At that time, there was news that the Tencent XR department only retained a small number of employees, and the future will promote the introduction of Meta’s Qculus Quest 2 (VR equipment).

According to VR Gyro’s internal email from Tencent, Tencent’s IEG Interactive Entertainment Group (IEG) has set up a new “XR Equipment and Content Business Department” in September, which is mainly responsible for Tencent’s own-branded XR equipment research and development, sales and marketing, and the construction of the content ecosystem around it.

It is reported that Qian Geng, assistant general manager of the XR equipment and content business department in the XR business line of the IEG Interactive Entertainment Group, is the first person in charge of the department, and is fully responsible for the related business and team management, reporting to Senior Vice President Stevenma (Ma Xiaoyi).

In this regard, Tencent responded to Beijing Business News that it is a normal adjustment and appointment within the XR business line.

In addition, the B station up master “electric pill technology AK” also said that Tencent has dissolved the original self-research XR team, but by the impact of the Apple Vision Pro release, and in August this year began to reorganize the XR team and plans to act as a proxy for the VR headset Oculus Quest under the Meta, the way of cooperation with reference to Tencent and Nintendo agency form. Nintendo’s agency form.

Interface news said Meta as early as the end of 2022 has begun to negotiate with a number of Chinese technology companies Quest program, including Tencent, Lenovo and mainstream smartphone brands, and Quest and Tencent’s intention to negotiate has made some progress.

Qian Geng is also the general manager of the Tencent game Nintendo cooperation department, which has already introduced the Switch console for Tencent and cooperated with Nintendo to carry out the Chinese localized translation of some games.

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According to a video released by Meta, Quest Plus subscribers will get two games a month for free: Pistol Whip and Pixel Ripped 1995 in July, and Walkabout Mini Golf and MOTHERGUNSHIP: FORGE in August. The new games will be available to Meta Quest Plus subscribers on the first day of each month, but like PlayStation Plus, subscribers will only be able to play the games they pick up during the subscription service.

The Quest Plus subscription service is available now and costs $7.99 per month (currently about RMB 58) or $59.99 per year (currently about RMB 432). If you subscribe to the monthly service before July 31, you’ll pay just $1 for the first month. Zuckerberg said Quest Plus will be available for Meta Quest 2, Quest Pro and the Quest 3 headset, which will launch this fall.

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Meta Quest says that v49 will be the last update to include new features for Unreal Engine 4, and v55 will contain the last patch for Unreal Engine 4 (currently scheduled for release in June 2023).

After the release of the final Unreal Engine 4 patch for v55, VR Support will no longer provide work orders related to Unreal Engine 4. There will also be no new features or routine bug fixes released for Unreal Engine 4 after v55.

Meta Quest recommends that developers do not upgrade their Unreal Engine version for now and can still use Unreal Engine 4 to distribute their apps to the Meta Quest Store or App Lab. If app development upgrades to Unreal Engine 5, architectural changes may result in minor app performance issues. Critical bug fixes will be available for Meta Quest until the end of 2023.

The announcement that Meta Quest 1 will no longer be supported, however, Meta plans to provide an upgrade path for developers.

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In a confidential court ruling, California Judge Edward Davila denied the FTC’s request for an injunction to block the acquisition, people familiar with the matter said.

The FTC can continue to try to block the deal through a separate lawsuit filed in internal administrative court, which is scheduled to begin on Feb. 13, the U.S. media noted. But the FTC has often dropped such administrative actions in the past after judges have denied requests for injunctions.

The FTC sued Meta last July to stop its acquisition of Within, arguing that Meta had been planning a “VR conquest campaign” since it bought Oculus in 2014. The case went to trial in December last year.

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The latest data from research firm NPD Group shows that sales of VR headset devices in the U.S. this year were $1.1 billion as of early December, down 2 percent year-over-year. By comparison, Facebook’s advertising business generates the same amount of revenue about every three days.

It’s because the advertising business is in the doldrums that Mark Zuckerberg decided to bet on the “meta-universe” of VR devices and related technology. But data from analyst firm CCS Insight shows that global shipments of VR and AR (augmented reality) devices are only 9.6 million units so far in 2022, down more than 12 percent year-over-year.

There is no doubt that these figures cast a shadow over Meta’s future prospects. In fact, Mark Zuckerberg has previously said that the “metaverse” is a long-term bet that is expected to take up to a decade to become mainstream and could eventually bring in hundreds of billions of dollars in business.

Of course, in addition to Meta, there are many other companies making big bets on virtual worlds related to work, education, fitness and sports. But so far, say several analysts, Meta’s “Quest 2” in 2020 is leading the VR market, with competing products from companies like Valve, HP and Sony accounting for only a fraction of the market.

