News

Snapchat CEO to Keynote AWE 2025 as Company Aims to Strengthen Its Position in XR

April 22, 2025 From roadtovr

The CEO of Snap Inc, the company behind Snapchat and the Spectacles AR glasses, will take the stage at AWE 2025 in June to highlight the company’s latest developments in AR. The prominent placement on the event’s schedule comes as Snap aims to strengthen its foothold in the XR industry.

Snap may be one of the only companies offering fully standalone AR glasses that you can get today, but the company is still seen as an outsider among the broader XR community.

That’s partly because Snap is approaching its AR ambitions from a different angle than other major players in the space.

Standalone headsets like Quest join the likes of PC VR & PSVR 2 as primarily gaming-focused devices. Then there’s Apple’s Vision Pro which focuses on entertainment and productivity.

Meanwhile, Snap’s Spectacles are born out of the company’s social-centric approach to AR, which emphasizes both location-based and co-located experiences (meaning experiences which are tied to real-world locations and those which involve multiple users in the same physical space).

This June, Snap CEO and co-founder Evan Spiegel will take to the main stage at AWE 2025—one of the largest and longest-running XR-focused conferences in the world—in an effort to share the company’s vision for AR and to strengthen bridges into the existing XR industry.

The event is being held in Long Beach, California from June 10th to 12th, and it’s expected to host more than 6,000 attendees, 300 exhibitors, 400 speakers, and a 150,000 sqft expo floor. Early-bird tickets are still available, and Road to VR readers can get an exclusive 20% discount.

Spiegel’s keynote will be flanked by presentations from Qualcomm and XREAL, peers which are well established in the conference and the industry at large.

Ironically, Snap’s commitment to building an AR platform from the ground up is one reason why it has remained something of an outsider in the XR space.

The company isn’t just building its own AR glasses, it’s also building Snap OS, a bespoke operating system for Spectacles. And it has its own authoring tool—Lens Studio—which developers need to learn to build for the headset, rather than using off-the-shelf tools like Unity. The unique approach and device capabilities mean that porting existing XR content isn’t straightforward.

Yet its commitment to building its platform from the ground up shows the company’s authentic belief in the XR space.

Speaking recently to Road to VR, Snap’s VP of Hardware, Scott Myers, said that the company is building Spectacles to be more than just an extension of Snapchat. The company believes glasses like Spectacles will one day replace smartphones altogether. This belief is guiding the standalone nature of Spectacles, which is designed to work without a phone or tethered compute unit.

“We want people to look up [through their glasses], not down [at their smartphone,” Myers said.

Beyond its emphasis on social and location-based AR experiences, Myers said the company is uniquely focused on making its platform the best in the world for developers, by building great tools and iterating aggressively on feedback.

Myers said he personally uses Spectacles “nearly every day” to test new features and experiences. “We’re learning together with developers to make developing [as easy as possible],” he said.

Snap will need to play its cards right to position itself for success in the coming years, as tech giants Meta, Apple, and Google are all vying to be the first to build a pair of mainstream AR glasses.

Road to VR is proud to be the Premier Media Partner of AWE USA 2025, allowing us to offer readers an exclusive 20% discount on tickets to the event.

‘Wonder’ is a Collection of Mesmerizing Mixed Reality Experiences Coming Soon from ‘Gadgeteer’ Studio

April 21, 2025 From roadtovr

Metanaut, the studio behind Rube Goldberg-inspired physics sandbox Gadgeteer (2019), announced they’re releasing an anthology of virtual and mixed reality experiences designed to mesmerize.

Called Wonder, the experience is slated to land on Quest 3/S within the “next couple of months,” aiming to deliver what Metanaut calls a “perfect escape” from your busy life.

Initially announced back in late 2021, Wonder is set to feature three experiences when it launches this Spring, with more coming post-launch:

Ancient Ruins: your familiar space morphs into a mysterious cave that gets swallowed up by a blackhole.
Jellyfish Bloom: a mesmerizing deep-sea spectacle filled with bioluminescent jellyfish that lights up your walls and furniture.
Parallel Worlds: where reality-bending portals reveal alternate versions of your environment in ice, dots, and more.

Metanaut says Wonder is being developed with “clever and advanced rendering techniques” that is pushing Quest 3 to deliver photorealistic visuals thanks to the inclusion of scanned room meshes. It’s also a hand tracking-only title, letting you put down your controllers.

“This technical achievement is paired with custom-crafted, beautiful audio from award-winning music studio, Ictus Audio, whose accolades include winning the John Lennon Songwriting Award,” the studio says.

