Andrew Eiche didn’t exactly have to interview for his job at Owlchemy Labs back when they were finishing Job Simulator.

The question was whether he wanted to move to Austin, Texas.

Speaking with us roughly a decade after making that move with a series of credits to his name including some of the most used VR games of all time, Eiche said he called into our stream this week from a guest room in his home equipped with a bed that can fold up in case he needs space for VR.

“I got accused of never being offline,” Eiche says. “Work is one thumb tap away.”

Eiche’s hour and a half conversation with us amounted to a kind of “career retrospective” looking back at a decade in VR development, following our first such broadcast with Darknet and Ironstrike creator E McNeill.

Playgrounds For Roleplay

The stream started with Don Hopper in the background playing single-player games Job Simulator, Vacation Simulator, and Cosmonious High, as I talked with Eiche from the UploadVR Studios. By the end of the show the three of us were gathered around the campfire in Dimensional Double Shift as Eiche shared with us a clever strategy when you’re low on time and have too much work to do in VR.

Lighting your own simulated digits on fire quickly cooks held items.

Humor that players make for themselves is the most potent kind of joke in their VR games, Eiche suggested over our play session. As Don played the games and Eiche shared anecdotes, like the rat exterminator who came to Owlchemy’s office and suggested they should have been making League of Legends, we started to understand what changed about game mechanics and roleplay across each of the titles.

Eiche’s conversation with UploadVR comes during a turbulent time for the VR and gaming markets. He spoke on the record with UploadVR recently for our article covering Meta’s evolution “From Quest To Horizon“, so during this time with Eiche we focused on the games at hand instead of that broader conversation.

Still, you can see us begin to touch on the subject at various points. We talk about Horizon Worlds‘ reliance on controllers and mobile input, for instance.

Overall, the stream shows us how Google’s key investment in hand interactions from 2017 delivers us in 2025 a path forward for VR that relies only on your hands for a safe social playground online.

I ended the conversation asking Eiche to speak with us about the future of VR as a medium. While we encourage you to check out the whole stream for a look at a path through 10 years of VR development, I thought it worth clipping that out for us to reflect on.

“What you’re really going to see happen is, when you can combine the experiences that keep you engaged in the immersive, that’s when the magic’s going to happen because the converse of immersive is every time I have to look at my phone or my watch, we’ve also failed, right? So how can I have these fully immersive spaces and continue to engage with my two dimensional workflows without missing a beat in these spaces? That’s the entryway to mass market. That’s where this whole thing goes. As people go, wow, I’m experiencing one of the really cool immersive films that are out there, or I’m doing Puzzling Places, right? And I get a message in Puzzling Places or Walkabout. I get a message, right? Those games are kind of in the zone games. And you go, oh, I have to answer this Slack message. Right now, I have to take off my headset and look at my phone…but if I could just pop up Slack, answer it, close it, the game doesn’t even exit, and I’m off and running. That’s incredible.”

“And then you know what’s gonna happen? I’m going to exit Walkabout later on and go, well, I’m already in my headset. And I already know how to use Slack in my headset. Why not just keep using it? That’s how the iPad worked. That’s how the watch stuff worked. That’s how the phone worked. That’s the playbook. That’s where the future is. And I think we’re close to it. And the real question looking forward is, can we create a space for the 2D content to exist within the immersive without becoming so obsessed with the 2D content that we forget what made this platform so special?”

Silent North brings the VR zombie survival game from the Ghosts of Tabor studio to Quest and Steam this March, starting with an early access alpha.

Developed by Combat Waffle Studios (Ghosts of Tabor, GRIM) and published by Beyond Frames Entertainment, Silent North is a new PvPvE VR shooter set in the Alps. Tasked with fending off the harsh winter environment and zombies alike, you’ll need to survive against the infected hordes and other survivors as you fight for the scarce supply of resources.

Survival in this harsh environment involves managing basic needs like sustenance and warmth, all while looting different villages for supplies. You can form alliances with other players if you wish, and the developer states the day and night cycle provides strategic opportunities like offering the cover of darkness for stealth or spotting enemies from afar in daylight.

