Google's Genius Plan to Dethrone Meta's Monopoly

Hello and welcome to... TUESDAY NEWSDAY! Your number one resource for the entire week's worth of VR news! Today we have some pretty huge news that I've been waiting for- for years. AndroidXR, Google's official branch of Android purposed for AR and VR devices has been announced. I think it will have a ton of ramifications long term; especially for Meta and the Quest line of headsets.. but this also has a ton of ramifications for other players in the industry. In more immediate news, Vision Pro receives some really great news, Quest 3 and 3s receive a big update with V72 and PSVR2 may be getting hand tracking!

And to top it all off- an opinion piece on Valve's new headset (hopefully?) set to be announced next year.

I hope you have an amazing rest of 2024 and great holidays. I will be back making content full time in 2025.

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Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
01:00 Sponsor Segment
02:04 Vision Pro Gets Controllers?
03:10 PSVR2 Gets Hand Tracking
04:01 Quest 3 and 3S Big Update
05:14 Android XR & The Knife in Meta's Back
11:32 Valve has a Genius Plan
13:20 My Thesis for Valve's Next Headset
15:08 2024 has been insane
16:59 Goodbye 2024

[ThrillSeekerVR]

I HOPE YOU HAVE AN AMAZING CHRISTMAS AND GREAT NEW YEARS EVE!

I AM RETURNING TO REGULAR UPLOADS IN 2025. Thank you for being so patient and supportive and thank you for watching me through 2024(even though there were very few uploads!) I HAVE BEEN COOKING. More vids like the UI UX deep dive!

[Pandoso]

10:18 "and they actually stick with it..." really big ask for google, trust in long term plans for that company is beyond broken at this point

[davidknightx]

Just upgraded my Quest 2 for 3. Spending the holidays in Rome, Italy, and Mexico City with "Slice of Life" 8k 180 3D videos, playing Steam games like Firewatch (that works very well for a mod), explore the world with Wander and Google Earth VR (I was inside a museum in Malta recently checking out their collection of medieval armor), and watching 3D movies in a luxury virtual apartment or 4k movies in a cinema with Skybox/Big Screen.

But yeah, VR is dying because Apple didn't sell enough $3500k headsets that don't play games or even work with YouTube when 1/2 of Americans can't even afford a $1000 emergency.

If VR tech was a gimmick like 3D TV's or the Nokia N-Gage, it would've died a loooong time ago. If anything, this all reminds me when dial-up modems and Windows 98 first appeared. It was slow, complicated, clunky, expensive, and required a lot of patience while the tech very slowly got better. Now look where we are...where even an elderly person can use the Internet with nothing but a cheap smart phone and free Wi-Fi at McDonald's.

This tech isn't going anywhere and we can only guess what the future will look like. I always wanted to visit NY, and yet, I'm now getting kind of sick of it despite the fact I've never physically been there.

[thecyberquake]

4:29
Note to self:
Insert video of all my keyboards

[ramiroandresvidela]

Finally a company working in xr that meta can't buy

[MayYTlive]

With the Deckard, you've hit the nail on the head

Recently, some stuff has leaked about Valve working on a 2D to 3D translation layer, wich would render these 2D flat-screen games in 3D and apply to every single game on steam (that is playable on Linux)

It wouldn't be like a native VR port though, more like the 3DS, where the game has depth but still played on a screen infront of you

[Adlernaz]

You're the only VR-Content creator where I actually get "thrilled" when you upload..!

[mrtr]

As someone who invested in Daydream... I will never buy into google VR again.

[jonas-zm]

The most painful, painful, thing is, the lowest hanging fruit for great VR content is VR modes for PC flatscreen games. (ie. just like VR mods, but official, more polished, more comfort options.) No need for a full port to standalone, no need to optimize for limited PS5 performance, and often the community does half the work for you. But the de-facto platform holder for PCVR, Valve, won't fund it. There's so many great flat2VR mods for top indie games that could be made official with a bit of money and encouragement, like Deep Rock Galactic, Outer Wilds, etc. Or even Valve's own games, Half Life 2, Left 4 Dead 2, Portal, etc. Then there's so many huge games that could really sell VR, if a larger company like Valve could make the deal and the right bribe. Cyberpunk. Baldur's Gate 3. Resident Evil series. etc. But they won't do it, and there's no one else who could.

The second most painful thing, is Sony not doing it for PSVR2. Even their own games. Even frickin' Astrobot.

[skywarrior]

at this point just call it someday newsday

[Svvicu]

2024 is truly a timeskip training arc for VR

[Willow-Eversong]

im really digging these "when there is news" frequency of videos. when I see them it's a MUCH bigger deal. <3

[ChannelerMG]

Lets See.... Googles OUTRAGEOUS history of Abandoware makes any announcements they have totally laughable and pointless... what Valve does certainly carries a lot more Weight!

[appleua]

The only reason people are playing less and less vr is because there are just no good new games to play (There are some, but 4 good games a year is not much). In my personal opinion meta should just take the nintendo switch approach. Keep the same good/decent hardware and focus on making a lot of super good exclusives.

[TayoEXE]

I don't trust Google to actually stick with this like Meta has. It's cost Meta a ton of money and research just to get this far. Is Google willing to do the same or will it back down?

[CentriVR]

Dang it someone took the Thursday Nursday joke already

[BoomSlang]

The most interesting thing about Vision Pro using PSVR 2 controllers is that you cannot buy them separately from the PSVR 2 HMD. I'm not sure, with how Sony has treated it, that they'll ever sell them without a headset combo.

[ItsReflectionz]

Personally dont feel like any of these companies, including google will dethrone meta, but in turn this will ramp up the technological advancements in the vr space due to competition being raised which i think is the true winning point for anybody, the consumers win. (Until we have to buy a $200 vr headstrap from meta)

[mccullum]

We need full games NOT more VR demonstrations we get what vr can do we want to experience it. It reminds me of 3D movies they spent so much time showcasing 3D rather than actually incorporating it and making good movies.

[Arlen.Kundert]

What I want from hand tracking is the ability to seamlessly switch between hand tracking for things like opening doors and cast magic with my controllers holstered at my waist for weapons and items. Imagine a SkyrimVR mod that could do that, and using a Kat Walk for locomotion.