Executive summary

Welcome to your weekly briefing on the metaverse and spatial computing. Here are your snippets to sound smarter in meetings this week:

• Top story: Timewalk will not be timeless (review below)

• Other stories: Instagram will ban users who post non-consensual or harassment videos filmed on Meta smart glasses, per comments from Instagram head Adam Mosseri (more below)

Top story

Timewalk will not be timeless.

• What is it? Timewalk is an immersive exhibition that goes through five different civilizations across 12,000 years, using 360° projections across multiple rooms to tell the story of the ancients and how they progressed.

• What are the pros? The technology was really good, showing a lot of the progress of civilizations as they evolved, with some decent voiceovers and effects. When the projections induced the feeling of motion across waves or land, I felt I was moving with the room, which was an impressive trick. The staff were friendly as well.

• What are the cons? There were a number of concerns:

  • There was a technical hiccup that meant one of my friends was unable to listen to the audio, which was connected to a device rather than within the room itself. She was unable to listen to the rest of the experience after speaking to staff several times. A technical person in the first room to deal with technical issues would have been beneficial.

  • The historical information was really top-level. When we reached the Mayans, it went to the point of Cortez taking over the empire. It was a very light touch, with the line that the land was taken over by famine or gunpowder, which really surprised me considering the historical background of the experience. This was consistent across the exhibition; light on historical detail, to the point of skirting history.

  • The smattering of older objects at the beginning of the experience only lasted two minutes before it dove straight into the 360 projection, which was a bit of a shame as I would have loved to have learned more about the objects.

  • While a lot of the special effects were good, there was clearly a lot of AI being used to generate the people and their movements, with telltale signs of misting and jerky movements. It led to strange abhuman imagery, which was in stark contrast to the rest of the lightshow.

  • In my view, I felt that it was technically impressive but substantially weak. If you are a fan of history, then it's too top-level for it to be interesting. If you're a fan of immersive technologies, then it provides a good example, but not necessarily one that matches the quality of Cleopatra or the Vikings in the same city. The technical concerns make me worry about recommending it, in case there are issues with others as well.

This week’s stories

• CalMac has paused public bridge visits on its ferries after a passenger secretly filmed crew and passengers using Meta smart glasses.

• Durham Cathedral has launched its first augmented reality experience as part of its Colour and Light stained glass exhibition, letting visitors scan QR codes to explore window history.

• Even Realities has named Spenser Blank as global chief communications officer to promote its camera-less smart glasses.

• GaitSIT is a portable, low-cost VR-based test that reliably detects balance changes during walking under varied visual and surface conditions. 

• Gentle Monster plans to expand its North American and European retail footprint ahead of its Google- and Samsung-developed smart glasses launching this fall.

• Loft Dynamics has launched the world's first H145 Multi-Pilot VR Simulator, co-developed with Airbus, with Babcock France committing to bring multi-crew VR training to the country for the first time.

  • Additionally, Loft Dynamics is expanding VR pilot training into South Asia, partnering with Indocopters to open the region's first dedicated H125 VR training site as Airbus ramps up local H125 production. 

• Meta has added the Xbox Game Pass "starter edition" to its Horizon Plus VR subscription, giving Quest users access to over 50 games including Fallout 4 and Deep Rock Galactic.

• Samsung has detailed the features of its upcoming smart glasses, developed with Gentle Monster and Warby Parker, including a built-in camera, Gemini AI integration and gesture control.

Immersive Wire’s Support

To support the running of the Immersive Wire, I have accepted assistance from Wispr Flow. This is an app I use nearly every day on WhatsApp as well as my personal computer because it's genuinely a very good way of getting thoughts on paper relatively quickly (the thoughts themselves might be dubious, but that’s neither here nor there).

I really recommend it as it has actually sped up my typing; so consider having a peek if you're interested as well:

Write docs 4x faster. Without hating every second.

Nobody became a developer to write documentation. But the docs still need to get written — PRDs, README updates, architecture decisions, onboarding guides.

Wispr Flow lets you talk through it instead. Speak naturally about what the code does, how it works, and why you built it that way. Flow formats everything into clean, professional text you can paste into Notion, Confluence, or GitHub.

Used by engineering teams at OpenAI, Vercel, and Clay. 89% of messages sent with zero edits. Works system-wide on Mac, Windows, and iPhone.

Try Wispr Flow free

Note: The Immersive Wire is run by Tom Ffiske, who also works at Accenture. The contents of the newsletter should not be regarded as Accenture’s views.

All spelling mistakes are deliberate, actually.

Executive summary

Welcome to your weekly briefing on the metaverse and spatial computing. Here are your snippets to sound smarter in meetings this week:

• Top story: Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth has confirmed the company is developing multiple next-generation VR headsets (more below)

• Festival: Venice Immersive has unveiled its 10th-anniversary lineup for the 83rd Venice Film Festival (2-12 September), including Andy Serkis's "Nevatars" voiced by Daisy Ridley and Kathleen Turner.

• Other stories: Palmer Luckey has teased a pair of compact AR glasses reportedly in development at Anduril, claiming they offer wide-FOV, full-colour stereo AR. (more below).

Top story

Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth has confirmed the company is developing multiple next-generation VR headsets.

• When will they be shown? Bosworth pointed to Meta Connect (scheduled 23-24 September) as the venue for further hardware announcements. Hint, hint.

• Remember that Valve may reveal the Steam Frame soon, which may bump the Meta Quest off the used hardware side of Steam. We will see.

This week’s stories

• A.R. Rahman is launching the ARR Immersive App for Apple Vision Pro on 22 July 2026, featuring original spatial storytelling content including Kathak dance performances in ASAF spatial audio and a re-edited version of his VR film Le Musk.

• Atlantic Studios has partnered with Google to produce Galápagos: The Last Eden, an interactive immersive experience for Android XR narrated by Margot Robbie, premiering at Venice Biennale Cinema 2026.

• The Khronos Group has submitted the KHR_interactivity extension for glTF 2.0 for ratification, introducing portable behavior graphs that let glTF assets contain self-contained interactive functions such as configurators or mini-games without custom per-platform code.

• Magic Leap has announced a strategic pivot away from building its own headsets to instead supply waveguides and device integration expertise for AR glasses.

• Oxford's Department of Experimental Psychology published a Phase II randomised controlled trial in The Lancet showing that its automated VR therapy substantially reduced needle fears in adolescents aged 12-15, with no serious adverse events and effects sustained at six weeks.

• Palmer Luckey has teased a pair of compact AR glasses reportedly in development at Anduril, claiming they offer wide-FOV, full-colour stereo AR.

• VIROO has added Unreal Engine compatibility to its enterprise XR platform, enabling multi-user cross-device experiences with deployment across cloud, on-premises, or air-gapped environments, and is opening an early access program ahead of a full launch this autumn.

Personal Update

I am continuing to paint a little, most recently a dinosaur near the Natural History Museum. Getting there, though my drawings of people are comparable to the illithid creatures of The Backrooms.

Immersive Wire’s Support

To support the running of the Immersive Wire, I have accepted assistance from Wispr Flow. This is an app I use nearly every day on WhatsApp as well as my personal computer because it's genuinely a very good way of getting thoughts on paper relatively quickly (the thoughts themselves might be dubious, but that’s neither here nor there).

I really recommend it as it has actually sped up my typing; so consider having a peek if you're interested as well:

Speak naturally. Send without fixing.

Wispr Flow turns your voice into clean, professional text you can send the moment you stop talking. Not rough transcription you have to clean up. Actual polished text — ready for email, Slack, or any app.

Speak the way you think. Go on tangents. Change your mind mid-sentence. Flow strips the filler, fixes the grammar, and gives you text that reads like you spent five minutes writing it.

