Gemba, the corporate VR learning platform, announced it’s closed an $18 million Series A funding round, which the company says will be used to continue expansion into Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and North America.
The latest funding round was led by Parkway Venture Capital, now valuing the UK-based company at $60 million.
In 2017, Gemba grew out of executive training company The Leadership Network, which was founded in 2013 by CEO Nathan Robinson and Chairman Victor Lewis. At the time, The Leadership Network was focused on cross-industry leadership training which, through its executive masterclasses, let senior execs from non-competing companies go hands-on at the state-of-the-art facilities of global giants like Toyota, Tesla, Google, BMW and Amazon.
Now the company is all-in with VR training platform Gemba, which also still holds masterclasses, albeit in virtual reality. The platform also focuses on immersive skill transfer, including things like on-the-job VR skill training, simulated factory walks, and live training events in VR.
Image courtesy Gemba
Gemba has since worked with 4,000 executives from more than 675 companies, including Philips, Pfizer, Nike and Dell.
Its most recent success story involves Aptiv, a leading automotive supplier. Gemba says its VR training enabled Aptiv to increase skill transfer efficiency by 80% when compared to real-world training programs. In the first year of working with Aptiv, the company also saved $2 million on travel expenses alone.
“As an educator, we know that 90% of learning is about engagement,” says Frankie Cavanagh, Gemba’s Chief Technology Officer. “Gemba allows users to learn and train in a whole new way. With higher engagement levels than traditional teaching and the combination of unprecedented levels of realism and a customized learning experience, it’s a revolutionary teaching tool.”
Gemba says its Series A will accelerate the development of the platform, enabling people and companies to access Gemba on a subscription basis. It’s also set to expand its offering of immersive training simulations, tools and learning experiences, all of which are accessible via online app stores.
The team behind the VR adaptation of popular party game Among Us announced it’s officially gone platinum, selling over 1 million copies across all platforms.
Recreating viral flatscreen titles in VR seems to be a potent recipe for success, as Among Us VR follows in the footsteps of other meme-able games like Friday Night at Freddy’s and SUPERHOT, both of which boast high-performing VR adaptations.
Developed by Innersloth, Schell Games, and Robot Teddy, Among Us VR replicates the original’s team-based game of betrayal. Complete tasks aboard a starship, but keep an eye out for the ship’s singular impostor, who is always looking to get away with murder.
The viral phenomenon caught fire in the summer of 2020—nearly two years after the flatscreen version was initially released on Steam by Innersloth. Then the VR version was released in November 2022, which seems to be replicating that success, albeit in the proportionally smaller Quest 2 and PC VR platforms.
Released in November, Among Us VR has crossed the one million unit mark in less than ten weeks after launch, releasing simultaneously across Quest 2 and SteamVR headsets priced at $10. A version for the upcoming PSVR 2 is also arriving as a launch day title, releasing February 22nd.
And it isn’t stopping there. Among Us VR has a number of planned updates on the horizon, including new maps, custom lobby settings, and improved accessibility features. The team says in-game reporting and voice chat moderation is also in the works to improve player safety.
In addition to the sales news, the team released a few stats: Among Us VR has been played more than four million times by users across 122 countries. On average, 44,000 matches are held per day. More than 89,100,000 minutes have been dedicated to tasks, sabotages, and betrayal.
Skydance Interactive announced the sequel to The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners, Chapter 2: Retribution, is leaving timed Quest exclusivity soon. You can also now add the original game to the list of PSVR titles getting a free PSVR 2 upgrade.
The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners 2 is simultaneously launching on SteamVR and PSVR 2 on March 21st, priced at $40. You can now wishlist it on Steam and pre-order for PSVR 2.
Although not a launch day title (see the full list here), the studio says players across Quest, PC VR and PSVR 2 will be able to transfer their save data between platforms.
Additionally, Skydance says owners of Chapter 2: Retribution across Meta, Pico, PSVR 2 and PC VR will receive an in-game weapon called ‘The Orphan’ once the upcoming versions release in March.
