I hope things are going great for you and that you had a wonderful Easter, if you celebrate it. Things in XR are going pretty badly, but at least I could eat a wonderful Easter cake with a lot of Pistachio cream, and that made me feel happy again…
Top news of the week
(Image by Rec Room)
Rec Room is shutting down
The most interesting news in XR of the week is something I hoped to never tell you: Rec Room is shutting down.
What was one of the most popular “metaverse platforms”, always taken as an example of an application that succeeded in VR and then was able to expand also to flatscreen, is no more. The official shutdown will happen on June 1st, and from now to that date, there will be a progressive restriction of features: for instance, no one can create a new account anymore, and from May 18th, no one can earn tokens anymore.
The reason for this has not been the lack of users, but some business mistakes (if you remember well, the platform had huge layoffs some months ago), and the fact that the platform never became profitable. Multiplayer platforms can be pretty expensive to maintain, and even if Rec Room had a decent economy (some time ago, they claimed to have distributed more than $1M to creators in a single quarter), it was not enough to cover the cost. Monetization has always been a huge issue for all virtual worlds platforms (VRChat included), and in this case, it was big enough to cause the end of it. Still, many platforms start as non-profitable and focus on user acquisition first, and usually, if they have enough users, they are purchased by a bigger company that can maintain them. I am actually surprised no one has acquired Rec Room, considering it has been used by more than 150M players across its history.
We should praise the fact that the Rec Room management took this decision early enough to be able to end the platform gracefully: they are warning everyone, and they are giving everyone the time to copy their own content and eventually migrate it to other platforms. They are not waiting for the money to finish and then suddenly go bankrupt: this has been really wise on their side.
It’s a very sad piece of news for the whole XR community. And, unfortunately, after the discontinuation of Horizon Worlds VR, this is another big hit for our space, which will bring even more negativity and a lack of investments. Luckily, at least VRChat is still standing…
More info (My detailed article about the shutdown of Rec Room)
More info (Official Rec Room statement)
More info (One of the many sad community posts about this news)
More info (A creator discusses the reasons why Rec Room failed)
More info (VRChat management clarifies their platform is still doing ok)
Other relevant news
(Image by Meta)
Meta announces prescription-ready glasses and new software updates
It’s been a good week for smartglasses. Meta and EssilorLuxottica just announced two new styles of Ray-Ban Meta glasses, “optimized for prescriptions”.
These glasses are called Blayzer Optica and Scriber Optics, and they feature a series of updates that can improve comfort and make them good to wear all day: overextension hinges, interchangeable nose pads, and optician-adjustable temple tips. So even if previous Ray-Ban Meta glasses supported prescriptions, too, these ones have better support for them, and especially, they are aimed to completely substitute your prescription glasses thanks to the added all-day comfort.
The glasses are otherwise technically identical to the previous models, with the only difference being one added microphone and the charging case being brown. One big difference is the price, though: these glasses are more expensive than the other models, and they start at $500.
But there is not only new hardware on the plate: Meta has also released a big software update for the Ray-Ban glasses, adding features like:
- Nutrition Tracking: you take a picture of what you eat, and the glasses extract and log “key nutrition details”. I’m a bit skeptical that it can work very well out of the box, but maybe this can improve over time
- WhatsApp Summaries: if you lost 200 messages in a group, the glasses can make a summary for you
- New translation languages
- Screen recording of the Ray-Ban Meta Display
- On-foot navigation of every US city, and not only a small group of them
- Widespread release of handwriting with the Neural Bracelet (it was just in beta up to now)
Meta is also expanding the distribution of Ray-Ban Meta glasses to a few new countries, including Chile and Colombia. This is quite interesting news: usually, XR devices do not ship to South America, so the fact that the AI glasses are getting there (probably also thanks to the huge distribution network of Luxottica) is an amazing piece of news, which can help XR get more widespread.
More info (New Ray-Ban Meta models — Road To VR)
More info (New Ray-Ban Meta models — Upload VR)
More info (New features of Ray-Ban Meta runtime — Road To VR)
More info (New features of Ray-Ban Meta runtime — Upload VR)
April Fool’s Day gave us some good laughs
On April 1st, you can trust no one. Me included.
Many companies published fake news, and some of them were pretty nice. I kept the tradition of my blog, and this year, I published the news about a VR funeral event to celebrate the death of VR. But I’ve not been the only one: for instance, the YouTuber Matteo311 claimed to have reviewed the Steam Frame, and Traeger, a BBQ company, claimed to have released smartglasses to grill meat (jokes on you, I would buy them!).
Even outside XR, we had various jokes, like Dyson claiming to have a new product to comb the hair of animals, or MKBHD reviewing a toy Bluey phone.
The reactions to April Fools’ Day are very polarized: half of the people, like me, love the jokes and comment on these pieces of news with other jokes, but the other half of people hate them and respond to them with insults. I got many people appreciating my post on Reddit, but I’ve been pretty hated on Facebook, for instance.