89% of messages sent with zero edits. Millions of professionals use Flow daily, including teams at OpenAI, Vercel, and Clay. Works on Mac, Windows, and iPhone.

Start flowing free

Note: The Immersive Wire is run by Tom Ffiske, who also works at Accenture. The contents of the newsletter should not be regarded as Accenture’s views.

All spelling mistakes are deliberate, actually.

Executive summary

Welcome to your weekly briefing on the metaverse and spatial computing. Here are your snippets to sound smarter in meetings this week:

• Top story: LUMINISCENCE is pretty, though with a meandering plot (review below).

• Other stories: Vertigo Studios, the developer behind Metro Awakening, was reportedly building an unannounced standalone Tomb Raider VR title for Quest 3, PSVR2 and PC VR before the project was cancelled following the studio's closure last month (more below).

Top story

LUMINISCENCE is pretty, though with a meandering plot.

• What is it? LUMINISCENCE is the story of Westminster Cathedral (and London) shown via a light show and a narration voiced by Hugh Bonneville, star of Paddington and Downton Abbey.

• What did you think? I thought the actual light show was really well done, with plenty of pulsating walls, flashing colours, and great depictions of London's history (the cathedral being built, as well as planes in the sky during the Blitz). My problem with the show was the story. When it stuck to the historical background, moving from the construction of Westminster Cathedral to the modern day, it worked very well because there was a clear through line. But then it deviated slightly, running off track from history (potentially), because it moved on to talk about the multiculturalism of London, the arts scene, and the future of the city. That didn't quite match how it started, and it wasn't clear as a through line, considering much of the story centres on Westminster Cathedral itself, situated in London. That said, the actual effects and lighting were stellar, alongside the choral music.

This week’s stories

• County Durham and Darlington has approved £4,500 in funding for the Rotary Club in Newton Aycliffe to expand its Virtual Decisions VR knife crime and anti-social behaviour education programme to more schools, from September 2026.

• Lenovo has reportedly closed its US-based ThinkReality XR business unit, according to Road to VR's report citing Skarred Ghost, shifting focus to AI-enabled consumer wearables under Motorola.

• Scopely Explore, the company behind Pokémon GO, marked the game's tenth anniversary with a live Times Square raid battle in New York.

• The University of Chichester published research, led by Dr Chris Pocock and PhD student James Feist, showing that 360-video and VR headset training improves footballers' scanning and decision-making skills and can support injury rehabilitation, with findings published in the Journal of Sports Sciences.

• Virtual Decisions won the Midlands Education Award for Innovation for its VR programmes addressing knife crime, antisocial behaviour and county lines exploitation in schools and youth justice settings.

• Virtuix will have a Pennsylvania-based Air National Guard unit evaluate its AI-enabled Omni One VR system to assess whether the full-body movement platform can enhance military training.

Personal Update

I’ve raised money for a deaf society by selling some art. It was a really fun day in Ilford where I was showing all sorts of paintings and stuff, and some children came up because they wanted to learn how to paint as well. While I nearly got a heat stroke, he was nice to test my artistic worth against the actual real world instead of my living room.

Immersive Wire’s Support

To support the running of the Immersive Wire, I have accepted assistance from Wispr Flow. This is an app I use nearly every day on WhatsApp as well as my personal computer because it's genuinely a very good way of getting thoughts on paper relatively quickly (the thoughts themselves might be dubious, but that’s neither here nor there).

I really recommend it as it has actually sped up my typing; so consider having a peek if you're interested as well:

Speak naturally. Send without fixing.

Wispr Flow turns your voice into clean, professional text you can send the moment you stop talking. Not rough transcription you have to clean up. Actual polished text — ready for email, Slack, or any app.

Speak the way you think. Go on tangents. Change your mind mid-sentence. Flow strips the filler, fixes the grammar, and gives you text that reads like you spent five minutes writing it.

89% of messages sent with zero edits. Millions of professionals use Flow daily, including teams at OpenAI, Vercel, and Clay. Works on Mac, Windows, and iPhone.

Start flowing free

Note: The Immersive Wire is run by Tom Ffiske, who also works at Accenture. The contents of the newsletter should not be regarded as Accenture’s views.

All spelling mistakes are deliberate, actually.

Executive summary

Welcome to your weekly briefing on the metaverse and spatial computing. Here are your snippets to sound smarter in meetings this week:

• Top story: A slow news week, so here’s a personal update (more below)

• Demo day: This week! We are hosting an XR demo day on 9 July, in London. Come participate, and submit your demo to show the audience.

• Other stories: Active Care Group has partnered with charity WheelPower to develop a 52-bed private rehabilitation hospital at Stoke Mandeville, incorporating robotic gait training, VR balance systems, and AR therapy (more below)

Top story

It’s a slow news week, so I’ll provide some personal updates (so you know the author behind the newsletter etc)

• Art: Ticking along nicely. I have the doodling skills of a toddler high on sugar, but I am finding that the dream-like qualities of watercolour works well for me. I will be raising money for a deaf charity this coming weekend in Ilford.

• Books: My recommendation is Yesteryear, which blends cottagecore life with an intriguing story about influencer culture and (I would argue) narcissism. It’s the written equivalent of crack, so I recommend it.

• Films: I know people have been bleating about this movie for ages, but The Sheep Detectives is genuinely excellent. You would think that Patrick Stewart as a CGI fluff-cloud would crash like an inept rally driver - but somehow it works.

• Video games: Star Fox was ok, but the design of Fox McCloud tumbled into the Uncanny Valley into a broken heap at its bottom. So this has paused until Orbitals comes out, as I love couch co-op.

This week’s stories

• Active Care Group has partnered with charity WheelPower to develop a 52-bed private rehabilitation hospital at Stoke Mandeville, incorporating robotic gait training, VR balance systems, and AR therapy.

• Ciobanu Holdings is developing Another World VR Arena, a free-roam VR venue for 20 to 30 players inside Ipswich's Grade II* listed Great White Horse Hotel.

• The Department of Veterans Affairs is expanding its use of virtual reality in primary care, offering guided VR sessions to help veterans manage stress, anxiety, and pain alongside traditional treatment.

• Distance Technologies has launched Acuity, a visual intelligence platform for defense that integrates sensors, battle-management systems, and computational optics.

• Meta has launched a native Discord app for Meta Quest headsets.

• Valve confirmed that its Steam Machine will not fully support PC VR at launch.

• VirtualGo has developed a mixed reality multiplayer system for Hauntify that lets a remote player join a host's scanned physical space as a VR avatar.

Note: The Immersive Wire is run by Tom Ffiske, who also works at Accenture. The contents of the newsletter should not be regarded as Accenture’s views.

All spelling mistakes are deliberate, actually.

Executive summary

Welcome to your weekly briefing on the metaverse and spatial computing. Here are your snippets to sound smarter in meetings this week:

• Top story: Meta has launched Meta Glasses (more below).

• Demo day: We are hosting an XR demo day on 9 July, in London. Come participate, and submit your demo to show the audience.

• Other stories: King's College London researchers, working with the University of Konstanz, used a VRbehavioural test to show that the visual environment zebrafish are raised in alters the shape and activity of retinal neurons, affecting their later behaviour (more below)

Top story

Meta has launched Meta Glasses.

• What is it? These are its first smart glasses line without Ray-Ban or Oakley branding, offering three new styles (Adventurer, Fury, and a Kylie Jenner edition) starting at $300.

• What’s the significance? It goes beyond the branded lines, which implies that Meta is exploring if its own brand and tech alone are enough to carry it. Will it? Maybe.