Moreover, if you already own The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners on the original PSVR, the studio is also tossing out a free PSVR 2 upgrade on March 21st, 2023 too. We’ve already added it to our growing list of games getting free PSVR 2 upgrades.
In the meantime, a bona fide The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners demo is coming to the Meta Quest Store, which includes access to the first 30 minutes of gameplay for free, available from now until February 6th.
We had mixed feelings about the sequel when it launched on Quest in December. At the time, it seemed woefully undercooked—so much so we didn’t even get a chance to review it due to game-breaking bugs. Since then, the studio has released several major updates to address important things such as stability issues and the game’s visuals.
At the time of this writing Chapter 2: Retribution on Quest sits at a user rating of [3.75/5], garnered from around 2,600 users. Paling in comparison, the original sits at a user rating of [4.6/5], garnered from over 18,000 users.
The National Basketball Association (NBA) and Meta announced they’re extending a multiyear partnership which is set to bring a few new ways for basketball fans to enjoy NBA League Pass games on Quest.
Now, with the extension, the companies are set to bring a new space to Meta’s Horizon Worlds platform called the ‘NBA Arena’, which will play host to live NBA League Pass games in VR throughout the season.
The new NBA Arena space promises to serve up 52 live NBA games in addition to five games captured in 180-degree monoscopic (2,880 resolution) specifically captured for VR users. In addition to shared viewing, the new NBA Arena also includes mini-games.
The companies announced that NBA League Pass access is also coming to Xtadium in the coming weeks, a US-only VR sports hub app that also offers shared watching.
At some point Meta is also set to roll out NBA-licensed apparel in its Avatar Store so fans can support their favorite NBA or WNBA teams. Avatar apparel also spans avatars on Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger in addition to Horizon Worlds.
Here’s a look at the preliminary game schedule for the NBA Arena:
Jan. 24: Denver Nuggets vs. New Orleans Pelicans – 8 p.m. ET
Jan. 25: Denver Nuggets vs. Milwaukee Bucks – 8 p.m. ET
Jan. 27: Cleveland Cavaliers vs. Oklahoma City Thunder – 8 p.m. ET
Jan. 29: LA Clippers vs. Cleveland Cavaliers – 7 p.m. ET
Jan. 31: Miami Heat vs. Cleveland Cavaliers – 7 p.m. ET
Check out all of the VR-accessible NBA games up to April 9th here.
AntVR, an early VR startup which struggled with several XR headset projects that ultimately didn’t find traction, has reemerged with novel optics which can instantly transition between AR and VR modes.
And now the company is back with something that’s actually quite interesting. At CES 2023, AntVR was showing off its ‘mixed waveguide AR optics’, which uses a novel approach to keep a slim profile, while at the same time including a dimming feature to instantly switch between see-through AR and full VR modes. Although the company demonstrated their tech working in a pair of glasses frames, AntVR doesn’t plan to manufacture its own headset this time around, but instead is hoping another company will license the optical design and integrate it into their own headset.
AntVR was showing three different sizes of its optics, a 6mm thick version with a claimed 56° field-of-view, a 9mm thick version with an 85° field-of-view, and a 10.5mm thick version with a 120° field-of-view.
AntVR’s 120° field-of-view prototype | Photo by Road to VR
Naturally, the most visually immersive among them (the 120° FoV) was the most interesting to me, and it also stands apart from the other two because it uses two displays per-eye (or you might call it two halves of a display, per-eye). Near as I can tell, this is how it works:
Diagram by Road to VR
There’s essentially half of a display above the eye, and half of a display below. Both images are guided through the lens, then fused to form a single image as the light heads toward the eye. It’s a neat approach because it means the width of the whole display pipeline can essentially be cut in half, which is how these optics manage to stay relatively thin while providing a wide field-of-view. Granted, at 10.5mm, these are definitely still thicker than glasses lenses (which other companies have achieved), but certainly more compact than many birdbath optics that we see with top-mounted displays.
