Given you’re paying so much, you’ll want to get the best out of it

The post 10 Of The Best RPGs You Can Play On Xbox Game Pass Right Now appeared first on Kotaku.

Right now, you can save $80 on the GMKtec Mini NucBox G5 PC over at Amazon.

The post Amazon Dumps This Mini PC at Its Cheapest Price Ever, a 4.5-Star Windows Backup Even if You Own a Mac Mini appeared first on Kotaku.

Meta’s Wearables Device Access Toolkit, which lets smartphone apps access the camera of its smart glasses, is now available as a public preview.

That means that developers can download it and integrate it into their iOS and Android phone apps, and can test it on their own glasses, but they cannot yet ship it for general public use.

Announced at Connect 2025, Wearables Device Access Toolkit lets phone apps capture a photo or initiate a video stream from the glasses. The app can then store or process the frames it receives. And since Meta smart glasses function as Bluetooth audio devices, developers can combine this visual capability with audio in and out.

Developers could, for example, leverage the SDK to add first-person livestreaming or recording features to their apps. Or they could feed the camera imagery to a third-party multimodal AI model to analyze what you’re looking at and answer questions about it.

For a video stream, the maximum resolution is 720p and the maximum frame rate is 30 FPS. To make this work, the SDK temporarily creates a Wi-Fi Direct connection between the glasses and the phone.

Ray-Ban Meta and Oakley Meta HSTN glasses are currently supported, with support for Oakley Meta Vanguard and Meta Ray-Ban Display coming in the near future. But to be clear, support for the latter will only include receiving camera imagery, not displaying anything on the HUD.

Interested developers can find Wearables Device Access Toolkit at wearables.developer.meta.com.

Early Developer Experiments

Meta provided an early version of the Wearables Device Access Toolkit to a handful of developers several months ago, including Twitch, Microsoft, Logitech Streamlabs, and Disney.

Twitch and Logitech Streamlabs are using the SDK to let you livestream your first-person view on their platforms, just as you already can on Instagram, while Microsoft is using it for its Seeing AI platform that helps blind people navigate and interact with the world around them.

One particularly interesting use case comes from 18Birdies. The golf app is experimenting with using Meta Wearables Device Access Toolkit for real-time yardages and club recommendations, helping golfers without requiring them to take their phone out of their pocket.

Another is from Disney’s Imagineering team, which explored using the toolkit to give guests a personal AI guide in Disney parks.

Disney Explores Using Ray-Ban Meta Glasses To Guide Guests Around Its Parks

Disney is exploring using Ray-Ban Meta glasses to give guests a personal AI guide in its parks, leveraging the new Meta Wearables Device Access Toolkit.

UploadVRDavid Heaney

For a limited time, you can save $20 on the Razer Tartarus V2 gaming keypad over at Amazon during the holiday season.

The post Amazon Pushes the Razer Customizable Gaming Keypad to Its Lowest Price as Stock Runs Out appeared first on Kotaku.

Also: Helldivers 2 has a new reason to come back and Sony is partnering with JJ Abrams’ Bad Robot

The post <i>Call Of Duty: Black Ops 7</i> Can’t Catch A Break: ‘All Year Call Of Duty’s Numbers Have Been Quite Low’ appeared first on Kotaku.

Apple’s head of user interface design is leaving the company, after almost 20 years, to lead design at Meta Reality Labs.

Alan Dye joined Apple in 2006, and since 2015 had been the VP in charge of the company’s software design, including the user interfaces of its operating systems and the design language it encourages developers to follow. He was involved in the iOS 7 redesign and watchOS, and led work on the iPhone X swipe interface, AirPods pairing interface, CarPlay, Dynamic Island, visionOS, as well as key Apple apps like the App Store, Safari, Maps, TV, Notes, and FaceTime.

Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman first reported Dye’s move, and a few hours later Mark Zuckerberg confirmed it in a post on Threads, stating that Meta is forming a new top-level “creative studio”.

Dye will be joined by Billy Sorrentino, who was one of his deputies at Apple since 2016, and Joshua To, who previously led interface design at Reality Labs.

Here’s Mark Zuckerberg’s explanation of the new design studio’s role at Meta Reality Labs:

“The new studio will bring together design, fashion, and technology to define the next generation of our products and experiences. Our idea is to treat intelligence as a new design material and imagine what becomes possible when it is abundant, capable, and human-centered. We plan to elevate design within Meta, and pull together a talented group with a combination of craft, creative vision, systems thinking, and deep experience building iconic products that bridge hardware and software.”