Next month’s launch follows the recent early access alpha for GRIM, a Rust-inspired VR survival multiplayer sandbox game. Co-developed by Spoonfed Interactive and Combat Waffle Studios, this PvPvE game sees you trying to survive while fighting for resources after efforts to colonize Mars failed.

Silent North arrives in early access on March 20 on Quest and Steam, and pre-orders are live now on the Horizon Store with a 15% discount. The Steam version will also receive a 15% discount at launch.

visionOS 2.4 will bring Apple Intelligence to Vision Pro, a Spatial Gallery app, an iPhone app for remote installs, and a new iPhone/iPad-driven guest flow.

The last significant visionOS update was 2.2 in December, which brought the Wide and Ultrawide Mac Virtual Display modes. visionOS 2.3 instead focused on bug fixes and security updates.

The first visionOS 2.4 developer beta is available to install now, and Apple says the stable release will arrive in April. Note that the first beta does not contain all the coming features.

Apple Intelligence

Apple Intelligence is the company’s name for its generative AI features. Some features run on-device, while others are offloaded to the company’s Private Cloud Compute (PCC) servers, and certain requests reach out to OpenAI’s ChatGPT, if you give permission for that.

Apple Intelligence arrived on iPhones (15 Pro and later), iPads (M-series or A17 Pro chips only), and Macs (M-series chips only) late last year, and Apple didn’t say at the time whether Vision Pro would get it too.

With visionOS 2.4 Apple is bringing the following Apple Intelligence features to Vision Pro: Priority Notifications, Notification Summaries, Smart Reply, Memory Movie creation and Natural Language Search in Photos, Priority Messages & Mail Summaries In Mail, Writing Tools, Image Wand in Notes, Genmoji, and Image Playground.

At launch, Apple Intelligence on Vision Pro will only support US English, with support for “additional languages” coming later this year.

Priority Notifications & Notification Summaries

Apple Intelligence will automatically decide which notifications are most important, such as messages from loved ones about imminent events, and surface them at the top of the notification stack.

Further, longer notifications and groups of notifications from the same apps will show an AI-generated summary in place of its content. We should note that this feature has been widely criticized for sometimes misconstruing the content of notifications, however.

Tapping the notification summary will bring up the original notification.

Smart Reply In Messages & Mail

Smart Reply “identifies questions and suggests relevant replies” to messages and emails, which Apple says will let you “easily respond to texts and emails with just a few taps” on Vision Pro.

This feature should be particularly useful for when you don’t have a Bluetooth keyboard connected at least, since floating virtual keyboards are slower to type on than touchscreen keyboards.

Memory Movies & Natural Language Search In Photos

In the Photos visionOS app, Apple Intelligence will bring the ability to generate a Memory Movie, as well as more advanced search.

“Simply type a description, and Apple Intelligence will pick out the best photos and videos, craft a storyline with chapters based on themes identified from the photos, and arrange them into a movie with its own narrative arc and a soundtrack,” Apple explains.

Meanwhile, the Natural Language Search feature promises to let you find photos and videos in your library by just describing them.

Priority Messages & Mail Summaries In Mail

Just like with notifications, in the visionOS Mail app Apple Intelligence should surface the most salient messages at the top of the stack.

Each email in the list will have an AI-generated short summary of its content, instead of just the first line as in traditional email clients.

Further, upon opening an email you can choose to AI generate a medium-length summary of its content.

Writing Tools

The Writing Tools feature will offer four kinds of tools for “rewriting, proofreading, and summarizing” long-form text that you type or dictate “nearly everywhere” in visionOS, including Mail, Notes, and many third-party apps.

These tools are:

• Proofread: “checks grammar, word choice, and sentence structure with suggested edits”.
• Rewrite: “adjust the tone of text to make it more friendly, professional, or concise”, or use Describe Your Change to specify the exact kind of change you want.
• Summarize: recap the text, break it out into Key Points, or turn it into a bullet point list or table.
• Compose: leverages OpenAI’s ChatGPT to generate any kind of textual content.

