Meta Goes Ultra-Wide, Sharp Tests Haptics, and PICO Backs Blender
Meta previews two prototype headsets with ultra-wide fields of view ahead of SIGGRAPH, Sharp unveils a tactile VR controller blending buttons and haptics, and PICO teams up with Blender to supercharge OpenXR content creation. Meanwhile, Animal Company hits 1M MAUs—and Quest 3S drops to $250.
Here’s what’s happening in immersive tech 👇
🧤 Sharp Bets on Haptics With Prototype VR Controller
🔥 Why It Matters
Sharp has unveiled a prototype VR controller in Japan that combines haptic glove tech with traditional buttons—aiming to bring texture simulation to VR without sacrificing familiarity. This move shows Sharp’s growing ambitions in XR hardware, building on its experience as a key display supplier in the industry.
🧠 What Makes This Significant
Unlike full haptic gloves, Sharp’s controller focuses on fingertip haptics through segmented tactile elements and dynamic vibration patterns to mimic sensations like smoothness or roughness. While it doesn’t offer precise finger tracking or force/temperature feedback, it’s one of the first hybrid designs that tries to bridge the gap between realism and standard input formats.
🚀 What’s Next?
Sharp is still in the experimental phase and hasn’t confirmed a commercial release—but early test units were offered for ¥100,000 (~$680) in Japan. How the device will be tracked remains unclear, though the company hints at support for popular tracking systems. As demand for richer VR interactions grows, hybrid solutions like this could define the next wave of immersive input.
More info: https://www.roadtovr.com/sharp-prototype-vr-haptic-glove-controller/
🐒 Animal Company Hits 1M Monthly Players & Soars in Quest Revenue Rankings
🔥 Why It Matters
Animal Company, a free-to-play VR game from Wooster Games, has rapidly climbed the charts—now #3 in top-earning Quest titles and boasting over 1 million monthly and 500K daily active players. This is a major success story in VR's growing free-to-play economy.
🧠 What Makes This Significant
Inspired by Gorilla Tag and Lethal Company, the game’s “viral design” makes it as fun to watch as it is to play. Wooster Games focused on community engagement, content creator partnerships, and a smart monetization strategy—waiting 3 months post-launch before introducing in-app purchases. That patience paid off: paying user rates jumped from 2% to 12%.
With a 4.8/5 user rating across 134K reviews and rapid growth since Christmas 2024, Animal Company is proving that the freemium model—when done right—can thrive in VR.
🚀 What’s Next?
Wooster Games plans to expand to Steam soon, which could further increase its already impressive user base. If Animal Company maintains this trajectory, it might follow in Gorilla Tag’s footsteps as a breakout success beyond the Quest ecosystem.
More info: https://www.roadtovr.com/animal-company-quest-rank-active-user-stats/
🛠 PICO Teams Up with Blender to Supercharge Enterprise XR
🔥 Why It Matters
PICO has announced a strategic partnership with the Blender Foundation, becoming an official contributor to its OpenXR development roadmap. This move signals PICO’s push to strengthen cross-platform content creation tools and streamline XR production for enterprise and creative use.
🧠 What Makes This Significant
Blender is a cornerstone in open-source 3D creation. By aligning with Blender’s OpenXR efforts, PICO is working to simplify immersive workflows and ensure compatibility across XR devices. The collaboration enhances creative pipelines while giving developers more powerful tools to bring ideas to life — all while staying platform-agnostic.
Alongside this, PICO revealed Enterprise OS 5.13, a major update that boosts LBE functionality, controller/gesture tracking, hand tracking, and video see-through in low light. It also includes a new Business Device Manager version with better fleet management tools — positioning PICO as a serious enterprise player just as demand for XR deployment tools grows.
🚀 What’s Next?
As PICO approaches its 10th anniversary, these enterprise-focused developments show a clear intent: to compete head-to-head with Meta in the B2B XR space. With OpenXR momentum and an expanding toolset for developers, PICO is betting big on open collaboration and robust infrastructure to scale its reach.
🕶 Meta Reveals Research Toward Ultra-Wide Field of View XR Headsets
🔥 Why It Matters
Meta’s Display Systems Research (DSR) team has developed two new XR headset prototypes that achieve an ultra-wide 180° × 120° field of view—in a compact form factor comparable to today’s Quest headsets. The breakthrough will be demoed at SIGGRAPH 2025 this August, offering a glimpse into the future of immersive optics.
🧠 What Makes This Significant
Until now, expanding FOV often meant bulky designs and thermal tradeoffs (see: Pimax or Meta’s own early wide-FOV prototypes). But Meta’s new custom optical system, built on high-curvature reflective polarizers, manages to widen the visual field without a major hardware compromise. One MR version even includes passthrough cameras capturing 80+ MP at 60 fps, allowing for wide, high-fidelity mixed reality.
In parallel, Meta also unveiled a second paper on “Hyperrealistic VR,” showcasing a 90-PPD, 1400-nit headset that combines retina-level sharpness, high contrast, and brightness — setting a new benchmark in visual fidelity.
🚀 What’s Next?
While compute and thermal challenges remain (more FOV = more rendering workload), these prototypes show Meta’s ongoing commitment to advancing XR optics without sacrificing wearability. Full papers will drop on August 9, just ahead of SIGGRAPH — where all three headsets will be available for demos
💸 Meta Quest 3S Drops to $250 in Summer Flash Sale
Meta has slashed the price of Quest 3S to $250 for a limited 4-day Summer sale — making it the most affordable current-gen headset.
🧠 What’s Included
The deal also includes:
Batman: Arkham Shadow (2024) ($50 value)
3 months of Meta Horizon+ (VR game subscription)
20% off select accessories like Elite Strap, Link Cable & cases.
⏳ Hurry Up
Sale runs until July 24 at 9AM PT on Meta’s store.
More info: https://www.meta.com/quest/quest-3s/
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