Meta loses another $3.8 billion on VR/AR

2024 hasn't exactly gotten off to the best start for the game industry: mass layoffs loom over large publishers like Epic and Riot Games, and it's becoming harder and all the more expensive to develop and deliver breakthrough games. While the growth outlook for mobile is much more optimistic than it has been in years – with Data.ai projecting up to 4% year over year growth – Epic and Google's court proceedings and Apple's response to Digital Markets Act legislation have cast a shadow over this promising growth and the future of the mobile games industry.

Good news! There’s a new Batman: Arkham game on the way that’s not Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. (Potentially) not-so-good news! It’s a virtual reality game that you’ll only be able to play if you own a Meta Quest 3. Hmm.

The former NPD Group (now named “Circana”) has released its full North American sales data for March, and it seems like it was an up-and-down month for the industry. Players spent $4.9 billion on games, additional content, and hardware in March, up 4 percent year-on-year. This increase came from mobile and software spending, as hardware sales were down 31 percent year-on-year with PS5 #1 in terms of unit and dollar sales, Switch #2 in terms of unit sales, and Xbox Series X/S #2 in terms of dollar sales.

Great news! A new Batman: Arkham game has been announced! Maybe-not-so-great news- it’s a VR title.

One of the achievements required for the Good Boy's Leash that has been gating a lot of people from the mount is Taking From Nature, which requires you to unlock all fishing nets in the Dragon Isles — Which requires completion of a daily quest at every fishing hole. The Grimtusk Fishing Hole, located in Azure Span, has been inactive since Week 1 of Patch 10.2.6, and many players missed it due to working on other achievements for the meta.

AI roundup, April 25: Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the expansion in AI investment to stay ahead of competitors such as Google, Microsoft, and other tech giants. The company also assured investors of monetisation opportunities. In other news, Duolingo highlighted that one of the reasons for their layoffs was AI adoption. Know more about what happened in the world of AI.

Recent data from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP) paints a concerning picture for Apple's iPhone in the US. The report indicates a significant decline in iPhone activations, pushing Apple's market share of new smartphone activations back to levels last seen six years ago.

Saber Interactive’s MudRunner game has carved out a solid niche for itself, but if you just can’t get enough of it, even with the recently released Expeditions: A MudRunner Game– well, there’s more on the way, albeit on new platforms.

Meta has announced that it is teaming up with Asus ROG and Lenovo to make new third-party VR gaming headsets that will run on the Meta VR ecosystem. The ecosystem itself is getting a refresh, as detailed by a lengthy blog post, and will now be known as Meta Horizon OS.

Meta has announced a partnership with several manufacturers to bring a variety of new, limited-edition mixed-reality headsets to market.

Asus ROG (Republic of Gamers) has confirmed it's developing a VR headset, and it'll be powered by Meta's Horizon OS — that's the operating system that devices like the Meta Quest 3 run on.

Meta today announced some changes to its virtual reality business to make it a more open ecosystem for developers and users.