extras.

The only reason I would recommend other glasses at this point in time is if you have a specific need. RayNeo Air 3S offers 3840Hz PWM dimming as an excellent eye care solution, so if Xreal Ones give you a headache, RayNeo Air 3S is likely the alternative you need. You can also use a Viture One Mobile Dock or Viture Pro Mobile Dock with the Steam Deck, which will allow you to play the system and charge at the same time. If you do this, I recommend grabbing a Steam Deck mount for the dock.

Best smart glasses for your phone, tablet, or computer

Xreal One and Xreal One Pro are still the best choice for these platforms since they provide a tracked screen that's best for plug-and-play. But it's worth noting that companies like Viture and RayNeo offer software suites on smart devices that deliver additional functionality over the normal plug-and-play experience. Xreal also has an app called Nebula, but I wouldn't recommend using it at all.

It's important to know about these because, even if your glasses don't offer native 3DoF window tracking like Xreal Ones do out of the box, an extra app can allow your computer, phone, or tablet to do all the computing needed to make that happen.

I wouldn't say most of this software is user-friendly — especially not on the PC/Mac side of things — but smartphone apps are much more straightforward. YouTuber Kola has a great setup video that will give you an idea of what you can expect:

You can grab the RayNeo XR suite here and Viture's SpaceWalker suite here. Between the two, I would recommend SpaceWalker, as it not only has a lot more development time behind it, but the UI is more straightforward, and it supports a lot more platforms.

But if you're just looking for a simple plug-and-play experience, stick with Xreal One.

Even more smart glasses are around the corner

Smart glasses are booming right now, and the industry isn't slowing down anytime soon. Viture has a brand new line of glasses coming out this summer, and we're expecting a slew of new smart glasses in the New Year, starting with Xreal Project Aura, which are powered by the brand new Android XR operating system.

Right now, the best smart glasses combo for the Nintendo Switch 2 is RayNeo Air 3S paired with a Viture Pro Mobile Dock, but I have a feeling that crown will be usurped when the Xreal Neo adapter launches later this year. Xreal One glasses are our favorite across the board for most circumstances, and unless Viture's upcoming glasses are a huge game-changer, it's a safe bet to stick with Xreal One for most things.

Golfing in the summertime can be a wonderful thing, but it's a costly expense that quickly adds up to bust budgets faster than thermometers in July. Practicing your swing at home might not be possible for the vast majority of people, but that's why VR headsets exist.

A VR console like the Meta Quest 3S costs far less than a Nintendo Switch 2 or PlayStation 5 and offers thousands of great games to play the moment you unbox it. Even better, games like Golf Plus and Walkabout Mini Golf not only let you practice your swing convincingly by actually using your arms and full body motion to swing a virtual club, but they're also dirt cheap to play thanks to free trials and the Meta Horizon Plus subscription.

Plus, there's just something special about how a golf club feels when you're golfing. Playing VR golf games with just the controller works fine, but that extra weight and length are physical objects that deliver a sense of authenticity to your play that not only helps you get better in the game but also better in real life.

I've been playing VR games regularly since 2016, and I've tested a lot of VR golf clubs and other accessories since then. My collection would make some Wii collectors blush. I've noticed that my scores have drastically improved since using a golf club attachment full time, and that score dips every time I play without one. I've narrowed down the choices to just two that you need to buy for your Meta Quest 3 or Meta Quest 3S, and they're great for very different reasons.

The best club for VR golf (and more)

YOGES is one of the best brands in Meta Quest accessories, and the company makes just about any accessory you could think of for VR headsets. While the company's Quest 2 golf controller design wasn't my favorite, the Quest 3 version hits all the right marks for success.

That all starts with the way the controller slides into the club. Grab the right Meta Quest Touch controller with the wrist strap attached, slide the strap through the hole in the bottom, fit the end of the strap into the tongue, then twist the head to tighten the fit. That feels like a lot of instructions for what amounts to an incredibly simple, yet effective design, and it takes just seconds to install.

It's a super snug fit that doesn't wobble and has zero chance of accidentally launching the controller out since it uses the built-in wrist straps to keep the controller in place. Plus, since the controller is facing up and toward you, there's no chance you'll have tracking issues when holding the club normally.

