Mint Virtual Reality

Narrative poker game Sunshine Shuffle was supposed to launch on Nintendo Switch this week. That is, until a running TikTok gag went awry.

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Improving CS:GO performance can help you win more games by improving your response time. Here are the best settings to change to maximize your performance.

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Meta conducted its third wave of major layoffs today.

Reportedly, around 5000 staff are affected in this round. Two policy managers from the Reality Labs AR/VR division confirmed on LinkedIn that they were let go today, as did many more employees from other parts of the company. Unlike the previous two waves, however, we haven't yet seen any reports of AR/VR layoffs from technical roles.

The first round of major layoffs took place back in November, cutting 11,000 employees - 13 percent of its workforce at the time - including some Reality Labs engineers and designers.

In April, the second wave occurred as as part of the "year of efficiency" Mark Zuckerberg had declared to investors in February, cutting another 4000 or so roles. It included developers from two of Meta's acquired VR game studios, Ready at Dawn and Downpour Interactive.

That brings the total number laid off from Meta since November to around 20,000.

Zuckerberg described 2022 as a “humbling wake-up call” for Meta, citing declining macroeconomic conditions reducing overall advertising spend and the increased competition from TikTok. "I think we should prepare ourselves for the possibility that this new economic reality will continue for many years", he told staff.

Meta is far from the only big tech company conducting layoffs at this scale. Google parent Alphabet laid off 12,000 in January, Microsoft has laid off 10,000 so far this year, and Amazon has laid off 27,000.

Only Apple so far seems unaffected, reportedly laying off only a tiny number of corporate retail staff. “I view that as a last resort and, so, mass layoffs is not something that we’re talking about at this moment” Tim Cook told CNBC earlier this month.

Zuckerberg on the other hand has been pitching Meta's layoffs as a positive opportunity for a "flattening" of the corporate hierarchy, claiming that this flatter structure with a higher ratio of engineers and fewer managers will allow Meta to execute faster, take more risks, and focus more on its strengths. Whether that's just PR spin or will actually pan out will be seen in coming years as Meta starts facing direct competition from Apple in the AR/VR space.

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Sony will host a massive PlayStation Showcase today that'll run for over an hour. Here's what you need to know.

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PlayStation Showcase broadcasts later today with a focus on PS5 and PSVR 2 games, but what announcements can we expect? Here are our predictions.

Last week, Sony confirmed its latest PlayStation Showcase would air on May 24 at 1pm PT / 9pm BST. Stating the presentation will run for "a bit over an hour," it promises to show games in development "from top studios" globally between first-party teams and third-party publishers. Given the high-profile nature of PlayStation Showcase compared to February's State of Play presentation, which mostly offered indie reveals for PSVR 2, big names seem likely.

It's left many speculating about what we'll see and while we don't know what deals Sony might've made with developers for games that might be a couple years out, here are five PSVR 2 predictions for the PlayStation Showcase:

Firewall Ultra

First Contact Entertainment's upcoming sequel to Firewall Zero Hour remains the only publicly confirmed Sony published PSVR 2 game in development. A 4v4 tactical shooter, Firewall Ultra is scheduled to launch later this year, so a new trailer and/or release date confirmation seems like a safe bet for PlayStation Showcase.

Resident Evil 4 Remake VR Mode

Following a successful PSVR 2 port for Resident Evil Village, Capcom previously announced "supported content" is coming for Resident Evil 4 Remake. Before the flatscreen version's launch last March, Capcom reaffirmed that a VR Mode is in development and it's unclear what this PSVR 2 content will look like. PlayStation Showcase feels like as good a place as any to reveal more.

Beat Saber

It's been a while since we've heard anything about Beat Saber on PSVR 2. Jim Ryan revealed the news during CES 2023 and practically nothing else, saying they’ll have “more information to share in the near future.” Even now, Beat Saber tops the PlayStation Store charts for the original PSVR, so we're hopeful to learn something more today.

Half-Life: Alyx

We've all been waiting for this one and, ultimately, we have no idea whether this is actually going to happen. Still, there's no better way to persuade those on the fence about getting PSVR 2 than a port of Valve’s stunning return to its flagship franchise. Released in 2020, Half-Life Alyx remains one of VR's greatest games and in 2019, Greg Coomer told Push Square, “We believe Sony’s VR platform has been a huge success for the medium, and we assume that lots of Sony customers would love to experience this new chapter of Half-Life.” Now that PSVR 2's here, it could finally be time.

New Astro Bot

Sony hasn't announced any upcoming first-party PSVR 2 games yet, but Astro Bot could fit the bill perfectly. Astro Bot Rescue Mission on PSVR remains one of the best PSVR games, followed up with the flatscreen Astro's Playroom as a pack-in PS5 launch game. Two and a half years later, we haven't heard what Team Asobi plans next, so we're hopeful Astro's next adventure takes him back to VR.

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Sunshine Shuffle turns the classic Dogs Playing Poker painting into an ingenious one-act play about a high-risk heist.

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UploadVR will attend the Apple WWDC23 keynote, where an Apple AR/VR headset will reportedly be unveiled.

Rumored to have been in development for many years, numerous reports suggest the VR and AR capable Apple headset, believed to be branded Apple Reality Pro, will be publicly announced during WWDC23. Running for five days, Apple's annual conference starts with a keynote address on June 5 at 10am PT.

UploadVR's Ian Hamilton has been invited to attend the keynote in person. Draw from that what conclusions you may.

When Apple announced its latest annual conference back in March, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reported that Apple planned to unveil the headset at WWDC23, and his recent reporting sticks by these claims. This was further reinforced by supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who stated last week it's "highly likely" the headset will be revealed at WWDC23.

There's been increasing talk about what Apple's headset can offer too, and last weekend's Bloomberg report from Gurman discussed the execs behind the software, hardware, content and marketing. The report claims Apple executive Phil Schiller pushed for Apple's headset to have a "strong gaming component," which alleged that gaming wasn't a focus until recently.

Building on these expectations is Oculus founder Palmer Luckey, who recently claimed that he's seen an early version of the Apple headset. "I have not seen the final headset, but I have seen an earlier version of the headset and it is excellent. It is gonna be a huge deal," he claimed in a recent Twitter Spaces interview, speaking with Peter Diamandis, Executive Chairman of non-profit organization XPRIZE.

If you're interested in learning more, check out our Apple Headset Rumor Roundup.

Apple Headset Specs, Release Date, & Everything We’ve Heard

Reports indicate Apple is preparing to reveal a standalone headset with VR and AR capabilities. Here’s our updated roundup of everything we’ve heard:

UploadVRHarry Baker

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