This week’s stories

• Fever has launched Titanic: A Voyage Through Time, a VR experience at the Galleries in Bristol developed with Titanic exhibition specialists Musealia, running until the end of August.

• King's College London researchers, working with the University of Konstanz, used a VRbehavioural test to show that the visual environment zebrafish are raised in alters the shape and activity of retinal neurons, affecting their later behaviour.

• Meadowview Care Home in Penketh, Warrington, has introduced Recreo VR headsets to offer residents immersive experiences as part of its wellbeing activities.

• The Smithsonian American Women's History Museum has launched Unhidden Heroines, an augmented reality experience on the National Mall pairing five historically overlooked women with nearby monuments to men, designed by Goodby, Silverstein and Partners and running until 31 December.

• Usdaw, a shop worker's union, has warned that public filming of retail staff on smart glasses, such as those used by former TV presenter Michael Barrymore, is an "increasing problem" that breaches data protection law and risks serious harm to shop workers' wellbeing.

• Virtuix has launched Omni One for Quest, a "Made for Meta" certified omni-directional treadmill that lets players walk, run, crouch, and jump in 360 degrees within the Meta Quest ecosystem, with support for a growing library of compatible Quest games.

Note: The Immersive Wire is run by Tom Ffiske, who also works at Accenture. The contents of the newsletter should not be regarded as Accenture’s views.

All spelling mistakes are deliberate, actually.

Executive summary

Welcome to your weekly briefing on the metaverse and spatial computing. Here are your snippets to sound smarter in meetings this week:

• Top story: I tried the Space Explorers ISS Experience and it is neat (review below)

• Demo day: We are hosting an XR demo day on 9 July, in London. Come participate, and submit your demo to show the audience.

• Event: OPENVERSE Summit 2026, organised in Brussels under the guidance of the European Commission, will bring together policymakers, is happening 10 September.

• Call for speakers: UnitedXR Europe has opened its call for speakers for its second edition in Brussels from 7 to 9 December 2026, inviting XR practitioners to apply by 8 September.

• Other stories: Snap has officially unveiled its new Specs AR glasses, including AI-assisted tools, spatial apps, and first-person AR interactions such as browsing, navigation, and shared “EyeConnect” experiences (more below)

Top story

I tried the Space Explorers ISS Experience, and it is neat.

• What is it? The experience runs for around 40 minutes and shows a variety of 360 videos showing what life is like on the ISS space station. People roam through a massive room where they can touch bubbles and see little insights, from how they wash their hair to how they learn how to go around the station.

• Do you recommend it? If you are a space nut like me, then this is well worth coming to Camden for. It gives really nice little insights you wouldn't have thought about otherwise, and it really adds to the experience of what it is like in space. While the quality of the video is subpar compared to other experiences I've had in London, the actual experience of seeing the moon in a massive room is quite something.

This week’s stories

• Activate has appointed Scott Shultz as Chief Technology Officer.

• ChapsVision has been selected by the French State’s OTDH project to deploy its Argonos platform as a sovereign heterogeneous data processing system, winning both data preparation and modelling, security and visualisation.

• FunkyMouse will add Steam VR support, new motorcycles, weather effects, and playable real-world motorcycle creators to its traffic-racing game LANESPLIT on 23 June.

• Raven Resonance has previewed Raven Prism, a Linux-powered smart glasses platform with built-in AI and hands-free controls, ahead of its commercial launch later this year.

• RP1 and the Metaverse Standards Forum have launched Sneeze, an open source metaverse browser engine designed to bring spatial computing capabilities to web browsers and support interoperable metaverse applications.

• Snap has officially unveiled its new Specs AR glasses, including AI-assisted tools, spatial apps, and first-person AR interactions such as browsing, navigation, and shared “EyeConnect” experiences.

  • Additionally, Snap has acquired Illumix to integrate Illumix’s spatial AR and mapping technology into its upcoming Specs smart glasses.

• Varjo expanded its support for the Ukrainian Armed Forces by delivering an XR counter-UAS training simulator integrated with its XR-4 Series headset.

• VITURE introduced Helix AI safety glasses built on NVIDIA’s XR AI solution, developed with Rana and Stanford Medicine, to support industrial, scientific and clinical workflows through real-time multimodal AI analysis of first-person video streams.

• XR Sports Alliance has strengthened its capabilities by adding ActionStreamer, Antigravity, Creative Artists Agency, Freeride World Tour, HOVERAir, Manchester United, Pico, Rezzil, San Diego Wave FC, Specs Inc and Trigger XR as new members.

Note: The Immersive Wire is run by Tom Ffiske, who also works at Accenture. The contents of the newsletter should not be regarded as Accenture’s views.

All spelling mistakes are deliberate, actually.

Executive summary

Welcome to your weekly briefing on the metaverse and spatial computing. Here are your snippets to sound smarter in meetings this week:

• Top story: Valve imported 13 tonnes of VR headsets, according to the Verge (more below).

• Immersive Wire anniversary party: The Immersive Wire is hosting a party in London to celebrate 10 years, happening on 18 June. Join if you are free!

• Demo day: We are hosting an XR demo day on 9 July. Come participate, and submit your demo to show the audience.

• Other stories: Pokémon Go location data was reportedly used to train AI systems with potential applications in military drone navigation and analysis in conflict environments (more below)

Top story

Valve imported 13 tonnes of VR headsets, according to the Verge.

• What happened? Import records suggest Valve recently brought in around 13 tonnes of VR headsets to the US, likely part of the first mass production run of its upcoming Steam Frame device.

• Why does it matter? The shipment provides the strongest evidence yet that Valve is preparing a commercial launch of its new VR headset and broader hardware ecosystem.

This week’s stories

• DEM Museums will launch TIMEWALK at London’s Immerse LDN in July, an immersive exhibition that recreates ancient civilisations including Göbeklitepe, Babylon, Ancient Egypt, the Maya and Rapa Nui through large-scale audio-visual storytelling.

• FunkyMouse will add a Steam VR mode to LANESPLIT on 23 June, alongside new electric and petrol bikes, weather effects, and playable characters based on real-world motorcycle content creators.

• Meta has announced that more than 50 Meta Lab @ Best Buy locations will open across the US and Canada this summer, giving consumers hands-on access to its AI glasses and VR headsets.

• Pokémon Go location data was reportedly used to train AI systems with potential applications in military drone navigation and analysis in conflict environments.

• Samsung has demonstrated a VR-based meditation experience designed to reduce anxiety during blood donation by guiding users through calming immersive environments.

• The University of Exeter will build a new virtual reality “digital twin” facility as part of its expanded innovation and enterprise infrastructure to support research, teaching, and industry collaboration.

Note: The Immersive Wire is run by Tom Ffiske, who also works at Accenture. The contents of the newsletter should not be regarded as Accenture’s views.

All spelling mistakes are deliberate, actually.

Executive summary

Welcome to your weekly briefing on the metaverse and spatial computing. Here are your snippets to sound smarter in meetings this week:

• Top story: Smart specs raise fresh alarm over exam cheating (more below)

• Immersive Wire anniversary party: The Immersive Wire is hosting a party in London to celebrate 10 years, happening on 18 June. Join if you are free!

• Demo day: We are hosting an XR demo day on 9 July. Come participate, and submit your demo to show the audience.

• Other stories: WIRED reports that Meta is developing smart glasses with experimental facial recognition and “Nametag” features that could identify and surface information about people in real time (more below)

Top story

Ofqual raises concerns over smart glasses and exam cheating.

• What happened? Ofqual, a regulator, warns that rapidly evolving wearable tech like smart glasses and hidden earpieces is making exam cheating harder to detect and faster to spread, putting traditional assessment security under strain.

