Pirates VR: Jolly Roger finds a new destination with next month’s launch on Quest 3 and 3S.
Developed by Split Light Studio, Pirates VR: Jolly Roger initially reached Steam back in January before later heading to PlayStation VR2. An action adventure game set on a cursed Caribbean island where you search for Davy Jones’ treasure, today’s UploadVR Winter Showcase revealed that it’s now getting a standalone release that’s been “rebuilt and optimized for the Meta Quest platform.”
Pirates VR sees you explore strange ruins alongside your sarcastic parrot companion, solving puzzles while fending off threats ranging from wild animals to undead pirates. Armed with various weapons like a magic lantern and flintlock pistol, this campaign lasts roughly four hours.
It’s worth noting that VRKiwi, Pirates VR: Jolly Roger’s original publisher on other platforms, isn’t publishing this upcoming Quest 3 port. That’s instead being handled by Incuvo, who recently launched Tracked: Shoot to Survive and are arguably best known for Green Hell VR.
We had mixed impressions during our Pirates VR: Jolly Roger review back in January on PC VR. Though we criticized some design issues and its “shallow” combat, we still ultimately enjoyed this roughly four-hour adventure, believing these shortcomings were “balanced out by rewarding exploration and great visuals.”
Pirates VR: Jolly Roger is out now on PlayStation VR2 and Steam, while the Quest 3 edition will follow on January 29, 2026.
Skytail looks like an adorable adventure game, and it’s coming to Quest soon.
Developed by Coatsink (Men in Black: Most Wanted), Skytail lets you soar across the horizon on a bird-like steed called a Skytail, using telekinesis to interact with the environment. This peaceful life doesn’t last, however, when an invasion from corrupted fiends steals your Skytail’s offspring. From here, your job is to use your powers and make a plan to get them back.
Across today’s trailer from the UploadVR Winter Showcase, we can see the player use gestures to throw fruit into their flying companion’s mouth and tear apart what appears to be an enemy creature’s body. The trailer ends with the player being flung onto a floating island with a sprite house, before looking up at their winged friend.
While there isn’t a great deal to go off so far, you can check out some additional screenshots not included in the trailer below:
“We are excited to reveal Skytail to the world today,” explained Coatsink CEO Richard Snowdon in a prepared statement. “This is just the first little tease of the charming world and fun powers that players will be able to experience in Skytail, and we look forward to being able to share more soon.”
Skytail is coming to Meta Quest 2 and 3. All the news from today’s showcase will be rounded up in an ‘Everything Announced’ list, so check back in after the show.
A forthcoming title from the creators of The Brookhaven Experiment goes for Half-Life: Alyx vibes in standalone VR.
A trailer for the game revealed in the UploadVR Showcase today shows off some of the interactions I tried in Automa with standalone Quest 3.
Available to wishlist today, I’ve put some gameplay video from the opening area of the demo below. An early testing release runs at a solid frame rate on my Quest 3 and, when it comes to first impressions, I really can’t ask for too much more here – impressive views, layered sounds, solid interactions, and a sense of place that rivals something quite like Half-Life: Alyx’s opening level.
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Footage captured by UploadVR.
Automa includes gravity gloves to pull a ton of interactive objects close as well as drawers, cabinets and doors all openable during my time in the game. One detail I enjoyed quite a bit was finding a cat litter box in my starting room and wondering if I’d meet the animal. I did, and even fed it. I found a monkey sitting on the ledge outside too and tossed something over, watching it react to my intrusion. Altogether, I interacted with four different animals during my brief time with the game alongside all the other environmental interactables, and Phosphor is aware of the desire for even deeper interactions as they continue building out this world.
Phosphor is the studio behind The Brookhaven Experiment, which recently re-released in standalone VR after being the first zombie wave shooter for the HTC Vive. With Automa, developers are looking to build a full “story-driven action-adventure” and are now looking for people to wishlist on PlayStation VR2, Quest 2 and 3, as well as on Steam. They’re also looking for people to join their Discord and help shape next steps.
Here’s how Phosphor officially describes Automa:
AUTOMA is a story-driven action-adventure built exclusively for VR, where exploration and immersion drive a world that feels alive and reactive. Players step into an atmospheric, highly detailed world teeming with beauty, mystery, and danger — one that invites curiosity at every turn.
Drawing from the best of immersive VR design, AUTOMA emphasizes believable physics and intuitive interactions that give rise to emergent, player-driven moments — making every encounter feel organic and personal.