Anyway, I miss Google’s jokes on this day… they were amazing…
More info (My April Fool’s fake news)
More info (Matteo311’s fake news)
More info (Traeger’s April Fool’s)
More info (Roundup of April 1st jokes — The Verge)
More info (Roundup of April 1st jokes — CNET)
News worth a mention
(Image by Moverse)
Moverse is offering markerless full-body tracking for VR
Moverse has just launched a Kickstarter campaign for its full-body tracking solution for VRChat. The difference with all the other many solutions of the same kind is that this is fully markerless. That is, you wear nothing; all tracking happens with the three small cameras provided by the system, which you have to install in your room. It is a pretty original approach, which reminds me of my first VR startup, where we were doing full-body VR using three Kinects.
The kits start from a price of €799. I’m pretty sure some VRChat users may find this interesting…
More info (Moverse Kickstarter page)
More info (Moverse Youtube video)
Augmental lets you control your devices with your tongue
There are some ideas that make you say both “Wow, this is interesting” and “But.. why??” at the same time. Augmental is one of these: it is a controller you put in your mouth, and that lets you interact with your devices by just using your tongue. On social media, I could see a guy playing Mario Kart fully hands-free, by just using his tongue! Pretty crazy stuff…
Augmental has also made some collaborations with Mentra, the company making smart glasses. In general, it seems an interesting idea, especially for some accessibility use cases. But honestly, I think that not many people will want to put a device in their mouth…
More info (What is Augmental)
More info (Augmental and Mentra)
More info (Mario Kart played with the tongue)
Two VR studios announce layoffs
This week, we had sad news about layoffs at VR companies.
Polyarc Games, the studio behind the legendary game Moss, announced that a big portion of the studio has been let go. One of the reasons for the layoffs has been the cancellation of a “large project” in December 2025. The timing makes me think that it was Meta that canceled the funding of a product.
Kluge Interactive, the company behind Synth Riders, announced that it had fired around half of the team. The reason? Meta pulling out of Horizon Worlds VR. Kluge was doing pretty good work with Meta, and the discontinuation of Horizon Worlds for VR killed a lot of projects, so the company had to downsize its part of the company working on Horizon. The good news is that at least the part working on VR games like Synth Riders is still going strong.
More info (Layoffs at Polyarc Games)
More info (Layoffs at Kluge Interactive)
Two location-based VR experiences
This week, we had news about two interesting VR experiences about to reach arcade rooms. One is Cyberpunk 2077, which will be available at Zero Latency venues; and the other is Black Mirror, available at Infinity Experience. I would love to try both of them…
More info (Cyberpunk 2077)
More info (Black Mirror)
Three reviews of XR devices
This week I’ve read these hands-on articles worth a look at:
- The Guardian went hands-on with the Ray-Ban Meta glasses: the journalist did not appreciate them a lot, finding them not so great to wear, and also fearing a lot her privacy. An interesting point of view from a non-XR person, but at the same time, it felt a bit biased towards the negative side
- Tech Radar went hands-on with the new Meta smartglasses: they are actually comfortable, but they are more expensive than the other glasses, and this may hurt adoption
- Tech Radar tried the Rokid glasses, and they found them to functionally be a good alternative to Meta, but the design is not as good as RayBan’s ones
More info (Ray-Ban Meta glasses — The Guardian)
More info (New Ray-Ban Meta glasses — Tech Radar)
More info (Rokid glasses — Tech Radar)
Some news about content
- Bloxer is a VR fitness take on Tetris that combines the classic block-lining gameplay with boxing
- You can now attend Debut at the BBC Proms in Apple Immersive for free on the Apple Vision Pro
- JollyCo has released a new trailer for their upcoming VR shooter Sugar Madness, which is coming to the Meta Horizon Store in spring 2026
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Empire City is officially coming to Quest, PC VR headsets, and Pico headsets on April 30th. Price is $20, but it is currently discounted to $20 on the Horizon Store
- Neat Corp announced a permanent price cut of some of its games: Budget Cuts and Budget Cuts 2: Mission Insolvency are now both $14.99, and Garden of the Sea drops to $9.99
- Into the Radius 2 exits Early Access for a full release on April 23rd, but only on SteamVR. The price is not increasing with this update
- Downhill VR skateboarding game Bomb The Hill is expected to release sometime this spring, with a planned price of $19.99
- FitXR introduced a new mode called Flow Studio, targeting people who were used to doing a similar workout on SuperNatural
- MrSurviv0r’s all-in-one VR Mod Installers streamline the process of getting Resident Evil 2, 3, 4, 7, Village, and Requiem playable in full VR on PC
- Frostbite is a Far Cry-inspired VR shooter that is being developed by XReal Games
- Fast Travel Games is slashing the price of Action Hero, best described as a blockbuster summer film series come to life in VR, to $9.99
- The stylish, fast-paced shooter Flag Games is coming to Meta Quest headsets on April 9
- Vertigo Games has announced the closure of its long-running VR real-time strategy card battler Skyworld: Kingdom Brawl for July 11
More info (Bloxer)
More info (Debut at the BBC Proms)
More info (Sugar Madness)
More info (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Empire City)
More info (Neat Corp)
More info (Into The Radius 2)
More info (Bomb The Hill)
More info (FitXR Flow Studio)
More info (Resident Evil VR)
More info (Frostbite)
More info (Action Hero)
More info (Flag Games)
More info (Skyworld: Kingdom Brawl)
Some reviews about content
- Dawn of History is a DLC that corrects many of the issues of the VR dungeon crawler Legendary Tales
- Museas is a virtual museum that lets you have access to artistic masterpieces and see them very close from wherever you are in the world
- Star Trek: Infection is a story-driven horror survival game that has no jumpscare but always keeps you tense
- Spymaster confirms the talent of Innerspace to create games with original mechanics. It will come to VR stores in Early Access on May 7th
- TMNT: Empire City features easy-to-understand combat and a sense that the game does not take itself too seriously.