“The XR industry seems to have shifted from serving adults to kids, and from high-quality premium titles to free-to-play slop,” says Peter Kao, founder of Metanaut. “With Wonder, we wanted to create a magical experience for an underserved audience—one who is older and one who wants to experience the highest audiovisual spectacle possible on latest headsets.”

Wonder is now available for pre-order for $4, and is expected to increase in price as more content is released after launch. You can pre-order it here exclusively for Quest 3 and Quest 3S.

Bigscreen Says Tariffs Will Not Increase Price of Beyond 2 PC VR Headset

April 17, 2025 From roadtovr

Wide sweeping tariffs levied by US President Donald Trump have led to uncertainty in just how the XR hardware industry will react. Now, Bigscreen says its recently announced Beyond 2 PC VR headset will not see a price increase as a result.

Bigscreen released a statement on X wherein the company maintains its Beyond 2 headset, priced at $1,019, isn’t getting a price bump despite increased tariffs applied to many goods manufactured in China.

According to Bigscreen, the company sources Beyond 2 components and assemblies from a variety of regions, including China, Japan and Europe. While “significant final assembly and testing” take place at its Los Angeles-based factory, many of the most expensive components and assemblies are made outside the US, which have “dramatically increased […] costs.”

“We expect to absorb all costs of the tariffs, trade war, and supply chain disruptions. We will not be increasing prices in any form for the foreseeable future,” Bigscreen says. “Customers will not pay any further shipping fees, tariffs, import duties, taxes, or VAT,” the company adds, noting that the final checkout amount includes no hidden fees.

Bigscreen Beyond 2 | Image courtesy Bigscreen

While the company says it “expected this may happen long before we announced Bigscreen Beyond 2,” the United States’ Harmonized Tariff Schedule is still evolving.

President Trump issued an executive order last week exempting many electronics, such as smartphones, monitors, and laptops, from the combined 145% reciprocal tariff rate.

Although not specifically named, VR headsets are expected benefit from the exemption, as UploadVR notes, however these devices will still be subject to a 20% tariff which was put in place in March 2025.

Prior to the exemption, Shanghai-based PC VR headset creator Pimax was the first to address tariffs with the announcement it would offload some of the pressure to its ‘Pimax Prime’ software subscription, keeping the final ‘all-in’ price of flagship Crystal Super at parity to the same ~$1,690 pre-tariff pricing, albeit with the inclusion of a $95 US-only surcharge.

Report: Apple CEO “cares about nothing else” Than Building Breakout AR Glasses Before Meta

April 16, 2025 From roadtovr

Apple is rumored to be working on two versions of Vision Pro, however a new report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman alleges the Cupertino tech giant is aiming to beat Meta to the punch with a pair of AR glasses.

Citing someone with knowledge of the matter, the report maintains Apple CEO Tim Cook has put development of AR glasses as a top priority, as the company plans to release such a device before Meta.

“Tim cares about nothing else,” the source told Bloomberg. “It’s the only thing he’s really spending his time on from a product development standpoint.”

Creating the sort of all-day AR glasses Apple is aiming for is still a multi-year challenge though. Packing in high-resolution displays, a powerful chip and a high-density (but very small) battery for all-day power represents a number of technical challenges. And creating such a device at a consumer price point is arguably the biggest of them all.

Meta’s Orion AR Glasses | Image courtesy Meta

While Apple is reticent to go on record, Meta has been fairly transparent with its XR roadmap. In late 2024, Meta unveiled its Orion AR glasses, which the company hopes will lead to the productization of such a device before 2030, and priced “at least in the space of phone, laptop territory.” For now, Orion costs Meta somewhere in the neighborhood of $10,000 per unit, largely owing to its custom silicon carbide waveguide optics.

And although Orion itself isn’t being productized right away, Meta is well on its way in the XR space, having not only produced multiple generations of Quest standalone headsets, but also its Ray-Ban Meta Glasses, which are laying foundation for its AR glasses of the near future.

The smart glasses, built in partnership with EssilorLuxottica, have been very successful too—so much so that Meta is reportedly preparing a next generation of the device which will include a monoscopic heads-up display. Granted, those aren’t augmented reality glasses, but rather still smart glasses. You can learn more about the differences between the two here.

Ray-Ban Meta Glasses, Image courtesy Meta, EssilorLuxottica

For now, Gurman maintains Apple is working on new versions of Apple Watch and AirPods which will be embedded with AI-enabled cameras, however the Fruit Company is still internally debating whether to counter Meta with a pair of smart glasses of their own.