This year, sales of the Meta Quest headset have declined, NPD Group consumer electronics analyst Ben Arnold said, mainly because Quest sales were too hot during the Christmas season in 2021 when demand for consoles such as Sony’s PS5 exceeded supply.

NPD Group data shows that U.S. sales of VR headsets will be about $530 million in 2020, and double that in 2021. A number of factors have come together to cause a decline in VR headset sales and shipments in 2022.

First, Quest 2 has been out for a few years now and, like any other consumer electronics device, has lost some of its appeals as it ages. Although Meta released a new VR headset, the Quest Pro, this fall, the device is aimed at businesses and costs $1,100 more than the Quest 2, which is a turnoff for many VR enthusiasts.

This summer, Meta raised the price of the Quest 2 by another $100, citing inflationary pressures. In response, CCS Insight analyst Leo Gebbie said, “This price increase is surprising because Meta has previously been willing to sell this product at a lower margin in an attempt to drive VR adoption and gain higher market share.”

Apple in the spotlight
In its latest report, CCS Insight said it expects 2023 to be another “down year” for the VR market due to the weak economy and inflation, with CCS Insight analyst Gebbie saying, “Consumer budgets will tighten and non-essential items like VR headsets will likely fall victim. “

Sony’s next-generation VR headset, the PlayStation VR2, will debut next February for $550, and while the PlayStation VR2 will give the market a shot in the arm, it probably won’t have as big an impact on the overall VR market as the Quest 2, according to NPD Group analyst Arnold. That’s because Sony’s device requires users to have a PS5 to power their computing, while the Quest 2 is independent of other devices.

Arnold said, “The potential users of the PlayStation VR2 are PlayStation console owners.” In addition to Sony, one concern is whether Apple will release a VR headset, as rumors suggest.

Arnold believes that Apple could create a compelling VR headset that comes with a software ecosystem. In addition, Apple, as a leader in consumer technology, could bring some spark to the bleak VR market and make the technology more appealing to the general public.

If there’s one company that has the ability to change the VR market overnight, it’s Apple,” said CCS Insight analyst Gerby. Apple has a large and loyal fan base, many of whom are happy to invest large sums of money in the technology. If Apple were to launch a VR headset, we expect it to do very well.”

Apple is reportedly building an AR-enabled VR headset that will be released as early as 2023.

Eric Abbruzzese, research director at research firm ABI Research, thinks Apple could launch an enterprise-oriented VR headset that would help attract developers to the community. But Abbruzzese also pointed out that enterprise-grade VR headsets are expensive, possibly reaching thousands of dollars, making it difficult to push the technology into the mainstream.

In the first year, Apple’s VR headset will probably ship even less than 5 million units,” Abruzzese said. But it’s worth noting that this will be the first compelling product to be launched by a major tech giant.”

What the VR world is lacking, in fact, is killer apps.

Abruzzese said some games have already gained traction, such as the music rhythm game Beat Saber and VR versions of some popular games, such as Resident Evil. In addition, some users are showing more interest in using VR for fitness activities.

But that still pales in comparison to the console market, where heavy hitters like FIFA and Call of Duty are selling hundreds of millions of copies. Meanwhile, Meta’s Horizon Worlds social VR platform is still in the experimental stage. Abruzzese said, “The only real meta-universe product is Horizon, but it’s not doing well at the moment.”

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Meta published an official blog post stating that the company’s virtual reality headset “Meta Quest 2” will be available in retail stores in Germany before Christmas. Consumers will not be required to provide a Facebook account (Meta’s main social media platform) to purchase the hardware.

Previously, the German government’s antitrust agency, the Federal Cartel Office, and Meta reached an agreement to allow users of virtual reality hardware to log in using a separate account from the Facebook platform. Last month, the Federal Cartel Office announced that it had granted Meta another approval to sell virtual reality headsets in Germany.

In 2020, the German Supreme Court upheld allegations by the government’s antitrust authorities that Facebook (Meta’s old name) was abusing its dominant market position by requiring users to log in to virtual reality devices using accounts on its own platform. Subsequently, Facebook stopped selling these products in Germany.

Shortly thereafter, Andreas Mundt, director of the German Federal Cartel Office, said in a statement that after negotiations between the two parties, Facebook had responded to the German government’s concerns and, as a solution to the antitrust issue, the company agreed to give users of Quest virtual reality devices another option, namely to create a separate account outside of the Facebook platform The company has agreed to give users of Quest virtual reality devices the option of creating a separate account outside of the Facebook platform.

While the issue of user accounts has been resolved, in a November statement, the Federal Cartel Office also said that they were concerned about another antitrust issue involving Meta, namely whether and how user data is exchanged between Meta’s different Internet services.

