Executive summary
Welcome to your weekly briefing on the metaverse and spatial computing. Here are your snippets to sound smarter in meetings this week:
Headline: Meta unveiled new Ray-Ban glasses that can livestream and take AI enquiries. (analysis here and a summary below).
Article: The metaverse is quiet, not weak.
Stat of the week: 30m VR headsets will be sold annually by 2027, according to IDC.
Conversation-starter: PETA unveiled a VR pet abduction experience.
Insight: What does it take to curate VR sections of film festivals? Joe Hunting responds.
Other stories: Epic Games cut about 830 jobs, Roblox laid off 30 staff in its talent acquisition team, and Improbable reduced losses by 85% by pivoting to the metaverse (more below).
The Disaster Tourist is a 200-page read which I am enjoying so far. A tourist agency hosts trips to disaster areas abroad - what can possibly go wrong?
Analysis
Meta unveiled a new set of Ray-Bans during Meta Connect.
During Meta Connect, Mark Zuckerberg announced the release date of the Meta Quest 3 as well as several AI enhancements.
What’s interesting is that you can also speak to Meta AI to answer contextual queries about what you are seeing. One example was asking it how to fix a leaky faucet.
Retention will be a key metric. 90% of previous Ray-Ban users do not use its smart features, according to the Wall Street Journal. Meta bets that its AI features will boost that figure.
The glasses are available to preorder for $299, and will release on 17 October.
Other notable stories
Got any stories? Let me know at tom (at) immersivewire (dot) com.
Angry Birds VR: Isle of Pigs is coming to PS VR2 on 10 October.
Arvizio unveiled an AI-driven enhancement to its AR Instructor platform.
CREAL announced the commercial availability of its patent-protected AR display technology stack by early 2024.
I met the team to understand what it means. Basically, it enables OEM/ODMs to develop AR glasses that provide the correct depth perception to users. Think of it as seeing a virtual object the correct distance away from you.
Epic Games cut about 830 jobs.
Improbable reduced losses by 85% by pivoting to the metaverse.
Kaohsiung Film Festival, with an XR component, is happening from 7 October.
PICO announced that the PICO Neo3 Pro/Pro Eye and PICO 4 Enterprise can now be managed by Microsoft Intune.
Qualcomm unveiled the Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 and Snapdragon AR1 Gen 1.
Roblox laid off 30 staff in its talent acquisition team.
VIVE Arts has partnered with Musée d'Orsay to release La Palette de Van Gogh, a VR experience.
Help corner
If you have a problem that you think could be solved by another reader of The Immersive Wire and would like to be connected, let me know at tom (at) immersivewire (dot) com.
Haven, a VR wellness company I am advising, is conducting a user testing program to get early access to our XR wellness platform, with sessions created by world-leading experts. Click here to sign up.
Note: The Immersive Wire is run by Tom Ffiske, who also works within Accenture’s metaverse group. The contents of the newsletter should not be regarded as Accenture’s views.