According to Gurman, Apple has been developing such a device designed to work with Siri and Apple Visual Intelligence, although the company is unsure whether it will allow the glasses to actually capture media, owing to the company’s stance on user privacy.

This follows a wider leadership shakeup at Apple, reported by Bloomberg last month, which also saw Apple’s Vision Products Group (VPG) redistributed across the company.

Tasked with developing Vision Pro, VPG was initially created in 2023, which notably departed from its “functional” management structure introduced by Steve Jobs in the early ’90s. Essentially, this puts Vision Pro’s product development back in line with the company’s other hardware, including iPhone, iPad, etc.

Pimax Updates Prices in Response to US-China Trade War, Using Software Subscription to Absorb Costs

April 11, 2025 From roadtovr

China-based PC VR headset creator Pimax has issued a statement addressing the impact of the recent US–China trade war on its operations, particularly concerning its Crystal Super VR headset. It’s going to be slightly more expensive for US-based customers, but Pimax’s recent subscription-based payment structure seems to be offsetting much of the costs.

Announced back in April 2024, Crystal Super is the company’s next flagship PC VR headset, offering a base 57 PPD version with QLED panels that features a resolution of 3,840 x 3,840 pixels per eye and a 120-degree field-of-view (FOV). It’s still only available in pre-order, although shipping is expected to start soon.

At the time of this writing, the US has levied a 145% tariff on all goods manufactured in China. This is bad news for XR headset creators the world over, as China is by far the segment’s largest manufacturing hub. And Shanghai-based Pimax is seemingly the first of the bunch to announce price changes in response.

Pimax released a blogpost wherein it describes just what’s happening to US-based customers in relation to new tariffs. And it’s not as bad as you’d think.

The company says all US orders of Crystal Super placed before February 4th, 2025 will not include any extra tariff costs, however they may face a delay of about 20 days due to bulk shipments to US-based warehouses.

Pimax Crystal Super | Image courtesy Pimax

Orders placed between February 4th and April 10th will include a $75 ‘Regional Surcharge’ however, which Pimax says partially offsets increased shipping and logistics costs.

Moreover, starting April 10th, all new US orders will carry a $95 surcharge, with shipments expected to begin in June. Pimax says it’s also establishing a factory in Delaware to handle final assembly.

That said, the overall price of Crystal Super isn’t really changing. Pimax has now updated its pricing structure, and although it’s become less straight forward following the rollout of its subscription-based software pricing, it’s actually helping to offset tariff-related costs.

Now, the base price of Pimax Crystal Super has been lowered to $799, with the remaining $885 payable later through Pimax Play with Prime—a total cost $1,684 (excl. US-only $95 surcharge).

For everyone else around the globe, it’s essentially a nominal change. Previously, Crystal Super was priced at $999 with the remaining Prime subscription costing $696—total cost $1,695. You’ll now see that local pricing has be updated to reflect the lower upfront cost.

Notably, the company highlights that its 14-day trial period is still in place. For users outside the US, this could make Crystal Super slightly more attractive than before, as it requires less upfront money down—still refundable if you send it back before the trial period ends and you need Prime to continue using it.

That said, Pimax is in a unique position to rebalance its costs by leveraging its expensive, but now extremely useful subscription model. The same can’t be said for platform holders like Meta, which already subsidize hardware in effort to make software more attractive.

While Meta hasn’t announced any price hikes, the company has actually raised headsets prices in the past, with the COVID-19 pandemic forcing the company to temporarily raise the price of Quest 2 from $300 to $400 back in 2022. So, we’ll just have to wait and see.

– – — – –

We’ll be following the effects of US-China trade war tariffs on XR hardware closely, so check back soon for more.

Researchers Catalog 170+ Text Input Techniques to Improve Typing in XR

April 8, 2025 From roadtovr

Efficient text entry without an actual keyboard remains an industry-wide challenge for unlocking productivity use-cases in XR headsets. Researchers have created a comprehensive catalog of existing text entry techniques to codify different methods and analyze their pros and cons. By making the catalog freely available, the researchers hope to give others a head start on creating new and improved techniques.

Guest Article by Max Di Luca

Massimiliano Di Luca leads the VR Lab at the University of Birmingham, UK, where he is an Associate Professor in the School of Psychology and in the School of Computer Science. He previously worked at Meta where he pioneered work on hand inputs and haptics for VR. His most recent collaboration with industry was recently recognized by the ACM SIGCHI 2025 awards for pioneering the interaction framework of Android XR through exemplary industry-academia collaboration, establishing foundational input methods and interaction guidelines for XR operating systems.