Set in a near-future world where fears of AI misalignment are beginning to come true, autonomous forces have seized control of a Southeast Asian city. You’ve made a desperate deal to protect your family —but at what cost, and what will they ask of you next?
Automa’s rich introductory environment creates that same sense of a bustling city outside as City 17’s run-down apartment buildings, with people visible on the street below beyond a curtain fluttering in the wind barely visible through shutters in the window. Even the liquid in bottles bubbles internally as you shake them in your hand – not quite as dynamic as Alyx, but still a really nice touch that adds a sense of subtle and playful immersion.
Automa is scheduled to release in 2026, with a PS VR2 release also planned. With Steam Frame scheduled to join other new standalone headsets and Valve being noncommittal to a performant Half-Life: Alyx running on the headset without streaming, we’re extremely curious to see if Automa can fill some unmet demand. We’ll be on the lookout for more gameplay details from Phosphor and curious to see what else is in store for Automa.
Fresh Tracks, the fast-paced skiing rhythm roguelike, is getting a PC VR edition.
Developed by Buffalo Buffalo, Fresh Tracks is an action-rhythm game where players ride hectic slopes all while navigating obstacles, upgrading skills, and swiping away at aggressive enemies. Initially released in August as a flatscreen experience, Fresh Tracks is officially coming to VR as a separate release. Announced at the UploadVR Winter Showcase, here’s the reveal trailer:
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Fresh Tracks is set in the land of Norwyn, which is suffering under its cruel ruler, Mar, the Queen of Terror. Across its mythic landscapes, which include snowy forests, frosty towns, and desolate mountains, you pick from a range of genre-jumping tracks before hacking and slashing your way through levels in search of high scores. As you progress, you’ll also get the chance to unlock special swords and skis that provide unique abilities that bolster your runs, such as increased invulnerability and bonus heart containers.
Fresh Tracks VR is “coming soon” to Steam, with “other platforms to be announced in the future.” All the announcements from the UploadVR Winter Showcase will be rounded up shortly, so be sure to check back in for all the details.
Alliance Tales: Battle for the Frontier is a standalone mission pack in the Alliance Peacefighter universe, and it’s heading for PC VR in Q1 2026.
Announced during the UploadVR Winter Showcase, Alliance Tales: Battle for the Frontier is a story-centric combat sim inspired by Wing Commander and Star Wars: TIE Fighter. Players step behind the wheel of a spaceship, managing power and shields alongside a group of quirky alien comrades. You can see gameplay in the announcement trailer below:
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Alliance Tales: Battle for the Frontier’s campaign centers around a squad of pilots who, in searching for their lost friend, uncover a plot to overthrow the Alliance colonies. Here, avid cosmonauts will have to manage their ship’s power and shield distribution to survive frantic battles.
Those who have played Alliance Peacefighter will also recognize some familiar characters, as well as a host of new faces. Notably, Urban Logic Games confirmed that playing the original game is not necessary to experience this spin-off. Support for VR motion controllers and HOTAS joysticks is also confirmed.
Alliance Tales: Battle for the Frontier is launching on Steam in Q1 2026 with optional PC VR support. A complete list of all the announcements made during the UploadVR Winter Showcase will be available after the show.
VR roguelite Street Gods will launch in two weeks on Quest 3 and 3S.
Street Gods puts players in the shoes of Val, a graffiti artist who the Norse hammer Mjölnir chooses to be its keeper. The caveat here is that Thor is trapped inside the hammer and the nine realms are now collapsing into the real world, summoning hordes of villains with it. To stop Ragnarök, you must master the powers of this mythical weapon and destroy these foes once and for all.
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Street Gods’ gameplay centers around frenetic combat, and you’ll be able to perform a range of offensive and defensive moves including charged attacks, stun effects, and aerial control. These actions are all controlled by physical movement, with more unlocking as you progress.
In addition to Mjölnir, there are three additional weapons to wield. That includes Gleipnir for whip-based attacks, the defensive shield-like Svalinn, and the aggressive Duo Hammer. Prowess with these tools opens the door to Runic Blessings, which can be used to bolster your arsenal through permanent skill upgrades.
“Street Gods focuses on agency and progression through skill,” explained Soul Assembly Lead Game Designer Jim Norris in a prepared statement. “We wanted players to feel their growth in power through mastery of movement, combat, and decision-making, not just through passive upgrades.”
Street Gods arrives on December 18 for Quest 3 and 3S. All the news from today’s showcase will be rounded up in a neat ‘Everything Announced’ list, so check back in after the show.
Stellar Cafe, a game built around voice-first input and unscripted AI conversations with NPCs, arrives next week on Quest.