More info (Legendary Tales: Dawn Of History)
More info (Museas)
More info (Star Trek: Infection)
More info (Spymaster)
More info (TMNT: Empire City)
Other news
Mbucchia (a developer releasing many useful tools for the PCVR community) joined Valve
(Thanks Rob for the tip!)
A Redditor created a sort of editor to apply color grading to Gaussian Splats
Some Redditors are working to create very lightweight glasses
MeetinVR will have a full shutdown at the end of April
News from partners (and friends)
Attend the Invelon Italia Summit!
On April, 13th, I will be in Bergamo (Italy) to moderate a panel at the Invelon Italia Summit. It will be an occasion to meet people from the Italian (and European) XR community.If you want to meet me, please come. The event is free, but you need to be approved after registration. See you there!
Learn more and register
Sponsored Area
Discover FM DUO camera!
Meet the FM DUO, a VR camera that is capable of filming up to 12K @30fps, and 8K @60fps. With built-in RTMP live streaming and 5G connectivity, the FM·DUO will immerse your viewers in real time! The FM·DUO features 2 full-frame CMOS sensors, with 6000 x 6000 pixels each. This allows for high-resolution zooming capabilities. Not only can you narrow in on one subject, but you can also focus on singular details of the subject’s facial expressions, clothing textures, and a multitude of other small details, enabling a much more immersive experience of VR video.
Visit Product Website
Some XR fun
Maybe in 5 to 10 years…
Funny link
Donate for good
Like last week, also this week in this final paragraph I won’t ask you to donate to my blog, but to the poor people who are facing the consequences of the war. Please donate to the Red Cross to handle the current humanitarian situation in Ukraine. I will leave you the link to do that below.
Let me take a moment before to thank anyway all my Patreon donors for the support they give to me:
- Alex Gonzalez VR
- DeoVR
- GenVR
- Eduardo Siman
- Jonn Fredericks
- Jean-Marc Duyckaerts
- Reynaldo T Zabala
- Richard Penny
- Terry xR. Schussler
- Ilias Kapouranis
- Paolo Leoncini
- Immersive.international
- Nikk Mitchell and the great FXG team
- Jake Rubin
- Alexis Huille
- Raghu Bathina
- Chris Koomen
- Cognitive3D
- Wisear (Yacine Achiakh)
- Masterpiece X
- Dimo Pepelyashev
- Carol Dalrymple
- Keith Bradner
- Jennifer Granger
- Jason Moore
- Steve Biggs
- Julio Cesar Bolivar
- Jan Schroeder
- Kai Curtis
- Francesco Strada
- Sikaar Keita
- Ramin Assadollahi
- Juan Sotelo
- Andrew Sheldon
- Chris Madsen
- Horacio Torrendell
- Andrew Deutsch
- Fabien Benetou
- Tatiana Kartashova
- Marco “BeyondTheCastle” Arena
- Eloi Gerard
- Adam Boyd
- Jeremy Dalton
- Joel Ward
- Alex P
- Lynn Eades
- Donald P
- Casie Lane
- Catherine Henry
- Qcreator
- Ristband (Anne McKinnon & Roman Rappak)
- Stephen Robnett
- KaihatsuJai
- Christopher Boyd
- Don Williams
- Giuseppe Pippi
- Mark Frederiksen
- Ken Lin
- Sebastien Poivre
- Ixn91
- Chris Madsen
- Sb
- Boule Petanque
- Pieter Siekerman
- Enrico Poli
- Vooiage Technologies
- Caroline
- Liam James O’Malley
- Hillary Charnas
- Wil Stevens
- Francesco Salizzoni
- Alan Smithson
- Steve R
- Brentwahn
- Michael Gaebler
- Tiago Silva
- Matt Cool
- Mark G
- Simplex
- Gregory F Gorsuch
- Paul Shay
- Matias Nassi
And now here you are the link to donate:
Support The Red Cross in Ukraine
(Header image by Meta)
The post The XR Week Peek (2026.04.07): Rec Room shuts down, Meta launches two new glasses, and more! appeared first on The Ghost Howls.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://skarredghost.com/2026/04/07/recroom-closes-ray-ban/