As immersive experiences become increasingly sophisticated, the challenge of efficient text entry remains a crucial barrier to seamless interaction in virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR). From composing emails in virtual workspaces to logging-in and socializing in the metaverse, the ability to input text efficiently is essential for the usability of all applications in extended reality (XR).

To address this challenge, my team from the VR Lab at the University of Birmingham (UK) along with researchers from the University of Copenhagen, Arizona State University, the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, Northwestern University, and Google developed the XR TEXT Trove—a comprehensive research initiative cataloging over 170 text entry techniques tailored for XR. The TEXT Trove is a structured repository of text entry techniques and a series of filters that aim at selecting and highlighting the pros and cons of the breadth of text input methods developed for XR in both academia and industry.

These techniques are categorised using a range of 32 codes, including 13 interaction attributes such as Input Device, Body Part (for input), Concurrency, and Haptic Feedback Modality, as well as 14 performance metrics like Words Per Minute (WPM) and Total Error Rate (TER). All in all, the number of techniques and extensivity of the attributes provide a comprehensive overview of the state of XR text entry techniques.

Several key takeaways can be surmised from our research. First and foremost, text input performance is inherently limited by the number of inputting elements (whether fingers, controllers, or other character selectors). Only multi-finger typing can lead to performance comparable to touch-typing speed with a keyboard on regular PCs. As visualized in the plots below, each additional input element (or finger) adds about 5 WPM speed on top users.

Words per minute using multiple fingers, and different input devices. (each dot represents one technique analyzed in the study).

Our research also indicates that haptic feedback, the presence of external surfaces, and fingertip-only visualization are preferable ways to improve typing performance. For instance, typing on surfaces (instead of in mid-air) contributes to a more comfortable and potentially more efficient typing experience. External surfaces also minimize sustained muscle strain, making interactions more comfortable and reducing the onset of Gorilla Arm Syndrome.

Finally, and more interestingly, as of today, no alternative has fully replaced the keyboard format, probably because it still delivers the highest words-per-minute. Perhaps because it also requires high learning curves. We believe that the main path for faster typing in VR than PC might lay on the need to reduce travel distances on a multi-finger keyboard via Machine Learning and AI. XR needs its own ‘swipe typing’ moment, which made one-finger typing on smartphones much more efficient.

In that regard, the deep dive from the XR Text Trove represents a significant step towards a more comprehensive understanding of text input in virtual and augmented reality. By providing a structured and searchable database, we aimed to offer a resource for researchers and developers alike, paving the way for more efficient and user-friendly text entry solutions in the immersive future.

As we explain in our paper, this work has the potential to significantly benefit the XR community: “To support XR research and design in this area, we make the database and the associated tool available on the XR TEXT Trove website. The full paper will be presented at the prestigious ACM CHI conference next month in Yokohama, Japan.

Several authors in our team are co-creators of the Locomotion Vault, which similarly catalogs VR locomotion techniques in an effort to give researchers and designers a head-start on identifying and improving various methods.

VR Therapy for Seniors Rolls Out to 150 Living Communities Across the US

April 3, 2025 From roadtovr

Mynd Immersive, the immersive healthcare provider, announced its expanding its XR services to an additional 150 senior living communities across the United States.

The company says its recent milestone represents the largest deployment of XR therapies in senior care history, which it hopes will advance treatment options across physical, occupational, and speech therapy.

Founded in 2016 and operating the US, Canada and Australia, the Texas-based company has developed over 200 XR experiences which support HTC Vive Flow, the lightweight, compact VR headset released by HTC in 2021.

“We envisioned early on that Virtual Reality would profoundly enhance the quality of life and health outcomes for seniors,” said Chris Brickler, co-founder and CEO of Mynd Immersive. “Today, we’re seeing Mynd become an essential part of healthcare delivery, driving real-world gains in functional therapy, cognitive engagement, and staff training.”

Mynd Immersive has also partnered with Select Rehabilitation, the US-based contract therapy company, using the company’s platform to support cognitive, physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being of elders.

“Our partnership with Mynd empowers therapists to engage patients in meaningful, motivating experiences that support real clinical outcomes,” said Anna Wolfe, CEO at Select Rehabilitation. “With these tools, we are creating the therapy room of the future – today. Our therapists can now work on improving range of motion, strength building, gait training, spatial awareness, and Activities of Daily Living (ADLs) through immersive environments that make rehabilitation both effective and enjoyable.”