First revealed in August, Stellar Cafe is the upcoming game from AstroBeam, a developer led by former Owlchemy Labs CEO Devin Reimer. It promises an experience built around voice-first input as you interact with robotic characters across a sci-fi café. AstroBeam states it’s using human-crafted NPCs that interpret your voice, providing real-time responses via large language models.
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As confirmed in today’s UploadVR Winter Showcase, it’s now heading to Meta Quest 2, 3, and 3S on December 11. While Reimer previously confirmed to UploadVR that Stellar Cafe won’t be exclusive to Quest headsets, today’s announcement didn’t reveal anything further about additional platforms.
The upcoming game only supports hand tracking controls, and AstroBeam’s using licensed technology from Owlchemy Labs. In our hands-on preview back in August, we considered it “a bold idea for a virtual reality game,” comparing it to Job Simulator but if the older hit’s bots expected you to directly talk to them.
Stellar Cafe reaches the wider Meta Quest platform on December 11.
Underwater puzzler Echoes of Mora is launching on SteamVR next year.
Developed by Selkies Interactive, Echoes of Mora is an underwater puzzle game where you swim through dreamy sunken dioramas and unlock curious memories as you uncover its eerie story. Announced today during the UploadVR Winter Showcase, the aquatic mystery is launching on Steam in March next year. You can check out the gameplay in the trailer below:
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Echoes of Mora can be played in both PC VR and flatscreen modes, with players able to switch between mediums as they see fit, and their save slot will carry over between them.
During our demo hands-on at Gamescom this year, we found that while it’s by no means a seamless swimming simulator, the worldbuilding underpinning the mystery was more than enough to keep us engaged. We went on to say, “its compelling narrative beats and dreamy world design provide more than enough intrigue to earn it a place on my wishlist.”
Echoes of Mora is launching on Steam in March 2026. All the announcements from today’s showcase will be rounded up in a handy ‘Everything Announced’ format, so be sure to check back in after it’s finished.
Mixed reality block breaker Cues gets a new Creator Mode in today’s free update.
Developed by No Ragrets Games, Cues is a roomscale mixed reality game with hand tracking controls where you bounce light orbs into colorful cubes to gradually create a dynamic symphony. As seen during today’s UploadVR Winter Showcase, it’s now receiving a free Creator Mode on its first anniversary. Here’s the announcement trailer.
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As the name suggests, Creator Mode allows you to freely build your own layouts within the game across your living space, ranging from small models to larger fortresses. This joins the existing ‘Free Play’ and ‘Puzzles’ modes, the latter of which contains different puzzles with an increasing number of cubes as you progress.
We had considerable praise during our initial Cues hands-on in early access, calling it a “highly relaxing experience” with an approachable premise you can quickly understand. “The controls feel natural, these pleasingly colorful visuals are great, while the procedural symphonic music reacts to your movements well,” we said at the time.
Cues – Creator Mode is available today on the Meta Quest platform as a free update.
Mixed reality tactical roguelite Banners & Bastions confirmed its full release date on Quest.
Created by Not Suspicious (Airspace Defender, Tablecraft), Banners & Bastions is a tabletop roguelite with hand-tracking controls that’s available in early access. Today’s UploadVR Winter Showcase revealed that it’s entering full release on December 15, with the 1.0 Update adding new hero units with unique special abilities, a new bestiary, an autumn battlefield biome, and more.
Version 1.0 follows a continuing series of updates across early access. Following October’s addition of controller support, last month’s content expansion added a new dragon boss battle and more foes. The latter update introduced a new playable Minefield card and two new enemy types – the Witch (ranged) and the Elite Swordsman (melee).
Battles occur across procedurally generated maps as you defend your kingdom, with tougher foes gradually emerging across fresh waves. You can continue investing in your local economy or fortifications, while your troops range from spearmen, knights, archers, and more.
Banners & Bastions is out now in early access on the Meta Quest platform, with the full release coming on December 15.
Exoshock released a new gameplay trailer, confirming the VR co-op shooter will get an optional flatscreen mode.
Developed by PolarityOne, Exoshock is a cooperative sci-fi PvE shooter with a gritty dystopian setting that’s inspired by Warhammer 40k. This upcoming FPS promises intense firefights as you enter active war zones, prioritizing squad tactics for up to four players as you adapt using customizable loadouts. As seen in today’s UploadVR Winter Showcase, it’s received a new gameplay trailer.
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Notably, today’s trailer also confirmed that Exoshock will receive an optional flatscreen mode on Steam, stating the game is “VR first with flat support.” It’s unclear if this mode will be available straight away when the game launches, and we’ll update this article if we learn more.
