9 Dec 2019
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Emily Friedman
Weekly Spatial: No VR for Xbox Scarlett, Holiday Demand, and the XR2
AR/VR Weekly
Catch up on the latest AR/VR highlights, funding news & launch announcements: Weeks of November 25 & December 2
Image Source: Qualcomm
Welcome to a special double edition of the rebranded AWE newsletter, the Weekly Spatial! In addition to keeping you up-to-date on the biggest news, funding activity and announcements in immersive tech, here are three stories that caught our eye recently:
Highlights
Xbox head Phil Spencer confirmed last week that VR will not be a focus for Xbox Scarlett. I guess Microsoft is sticking to Mixed Reality for business.
Meanwhile, there seems to be great demand for consumer VR this holiday season: A great Black Friday deal put the Oculus Go in the top 10 on Amazon Best Sellers for video games, while Valve Index has sold out in some regions following the announcement of Half Life: Alyx. No wonder Allied Market Research believes the VR content creation market will reach $46.54B by 2026.
Finally, Qualcomm announced the new Snapdragon XR2 chip. Niantic, in turn, announced a partnership to develop AR glassees based on the platform. Qualcomm believes the new chip plus 5G will unlock true mixed reality. Among the upgrades: twice the CPU performance and a 6x improvement in native resolution per eye.
Funding News
XR Games raises $2M to continue development on AR/VR games (Road to VR)
Facebook Acquires Beat Saber VR Game (CNBC)
Frontdoor buys AR startup Streem (Portland Business Journal)
Next Reality Ranks the 25 Biggest AR Investments of 2019 (Next Reality)
Launch Announcements
Both CAE (DefenseNews) & Raytheon Debut VR Training for Aviation (PR Newswire)
Dreamscape and DreamWorks Animation team up to launch new 'How to Train Your Dragons' VR experience (Variety)
Inflight VR partners with Felix & Paul Studios to bring award-winning VR content to airlines (APEX)
HTC Launches Viveport PC Streaming for Vive Focus Plus (Road to VR)
Varjo's XR-1 Mixed VR & AR for $10k, Dev Edition Now Available (VR Focus)
St. Jude Honors Child Cancer Patients with VR Hall of Heroes (VR Scout)
First Speakers Announced for the 11th AWE USA, Including Microsoft, Shopify (AWE)
Insomniac Games launches Strangelets for Magic Leap One (VentureBeat)
Introducing New Yorker Cartoons in Augmented Reality (New Yorker)
Facebook Adds Image Tracking Effects & Slider Controls to Spark AR for Instagram (Next Reality) & Pioneers AR for TV with Latest Portal Hardware (Next Reality)
HBO, Snapchat Team Up on AR Lenses for His Dark Materials (Adweek)
Retailer evo launches XR training to triple headcount for Black Friday (HR Dive)
Event Listings
WEARABLE EXPO: February 12-24, 2020 (Tokyo, Japan)
AWE Asia 2020: March 28-29 (Shenzhen, China) Register Now for AWE Asia's Early Bird Pricing: Join as a: Participant or Exhibitor
AWE USA 2020: May 27-29 (Santa Clara, CA) Super Early Bird tickets are already on sale!
AWE EU 2020: October 15-16 (Munich, Germany) Super Early Bird tickets are on sale!