And the AntVR optics have another little trick up their sleeve: an instant dimming function which allows you to switch between transparent AR and full VR at the press of a button.
While the dimming didn’t cut out 100% of the incoming light, it was definitely up there at maybe 90%, which provided an effective backdrop to focus on the virtual content in front of you without being distracted at what’s on the other side of the glasses.
This kind of dimming isn’t new (almost certainly achieved with LCD), but it ‘s interesting to see it in action and imagine the possibilities of a future headset that might include this instant switching functionality.
The AntVR prototypes were rather crude, and there’s a lot of questions left to be answered before knowing if they’d be truly practical in a headset; things like maximum transparency, distortion of the real world, color-reproduction, power consumption, cost, if they can be canted, and how much of a seam between the two images will be apparent in real-world use (the demos at CES were mounted in place, so there was no head-tracking to test with). And frankly, one serious potential challenge with this setup is how much it may distort the user’s eyes when see by outsiders—nobody wants to walk around with that ‘coke bottle glasses’ look.
Still, the compact form-factor spurred by the half-and-half display layout, and the combination of instant opacity switching makes these quite interesting and something I’ll be keeping my eye on.
CES is considered the world’s tech event, showcasing groundbreaking technologies and innovations from some of the world’s biggest brands, developers, manufacturers, and suppliers of consumer technology. At CES 2023, attendees saw the unveiling of the latest developments from over 3,200 exhibitors, including technology companies Canon, MICLEDI, and NVIDIA.
Canon Immersive Movie Experience and Immersive Calling Experience
Canon USA has partnered with filmmaker and director M. Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense, The Village, and Signs) to create an immersive movie experience for CES 2023 attendees. Featuring M. Night Shyamalan’s upcoming film Knock at the Cabin (which will be in theaters February 3), Canon unveiled Kokomo, an immersive virtual reality software that leverages VR to give users an immersive calling experience.
Kokomo
With Kokomo, users can now connect with their friends and family as if they’re there in person by using a compatible VR headset and smartphone. In a 3D call, Kokomo will emulate a photo-real environment and mirror the physical appearance of the user. CES 2023 participants were able to witness Kokomo in action at the Canon booth, where they were able to have a one-on-one Kokomo conversation with select characters from the movie Knock at the Cabin.
Aside from Kokomo, Canon also unveiled its Free Viewpoint Video System, which creates point-cloud-based 3D models for more immersive viewing experiences in larger areas like arenas and stadiums. At CES 2023, attendees were able to experience the Free Viewpoint System, which allowed them to watch an action scene from Knock at the Cabin from multiple viewpoints.
CES 2023 attendees also had the opportunity to see Canon’s mixed reality system MREAL in action, by experiencing a scene from Knock at the Cabin as if they were a character in the movie.
MREAL X1
MICLEDI Demonstrates New Red µLEDs at CES 2023
MICLEDI Microdisplays, a technology company developing the microLED displays for the augmented reality market, also showcased its advancements in microLED display tech for AR glasses at CES 2023.
At the event, the company demonstrated its new red microLEDs on AllnGaP starting material. This development is in line with MICLEDI’s aim to create high-performance individual color-performing microLEDs that can be combined with the company’s full-color microLED display module.
Through MICLEDI’s innovations in microLED technology, users can begin to experience clearer and more precise digital images via AR glasses that are more portable and lightweight. The red AllnGaP microLEDs, along with MICLEDI’s three-panel full-color microLED display module, are poised to raise the standards of AR glasses in the coming years.
“There is no one-size-fits-all solution for AR glasses,” said MICLEDI CEO, Sean Lord. “This achievement, with our previously announced blue, green, and red GaN µLEDs, opens the door to a broader offering of display module performance parameters which enables MICLEDI to serve customers developing AR glasses from medium to high resolution and medium to high brightness.”
Demonstration units of both Red GaN and Red AlInGaP were shown at the company’s booth at CES 2023.