Like a few other clubs, this one has an adjustable length, allowing you to make it the length that's most comfortable for you, ranging from 51cm to 74cm long in total. Since you don't actually want to hit the floor while virtual golfing, being able to adjust the height makes this ideal for players of all ages and statures.

That also means the YOGES club doesn't just work for golf! You can shorten it and use it like a tennis racket, or set it mid-level to make it feel like a baseball bat. I'm not sure I'd play Beat Saber with it, and it's not quite short enough to feel like a ping-pong paddle, but the adjustable range makes this ideal for most club-driven sports.

Now for the mini golf fans

The YOGES club can definitely be used for mini golf. It's actually the main club my wife uses when we play mini golf for date night, but a more bespoke solution is best for Walkabout Mini Golf fans who are truly serious about increasing their scores.

I'm speaking about FormX Design's Grip-To-Putter 3. As the name implies, this is the third-generation Grip-To-Putter designed specifically for the Meta Quest 3 jointly by the folks at FormX Design and the developers of Walkabout Mini Golf, Mighty Coconut.

The club gets its name from the grip-to-putt function found inside Walkabout Mini Golf. When that option is enabled, your putter is transparent until you hold the grip button on the controller. This works fine when you're just using a controller without a club, but it's impossible to somehow hold the grip button at the end of a golf club while you swing it. That is, unless you use the Grip-To-Putter 3, of course.

An ingenious trigger on the handle is connected to a cable that runs the length of the club, ending at a little plastic grip "finger" that holds the grip button when you press the trigger on the handle.

This allows you to get the advantages of the real weight of a club — and let me tell you, this club feels exactly like a real mini golf club, weight, grippy handle, and all — plus the advantage of the grip-to-putt option. That lets you practice your shot before you actually hit the ball, since the club is transparent until you hold that trigger.

If you're serious about mini golf, and you absolutely should be with the immense quality that comes in every Walkabout Mini Golf course, this is the accessory to get. Walkabout's latest course is out today, no less, bringing a new crystal magnet play mechanic alongside its fourth entry into the Evil Lairs series. It's an unbelievably good time on a gorgeous cliffside that you have to experience!

After a week at Augmented World Expo 2025, writing about cool prototypes and lofty promises about XR's future, I've hijacked Nick Sutrich's weekly VR column to hype up the one thing from AWE that I'm excited about right now: gaming and streaming on AR glasses.

Google and Meta described their visions for AR glasses at AWE, promising all-day AI companions and stylish form factors. But even Meta admitted they likely won't break into the mainstream until the 2030s.

If we're talking about AR glasses designed for at-home use that don't need to "blend in," those are available now. However, every pair I've tested so far has felt imperfect compared to setting up shop in front of a TV or monitor.

After my AWE 2025 demos with Viture and XREAL glasses — both current models and unreleased future versions — I'm convinced that the XR display market is ready to explode, sooner rather than later.

AR gaming glasses are getting better

My colleagues have reviewed and loved AR gaming displays like the XREAL One and RayNeo Air 3S. However, when Nick sent me his XREAL Air 2s last year, I enjoyed the novelty but found them to be fairly unengaging.

I appreciated how light they were compared to my Meta Quest 3 for XR content. Plugging them into my Steam Deck and getting an instant AR display for gaming felt awesome, and it helped me avoid my terrible gamer posture by leaning back with my console in my lap.

That didn't eliminate my usual complaints with XR glasses I've tried at conventions: the 46º field of view (FoV), FHD resolution, and 500 nits of brightness all add up to a normal viewing experience, not a transformative one.

XREAL advertises a 130-inch display experience on the Air 2, but in my experience, it feels closer to a large gaming monitor or a mid-sized TV with a fast refresh rate, but pedestrian visuals, and more eye strain. They're great for travel, but I'm too much of a homebody for this use case to apply often.

However, at AWE 2025, I had the opportunity to try out the XREAL One Pro glasses at their booth. I'd hoped for a Project Aura demo, but the Pros were a wonderful silver lining with their 57-degree display and boosted brightness.

Driving around the world of Forza Horizon 4 with the Pros and a handheld console, I felt much more immersed than before. My Air 2 display at home feels like a shiny postage stamp stuck in my visual center, while the wider Pro display hugs the edge of my vision compellingly.