Image Wand In Notes

Image Wand in the visionOS Notes app will let you “create images based on rough sketches you create”, or AI generate an entirely new image “based on words and images from the surrounding area”.

Genmoji In iMessage

Genmoji is Apple’s feature to generate your own custom emoji in iMessage by typing or speaking a description of it.

Within iMessage, these Genmoji can “be added inline to messages, shared as a sticker, or sent as a Tapback”.

Image Playground

Image Playground lets you AI generate “fun and unique images from themes, costumes, accessories, and places”.

According to Apple, “users can add their own text descriptions, and can even create images in the likeness of a family member or friend using photos from their photo library.”

Image Playground is integrated into apps like Messages and Freeform, and is also available as a new standalone visionOS app.

Spatial Gallery

Spatial Gallery is a new visionOS app from Apple that “features a curated collection of spatial photos, spatial videos, and panoramas from artists, filmmakers, photographers, and more.”

At launch, Apple says it will offer “remarkable perspectives from photographers like Jonpaul Douglass and Samba Diop; new stories and experiences from iconic brands including Cirque du Soleil, Red Bull, and Porsche; behind-the-scenes moments from Apple Originals like Disclaimer, Severance, and Shrinking; and special moments from top artists.”

Rather than being an open platform like YouTube or Vimeo, which added spatial video support in October, Apple’s Spatial Gallery sounds like a highly curated closed platform, offering quality over quantity.

Spatial Gallery will be available in all Apple Vision Pro countries except for mainland China.

Apple Vision Pro iPhone App

Apple says the new Apple Vision Pro app for iPhone will let you remotely queue apps to download & install to your headset, see device information, and browse curated recommendations of the best visionOS content.

The My Vision Pro interface will show device tips, the current visionOS version, and the serial number, and will let you set up Personalized Spatial Audio by scanning your face shape with your iPhone’s TrueDepth sensor.

Meanwhile, Apple says the Discovery interface will show “popular apps and games on the App Store; nearly 300 3D movies, Apple Immersive titles, and more video content on the Apple TV app; and the latest spatial photos, spatial videos, and panoramas featured in the Spatial Gallery”.

The Apple Vision Pro app will be part of iOS 18.4 (stable), and will also be downloadable from the iOS App Store.

iPhone/iPad-Driven Guest User Mode

Currently, initializing Guest User mode on Vision Pro requires putting on the headset and unlocking it first, and if there are any issues you need to adjust for after the guest puts the headset on, you need to do that all over again. From experience, this can lead to frustration.

With visionOS 2.4, Apple is adding the ability to approve Guest User mode from a nearby iPhone or iPad signed into the same Apple Account.

As with the in-headset Guest User interface, this iPhone/iPad interface will let you choose which apps the guest has access to, as well as initiate View Mirroring with AirPlay.

Editor’s Note: Article updated briefly after publication to remove mention of Keynote, which Apple removed from draft press materials.

Neko Atsume Purrfect is celebrating ten years of kitty consumption with a new event, featuring crossovers with Breachers, Walkabout Mini Golf, and Gorilla Tag.

Released in 2023, Neko Atsume Purrfect Kitty Collector is putting the cat in capture with their new collaboration event, Nekomania, letting you seek out your cute feline mascots across different VR games. Across the participating Quest games, players can complete various missions to obtain feline-themed items and Easter eggs across unique collectibles.

The official website features the full rundown, but here are the VR games participating in the collaboration event:

• Neko Atsume Purrfect Kitty Collector
• Gorilla Tag
• Breachers
• Walkabout Mini Golf
• DigiGods
• Brazen Blaze
• X8

The Neko Atsume series began life as a casual mobile game and has since spun out onto VR, first in 2018 for the PSVR and then in 2023 with Neko Atsume Purrfect Kitty Collector on Quest. In our first impressions, we found its simple gameplay and mixed reality support to be a boon for newcomers to VR, saying, “Hit-Point’s done a nice job adapting this virtual cat playground for VR, and the casual pick-up and play approach makes it a better fit for Quest than it ever was on PSVR.”