NVIDIA Announces New Products and Innovations at CES 2023
NVIDIA announced new developments and NVIDIA Omniverse capabilities at CES 2023. The tech company, which is known for designing and building GPUs, unveiled its new GeForce RTX GPUs, which come with a host of new features that can be found in NVIDIA’s new studio laptops and GeForce RTX 4070 Ti graphics cards. This new series of portable laptops gives artists, creators, and gamers access to more powerful solutions and AI tools that will help them create 2D and 3D content faster.
NVIDIA also shared new developments to its Omniverse, including AI add-ons for Blender, access to new and free USD assets, and an update on the NVIDIA Canvas, which will be available for download in the future.
Aside from these updates, the company also released a major update to its Omniverse Enterprise, which enables users to access enhancements that will let them develop and operate more accurate virtual worlds. This major update is also set to expand the Omniverse’s capabilities through features such as new connectors, Omniverse Cloud, and Omniverse DeepSearch. More new partners are planning to use NVIDIA Omniverse to streamline their workflows and operations. These include Dentsu International, Zaha Hadid Architects, and Mercedes Benz.
NVIDIA Omniverse ACE
Moreover, this January, NVIDIA opened its early-access program for NVIDIA Omniverse Avatar Cloud Engine (ACE), allowing developers and teams to build interactive avatars and virtual assistants at scale.
Demos of VITURE One XR Glasses and Mobile Dock
Aside from these established tech companies, VITURE, a new XR startup that received accolades from CES, TIME, and the Fast Company for its flagship product, the VITURE One XR glasses, also prepared something interesting for the CES 2023 attendees.
VITURE One XR glasses and Mobile Dock
The company made both their VITURE One XR glasses, compatible with Steam Deck, laptops, and PCs, and their Mobile Dock, which introduces co-op play and Nintendo Switch compatibility, available for testing.
Halfbrick Studios announced it’s partnering on development of Thrill of the Fight 2, the upcoming sequel to the popular VR boxing title.
Created by Ian Fitz and his studio Sealost Interactive in 2016, Thrill of the Fight focuses on realistic boxing mechanics, eschewing arcadey things like stamina bars and unrealistic knockout blows.
Thrill of the Fight 2, which is now in co-development by Halfbrick Studios, is bringing the much-requested feature of multiplayer mode. In a development update video (below), Halfbrick CEO Shainiel Deo reveals a few more features coming to the sequel: improved audio and visual feedback, changes to how combinations are scored, more gameplay variety to keep players coming back for more.
Halfbrick is known for developing both the flatscreen versions of Fruit Ninja and Fruit Ninja 2 and also their respective VR adaptations. The studio’s bread and butter however has been its slew of mobile games, including Jetpack Joyride, Battle Racing Stars, Dan the Man, and Shadows Remain.
In an update posted to Reddit by Sealost Interactive, series developer Ian Fitz discusses Halfbrick’s involvement.
“The reason I’m partnering up with Halfbrick on this is because I was comfortable it would help make the game I wanted to make. They want to make (and play) the same game I do,” Fitz says.
Fitz also broke down the division of labor, and how the sequel is being made in cooperation with Halfbrick.
“I made the blueprint. Sealost prototyped and proved out many of the mechanics and tech challenges. Halfbrick is putting together a release-worthy product and supporting it into the future. I’m in meetings with them every workday building the product right alongside them and making sure we don’t deviate from the original plan (which hasn’t been a problem because, again, they want to make the same game I do).”
Fitz notes the partnership with Halfbrick “doesn’t have anything to do with funding. This is just about having a solid production team and a plan in place to support the game post-launch.”
The studios say they’re aiming for release “later this year,” although that’s admittedly “just an estimate based on current progress,” Fitz says.
It’s still unclear which platforms are initial targets, however if the original is any indications, we’re liable to see it on Quest 2/Pro, Steam VR, and possibly also PSVR 2.
Microsoft is laying off 10,000 employees, and with it the company is axing social VR platform AltspaceVR and its XR interface framework, Mixed Reality Toolkit.