• Your thoughts? Apart from pointing out the obvious, it’s the role of the regulator to pinpoint new ways for people to cheat on exams. This feels like a minor point that will be addressed in the next round of exams. iPhones do not face new regulations when it is exam season etc.

This week’s stories

• Cirrus has launched Let’s Go Fly!, a free Apple Vision Pro app that offers immersive demonstration flights and interactive 3D aircraft experiences to promote flight training and aircraft ownership.

• WIRED reports that Meta is developing smart glasses with experimental facial recognition and “Nametag” features that could identify and surface information about people in real time.

• NASA has partnered with Fusion Media to develop Mars 2030, a VR experience that simulates a human mission to Mars using NASA research and scientifically accurate Martian environments.

• NHS Scotland Academy is developing a VR-based endoscopy training programme to support immersive skills development for nurses and other endoscopy professionals.

• A US magistrate judge has recommended dismissing Meta Platforms’ virtual reality patent dispute in Texas, potentially narrowing or ending part of the company’s legal challenge over VR-related intellectual property claims.

• VRKiwi has announced that Cave Crave, its VR cave exploration game, generated more than $1 million in revenue within a month of launch on Meta Quest.

Note: The Immersive Wire is run by Tom Ffiske, who also works at Accenture. The contents of the newsletter should not be regarded as Accenture’s views.

All spelling mistakes are deliberate, actually.

Executive summary

Welcome to your weekly briefing on the metaverse and spatial computing. Here are your snippets to sound smarter in meetings this week:

• Top story: UK schools turn to VR headsets to tackle rising pupil stress and behaviour challenges (more below).

• Immersive Wire anniversary party: The Immersive Wire is hosting a party in London to celebrate 10 years, happening on 18 June. Join if you are free!

• Research: Researchers have used virtual reality navigation tasks to identify pathfinding errors that may help flag early cognitive impairment.

Top story

UK schools turn to VR headsets to tackle rising pupil stress and behaviour challenges.

• What is it? The system typically involves short, immersive 7-minute sessions designed to calm students and help them re-enter learning more effectively.

• Why? Growing mental health pressures in schools and overstretched NHS child and adolescent mental health services, prompting schools to explore faster (and lower-cost) interventions. These pilots are also being evaluated for their impact on attendance, behaviour, and classroom disruption.

This week’s stories

• Immersive Tech Week is an annual XR and immersive technology event in Rotterdam taking place from 1-3 December 2026, bringing together industry leaders, creators and researchers across VR, AR and spatial computing.

  • Readers of Immersive Wire have 30% off using coupon WIRE30 via this link.

• Sheffield DocFest will present its Alternate Realities XR programme from 10-15 June, featuring immersive storytelling projects including Minecraft-based documentary experiences, transmedia installations and game-inspired performances exploring themes such as community, identity and resistance.

• Surgeons used VR planning tools to simulate and prepare for the separation of conjoined twins, improving surgical precision and coordination before the real operation.

• Virtuix has received funding from the US Air Force to develop a VR training system using its Omni treadmill technology to support military movement and simulation exercises.

• White Spark Pictures will premiere its new immersive 360° VR documentary Life in the Great Barrier Reef at the National Museum of Australia on 17 June 2026, showcasing the Great Barrier Reef and Queensland rainforest through custom-built 8K underwater VR filming systems.

Note: The Immersive Wire is run by Tom Ffiske, who also works at Accenture. The contents of the newsletter should not be regarded as Accenture’s views.

All spelling mistakes are deliberate, actually.

Executive summary

Welcome to your weekly briefing on the metaverse and spatial computing. Here are your snippets to sound smarter in meetings this week:

• Funding: RPR has launched the Galaxy XR Launchpad, offering one organisation $100,000 in studio time to develop a spatial computing pilot for Samsung’s Galaxy XR headset.

• Awards: European XR Awards, part of UnitedXR Europe, has opened its call for entries for its second edition in Brussels on 7–9 December, inviting Europe-produced narrative and game XR experiences for submission.

• Immersive Wire anniversary party: The Immersive Wire is hosting a party in London to celebrate 10 years, happening on 18 June. Join if you are free!

This week’s stories

• Augmented World Expo announced the Auggie Awards finalists, rising XR builders, startup nominees, and enterprise deployments ahead of AWE USA 2026 in Long Beach, highlighting current development activity across spatial computing, AI, gaming, enterprise, and immersive entertainment.

• Edinburgh is set to gain a new VR entertainment centre in Dalry following plans lodged to convert an existing office block into an immersive VR leisure venue.

• Galvion and Distance Technologies announced a collaboration to integrate Distance’s computational optics and Acuity OS into Galvion’s helmet systems to develop glasses-free AR capabilities for defence applications, with market-ready integrated systems expected in 2027.

• HOWSE, made by a team of award-winning creators, is a darkly comic LBE VR experience exposing the collapse of modern housing.

• Pilkington UK uses VR in its manufacturing operations to support training and process optimisation in glass production.

• Raindance Immersive Festival will return for its 11th edition from 12–25 June across VRChat, London venues, and Zoom, featuring 27 immersive experiences alongside virtual summits, VRChat film screenings, and an in-person showcase near BAFTA.

• SensAI Hackademy is partnering with the Worlds in Action Hack [02-LA] ahead of SIGGRAPH 2026, offering developers workshops, mentorship, world model API access, and $10,000 in prizes for projects spanning AI, XR, gaming, VFX, 3D, and interactive media.

• University of Brighton research shows virtual reality could support recovery outcomes for patients with brain and spinal injuries by improving rehabilitation engagement and functional progress.

Note: The Immersive Wire is run by Tom Ffiske, who also works at Accenture. The contents of the newsletter should not be regarded as Accenture’s views.

All spelling mistakes are deliberate, actually.

Executive summary

Welcome to your weekly briefing on the metaverse and spatial computing. Here are your snippets to sound smarter in meetings this week:

• Top story: Moss is also coming to flat screens (more below).

• Story: I am writing a major piece on smart glasses. If you can contribute, please reply to this email and ensure it says tom (at) immersivewire (dot) com.

• Immersive Wire anniversary party: The Immersive Wire is hosting a party in London to celebrate 10 years, happening on 18 June. Join if you are free! And there is space for demos, so please email me if you want to show something off (reply to this email and ensure it says tom (at) immersivewire (dot) com).

• Other news: England Football Learning has introduced VR-based CPR training into its football medicine courses, using immersive stadium simulations with crowd noise and on-pitch distractions to help learners practise emergency response skills in more realistic conditions.

Top story

Moss is also coming to flat screens.

• What is happening? Both games from the VR series Moss are coming to more traditional consoles with both adventures combined. This brings the adventure off the VR-exclusive platforms for the first time

• Why is this interesting? I see this as revenue maximisation after a long period of Moss being one of the seminal games in the VR ecosystem. The publisher wants to ensure they can make some additional money by expanding it beyond the system. I have concerns about the fact that it is a very VR-specific game, but overall I see it as the company wanting to make sure they are profiting the most from their hard work

This week’s stories

• England Football Learning has introduced VR-based CPR training into its football medicine courses, using immersive stadium simulations with crowd noise and on-pitch distractions to help learners practise emergency response skills in more realistic conditions.

• A vacant office building in Edinburgh could be transformed into a virtual reality gaming venue under new redevelopment plans submitted to the city council.

• The NHS has introduced VR therapy technology in Sutton to help young people manage anxiety, using immersive experiences as part of mental health treatment and emotional regulation support programmes.

