Sandbox VR Announces $37M Series B Funding to Expand Out-of-home VR Locations
Out-of-home VR destination Sandbox VR today announced an additional $37 million funding round that the company is using to support its continued expansion. In addition to its dozen worldwide locations, Sandbox VR says it’s working to nearly doubling that. The Series B funding was led by a16z, and includes participation by Alibaba and Craft. According to Crunchbase data, […]

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Road to VR & Scott Hayden

10. November 2021
Report: Meta is Considering Physical Stores to Sell Its Vision of the Metaverse
Meta (formerly Facebook) is not only building its next generation of AR and VR headsets, but it’s looking to jumpstart a sort of immersive internet the company believes will one day be the future of human interaction—that’s the ‘metaverse’ everyone’s talking about. And to sell that idea to the masses, the company has allegedly discussed rolling […]

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Road to VR & Scott Hayden

NBA League Pass Games Return to Quest in ‘Horizon Venues’ This Month
The NBA officially kicked off its 2021-22 regular season in mid-October after having last year’s derailed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Starting this week, Meta (formerly Facebook) is welcoming Quest users back to Horizon Venues for some more courtside action. You’ll be able to catch the first game on November 14th, which features the Golden State Warriors vs. the […]

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Road to VR & Scott Hayden

Qualcomm is Preparing Developers for the Coming Wave of Smartphone-tethered AR Glasses
Today at AWE 2021, Qualcomm announced Snapdragon Spaces XR Developer Platform, a head-worn AR software suite the company is using to kickstart a broader move towards smartphone-tethered AR glasses. Qualcomm says its Snapdragon Spaces XR Developer Platform offers a host of machine perception functions that are ideal for smartphone-tethered AR glasses. The software tool kit […]

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Road to VR & Scott Hayden

9. November 2021
Niantic Kickstarts Its AR Metaverse with Release of Lightship SDK and $20M Developer Fund
At a special launch event today, Niantic announced it’s opening up the Lightship AR Development Kit (ARDK) platform, a software development kit with the kinds of tools the company uses to make Pokémon Go’s ‘world-scale’ gameplay possible. And to attract third-party developers to the platform, it’s also announced $20 million fund which it hopes will kickstart AR development. […]

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Road to VR & Scott Hayden

8. November 2021
‘The Secret of Retropolis’ is the Latest App Lab Success to Make the Leap to the Main Quest Store
Meta’s App Lab now counts over 500 VR games and experiences, a majority of which still haven’t passed the curation process to make the leap to the Quest Store. Now, well-rated adventure game The Secret of Retropolis has made the jump, bringing its mix of classic point-and-click action and immersive cinematography to the official Store. The Secret […]

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Road to VR & Scott Hayden

Animated Quest Series ‘Tales From Soda Island’ Releases Another Patently Charming Episode Today
Tales from Soda Island, an animated VR series built in Quill, just released its latest free chapter which takes users on another wild and beautiful voyage through a world of pure imagination. Called ‘The School Trip’, chapter five is accessible starting today for Oculus Quest users in Facebook’s new VR Animation Player app (formerly Quill […]

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Road to VR & Scott Hayden

5. November 2021
Meta Hackathon This Month Challenges Devs to Use Its Latest XR Tools for $700,000 in Prizes
Meta (formerly Facebook) is offering up $700,000 in cash prizes this month in an XR hackathon aimed at developers and creators from all over the world. The objective: choose between Spark AR and Presence Platform and build something cool and useful. Starting on November 9th and ending on November 22nd, Meta is challenging developers to […]

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Road to VR & Scott Hayden

‘Blade & Sorcery: Nomad’ Review – Fun Physics-based Combat Slimmed Down for Quest 2
Blade & Sorcery: Nomad almost feels like a work of digital wizardry, as it brings a standalone version of the hit physics-based combat sandbox exclusively to Quest 2 for the first time. Although it doesn’t feel as visually visceral as its bigger brother for PC VR headsets, which is notably still in Early Access, it serves […]

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Road to VR & Scott Hayden

4. November 2021
Microsoft’s Metaverse Ambitions Grow as Teams Platform to Include 3D Avatars & Immersive XR Meetings
Microsoft is making a strong bid to bolster its version of the metaverse as it looks to roll out 3D avatars and immersive meetings for its Microsoft Teams communication platform. You might define the metaverse as essentially an immersive internet where virtual experiences are interoperable, and also offer a continuity of the user’s digital identity. It’s […]

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Road to VR & Scott Hayden

3. November 2021