Neko Atsume Purrfect Kitty Collector’s Nekomania event kicks off on February 21 at 10am PT on Quest, ending on March 20 at the same time. It’s also on sale for half price at $9.99 across this event.

Neko Atsume Purrfect Hands-On: Cute VR Intro For Newcomers

Neko Atsume Purrfect feels like a great introductory game for VR newcomers. Our hands-on impressions:

UploadVRHenry Stockdale

One True Path – Part 1 presents an intriguing genre-bending VR adventure, and the full release arrives today on Quest & Steam. Here are our full impressions.

Previously released in early access, One True Path is a narrative-driven game from the team behind A Fisherman’s Tale, InnerspaceVR. Now entering full release, you’re tasked with uncovering the mystery behind the murder of Jack Stevenson, author of the Fiendish Fates gamebook series. This involves exploring three of his wildly different worlds that include a post-apocalyptic western, classic sci-fi and gothic mystery.

We went hands-on before today’s launch on Quest 3, taking an hour to complete Part 1. Jack’s narration while his lifeless body remains collapsed on his desk immediately sets an intriguing tone that held my interest throughout. Without spoiling anything, I’m impressed by how well InnerspaceVR balances these entertaining narratives across each world while offering new insights into Jack’s life. This adventure varies your journey across Jack’s novels at set intervals, instead of sticking to one story at a time.

Each novel provides different abilities that match the novel’s tone, even if they aren’t especially in-depth. Shooting enemies as an outlaw cowboy after stunning them with an electric blast is pretty fun, as is slicing through undead skeletons with a fancy sword. The sci-fi novel is more like a puzzle game, offering welcome variety beyond a new environment. For example, one sequence involves switching between bodies and moving them to power up a room before you can leave.

I’m not someone who ever read through any ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’ style gamebooks, though I appreciate how the game leans into this theme despite the linear progression. You don’t have much freedom in One True Path usually beyond deciding which book’s route to take first. That said, accidentally encountering a “bad ending” gave me a good laugh as I realize how foolish that decision was in hindsight.

Whether you’re back in his office or exploring a novel, One True Path also restricts movement to teleporting between set locations. As someone who prefers stick-based locomotion, it’s a minor disappointment though hardly a dealbreaker, yet there are some moments where the visuals were blurrier than expected. Still, the cel-shaded presentation generally looks great, and that’s backed up by a fitting soundtrack.

Presently, there’s no indication for when Part 2 will follow and while this isn’t a particularly big journey yet, it didn’t need long to grab my interest. InnerspaceVR previously called this a pilot for its upcoming project and going by Part 1, I’d say One True Path is off to a great start. I’m keen to see where the studio takes this concept next.

One True Path is out now for $1.99 on Steam and the Meta Quest platform, and the full release has introduced support for Quest 2.

The latest Drums Rock DLC music pack includes five of Linkin Park’s most recognizable songs.

Now live on Quest, Steam, and PlayStation VR2, the new tracks are pulled from the band’s year-2000 debut album Hybrid Theory, and its 2003 follow-up Meteora. Featuring some of Linkin Park’s biggest hits, these songs are available separately or as part of a bundle. Here’s the full set list:

• In the End
• Numb
• Faint
• One Step Closer
• Somewhere I Belong

Drums Rock is an arcade VR game in which players drum their way through hell, fighting demons and monstrous bosses to the beat of legendary songs. Throughout the last two years, Drums Rock received a healthy series of updates, including songs from Green Day and Disturbed, Simple Plan, Cyberpunk 2077, and more.

Drums Rock and the Linkin Park Music Pack DLC are available now for the wider Meta Quest platform, PS VR2, and Steam.

Alien: Rogue Incursion’s Quest 3 patch with visual and performance improvements has been delayed until next week.