The company says it’s deploying the Mynd platform and training staff in 25 communities per-week on average now. Its 150-community expansion is set to bring XR therapy to more than 45,000 residents, which it notes is just the “beginning phase.”

Meta’s Next-gen Smart Glasses Reportedly Set to Include a Display & Wrist-worn XR Controller

April 2, 2025 From roadtovr

Meta is reportedly working on a version of its Ray-Ban smart glasses which will include a single display for viewing photos and apps. Now, according to a new Bloomberg report from Mark Gurman, the company is aiming to introduce it sometime later this year alongside its wrist-worn XR controller for hand-gesture input.

As per a previous Bloomberg report from January, the device is allegedly codenamed ‘Hypernova’. Citing Meta employees, the device could cost between $1,000 and $1,400, although the final price likely still hasn’t been decided.

The price increase over the company’s $300 Ray-Ban Meta Glasses, which don’t include displays of any sort, is reportedly driven by the inclusion of a single display visible in the lower-right quadrant of the right lens.

Unlike augmented reality glasses, which correctly place digital images in the user’s field-of-view, the device as described would be closer to Google Glass in function. Find out more about the differences between Smart Glasses and AR Glasses in our full explainer.

Bloomberg’s latest report now maintains Hypernova will include dedicated apps for taking pictures, viewing photos and accessing maps. This also includes notifications from phone apps, such as Messenger and WhatsApp, the report maintains.

It’s said Hypenova will rely “heavily on the Meta View phone app,” and may not include its own on-board app store despite running a customized version of Android—suggesting it’s more akin to a smartphone peripheral and not a standalone platform as such.

It is however said to include many of the same features of Ray-Ban Meta Glasses, such as capturing images and video, accessing AI via built-in microphones and pairing with a phone for calls and music playback.

Additionally, it’s said Hypernova is getting a spec bump in the camera department. The latest version of Meta Ray-Ban comes with a 12-megapixel camera, similar to an iPhone 11 (2019) in quality. Instead, Hypernova is hoping to “rival the iPhone 13 from 2021,” according to people familiar with the matter.

Like the company’s display-less Ray-Ban Glasses, the report maintains users can control Hypernova using capacitive touch controls located on the temples, allowing to scroll through media.

Wrist-worn XR Controller seen with Orion | Image courtesy Meta

It seems however Meta is looking to finally productize its wrist-worn XR controller, which uses electromyography (EMG) sensors to detect things such pinching and hand rotation for UI selection. Hypernova is said to come bundled in the box with the wrist-worn controller, which we’ve also seen in action with the company’s internal Orion AR glasses.

Bloomberg maintains a second-gen ‘Hypernova 2’ is already in the works, which is said to include a binocular heads-up display system (again, smart glasses, not AR) with people familiar with the matter maintaining it’s currently planned for release in 2027.

Granted, anything could happen. Meta regularly shelves products late in development, such as its allegedly canceled variant the device without a camera—a move targeting lower costs and increased user privacy.

Still, Hypernova likely won’t be the next smart glasses device Meta releases. The report maintains Meta is finalizing ‘Supernova 2’, which function like Ray-Ban Meta Glasses, but houses inside a sportier Oakley design.

All of this is leading up to the release of Meta’s first true AR glasses. The company revealed its internal developer kit Orion in late 2024; Meta CTO and Reality Labs chief Andrew Bosworth has said an AR device based on their work with Orion could come before 2030, priced “at least in the space of phone, laptop territory.”

Vision Pro Update Adds Companion App, Improved Guest Demos, and Apple Intelligence Features

March 31, 2025 From roadtovr

Apple announced today that the latest update to Vision Pro, visionOS 2.4 is now available to the public. VisionOS 2.4 finally adds Apple Intelligence features to the headset, while adding an iPhone companion app to make using and sharing the headset easier, along with a new Spatial Gallery to curate spatial content for watching on the headset.

While the first Apple Intelligence features reached iPhones, iPads, and Macs back in October, 2024, Vision Pro was curiously left out. Not only did the headset not get any of the Apple Intelligence features, at that point Apple hadn’t even confirmed that the headset ever would get them.

That finally changes today with VisionOS 2.4, now available to the public, which adds the same Apple Intelligence features that users can access on other devices. That includes writing tools, like the ability to proofread, rewrite, and summarize text, and image generation tools like Image Playground and Genmoji.