• Sony Pictures Virtual Reality has updated The Boys VR experience for PlayStation VR2 with improved visuals and performance enhancements to better align the adaptation with the TV series’ tone and production quality.

• Wolverhampton pilot has introduced VR training to improve night-time safety through simulated scenarios designed to support operational decision-making and awareness.

• Worlds in Action will host an AI and XR-focused event in San Francisco on 9 June 2026, bringing together creators, developers, and industry leaders to explore immersive storytelling, spatial computing, and generative AI applications.

Note: The Immersive Wire is run by Tom Ffiske, who also works at Accenture. The contents of the newsletter should not be regarded as Accenture’s views.

All spelling mistakes are deliberate, actually.

Executive summary

Welcome to your weekly briefing on the metaverse and spatial computing. Here are your snippets to sound smarter in meetings this week:

• Top story: Sony Interactive Entertainment has acquired Cinemersive Labs to advance immersive cinematic VR technology and spatial entertainment development, expanding its capabilities in location-based and headset experiences.

• Immersive Wire anniversary party: The Immersive Wire is hosting a party in London to celebrate 10 years, happening on 18 June. Join if you are free! And there is space for demos, so please email me if you want to show something off (reply to this email and ensure it says tom (at) immersivewire (dot) com).

• Other news: Manchester City F.C. has partnered with Xtadium to launch immersive VR content featuring match-day experiences and exclusive behind-the-scenes access for fans across supported XR platforms.

This week’s stories

• Sony Interactive Entertainment has acquired Cinemersive Labs to advance immersive cinematic VR technology and spatial entertainment development, expanding its capabilities in location-based and headset experiences.

• Caged Element has announced GRIP XR alongside a playable demo, bringing the combat-racing franchise into VR with a retro-inspired aesthetic and enhanced arcade gameplay built on community feedback.

• Flat2VR Studios has launched FlatOut 4: Total Insanity VR in SteamVR Early Access for $19.99, bringing the arcade racer into VR with cockpit gameplay, motion controller and wheel support, spatial audio, and DLSS integration.

• Manchester City F.C. has partnered with Xtadium to launch immersive VR content featuring match-day experiences and exclusive behind-the-scenes access for fans across supported XR platforms.

• Niantic Spatial has released SPZ 4, an updated Gaussian splat compression format that improves encoding and loading speeds, supports larger-scale 3D scenes, and adds higher-fidelity rendering features for spatial computing workflows.

• Resolution Games has marked the fifth anniversary of Demeo with five new player ranks, platform-wide updates across supported devices, and a limited-time 55% discount on Steam and Meta Horizon.

• Xpanceo has developed AR contact lenses integrating solid-state micro-batteries as part of ongoing work toward fully self-powered wearable AR displays.

Note: The Immersive Wire is run by Tom Ffiske, who also works at Accenture. The contents of the newsletter should not be regarded as Accenture’s views.

All spelling mistakes are deliberate, actually.

Talk about a pivot. After focusing so much on headsets over the last few years, many companies including Apple are now turning their attention to smart glasses; basically a way of seeing the world and receiving contextual information, all supported by AI. This has been a race that Snap has been in for many years, and one that Meta has pioneered via a partnership with EssilorLuxottica. The rise of smart glasses is particularly interesting because it is, effectively, a race to own your face, with the potential to become a new product category that complements the phone.

So what's the potential here? How can companies do so well? Let’s take a look — and if immersive technologies interest you, consider subscribing to the Immersive Wire to stay the smartest person in the room.

Who is doing the best with smart glasses?

First of all, this is moving on from a niche curiosity to what I would argue is a genuine pivot point in 2026, with an expanded version of this playing out in 2027. There are many reports on the exact size of the smart glasses market which vary, and in complete honesty, I don't trust all the statistics out there. Figures range from $14bn to $29bn depending on the source and timeframe, but as it is a relatively new market, treat the stats with caution.

But in any case, when it comes to market leadership, it is Meta in partnership with EssilorLuxottica that leads. Meta is investing heavily within its Reality Labs division, and a lot of that is going toward smart glasses enabled by its broader investments in AI. EssilorLuxottica sold over 7mn AI glasses in 2025, up from the 2mn sold in 2023 and 2024 combined. Shares surged on the back of this, with the company stating: "Our success in wearables is helping to propel the AI-glasses revolution, with our iconic brands being a powerful driver of demand." Demand in the US in particular has been described as unprecedented, partly driven by an accessible price point, with base models starting at $299 for clear lenses or $329 for polarised. Overall, these glasses work well both for filming and for contextual AI queries, which consumers are having a lot of fun with.

Snap has been a challenger for a long time, with incredibly ambitious goals. The company has also shipped several generations of hardware, and boasts over 400,000 developers who have built more than 4mn AR Lenses for the platform. (Worth noting that these developers build for Snap's broader AR tools, not exclusively for the glasses, spanning experiences like cooking guidance, sign translation, and more).

One ongoing critique is that the current Spectacles hardware cannot yet be slimmed down to an ordinary glasses form factor. That said, it doesn't stop Snap Spectacles from being technically impressive, and Snap's depth of expertise in AR is something other companies are still catching up with. Its consumer-facing Specs are set for a 2026 launch, running Snap OS 2.0 with deep integrations with OpenAI and Gemini.

Speaking of catching up, Google, Apple, and Samsung are all moving into this space. Google and Samsung have partnered to release a headset running Android XR, while Google is separately developing smart glasses with partners including Warby Parker and Gentle Monster. Apple, meanwhile, is rumoured to be targeting a late-2026 launch for its own smart glasses, though knowing Apple, they may well wait for others to release first and then refine the category on their own terms (purely speculation). What's notable is that Apple's approach reportedly avoids photo and video recording due to privacy concerns, a meaningful differentiator from Meta.

Will smart glasses be useful?

But there is a deeper question away from this; will glasses even be useful in the long-term? Will it ever actually be useful for the people passing by on the street, ordering a cheeky Starbucks? After all, phones work exceptionally well for conversations, email, and research, and the finger as input method is hard to beat.

That said, the one area where glasses may genuinely have an edge is voice. A hands-free, voice-and-AI-driven interface could be a compelling input method for the glasses of the future. Imagine asking for research on the fly, or asking it the full history of what’s in front of you? Imagine receiving a full historical breakdown of the Taj Mahal as you stand in front of its stones?

Whether glasses clash with or complement phones remains to be seen, but with the number of people wearing glasses increasing globally, the addressable market is not a small one.

If you're interested in learning more about immersive technologies, please consider subscribing to the Immersive Wire and remain the smartest person in the room with weekly insights.

Microsoft HoloLens was, by all accounts, Microsoft's big leap into XR. After announcing it in 2015 and releasing the developer edition in 2016, followed by a second version in 2019, Microsoft took big jumps in creating a headset that served enterprise customers. It found use in a range of industrial and commercial applications, as well as a lucrative deal with the US Army. By all accounts, the HoloLens was an excellent headset that carved out a genuine niche, finding use across a wide range of enterprise clients.

Over the years, however, Microsoft struggled to sustain the growth and development costs the product demanded. It did secure some lucrative contracts, but these were sporadic and, by most indications, insufficient to justify the product's place within Microsoft's broader business. Support quietly wound down, and over roughly a decade, HoloLens went from a big Microsoft focus to a past innovation. This was until February 2025, when it was confirmed that support would be formally deprecated, with a full roll-off in December 2027.

With that in mind, it's time to explore what happened to Microsoft HoloLens. And you really cannot touch on it without talking about the US Army story. And if you want to keep yourself informed on more immersive tech developments like this, consider peeking at the Immersive Wire newsletter.

What happened with HoloLens and the US Army?