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The optical system has been improved by replacing the Fresnel lens with a Pancake lens, reducing the thickness of the optical module (TTL) by 40%, while providing a clear and sharp visual effect. Due to the multiple folding of the light path, the Pancake lens is less efficient, so the development team chose a customized quantum dot LCD module with 500-zone backlight control to improve the contrast ratio by 75% and color gamut by 1.3 times (compared to Quest 2).

Quest Pro’s external camera has four times the pixel density of Quest 2, allowing for full-color perspective and providing users with a powerful AR experience. Also, to make it easier for users to switch back and forth between the virtual and real worlds, Quest Pro features an open design that allows users to add a magnetic partial hood to the device when focusing on the VR world (an isolated full hood will be available as an accessory at the end of the year).

The new Quest Touch Pro grip is backward compatible with Quest 2 and can be purchased separately for $300. The new grip has a built-in three-axis independent sensor that provides omnidirectional 360-degree spatial positioning even when the headset is out of view.

To alleviate users’ concerns, Quest Pro disables facial tracking and eye tracking by default. If users choose to turn on these features, the biometric data read will only be stored locally and will not be shared with Meta or third parties.

Meta announced that the Quest Pro will co-exist with the Quest 2, and that the company will continue to provide technical support and content updates for the latter, which is currently available with the following accessories.

Full visor ($50, available November 22nd): an isolated visor that quickly attaches to the Quest Pro headset.

Portable charging dock ($80, available the same day): charges the grip and any Quest headset using the USB-C port.

Incase’s Quest Pro Carrying Case ($120, on sale the same day): stores the device itself and accessories, and provides lightweight protection.

Quest Pro VR earbuds ($50, available on the same day): isolate background noise and work with an isolated blackout mask to create a peak moment of social death for the user.

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Video screenshot (via VR Trailers & Clips)

Even with the additional tracking solutions offered by SteamVR and HTC Vive, the cost of the three units needed for body tracking would cost more than $350.

The good news is that in a new paper (PDF) discussing QuestSim, Meta researchers demonstrate a system powered by a neural network.

It features the ability to use tracking data from the Quest 2 headset + controller to more rationally predict the wearer’s full-body posture without the need for additional trackers/external sensors.

Meta researchers even claim that the resulting accuracy and jitter is better than that of wearable IMU trackers.

Pico 4’s announced Pico Fitness Band, for example, is a device equipped only with an accelerometer and gyroscope — although the company also claims to be working on its own machine learning approach.

But here’s the catch — as the video shows, the system renders a reasonable set of full-body poses, but it doesn’t necessarily accurately reproduce the user’s actual posture.

Because of this, QuestSim is only suitable for referencing other people’s VR avatars, not for looking down on yourself at all times, and the system has a latency of 160 ms (over 11 fps at 72 Hz).

Even so, being able to see other people’s full bodies in VR interactions is much better than a half-portrait at this stage. The question that remains is — will this (or a similar) system, and when, make it to Quest 2?

Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth seemed to hint at this during last week’s Ask Me Anything interactive Q&A event, and when asked about leg tracking in Instagram, he replied.

"It's true that we get a lot of flak for legless avatars, but I think the trolling is pretty fair and funny.

After all, giving an individual avatar legs that don't match reality can be very disturbing to users.

But if the legs are placed on other people's avatars, there is no such disturbance."

For those interested, watch for a detailed announcement during Meta Connect’s annual AR / VR event in two weeks.

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Meta has invested $10 billion a year to build its next-generation software platform and has previously acknowledged that VR/AR technology is not yet available mainly because the hardware is not powerful enough.

In a podcast interview last month, Zuckerberg said he plans to launch Project Cambria this fall, a headset with the computing power to capture real-world images with a camera and display them in real-time in color inside the helmet.

The Project Cambria helmet will likely cost $800 or more, significantly more than the existing helmet, the Meta Quest 2.

The Connect conference is expected to last all day, and it will be streamed online. In addition to Project Cambria, Meta is expected to talk about Horizon Worlds, a metaverse social networking app.

Meta believes it can eventually replace smartphones with VR/AR lightweight glasses, and it’s working on it.

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Meta’s augmented and virtual reality division, Reality Labs, has become a top priority in the company’s business shift to the metaverse. The division reported an operating loss of $10.2 billion in 2021. CEO Mark Zuckerberg said investments in virtual reality and augmented reality will result in “significant” losses early on.

These losses become more apparent when considering the impact of the broader economic slowdown. Meta has been forced to cut costs, including staff hiring, in response to record U.S. inflation and supply chain constraints under the epidemic. These challenges impacted Meta’s largest source of revenue – online advertising spending.

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