View post on imgur.com

Beyond just adding the usual slate of Apple Intelligence features, VisionOS 2.4 directly addresses commonly cited pain points of using the headset.

Spatial Gallery App

View post on imgur.com

Spatial Gallery is a new app for the headset which includes spatial (stereoscopic) content curated by Apple. Think of it as a premier gallery of spatial photos and videos. While the content will change over time, at launch Apple says users can “discover stories and experiences from iconic brands including Red Bull, Cirque du Soleil, and Porsche; go behind the scenes with Apple Originals like Severance, The Studio, and The Morning Show; and listen to conversations with top artists like Bad Bunny, Charli xcx, and Keith Urban.”

Vision Pro Companion App for iPhone

Similar to Apple Watch, Vision Pro is getting a companion app that runs on an iPhone or iPad. The app highlights new apps and entertainment content available on the headset, without users needing to put on the device just to browse for new content.

The app also serves as a simple place to read up on tips & tricks for getting the most out of the headset, as well as finding important support information like version and serial numbers.

Guest User Improvements

Vision Pro smartly launched with a dedicated ‘Guest Mode’ to make it easy for headset owners to show off the headset to friends and family by calibrating the headset specifically for the guest, and gives the owner control over what apps the guest can access.

View post on imgur.com

VisionOS 2.4, in conjunction with iOS 18.4, now makes the process smoother by allowing the headset owner to start a Guest Mode session from their iPhone (rather than needing to put on the headset first). It also allows the owner to remotely start View Mirroring so they can see what the guest user sees in the headset. Previously this could only be started from within the headset, which meant needing to guide the guest user by memory through the menus to find the right button.

New Apple Immersive Video Content

Alongside visionOS 2.4, Apple is highlighting upcoming releases for its first-party Apple Immersive Video content with VIP: Yankee Stadium on April 4th, featuring an “all-encompassing look at how elite athletes, die-hard fans, dedicated staff, and epic moments make the Bronx ballpark legendary.”

Later, on May 30th, Apple is releasing Bono: Stories of Surrender, a documentary about the frontman of the band U2. Uniquely, this will be released on Apple TV+ as viewable both as a standard flatscreen video and on Vision Pro as an Apple Immersive Vide

Infinite Reality Acquires Napster for $200M to Create Social Music Platform & Virtual Concerts

March 26, 2025 From roadtovr

Napster. Now there’s a name you haven’t heard in a few years… or more likely decades. Now, immersive web company Infinite Reality announced it’s acquired the brand for $207 million.

Having just closed a $3 billion investment in January, Immersive Reality says the Napster music streaming service will soon include a “social music platform” that will include branded 3D virtual spaces for virtual concerts and listening parties.

Additionally, the company says Napster will also sell both physical and virtual merchandise, exclusive digital content, and event tickets.

“By acquiring Napster, we’re paving a path to a brighter future for artists, fans, and the music industry at large,” said John Acunto, Infinite Reality co-Founder and CEO. “This strategic move aligns with Infinite Reality’s vision to lead an internet industry shift from a flat 2D clickable web to a 3D conversational one – giving all creators modern tools to better engage, monetize, and measure their audiences.”

CEO Jon Vlassopulos, formerly of Roblox, will continue leading Napster, noting he envisions a next-generation platform where fans can interact with artists in 3D virtual spaces, making music consumption more social and immersive.

Founded in 2019, Infinite Reality’s flagship product is iR Studio, an engine for building immersive websites, replete with social virtual environments and avatars. iR Studio sites support WebXR by default, meaning any XR headset that supports WebXR can access it directly through a web browser.

While the company hasn’t said as much, we’d expect Immersive Reality to leverage iR Studio in future Napster virtual concerts, which would ostensibly include support for Quest and PC VR headsets.

This isn’t the first time the Napster brand has changed hands since its 2002 bankruptcy, which was due to its platform allowing for unlicensed P2P sharing of music, attracting the ire of rock band Metallica. Over the years, the company has been acquired by a laundry list of companies that hoped to leverage the brand’s wide appeal, most recently turning the one-time music sharing platform into a subscriber-based music streaming platform.

Interestingly, Immersive Reality also isn’t the first XR-focused company to purchase Napster either. In August 2020, London-based virtual concert company MelodyVR acquired Napster for $70 million, which hoped to bring immersive video concerts to VR headset users. Prior to the Immersive Reality acquisition, Napster’s most recent owner was blockchain company Algorand, which hoped to decentralize music.

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