Though the full game isn’t scheduled to launch until next year, Exoshock has recently been hosting alpha playtests through a free, limited-time Playtest App. The app provides immediate access to the Exoshock Staging Area, which allows you to try out every weapon straight away. Access can be requested through Steam, or the official Discord server for Quest.
Exoshock is heading to PC VR and Quest in Q1 2026.
Meta has officially confirmed “shifting some of our investment from Metaverse toward AI glasses and Wearables”, following reports of an up to 30% budget cut for parts of Reality Labs.
Reality Labs, if you’re unaware, is the division of Meta behind its Quest headsets, Horizon software, smart glasses, and sEMG wristband, as well as researching future technologies such as Codec Avatars and true AR glasses.
Yesterday, Bloomberg first reported that the division is facing up to 30% budget cuts that would primarily target VR and Horizon Worlds.
Following Bloomberg’s report, other mainstream news outlets including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Business Insider have published their own reports corroborating the general claim, with slightly differing details, and the NYT and BI even received an official prepared statement from Meta, which the company confirmed to UploadVR.
“Within our overall Reality Labs portfolio we are shifting some of our investment from Metaverse toward AI glasses and Wearables given the momentum there,” the statement reads. “We aren’t planning any broader changes than that.”
Business Insider’s report suggests that the cuts will primarily hit Horizon Worlds, and that employees are facing “uncertainty” about whether this will involve layoffs. One likely cut BI’s report mentions is the funding for third-party studios to build Horizon Worlds content.
The New York Times report, on the other hand, seems more definitive in stating that these cuts will come via layoffs.
Meta’s funding shift from Horizon Worlds and VR to smart glasses comes just over a year after a leaked memo from Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth told Reality Labs staff that 2025 will determine whether their projects are “the work of visionaries or a legendary misadventure”.
In the memo, Bosworth described 2025 as “the most critical year in my 8 years at Reality Labs”, and told staff they “need to drive sales, retention, and engagement across the board but especially in MR”. Note that at the time, Meta was using MR to refer to VR too, a nomenclature that it ended earlier this year.
“And Horizon Worlds on mobile absolutely has to break out for our long term plans to have a chance”, Bosworth followed that sentence with.
Since then, Reality Labs saw its highest-ever quarterly revenue in Q4 2024 with the launch of Quest 3S, which was the top-selling console on Amazon US for Christmas. But this momentum did not carry through into 2025 at all.
The first two quarters of 2025 saw Quest sales decline year-over-year, revealing that while Quest 3S was a popular stocking stuffer, it simply is not a successful year-round product. While Q3 saw a rebound, Meta explained that this was due to retailers stocking up on Quest 3S for this year’s holiday season.
Next year, our sources suggest that Meta has prioritized shipping an ultralight Horizon OS headset with a tethered compute puck instead of a traditional form factor Quest 4, and the company will be closely tracking how it performs in comparison to Quest 3 and Quest 3S through 2027.
Meanwhile, Meta has continued to push its Horizon Worlds “metaverse” platform with multi-million-dollar creator competitions, especially focused on smartphone-only worlds, as the company hopes to scale the platform from a social VR space to a cross-platform Roblox and Fortnite competitor. But this doesn’t seem to have gained much traction.
Meta is set to roll out its Horizon Studio world creation toolset, powered by the Horizon Engine it built to replace Unity in Horizon Worlds, and the company will be closely tracking whether this meaningfully improves engagement.
This relative stagnation in its Quest and Horizon Worlds efforts comes as the company is seeing skyrocketing sales and significant public and investor interest in its smart glasses.
Back in February, in its Q4 2024 earnings call, Meta’s partner EssilorLuxottica said that the Ray-Ban Meta glasses had sold 2 million units, and in its Q2 2025 call in July said that sales had more than tripled since last year, performing “exceptionally well”.
In its Q2 2025 call in July, the company said that the glasses were performing “exceptionally well” in the market, with sales having more than tripled compared to 2024.
During the February call, the company also announced that its annual production capacity for smart glasses would be increased to 10 million by the end of 2026. And in its Q3 2025 sales call in October, it said that it was accelerating this target to reach the 10 million annual production rate sooner, as smart glasses drove more than a third of its quarterly growth.
This combination of significant success in the smart glasses space and relative failure in growing its VR headset and metaverse platform business is likely the driver of the company’s decision to shift some funding to the former, hoping to further establish itself as the leader in the space before rival products from Apple and Google arrive.