We’ve written about the death of AltspaceVR once before. In the summer of 2017, the company announced it was shuttering the social VR platform due to lack of funds. In a Hail Mary that few expected, Microsoft turned around and snapped up the ailing platform only two months after the planned shut-down date. It seemed, at least for then, that AltspaceVR would live on to compete in the rapidly diversifying social VR landscape, existing alongside VR Chat, Rec Room, and Horizon Worlds.
Microsoft says it’s shutting down AltspaceVR on March 10th, 2023, and shifting its focus “to support immersive experiences powered by Microsoft Mesh,” the company says in a statement.
Mesh is the company’s software foundation for building multi-user XR applications. Announced in 2021, the tool gives developers a framework for connecting users into shared instances which support spatial voice communication, cloud-based asset management, persistent scenes, and a common avatar system.
“The decision has not been an easy one as this is a platform many have come to love, providing a place for people to explore their identities, express themselves, and find community,” the AltspaceVR team writes. “It has been a privilege to help unlock passions among users, from educational opportunities for personal growth to the development of unique and wonderful events, groundbreaking art, and immersive experiences — enabling this community to achieve more. With Mesh, we aspire to build a platform that offers the widest opportunity to all involved, including creators, partners and customers.”
Also seeing an abrupt shutdown is the company’s Mixed Reality Toolkit (MRTK). Team member Finn Sinclair shared the news via Twitter on Friday, saying the entire team was eliminated from the company. MRTK was a Microsoft-driven project that provided a set of components and features, used to accelerate cross-platform XR app development in the Unity game engine. Sinclair says the project is remaining open source.
Microsoft’s most recent round of layoffs are said to affect around 5% of its overall workforce. In a letter to employees, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella notes “changes to our hardware portfolio”; reports from Bloomberg maintain the company’s Xbox games teams are also affected, including Bethesda Game Studios (‘The Elder Scrolls’ series) and 343 Industries (Halo).
Psytec Games announced its grappling hook-flavored platforming adventure Windlands 2 (2018) is finally swinging its way onto Quest 2, coming to Meta’s standalone for the first time on February 2nd.
Like the original Windlands (2016), which is currently available through App Lab on Quest, Windlands 2 is all about swinging from tree to tree in a large, open world filled with a ton of nooks and crannies to parkour around.
But the sequel changes things up a fair bit by fleshing out the fallen world of Windlands with the addition of quests and some pretty epic boss fights, which you can take down with your trusty bow—either solo or with friends in four-player co-op. Besides following the main story, there’s also a ton of races and collection challenges with leaderboards.
Image courtesy Psytec Games
Originally released on SteamVR and Rift in November 2018, and later on PSVR in November 2021, Windlands 2 is heading to the official store for Quest 2 come February 2nd where it will be priced at $24.99. You can wishlist the game on the Quest Store here.
Notably, Windlands 2 is coming to Quest 2 (re: not Quest 1) without cross-buy, or cross-platform support. That means if you own the Quest 2 version, you can only play with other Quest 2 owners; the same goes for the PC version and PSVR versions, respectively.
When we reviewed Windlands 2 for PC VR in 2018, we called it “the true starting point” for the series, as it sets up a much larger world and story that feels like the beginning of a more expansive adventure than its zen-like forebear. Check out our full review of Windlands 2, where we gave it an [8/10] for deftly translating Windlands unique grappling hook locomotion into a vibrant combat platformer in its own right.
Make no mistake, the original is still very much worth playing for puzzling and parkour purists, although number two really seems to expand the world by filling it with quest-giving NPCs, villains, and boss battles galore, taking around six hours to complete.
At CES 2023 Pimax was showing off its latest high-resolution headset, the Pimax Crystal, which uses new lenses and new displays for what the company says is its clearest looking image yet. And while it’s definitely an improvement in many areas over the company’s headsets, there’s a key flaw that I hope the Pimax will be able to address.