In 2018, Microsoft won an initial $480mn development contract to create a ruggedised version of HoloLens for soldiers, which then escalated into a $22bn, 10-year production contract to build 120,000 units in 2021. But the problem was that the headsets were not ready for deployment. Soldiers testing the devices reported headaches, nausea, and eye strain.

Rather than cancelling the programme, the Army committed to an iterative redesign process, with per-unit costs rising to over $62,000 along the way. While later versions showed genuine improvements, it was not quite enough for it to be sustainable as a business.

In February 2025, Microsoft announced it was handing prime contractor status to Anduril, with Microsoft remaining as a preferred cloud provider. Anduril assumed oversight of production, future hardware and software development, and delivery timelines.

Why did Microsoft move away from HoloLens?

The headset had genuine technical strengths, though it was not without limitations. Its narrow field of view was a persistent criticism, and while it offered impressive capabilities for industrial and enterprise environments, comfort was a point of contention. Plus, competitors then began to close the gap. Meta's Quest headsets demonstrated strong enterprise potential, and Apple's launch of the Vision Pro, while expensive, offered a compelling case for workplace use of “spatial computing.”

But perhaps the most telling aspect of HoloLens's decline is the broader shift in strategic focus. With AI consuming increasing resources and attention across the industry, Microsoft moved away from XR hardware and towards software-led collaboration, most notably bringing Xbox Cloud Gaming and Office apps to Meta's Horizon OS. 

While HoloLens's commercial run came to an end, it represented a decade of meaningful innovation: a large team pushed the boundaries of what mixed reality hardware could do, and those advances have rippled out across the wider XR industry.

Executive summary

Welcome to your weekly briefing on the metaverse and spatial computing. Here are your snippets to sound smarter in meetings this week:

• Top story: Apple is stepping away from Vision Pro (analysis below).

• Immersive Wire anniversary party: The Immersive Wire is hosting a party in London to celebrate 10 years, happening on 18 June. Join if you are free! And there is space for demos, so please email me if you want to show something off (reply to this email and ensure it says tom (at) immersivewire (dot) com).

• Other news: VITURE has launched its third-generation XR glasses, VITURE Beast, priced at $549.

Top Story

Apple is stepping away from Vision Pro.

• While I do not normally cover rumours, MacRumours is a well-trusted website which covered it, so I am dipping my toes into the story.

• In short, the rumour is that Apple is winding back development of the Apple Vision Pro because of low sales, as they focus on smart glasses. In my view this makes sense, considering how the industry is pivoting toward smart glasses to begin with, but I do feel sorry that the headset didn't do as well as the company expected. There's a part of me that thinks they should have been much cheaper from the outset.

• Also, why smart glasses? Is it an extension of having a new product category? And if so, would it tamper with iPhones, the juggernaut of Apple’s project strategy?

This week’s stories

• Cornell University has developed an extended reality tool that enables dancers to analyze and refine their movement through immersive spatial visualization.

• Liverpool students are developing a VR dance game in collaboration with a studio as part of an applied immersive technology project.

• Resolution Games has added Tetris and a 1980s-inspired Japanese arcade environment to Retrocade on Apple Vision Pro, expanding its retro gaming experience with spatial computing features.

• The University of the West of Scotland is conducting a PhD study using virtual reality to explore communication barriers faced by sign language users.

• The University of North Carolina has implemented a VR pilot program for nursing students, demonstrating improved learning outcomes and practical skills development.

• Visualise created a VR experience for the EBRD to showcase the construction and impact of the New Safe Confinement at Chornobyl.

• VITURE has launched its third-generation XR glasses, VITURE Beast, priced at $549.

Note: The Immersive Wire is run by Tom Ffiske, who also works at Accenture. The contents of the newsletter should not be regarded as Accenture’s views.

All spelling mistakes are deliberate, actually.

Executive summary

Welcome to your weekly briefing on the metaverse and spatial computing. Here are your snippets to sound smarter in meetings this week:

• Top story: A few thoughts on seeing immersive experiences in China (see below)

• Free 30 April event: On 30 April, if you want to hear about XR and wellbeing, come to the next main London meetup!

• Research: Researchers found that immersive VR can improve movement execution in Parkinson’s rehabilitation for certain exercises but therapist-led training remains more effective for tasks such as balance, highlighting the importance of task-specific design in VR interventions.

• Other news: The National Museum of the United States Army has launched “American Revolution: The Augmented Exhibition,” using tablet-based augmented reality to animate Revolutionary War scenes with interactive 360-degree historical environments (more below)

Top Story

I have a few thoughts on seeing immersive experiences in China.

• Caveat: What I’m about to say has roughly the same (limited) factal backing as a politician giving a speech. I won’t be using numbers, and it’s based entirely on my experience moving through several major cities in China, alongside a general gut feeling shaped by those travels. Please take this with, like, five buckets of salt.

• First, the shopping malls. I can’t overstate how strongly entertainment is woven into the mall experience in China. The one I visited in Beijing had a mini reptile exhibition placed right in the middle of the mall, surrounded by shops. While there are malls in the UK and the US that include entertainment features, I haven’t seen anything on the same scale or level of integration as what I experienced in China. Across these spaces, there are immersive, arcade-like experiences and interactive installations embedded throughout. It made me wonder whether there might be a gap in the UK market for expanding similar experiential elements into high streets and retail centres, assuming they can be delivered at a viable cost. (I know, it’s not a deeply researched conclusion, but it left me thinking about possible opportunities for growth in more experience-led retail environments — there is room for expansion).

• Second, experiences away from home. I got the impression that in China there is a stronger culture of spending evenings outside the home, whether that’s walking, gathering in public spaces, eating out, or simply socialising on the streets. Of course, it’s impossible to summarise the habits of over a billion people, but my overall sense was that many of the most valued experiences feel more outward-facing and embedded in the local environment, rather than centred on the home. So I wonder whether immersive experiences that exist out in public space, rather than primarily home-based entertainment, might represent a more durable market in some contexts. Less shooting goons at home, and more using immersive tech to understand the local environment/entertainment. For example, installations or interactive experiences placed in street corners, nightlife districts, or areas where people naturally gather to eat and drink could feel more aligned with that kind of social rhythm.

This week’s stories

• Brainjo has secured €2mn in seed funding to develop VR-based digital mental health tools, initially targeting children with ADHD through prescription-reimbursable therapeutic applications.

• Coventry University is hosting Creative Tech Fest 2026 at its Bugatti Trust Hyperstudio, showcasing student and industry XR, games, and digital media work alongside free public workshops and XR experiences in collaboration with Deliaphonic.

• The National Museum of the United States Army has launched “American Revolution: The Augmented Exhibition,” using tablet-based augmented reality to animate Revolutionary War scenes with interactive 360-degree historical environments.

• Resolution Games has launched Spatial Ops: Campaign Edition on Apple Vision Pro, marking one of the platform’s first full-featured shooter experiences and its sixth title on the device.

• Shaun the Sheep: Fun with the Flock augmented reality trail is launching at Gunwharf Quays in May, allowing families to complete interactive character-led challenges and view 3D animations across a mapped waterfront experience.

• Vstars is collaborating with The City of Liverpool College to develop a virtual reality dance game, with students contributing motion capture performance and programming as part of a cross-disciplinary training initiative.

• WWE has introduced a fully virtual studio for its Raw Pre-Show on the WWE Network, using advanced virtual production technology to create a digitally rendered broadcast environment.

Note: The Immersive Wire is run by Tom Ffiske, who also works at Accenture. The contents of the newsletter should not be regarded as Accenture’s views.

All spelling mistakes are deliberate, actually.

