2025 could be VR gaming’s biggest year yet, if industry leaders let it
Valve's Deckard, Samsung's Android XR, and Horizon OS headsets: Find out why 2025 is shaping up to be a game-changer for the VR industry.
In his column "Gaming In Focus", MIXED guest writer Jamie Feltham regularly looks at current developments and shares his experiences from over 10 years in the XR industry.
Thank god we’re past 2024. Much like 2023, it was a horrible, no good, very bad year for the wider games industry. No doubt 2025 is going to come with its fair share of struggles, too, but off the back of a massive series of announcements at Geoff Keighley’s Game Awards and a string of strong releases from January through to March, it feels like gaming, at least in the more traditional sense, is going to make a comeback.
I’m crossing every possible appendage, that the same is true of VR. Though the headlines might not have been as huge, the industry was not magically immune to the swathe of closures, flat sales and critical misses that plagued gaming in 2024. It seems any issue facing gaming – lack of investment, free-to-play titles taking a chunk out of premium sales, and overcrowded storefronts – is compounded in VR.
But there were some key events that set the stage for a hopefully much more prosperous 2025. Let’s take a look at what those are.
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Hardware contenders both new and old
VR has proven itself to be an iterative platform. Whereas high-powered home consoles are stalling in the fight to produce finer images with increasingly diminished results, every small bump in resolution, performance, or tracking for a VR headset feels like a giant leap forward for accessibility and potential adoption.
Meta opened its Quest OS to hardware manufacturers in 2024 and announced first partners. | Image: Meta
Meta itself, just off the back of two consecutive releases in Quest 3 and Quest 3S, seems poised to sit this year out. But there’s still much to learn about the announced partner headsets using Horizon OS. On a purely technical front, I can’t wait to see what the ASUS-made, performance gaming headset includes, and what the Xbox-themed Quest might deliver.
But the most interesting releases lie outside of Horizon OS. Android XR’s first headset from Samsung is releasing this year and boasts an upgraded chip from Quest 3 — could that lead to any meaningful boosts in gaming performance? Let’s continue to hope controllers are bundled in with the headset, if so.
All eyes, though, are certainly on Valve. Rumored for years and leaked in bits and pieces over 2024, the timing feels crucial for codename Deckard. It’s been 5 years since the release of the Index, and Steam Deck has since paved the way for Valve’s portable ambitions. Can a standalone headset that supports Half-Life: Alyx finally move the needle for the industry?
The rise of the VR OS
But if there’s one story to watch in 2025 — it’s not which company releases the best hardware, it’s which maintains the best operating system.
This is the key battleground for the future, with trends starting to form. Just this year alone, we’ve seen Meta drastically shift its marketing and communication strategy to echo that of the Vision Pro, billing features the device has been capable of for years, such as watching movies on virtual screens, as bold innovations.
Tile-like view of new Vision Pro 2.0 features. | Images: Apple
We’ve also seen a big push towards working in-headset on HorizonOS, visionOS and Android XR, and Meta has doubled down on its mission to get people into Horizon Worlds.
These strategies hold promise for the future of XR but, as I said in my column on Android XR a few weeks ago, they simply can’t be at the expense of gaming. Gamers are the litmus test for the potential of your headset because they’re willing to engage with exciting new innovations and different ways to experience the medium they (we) love. They’re what delivered the first tens of millions of Quest sales, and they’re the ones that keep the retention stats up on your device.
For me personally, the most exciting VR OS is going to be the one that gives developers a fair and favorable shot at success. That means a tightly-mainted storefront that focuses on quality, comfort and consistency, and a focus on bringing down the friction for new players to get involved. My not-so-secret hope is that we’ll see Valve make this pledge with an improved approach to store curation on Deckard, though it’s not been the company’s biggest strength in the past.
Either way, games are the only form of app that can fill up an XR storefront right now, and we all know that’s been a huge issue for Vision Pro. So, tech giants, if you’re reading, don’t give up on games in 2025. It’ll cost you.
Gaming Coming Back Strong
Finally, we’re just off the back of one of VR’s strongest holiday line-ups ever. But gamers are a hungry bunch, and those that have beaten Batman: Arkham Shadow all have the same question on their lips: what’s next?
Currently, we know a handful of tantalising projects scheduled for 2025, including a selection of big hitters. The Midnight Walk promises a gorgeous dive into dark fantasy, claymation-style, while it’s hopefully third times the charm for Hitman: World of Assassination when it comes to PSVR 2 in March. Some are titles that slipped from 2024, including the long-awaited Zombie Army VR, the remake of Wanderer, the Quest version of Alien: Rogue Incursion, and the Boneworks-like, Deep Cuts.
The year 2025 brings with it a number of interesting VR games, such as the delayed Wanderer: The Fragments of Fate, Ghost Town and Laser Dance. | Image:: Mighty Eyes
Others are innovative oddities; I’m personally very excited to play The Room developer Fireproof’s return to VR with the intriguing Ghost Town, and I can’t wait to see what Laser Dance cooks up for more active MR gaming. Lovesick looks like the type of heartfelt indie delight we usually see reserved for consoles, and Prison Boss: Prohibition could potentially build on the success of the first game.
But the most exciting prospects currently lay in the unknown. What are VR’s biggest studios up to? You’ll learn a lot about that when we host the first VR Games Showcase in Q1 (forgive the shameless plug), but big questions remain over what Meta and others have up their sleeves for the new year. Is Meta planning another Batman/Asgard’s-style AAA hit to push for the holidays? Will Valve have a new release to go alongside Deckard if it does indeed release in 2025?
Cautious Momentum
Momentum is on this industry’s side, that much is inarguable. New players and big titles make that fact. But success – particularly in the field of gaming – hinges upon a concerted, consistent push to deliver a strong, accessible software line-up supported across a range of developer-centric storefronts.
If XR leaders can rally behind that vision in 2025, VR could be set for a huge year.
What are you looking forward to most in the coming XR year? Follow us on Facebook or X or share your experience in the comments.
For feedback, topic suggestions, or other ideas, please email us at hello@mixed-news.com.
Jamie Feltham has 10+ years of experience working in VR, first covering the industry for a number of publications including UploadVR, where he created the UploadVR Showcase. After handling biz dev for HTC Vive and global PR & marketing for Fast Travel Games, Jamie founded the VR Games Showcase, the premiere digital showcase for VR game announcements and updates. You can follow @VRGamesShowcase on YouTube to get ready for the next VRGS events. Jamie can be reached at jamie@thevrshowcase.com.
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