Pimax Crystal employs new lenses and promises to be rid of glare and god rays that were apparent in prior Pimax headsets (and many others) which used Fresnel lenses. That, along with high-resolution displays, purported HDR capability, swappable lenses (to trade field-of-view for pixel density), and up to a 160Hz refresh rate. For a full breakdown of the headset’s spec, see our announcement article.
At CES 2023 I got to see the headset myself for the first time. Although the headset is technically capable of running in standalone mode, I saw it running as a PC VR headset with SteamVR Tracking.
Pimax Crystal (pictured without the SteamVR Tracking faceplate) | Photo by Road to VR
Naturally, the demo I was shown was running Half-Life: Alyx—arguably VR’s best looking game—to show off the detail the headset can reproduce with its 2,880 × 2,880 (8.3MP) per-eye displays. From the quick hands-on I got with Pimax Crystal, I could see this was a big step up in clarity over the company’s prior headsets, especially with regards to edge-to-edge clarity. The visual basics were solid too in terms of pupil swim, geometric distortion, and chromatic aberration. There was a little mura visible on this headset but nothing egregious as far as I could tell.
But there was one thing that immediately stood out to my eyes which otherwise foils a good looking image: blur during head movement. While the static image seen through the headset looks quite sharp, as soon as you start moving your head to look around the world you’ll see a lot of blur—that’s a problem for VR considering that your head is very frequently in motion.
Photo by Road to VR
My best guess is this is being caused by persistence blur; a display artifact that’s mostly solved on other headsets and is thus rarely seen anymore. Persistence blurring is is caused by the display staying lit for too long, such that as you turn your head the pixels remain lit even while their position becomes inaccurate (because they are ‘frozen’ in place each frame, until the next frame comes along and updates the position to account for your head movement). Most headsets employ a form of ‘low-persistence’ which counteracts this issue by illuminating the display for only a fraction of the time between frames, such that as you move your head the pixels aren’t ‘frozen’ in place, but are actually unlit, leaving your brain to fill in the gaps without seeing the pixels blur between frames.
The amount of blur I saw through Pimax Crystal I would say notably compromises what is otherwise an impressively clean image, though there’s a chance that Pimax could fix this issue, depending upon exactly what’s causing it.
For one, it’s possible that the headsets being shown at CES 2023 were still not fully tuned and that low-persistence hasn’t been properly tuned (or maybe isn’t even enabled yet). In that case it might be a matter of final tweaks before they get the correct display behavior which could reduce persistence blur.
Another factor could be the headset’s ‘HDR’ capability. While I don’t believe Pimax has shared any information on peak brightness, it’s possible that the display can’t do both low-persistence and HDR brightness at the same time (indeed this is a challenge because HDR needs high brightness while low-persistence needs pixels to be illuminated only for a minimal amount of time).
And still there’s other possibilities—this might not be persistence blur at all, but simply slow pixel switching time causing some form of ghosting, which could be an inherent limitation of the display or maybe something that could be tweaked.
– – — – –
Ultimately I’m pretty impressed with the clarity and wide field-of-view of the Pimax Crystal, but the blur I’ve seen during head movement compromises the image in my book. My gut says this is probably a persistence blurring issue, though it could be something else. We’ll have to wait to see what Pimax says about this and if they’re able to make improvements by the time Crystal ships.
Photo by Road to VR
Speaking about Crystal shipping; the headset was originally planned for release in Q3 of 2022, but that date has slipped. Although the company hosted a ‘Pimax Crystal Launch Event‘ back in November, at CES 2023 Pimax said the first headsets will start being delivered at the end of this month, though the company also indicates that it won’t reach full production capacity until the middle of the year. Even when the first units do start shipping, key accessories and features, like the headset’s standalone mode—which makes up about half of its value proposition—aren’t expected to be available until unspecified points in the future.
PlayStation has finally revealed its launch day (or rather “launch window”) titles for PSVR 2. Notable highlights include Demeo, Gran Turismo 7, Horizon Call of the Mountain, and Resident Evil Village, although there’s no word on when VR’s favorite block-slashing game is making the move to Sony’s next-gen VR headset.