I am visiting China right now, so in my stead is the lovely Sylvan Shen, who has written a great piece on China’s smart glasses ecosystem for this week. Content will return to normal next week.

Have a read of her great piece, and please drop her a message to let her know what you think!

Tom Ffiske, Editor of the Immersive Wire

In February I made a short family visit to China during the Spring Festival (my first trip back in almost three years). Two things stood out for me from that trip: the ubiquitous AI chatbots ads in train stations, shopping malls and streets, and AI glasses ads, most notably for Alibaba's Quark AI Glasses (now rebranded as Qwen Glasses at MWC 2026). Now with big tech shifting serious attention to AI glasses since late last year, and Chinese brands like RayNeo, XREAL, Rokid and Even Realities actively shaping the space, this feels like the right moment to dive into China's smart glasses ecosystem.

I spoke with Lianqi Qiu, a Software Product Manager working in China’s smart glasses industry, to understand how the ecosystem actually works from the inside and where she thinks it's heading. Her work spans the operating system, application distribution ecosystem, and AI features. Because smart glasses are tightly hardware-software coupled, a significant part of her role is bridging the gap between hardware constraints and the software experience users actually feel.

Could you walk us through the major Chinese smart glasses product lines? 

Chinese smart glasses brands have largely converged on making "lightweight glasses". There are three main product lines: 

• Viewing/Visual (e.g., RayNeo Air Series, XREAL One Series): Optimised for immersive entertainment and large-screen viewing.

• Life Capturing (e.g., RayNeo V Series): Emphasis on first-person perspective capture and recording, powered by native AI upscaling and built for social sharing. 

• AI + AR Computing Platform (e.g., RayNeo X Series): Built for spatial computing with 6DoF, full-color optical display and heavier processing capability. 

My XREAL 1S glasses - a tethered glasses that acts as a virtual portable monitor for media and gaming, featuring native 2D-to-3D conversion

Current input methods include touch control, voice commands, head gesture recognition, and external wearables like smart bracelets or rings. Target use cases are also coming into focus across three areas:

• Productivity: Including teleprompters, meeting records, and remote collaboration.

• Outdoor Scenarios: Such as photography, navigation, and sports.

• Entertainment: Immersive viewing, game streaming. 

Key hardware modules for smart glasses are reportedly mostly manufactured in China. Meta itself still relies on Chinese suppliers like Goertek while making efforts to diversify. What structural advantages does this give Chinese enterprises, how are they managing supply chain risk, and what headwinds do they face entering European markets?

Currently, the core components of smart glasses, such as optical modules, display modules, and sensors, are predominantly manufactured in China. This brings obvious structural advantages to Chinese manufacturers — cost competitiveness, supply chain synergy, and faster iteration cycles. The fact that Meta still depends heavily on Chinese optical and display suppliers shows how deeply embedded this advantage is.

Taking RayNeo, the leading Chinese AR enterprise as an example, it has embarked on a path of in-house R&D for its optics and display components, placing it in a leading position in the industry. Others primarily rely on Chinese leading manufacturers like Goertek and Sunny Optical for optical and display components; for sensors, it uses some international solutions, but the domestic share is continuously increasing. That said, some Chinese manufacturers are also starting to diversify, for example, by establishing production bases in Southeast Asia to cope with geopolitical and export risks. For Chinese brands eyeing the European/UK market, three categories of friction may stand out:

• Data privacy and compliance: GDPR requirements around always-on sensors and camera data will demand significant product and policy adaptation.

• Patent and standards barriers: Local IP frameworks and certification requirements create entry friction.

• Tariff and geopolitical uncertainty: Trade policy volatility adds unpredictability to pricing, logistics, and long-term market planning.

Compared to Meta Wearables Device Access Toolkit, how open are Chinese smart glasses in supporting developers, and what platforms/tools do they currently or plan to support?

A: Meta has been slowly opening up to developers with its toolkit, but access, particularly for the Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses, remains controlled. Similarly, Chinese smart glasses are opening up its access incrementally. RayNeo, for instance, provides a toolkit (RayNeo OpenXR Unity ARDK) for AR development on RayNeo X3 Pro. In general, the broader ecosystem is currently Android-centric, with some companies beginning to support XR engines like Unity to lower the barrier for AR content creators.

That said, deeper access still remains limited. Areas like display control, and advanced gesture input are still largely in grey-box testing or for targeted partnership rather than open to developers broadly. The Chinese developer ecosystem is moving toward more openness and collaboration, but the infrastructure is still catching up to the ambition.

Looking ahead, what improvements do you envision matter most for Chinese smart glasses enterprises. How are they planning to position themselves for what's coming?

A: Over the next two to three years, I see three areas driving the most meaningful change. 

• Input and interaction will be the biggest breakthrough zone. More natural methods including microgestures, eye tracking, EMG, and eventually neural signals, are on the horizon. Alongside that, multimodal AI will shift glasses from reactive tools to proactive ones, capable of sensing context and anticipating user needs.

• Optical solutions on hardware will continue to evolve, with Micro-LED and waveguide technology emerging as the basis for all-day wearability. Improvements will emerge in display brightness and the mitigation of display artifacts like colour fringing and vergence-accommodation conflict (VAC). Through chip and battery optimisation, the ultimate goal is pushing device weight toward 30g-50g so that wearing them becomes imperceptible.

• The ecosystem is where the longer game is being played. Android and Unity will stay mainstream. Chinese enterprises will increasingly focus on cross-device communication, connecting glasses with phones and in-car ecosystems for example, and building cross-device app stores. This approach can significantly lower the development barrier and bring more developers into the space.

In terms of strategic positioning, I see the industry moving in three phases:

• Short-term: Continuous focus on consumer scenarios such as immersive media consumption, intuitive AI assistants and real-time translation to build user retention.

• Mid-term: Exploration of new input methods like eye-tracking and EMG gesture interaction, alongside a push to bring waveguide technology to mass production and deeper coupling of multimodal AI with hardware compute.

• Long-term: The focus shifts to competing for developer ecosystems and expanding into industry-grade applications. Plus achieving seamless cross-device integrations. 

Overall, the Chinese smart glasses industry is preparing to shift from hardware experimentation to ecosystem competition. The key to achieving true scale in the next two to three years lies in three breakthroughs: intuitive multimodal interaction, truly imperceptible wearability, and a mature cross-device developer ecosystem. 

Executive summary

Welcome to your weekly briefing on the metaverse and spatial computing. Here are your snippets to sound smarter in meetings this week:

• Top story: Unity and Meta announced an extended multi‑year platform agreement to power VR experiences (more below).

• Free 30 April event: And on 30 April, if you want to hear about XR and wellbeing, come to the next main London meetup!

• Other news: Maze Theory has announced Project Hail Mary: Journey Among the Stars, a mixed reality game launching in late 2026 that expands Andy Weir’s story with a new original chapter developed in partnership with Amazon MGM Studios.

Top Story

Unity and Meta announced an extended multi‑year platform agreement to power VR experiences.

• Why? The agreement is so that Meta can keep creating VR experiences based on a well-supported platform, which Unity. supplies. For me, this just indicates that Meta plans to create more VR experiences in the future as a long-form commitment.

• Key quote: “Unity is a critical partner for Meta across multiple initiatives, including our investment in the VR developer community,” said Ryan Cairns, VP, Virtual Reality, Meta. “By extending our long-standing partnership, we’re making it easier for developers to bring high‑quality, performant experiences to the millions of people who use Meta’s VR devices.”

This week’s stories

• Airbus Helicopters has introduced a virtual reality flight simulator for the H125, developed with Loft Dynamics, combining a VR headset and full-scale cockpit replica to provide immersive helicopter pilot training.