With its 3DoF support, I can anchor the display, making it easier to look away from the game to talk to someone or check my phone, or else angle the display if I want to look slightly up or down. That kind of flexibility makes me more likely to want to wear them, without feeling as closed off from my surroundings as I do in VR.

I also tried Viture's next-generation AR glasses at AWE 2025, including one display so experimental that it wasn't even attached to glasses yet. Viture doesn't want me giving any specifics yet (except to "tease" readers), but it's no secret that they turned my skeptical perspective on AR displays into excitement.

Viture's current Pros also measure 46 degrees with FHD resolution, but I appreciate the straightforward "myopia adjustment" slider on top to solve for my left eye's nearsightedness. That way, I don't need to commit to a specific prescription, then have my eyes get worse a year or two from now; plus, it doesn't lock out my fiancée or anyone else from using them.

Without specifics, Viture's next-gen glasses make significant improvements in areas like FoV and display quality, which make them feel worth the 80g of weight resting on my nose and ears. And other smart glasses brands are likely to keep pace, making them more competitive as true TV or monitor replacements.

Still a ways to go for AR displays, but we're close

At AWE 2025, XREAL's Ralph Jodice talked about the pressure from customers to "make my FoV wider, make my glasses smaller." Right now, brands like XREAL, Viture, Rokid, and RayNeo are racing to offer better visuals for power users, but that comes with comfort trade-offs. I'd eventually want AR glasses that are lighter than my Air 2s but with the visual quality of the heavier Pros.

As I noted before, anchored displays will benefit any gaming glasses, but that requires camera support. Xreal Eye solves this, and future glasses may have that camera built in from the get-go.

But that, combined with brighter, high-res displays, could make AR glasses a major battery drain on your phone or console, especially since they require the USB-C port you'd normally use for charging during long gaming sessions. So efficiency will be important, on top of comfort.

Next, aside from myopia correction, AR glasses need to do more to accommodate different interpupillary distances (IPD), so you're not straining or cross-eyed using them. Rokid just announced that its new AR Spatial glasses pack will add software IPD adjustments to target 53mm to 75mm, which sounds promising.

All together, AR glasses will remain a niche category while companies figure out these fundamental issues. However, the visual upgrades will be impressive enough that more people will be willing to live with the trade-offs. They just need a chance to break out of the tech niche.

I suspect that will happen as we see more non-AR glasses in store displays, like the upcoming Oakley Meta glasses. Best Buy or Target could group some AR glasses in the same category, letting people try out these 100-inch AR displays and decide whether they want to spend thousands more on an OLED TV.

We may still be years off from AR glasses becoming "mainstream," but the tech in these devices is reaching the point that they're starting to live up to AR's potential. I, for one, will actually start to enjoy using them.

The past two weeks has seen several new VR-exclusive announcements. From Deadpool VR to Thief VR, and even a new built-for-VR co-op Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game, Meta Quest gamers are about to have a ton of fun.

But a subset of gamers seems hell-bent on destroying anything VR because "they don't like it," regardless of whether the game or the experience is a good one. VR gamers, it seems, simply aren't entitled to the same quality gaming experiences because there's not enough of them to matter.

We saw this same kind of nonsense reaction when Batman: Arkham Shadow was announced, and loud, terminally online gamers didn't let the facts get in the way of their tired arguments then either. That argument goes something like this: "Real gamers" don't play VR games, and developers shouldn't be making serious VR games because they're a "slap in the face" of fans who want the same old games in a shiny new package.

Unfortunately, for them, the reality is that these VR-exclusive games wouldn't exist at all without VR developers looking for a way to get more gamers into VR, and no amount of whining is going to get Ubisoft, WB, or another giant publisher to remake that 20-year-old game you once loved.

The economy of VR gaming

VR games are their own medium, separate from the economy of traditional or even mobile games. You can think of these a bit like paintings, where artists might choose watercolors, oils, or acrylics. The right canvas has to be chosen for these paints to work correctly, and they often don't mix very well.

Because of that, funding for VR games is often separate from funding for traditional games. This is made even more complicated by companies like Sony and Meta, who often fund VR titles behind the scenes, even if they're not the ones publishing them. PSVR 2-exclusive VR modes like those in Resident Evil 7 and 8, for instance, were funded partially by Sony, which is why you don't see them on other systems.