First, here’s the list of guaranteed launch day games coming on February 22nd, 2023. Sgames are re-releasing completely, providing a paid pathway for upgrades, or coming as a free upgrade to players who already own the title for the original PSVR. We’ve put that info in bold for easier reading:
Gran Turismo 7 (via free update to PS5 version of GT7)
Horizon Call of the Mountain (Firesprite, Guerrilla)
Job Simulator (Owlchemy)
Jurassic World Aftermath (Coatsink)
Kayak VR: Mirage (Better Than Life)
Kizuna AI – Touch the Beat! (Gemdrops, Inc.)
The Last Clockwinder (Pontoco/Cyan Worlds)
The Light Brigade (Funktronic Labs, purchase includes PS VR and PS VR2 versions)
Moss 1 & 2Remaster (Polyarc)
NFL Pro Era (StatusPro, Inc., free PS VR2 upgrade)
Pavlov VR (Vankrupt)
Pistol Whip (Cloudhead, free upgrade)
Puzzling Places (Realities.io, free upgrade)
Resident Evil Village (Capcom, via free update to PS5 version of RE Village)
Rez Infinite (Enhance)
Song in the Smoke (17 Bit)
STAR WARS: Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge (ILMxLab)
Synth Riders (Kluge Interactive, free upgrade)
The Tale of Onogoro (Amata K.K)
Tentacular (Devolver)
Tetris Effect: Connected (Enhance)
Thumper (Drool LLC)
Vacation Simulator (Owlchemy)
What the Bat! (Triband)
Zenith: The Last City (Ramen VR, free upgrade)
There are also a handful of “launch window” games announced, which are said to arrive “through March”:
The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners: Ch. 2: Retribution (Skydance)
No Man’s Sky (Hello Games)
Creed: Rise to Glory – Championship Edition (Survios)
The Dark Pictures: Switchback (Supermassive)
Before Your Eyes (Skybound Interactive)
Curiously missing from the list is the promised Beat Saber, which again ranked as the top-downloaded game on PSVR this past year. PlayStation says in its big blogpost info dump that more games will be confirm their launch window availability up until February 22nd, so we’ll be updating this piece to reflect all of the launch content coming to PSVR 2.
Gorilla Tag is undoubtedly a hit. Its primate-centric locomotion style and infectious game of tag has vaulted it into the top spot as the most-rated game on the Quest Store, surpassing even the Meta-owned rhythm game Beat Saber. Now, the indie team behind Quest’s most popular game revealed they’ve generated over $26 million with Gorilla Tag.
Speaking to VentureBeat, developer Another Axiom has reported that its gorilla-themed game has not only brought it home big with $26 million from in-app purchases, but it’s also attracted a larger glut of players than previously reported.
Having initially launched on App Lab in March 2021 and later released on the official Quest Store this past December, devs behind the free-to-play game say it’s managed to reach a peak monthly active user count of 2.3 million now. On Christmas, which is when Meta typically sees a big influx of users, over 760,000 users played Gorilla Tag.
It is free-to-play on Quest—its biggest platform—although a paid Steam Early Access version is available as well for PC VR headsets, costing $20, which comes along with an equal value of its in-game currency, shiny rocks.
Therein lies Gorilla Tag’s monetization strategy, as in-app purchases include a range of cosmetic items such as hats, glasses, and seasonal items like Santa beards and candy canes.
Developer Kerestell Smith told Road to VR last month that its main driver to get players in the door (and spending cash) was via some well-timed virality on TikTok, with the hashtag #gorillatag seeing 4.4 billion views to date.
Today, the game sits at over 52,000 reviews, ranking above Beat Saber’s 46,000 reviews, making it the most-rated game on the platform. At the time of this writing, Gorilla Tag is the fourth best-rated free game on Quest, sitting behind GYM CLASS – BASKETBALL VR, Innerworld, and First Steps for Quest 2.
Check out the full rankings from this month, which we break down into best and most rated games for both paid and free titles on Quest.