• AWE has released the first look at its 2026 USA agenda, showcasing new speakers as XR and spatial computing continue expanding across sectors including finance, healthcare, aerospace, and research.

• Chelsea and Westminster Hospital is using augmented reality technology from Medical iSight during pre-surgical consultations to help endometriosis patients better understand their condition and upcoming surgery through interactive 3D anatomical models.

• Maze Theory has announced Project Hail Mary: Journey Among the Stars, a mixed reality game launching in late 2026 that expands Andy Weir’s story with a new original chapter developed in partnership with Amazon MGM Studios.

• Network Rail has rolled out virtual reality rail safety education across Wales and Borders, using immersive simulations to teach schoolchildren about the dangers of railway trespassing.

• Niantic has won a US federal court ruling that invalidates four augmented reality patents held by ImagineAR, effectively ending the company’s infringement lawsuit over its location-based AR gaming technology.

• XRHQ, a resource for immersive technology use cases. entered early access.

Note: The Immersive Wire is run by Tom Ffiske, who also works at Accenture. The contents of the newsletter should not be regarded as Accenture’s views.

All spelling mistakes are deliberate, actually.

Executive summary

Welcome to your weekly briefing on the metaverse and spatial computing. Here are your snippets to sound smarter in meetings this week:

• Top story: Rec Room is closing, raising doubts on virtual hubs.

• Free 30 April event: And on 30 April, if you want to hear about XR and wellbeing, come to the next main London meetup!

• Other news: Activate has been ranked by the Financial Times as the fastest-growing leisure and entertainment company in the Americas and the fastest-growing company in Canada for 2026 based on revenue growth (more below)

Top Story

Rec Room is closing, raising doubts on virtual hubs.

• Virtual social hubs are dropping like flies. Platforms like AltSpaceVR, Rec Room, and Meta Horizon Worlds have shut down or struggled. And even Fortnite, the gold standard of virtual social gaming, has stalled. The exception is Roblox, which survives by leveraging a free creator ecosystem rather than bearing all content costs itself.

• The main issues are economic. Running massive virtual hubs is extraordinarily expensive, often costing more than the revenue they generate. Most platforms can't survive dwindling user engagement.

• More analysis is in the full piece.

This week’s stories

• Activate has been ranked by the Financial Times as the fastest-growing leisure and entertainment company in the Americas and the fastest-growing company in Canada for 2026 based on revenue growth.

• Chelsea and Westminster Hospital has begun using Medical iSight’s AR system to show patients anatomically precise 3D models of endometriosis during pre-surgical consultations.

• Infinity Experiences has announced the public premiere of The Black Mirror Experience in Montreal, a location-based immersive experience combining physical sets and VR where participants interact with a standalone story set in the Black Mirror universe.

• Lightbrush has opened LUMENARY at Mirus Gallery Denver, an immersive exhibition featuring projection-mapped artworks, holographic visuals, and interactive AI-driven characters in collaboration with artist Android Jones.

• Varjo has been selected to provide XR-4 Secure Edition headsets for a virtual training programme delivered by Fynd Reality to the Ukrainian Armed Forces, enabling remote training on military vehicles amid limited physical equipment access.

Note: The Immersive Wire is run by Tom Ffiske, who also works at Accenture. The contents of the newsletter should not be regarded as Accenture’s views.

All spelling mistakes are deliberate, actually.

Summary

• Virtual social hubs are dropping like flies. Platforms like AltSpaceVR, Rec Room, and Meta Horizon Worlds have shut down or struggled. And even Fortnite, the gold standard of virtual social gaming, has stalled. The exception is Roblox, which survives by leveraging a free creator ecosystem rather than bearing all content costs itself.

• The main issues are economic. Running massive virtual hubs is extraordinarily expensive, often costing more than the revenue they generate. Most platforms can't survive dwindling user engagement.

• So what next? Read on, and find out. But the long and the short of it is that, in my view, the era of the “behemoth platform” is over.

When a biological ecosystem starts to collapse, organisms tend to drop out one by one, faster than your flaky friends at your birthday party. Unfortunately, the same is true of virtual hubs right now.

Over the last few years, a string of immersive platforms has quietly shut down as dwindling player numbers and economic pressures have broken funding models. AltSpaceVR disappeared in March 2023. Rec Room has announced it will close in June 2026. And the VR version of Meta Horizon Worlds was announced for closure, before a last-minute reversal bought it a little more time. (If you listen carefully, you may hear the whistle of the guillotine swinging).

The trouble extends beyond VR headsets, too. Epic Games laid off around 1,000 people, largely because Fortnite's growth had stalled. This is significant. Fortnite, one of the biggest games on the planet, the one every publisher has spent years trying to replicate… was struggling to grow. It is the lucrative, money-dripping pie that everyone sought after, picking up crumbs during the scramble. So much so that Sony tried to chase that model with a hard pivot toward multiplayer games, then quietly slowed down after Concord failed.

It’s not all bad news. Roblox is the obvious counterexample, and its success comes from a specific structural advantage: a creator ecosystem that produces content for free. Those creators build careers off the back of it, and the platform keeps going as a result. The strategy is similar to TikTok; let an army of young people make content for free, and let the platform grow via networking effects. The strategy works, as the platform hit 47mn concurrent players in 2025. It’s incredible what free talent can do.

So the problem is beyond VR. Across the board, most virtual hubs are shrinking. Players have stopped attending virtual concerts and conducting virtual meetings. They've moved on to other things (hello YouTube). So what happened?

On the VR side, there's been a consistent pattern. Beyond the committed enthusiasts who genuinely love the technology, the wider market just hasn't materialised as expected since 2021. Meta itself has noted that the number of Quest owners who continue using their headset long-term drops off after purchase. You can shift millions of VR headsets; but if player numbers drop off, then it’s much harder to monetise them over time.

But the bigger issue, in my view, is the astronomical costs of running these platforms. Tim Sweeney has said repeatedly that running Fortnite is one of the most expensive things Epic does, even accounting for the revenue it generates. “We're spending significantly more than we're making,” he said in a recent post. Reports differ, but Fortnite generates billions in revenue while costing billions to run. The Fortnite pie has a paper-thin crust.

What does all of this tell us, and what’s next? Well apart from Roblox, the era of the “behemoth platform” is over. In my view, the business case for building and maintaining a single massive virtual world — whether in VR or not — has proven weak. VR still has genuine traction in areas like training (and I have a soft spot for VR films), but as a social destination it hasn't delivered. And as a virtual hub for players to play and hang, the economic case has proven to be incredibly hard to validate.

What comes may look less like a singular hub and more like the internet itself. Like real life, the connections will be more scattered, ad hoc, and woven into life rather than separate from it. That's part of why smart glasses have generated real excitement; they meet people where they already are. They complement the smartphone rather than replacing it, and they integrate with real life rather than asking users to opt out of it. I am confident that this is a stronger use case than locking away in an immersive space.

Well, maybe.

That might not happen. We may see smart glasses fall on its face, similar to other “exciting” technologies of the past. But the real tests will come this and next year. (I do not trust statistics on this today, as it’s all hypothetical still, with few proven products that match the vision of what users expect).

We'll see a lot more smart glasses over the next year or two, and I'll be watching closely to see whether the form factor actually matches how people want to live. Glasses can act as a universal complement, like ketchup. If it does, the adoption curve could look less like a flat line and more like a hockey stick. Virtual hubs are fading… but the desire to connect hasn't gone anywhere.

Note: The Immersive Wire is run by Tom Ffiske, who also works at Accenture. The contents of the newsletter should not be regarded as Accenture’s views.

All spelling mistakes are deliberate, actually.