Many titles funded by Meta end up as multiplatform VR games, but some remain as Meta Quest exclusives. Meta has funded hundreds of VR games over the last decade and continues to help support the development and publication of these games. Guess what that means? Without VR-specific funding, these games would never exist.

Embracer Group, the parent company of Vertigo Games and owner of the Thief IP, had no interest in making a new traditional Thief game. WB likely had no interest in making another traditional Batman Arkham game. If they did, the most recent releases for these franchises wouldn't have been a decade ago.

The new VR releases of these titles were made possible because companies like Meta approached the owners of these IPs and paid for the opportunity to resurrect a favorite series in a new way. In other words, this is the biggest fan service you could possibly get, as it not only brings back fan-favorite titles but also helps bring them to a modern gaming world with a unique perspective.

Likewise, Metro Awakening wasn't developed instead of a traditional mainline entry into the Metro series. Maze Theory, a VR-only developer, is developing it, while Vertigo Games, the same company that's making Thief VR, is publishing it.

The developers of the mainline Metro series, 4A Games, have been busy making the next mainline Metro game while simultaneously dealing with the Ukraine War since 2022. If you didn't know, 4A Games was founded in Kyiv, and the invasion of Russia is said to have made the next Metro game "even darker" than previous installments. Don't worry, Metro fans, you can have your cake and eat it, too.

But all of these facts seem to fall on deaf ears when it comes to "fans" and their favorite series. Instead of embracing something new and different — even if that difference just means a change of perspective — some gamers seem to be entirely allergic to having fun if that definition of fun doesn't fit a very narrow window.

There's a strange sense of irony here, too, given that plenty of gamers complain about new releases feeling the same as old releases, or that the industry has become too reliant on HD remakes of classic games.

Playing something new and different is exciting, and being able to actually do things is what separates VR games from traditional games played on a flat screen. You're the one grabbing the rope, throwing the knife, or landing the punch, not the automated avatar on a distant display.

Publishers are trusting VR developers with more big-name titles than ever, and it's a direct representation of both the quality of VR games and an audience willing to try something fun and new. These games aren't made by the studios that made the 10-year-old entry into your favorite series. They're made bespoke for a new medium with different paradigms, from new developers with an affinity for that medium, and that's a really cool thing to be a part of.

Forever a niche?

One of the biggest arguments against any kind of "big name" VR game is that the medium is too niche for high-caliber titles. Based on a report by the Entertainment Software Association, VR makes up 10% of the total player base of 195.7 million gamers. While 10% falls squarely in the definition of the word niche, the number of folks using VR headsets regularly feels anything but niche.

At just under 20 million active players and primarily made up of Millennials and younger generations, VR has the attention of the next generation of gamers. This is a great thing, for the most part, as it ensures that people who play VR now are still early in their gaming careers, while older gamers tend to enjoy gaming for the purposes of passing the time or relaxation.

If I had to define VR gaming in any single way, it would be the opposite of "relaxation." Most VR games are quite active and require you to move your body, which is probably one of the reasons VR usage is lower among older age groups.

Ironically, playing games "to have fun" is inversely proportional in the ESA's report, with younger gamers opting to choose this as their foremost reason for gaming, while older gamers are significantly less interested. Maybe this fits well with what I said earlier about some gamers being allergic to having fun?

Better yet for VR, "immersion and escape" was listed as the fourth-largest reason people love to play games, and the statistics here were fairly even across age groups. It's nearly impossible to get any more immersive than VR, which suggests that there's more than enough genuine interest to continue driving the medium forward.

To make things even better, Meta is said to be working on a sort of VR/smart glasses hybrid device that'll provide gamers with a substantially lighter headset than the current ones available. This device may launch as early as next year, opening up new pathways for gamers who have opted out of VR because of the size or weight of existing headsets.

Regardless of the reason, though, I'd love to encourage the nay-sayers to give these games a try. The Meta Quest 3S is back on sale for $269 right now and still includes a free copy of Batman: Arkham Shadow. The Metacritic score for the game is excellent, and it sits alongside many of the best Meta Quest games as a fantastic example of how to make a AAA-quality VR game.

I've seen a few people on social media who still seem to think it costs thousands of dollars to get a VR setup. That's simply not true, and it hasn't been since 2019, when the original Oculus Quest launched.

