XR Weekly: High-end headset stumbles, Meta teases smart glasses with displays, and Reebok drops AI fitness frames
Meta is doubling down on smart glasses with integrated displays, Reebok steps into the AI eyewear ring for athletes, and the Bigscreen Beyond 2 faces technical setbacks — here’s this week’s must-know XR news.
Welcome to our weekly “XR Update”—your quick, curated recap of everything making waves in XR over the past week. We round up the most important headlines, give you the context behind the news, and share our honest takes. If you want to dive deeper into any story, just follow the links in each section.
Enjoy exploring!
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Content
XR Hardware: Updates from the Frontlines of VR, AR, and Mixed Reality
Zuckerberg Confirms New Meta Smart Glasses for 2025
On a recent investor call, Mark Zuckerberg confirmed that Meta is set to launch a new wave of smart glasses this year, with development handled in partnership with EssilorLuxottica. Sales of the current Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses reportedly tripled last year. That said, Reality Labs still posted a staggering $4.2 billion operating loss on $412 million in revenue, despite a steady uptick in user numbers.
Reebok Launches AI-Driven Smart Glasses for Athletes, Powered by ChatGPT
In collaboration with Innovative Eyewear, Reebok has entered the smart glasses market with a new model designed for athletes. These frames pack in robust speakers, microphones, and roughly eight hours of battery life. Paired with your smartphone, the glasses offer hands-free access to AI assistants like ChatGPT, letting you generate training plans and get instant feedback. They’re retailing at €177.95.
Bigscreen Beyond 2 Delayed by Tracking Issues
Bigscreen has announced delays in shipping its new Beyond 2 PC VR headset, citing controller tracking issues discovered during production. The holdup affects orders originally slated for April or May 2025. However, the Beyond 2e eye-tracking version and units bundled with the new Halo mount are unaffected and will ship as planned.
Report: Meta Races to Bring AI Glasses with Head-Up Display to Market
Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reports that Meta is pushing hard to launch a new pair of smart glasses with a built-in head-up display, targeting an October release. Codenamed “Hypernova,” the device will feature a small monocular display and is expected to land in the $1,000–$1,400 price range—significantly pricier than current Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses.
VR Games and XR Apps: What’s New and What’s Next
Meta Quest+ for May 2025: This Month’s VR Lineup
Meta’s Quest+ VR subscription is serving up Pavlov Shack and Kill It With Fire as its headline games for May 2025. The rotating catalog also welcomes Deisim, Medieval Dynasty New Settlement, Swarm, The Climb 2, and Titans Clinic, while five titles rotate out.
Meta Quest Gets an Authentic Space Combat Sim
Remnant Protocol is set to launch at the end of 2025 for Meta Quest and PC VR, combining cockpit dogfighting with strategic base management. Originally announced as a PC-only title, Meta’s backing has pivoted the project toward a VR-first release—addressing a notable gap in the Quest library for space simulations.
Nine VR Games to Watch This May
May 2025 is shaping up to be packed with promising VR releases:
- Final Fury (VR fighting)
- Surviving Mars: Pioneer (space survival)
- The Midnight Walk (dark fantasy adventure)
- Slender: The Arrival VR (horror)
- Trailblazer: The Untold Story of Mrs Benz (interactive story)
- Out of Sight VR (nightmare horror)
- Zombie Army VR (zombie shooter)
- F1 25 (racing sim)
- Pools (walking sim)
Teleport Brings Photorealistic Room Capture to VR—Try for Free
Varjo’s Teleport service just got a significant upgrade — Teleport 2.0 now offers five free 3D scans to new users. The new version promises a big leap in photorealistic 3D capture and dramatically streamlines the workflow with an automated, cloud-based pipeline. Manual post-processing is out, and nearly any camera can now be used for capture.
Realms of Flow Rolls Out Four New VR Experiences on Meta Quest
The VR app Realms of Flow has added four fresh experiences:
- “Magical Vastness,” inspired by Icelandic landscapes and the northern lights
- “Mellow Embrace,” an AI-generated swirl of color
- The recently released “To The Core” and “Oceanic Sway,” which immerses you in a coral reef
The app is available for €16 on the Horizon Store and supports all current Quest models.
XR Market and Industry Moves
Meta Quest 3: Developers Unlock Powerful New MR Interface
With the rollout of version 76.0 of the Meta XR Core SDK, developers can now integrate the Passthrough Camera API (CPA) in Horizon Store apps. This unlocks direct access to passthrough camera video feeds for MR apps, enabling advanced environment analysis through custom computer vision and AI models—a major new capability for mixed reality development.
Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses: Companion App Becomes “Meta AI,” Adds New Features
The companion app for Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses has been rebranded from Meta View to Meta AI, positioning itself as the central hub for Meta’s AI services. The app retains all its legacy features and now adds new AI-powered tricks, like in-image editing, more natural communication with the AI assistant, and a “Discover Feed” showing how others are leveraging AI.
Meta Now Selling VR Avatars—First Up: Doja Cat
Meta has rolled out its first paid avatar in Horizon Worlds — a digital version of U.S. rapper Doja Cat, available in three variants for 750 Meta Credits apiece (about €6.74 each). These “fantastic avatars” let users embody totally new identities and represent another step in Meta’s push to monetize the metaverse with digital goods.
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