Previously due this week following the recent Alien: Rogue Incursion launch on Quest 3, developer Survios announced that patch 1.01 has been briefly pushed back. The studio confirmed this is because “some patch elements needed more time to ensure they meet our quality bar,” taking this decision to prevent the introduction of any new issues.

Reaffirming what the studio advised UploadVR following our recent hands-on impressions, Survios shared some highlights that patch 1.01 seeks to address. We’re still planning to revisit Alien: Rogue Incursion on Quest 3 once Patch 1.01 becomes available, and you can find the promised improvements listed below.

• Greater Atmosphere and Immersion: Numerous fixes/adjustments, including reintroducing blood in the environment.
• Tighter Visuals: Addressed minor visual bugs like LOD popping and adjustments to fog color and intensity.
• Performance Improvements: Reduced the chance of encountering performance drops during combat.
• …and more coming next week!

Alien: Rogue Incursion is available now on PS VR2, PC VR, and Quest 3.

Alien: Rogue Incursion Review – A Promising Yet Imperfect Entry

Alien: Rogue Incursion delivers tense, atmospheric narrative-focused VR action horror that falters in its repetition. Here’s our full review.

UploadVRDon Hopper

A PC VR release for Zero Caliber 2 is “in the works” and the developer confirmed plans for a spin-off game.

Released last year on Quest, you may recall that the initial Zero Caliber 2 reveal confirmed the VR FPS sequel was also heading to Steam. While XReal Games later informed UploadVR that “we’d have to see a really high demand” for a PC VR release, the studio advised earlier this week that the Steam release is back on track.

“We now have a working [PC VR] build – no release date yet as we still have quite a bit of fine-tuning to do. Soon though!” confirmed the team.

Following this news, yesterday then saw XReal Games release Patch 8 for Zero Caliber 2. While notable changes include removing the Christmas-themed items and six new challenges that unlock ‘OSA’ themed skins, the developer also announced it’s working on a new Zero Caliber spin-off. Nothing further was revealed about this upcoming game, and more details will be shared “when the time is right.”

XReal Games also used the Patch 8 blog to highlight “serious challenges” facing VR developers, touching upon similar concerns to our recent report. The studio criticized last year’s App Lab merge for creating “abysmal” store visibility, while pointing to Meta “aggressively pushing” Horizon Worlds, manufacturers redirecting their focus to MR/AR, and more. Despite this, the studio states it’s committed to “keeping the single-player/co-op shooter genre alive” in VR.

Zero Caliber 2 is out now on the Meta Quest platform, and the Steam release date is currently unconfirmed.

Zero Caliber 2 Review: A Thrilling VR Action Romp

Zero Caliber 2 is a strong follow-up to the original game, delivering a thrilling action-packed VR romp. Our full review.

UploadVRPete Austin

An official Neon Genesis Evangelion XR game is in development, aiming to kick off a new trilogy based on the anime.

Developed by Korean studio Pixelity Inc (Teahouse of Souls, The Patcher), the team announced that it’s signed a licensing agreement with Japanese animation studio Khara, Inc to design and develop the currently unnamed game. Pixelity confirmed the first installment is planned as a trilogy “based on the world and events of all 26 episodes” from the original anime TV series, and it’s scheduled to launch next year.

This action-adventure title sees you portraying an original character, letting you explore this world which involves “taking on quests, and engaging in thrilling battles – all while following the timeline and key events of the anime.” Pixelity also advised the upcoming game features interactive and cooperative gameplay with familiar characters. Not much else was confirmed, and the studio states to, “stay tuned for more updates and sneak-peeks about the game”.

Initially aired in 1995, the Neon Genesis Evangelion anime series remains critically acclaimed to this day. Focused on the fight between paramilitary group NERV and the Angels, this isn’t the first time the post-apocalyptic mech series has been adapted for XR. However, these have never been widely available beyond Japanese theme park attractions like Evangelion VR – The Throne of Souls and the Evangelion XR Ride.

No platforms have been confirmed yet, but the first installment for the Neon Genesis Evangelion XR game targets a 2026 launch.