As a reminder, the Quest 3S is a console and doesn't need a PC or anything else to play, so you can get to playing Batman right now if you head to Best Buy and pick one up. There simply won't be a better deal than that, and you'll be able to finally play a new entry into the series you've been begging to get for a decade (or more)!

It's no secret that Meta has poured tens of billions into R&D for VR and AR devices. Since acquiring Oculus in 2014, the company has produced nearly a dozen different VR headsets, and while VR's commercial success is tepid when compared to smartphones, Meta's ambitions always went beyond becoming the next PlayStation or Nintendo.

A new partnership with Anduril, a company founded by Palmer Luckey, who was also the founder of Oculus VR, ensures that Meta's ambitions see fruition in the near future. That's because this goes beyond mere commercial or gaming products and, instead, is geared right toward the U.S. government and military, which scoffs at the idea of spending tens of billions on any given day.

Anduril's press release notes that technologies that will be delivered have "been funded through private capital, without taxpayer support, and [are] designed to save the U.S. military billions of dollars by utilizing high-performance components and technology originally built for commercial use."

That last part is the most important. It signals to me that the money Meta Reality Labs has spent over the past decade will finally receive the public justification that Mark Zuckerberg has been seeking, and the expansion provided by new government projects will transform R&D projects like Meta Orion into fully commercialized counterparts.

Roll out the assembly line

The last two years have seen a significant increase in the availability and demand for smart glasses. I would argue that 2023's Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses were the first smart glasses product that made any real waves in the sector, and even then, that didn't even happen until Meta AI support was rolled out six months after launch.

Now, we're looking at a year where we could see a third-generation Ray-Ban Meta release alongside a new pair of Google AR glasses, as well as a smattering of other companies, such as Xreal.

However, none of these glasses appear to be as advanced as Meta Orion, which felt very much like a pair of glasses with a Meta Quest headset somehow crammed inside. Of course, there's a very good reason for that: cost. In an in-depth interview last October, Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth noted that production-level Orion glasses would cost $10,000 a pair if Meta started selling them last Fall.

That's because the technology to mass-produce something like Orion simply doesn't exist. It could be built, yes, but it would cost billions to do it, and that cost would have to be passed on to the consumer in the form of $10,000 glasses that only a few rich enthusiasts would be able to justify.

So, what better outlet to fund this eventual road to commercialization than the U.S. government, and more specifically, the U.S. military? After all, the 2025 fiscal budget alone for the Department of Defence amounts to $849.8 billion, or roughly 14 times what Meta has spent on R&D over the past decade.

The military won't be terribly concerned with $10,000 glasses if they can finally achieve the goal Microsoft's Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS) project tried to achieve in 2021 for the cost of around $20 billion. Anduril took over that contract this year in February, and now it's partnering with Meta to ensure its cutting-edge AI-powered software is backed by Meta's bleeding-edge AR hardware.

Palmer Luckey's return to working with Meta is only one part of the miracles that had to occur for this future to pan out. Luckey was fired from Facebook two years after the company acquired his Oculus VR company, likely due to political reasons. "The people who ousted me, who orchestrated my destruction, who seized my baby from me, are not even at Meta anymore," Luckey said in an interview last month.

This made it possible for Luckey and Zuckerberg to form a new partnership that would benefit both of them, helping to bridge the gap between AR and VR technologies that Luckey had created with those that Meta has funded since he departed from the company nearly a decade ago.

Better yet, Luckey notes that these new headsets will be entirely made in America, yet another miracle that seemed impossible in an electronics industry almost entirely dependent on China.

In fact, the partnership appears to encompass all of Meta's Reality Labs experiments, including Meta AI and its associated components. "The collaboration builds on Meta's existing Reality Labs investments and its work supporting adoption of its Llama open source AI models for national security uses by the U.S. and its closest allies."

Once the assembly lines are built and resources are in place, it's a clear road to the affordable, American-made smart glasses that were once a part of science fiction. It could even be the path to something far greater than smart glasses, if all the right resources are in place to move more manufacturing to the U.S.

At the very least, it's the path that Zuckerberg can use to claim he's been right all along, amidst the visionless stock market investors who have complained their way through the last decade of Reality Labs' spending.