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Executive summary
Welcome to your weekly briefing on the metaverse and spatial computing. Here are your snippets to sound smarter in meetings this week:
Top story: LUMINISCENCE is pretty, though with a meandering plot (review below).
Other stories: Vertigo Studios, the developer behind Metro Awakening, was reportedly building an unannounced standalone Tomb Raider VR title for Quest 3, PSVR2 and PC VR before the project was cancelled following the studio's closure last month (more below).
I sold art to raise money for a deaf charity. My bartering skills diminish when I try to speedily sign with my hands.
Top story
LUMINISCENCE is pretty, though with a meandering plot.
What is it? LUMINISCENCE is the story of Westminster Cathedral (and London) shown via a light show and a narration voiced by Hugh Bonneville, star of Paddington and Downton Abbey.
What did you think? I thought the actual light show was really well done, with plenty of pulsating walls, flashing colours, and great depictions of London's history (the cathedral being built, as well as planes in the sky during the Blitz). My problem with the show was the story. When it stuck to the historical background, moving from the construction of Westminster Cathedral to the modern day, it worked very well because there was a clear through line. But then it deviated slightly, running off track from history (potentially), because it moved on to talk about the multiculturalism of London, the arts scene, and the future of the city. That didn't quite match how it started, and it wasn't clear as a through line, considering much of the story centres on Westminster Cathedral itself, situated in London. That said, the actual effects and lighting were stellar, alongside the choral music.
This week’s stories
County Durham and Darlington has approved £4,500 in funding for the Rotary Club in Newton Aycliffe to expand its Virtual Decisions VR knife crime and anti-social behaviour education programme to more schools, from September 2026.
Lenovo has reportedly closed its US-based ThinkReality XR business unit, according to Road to VR's report citing Skarred Ghost, shifting focus to AI-enabled consumer wearables under Motorola.
Scopely Explore, the company behind Pokémon GO, marked the game's tenth anniversary with a live Times Square raid battle in New York.
The University of Chichester published research, led by Dr Chris Pocock and PhD student James Feist, showing that 360-video and VR headset training improves footballers' scanning and decision-making skills and can support injury rehabilitation, with findings published in the Journal of Sports Sciences.
Virtual Decisions won the Midlands Education Award for Innovation for its VR programmes addressing knife crime, antisocial behaviour and county lines exploitation in schools and youth justice settings.
Virtuix will have a Pennsylvania-based Air National Guard unit evaluate its AI-enabled Omni One VR system to assess whether the full-body movement platform can enhance military training.
Personal Update
I’ve raised money for a deaf society by selling some art. It was a really fun day in Ilford where I was showing all sorts of paintings and stuff, and some children came up because they wanted to learn how to paint as well. While I nearly got a heat stroke, he was nice to test my artistic worth against the actual real world instead of my living room.
Immersive Wire’s Support
To support the running of the Immersive Wire, I have accepted assistance from Wispr Flow. This is an app I use nearly every day on WhatsApp as well as my personal computer because it's genuinely a very good way of getting thoughts on paper relatively quickly (the thoughts themselves might be dubious, but that’s neither here nor there).
I really recommend it as it has actually sped up my typing; so consider having a peek if you're interested as well:
Speak naturally. Send without fixing.
Wispr Flow turns your voice into clean, professional text you can send the moment you stop talking. Not rough transcription you have to clean up. Actual polished text — ready for email, Slack, or any app.
Speak the way you think. Go on tangents. Change your mind mid-sentence. Flow strips the filler, fixes the grammar, and gives you text that reads like you spent five minutes writing it.
89% of messages sent with zero edits. Millions of professionals use Flow daily, including teams at OpenAI, Vercel, and Clay. Works on Mac, Windows, and iPhone.
Note: The Immersive Wire is run by Tom Ffiske, who also works at Accenture. The contents of the newsletter should not be regarded as Accenture’s views.
All spelling mistakes are deliberate, actually.