“We’re entering a new era where AI glasses and other devices will change how we connect with technology and each other. The potential is enormous, but what matters most is making these experiences feel natural and truly centered around people. With this new studio, we’re focused on making every interaction thoughtful, intuitive, and built to serve people.”

The claim that Meta plans to “elevate design” is particularly notable, given that the company’s Quest headsets have long been criticized for their confusing, scattered, and clunky user interface. Meta started rolling out a design overhaul earlier this year, but it’s still experimental, and far from complete.

We also criticized the interface design of Meta Ray-Ban Display in our review, pointing out that it takes far too many swipes and taps to accomplish many common tasks.

Quest v83 PTC Has The Evolved Horizon OS UI Meta Teased At Connect

Horizon OS v83 PTC includes the evolved Quest system UI that Meta teased at Connect, as well as scene understanding for slanted ceilings and inner walls.

UploadVRDavid Heaney

It will likely take years, or at the very least many months, before the results of Dye’s new design team arrive in Meta products. But it could, if all goes well, be a crucial ingredient for Meta’s hopes to stave off competition from Apple and Google in the smart glasses and XR headsets market as the technology matures and scales to hundreds of millions of users in coming years.

Rare and Xbox should make a new Banjo game, but until then, Mumbomania will have to suffice

The post <i>Banjo-Kazooie</i> Fan Project Inside Sony’s Abandoned Game Maker Looks Surprisingly Great appeared first on Kotaku.

A limited-time Amazon deal is your chance to upgrade your gaming setup with this quick-response display for just $143.

The post Samsung Breaks Its Gaming Monitor Price History as the 27″ Odyssey G3 Series Drops to an All-Time Low appeared first on Kotaku.

It sure looks like a popular fan theory about Pokémon Pokopia is playing out

The post A New Leak Is Fueling Speculation That The <em>Pokémon Animal Crossing</em> Game Turns Your Childhood Into A Graveyard appeared first on Kotaku.

Game better with the ASUS GeForce RTX 5070 without paying the full price for it.

The post ASUS Goes Full Clearance on Its Graphics Cards as the GeForce RTX 5070 Drops to a New Record Low appeared first on Kotaku.

Quest headsets now have a second exclusive 3D clip from Avatar: Fire and Ash.

It comes just under three months after the first exclusive 3D clip from the movie arrived on Quest headsets just after Meta Connect.

The short 3D clips are the first results, albeit small, of Meta’s exclusive multi-year partnership with James Cameron’s new company Lightstorm Vision, which has the goal of “making stereoscopic technology ubiquitous for all visual media by enabling stereoscopic 3D content creation in as seamless a manner as traditional 2D”.

The partnership, announced almost exactly one year ago, should help bring significantly more 3D video content to Quest headsets. At the time, Meta said it will bring “world-class 3D entertainment experiences spanning live sports and concerts, feature films, and TV series featuring big-name IP” to Horizon OS.

James Cameron appeared on-stage during the Meta Connect 2025 keynote for around twelve minutes, where he reiterated his views on how VR headsets are the ideal viewing platform for 3D content.

Apple’s competing visionOS offers hundreds of 3D movies through Apple TV and Disney+, but Meta’s platform currently lacks an equivalent offering.

James Cameron: VR Headsets Solve The Problems Of 3D Cinema

James Cameron, who recently announced a partnership with Meta, waxed lyrical about how XR headsets solve the problems of traditional 3D glasses.

UploadVRDavid Heaney

You can find the Avatar: Fire and Ash 3D clip in the TV app on Quest, where you can also find the two official trailers for the movie in 3D.

Oh My Galaxy! is a new mixed reality arcade puzzler that’s out today on Samsung Galaxy XR.

Marking its first launch on Samsung’s headset, Oh My Galaxy! is the latest game from FRENZIES developer nDreams Near Light. The premise involves transforming your room into an interplanetary playground, tasking you with saving planets from alien attackers using hand tracking controls to fling asteroids at them.

Near Light states there are over 100 increasingly difficult stages split across three main chapters, promising physics-based gameplay with various objectives. Defeating these aliens requires using different asteroids with unique abilities, ranging from the “high-explosive Boom Boulder to the six-part Splitter Stone.”

nDreams calls this one of the first “original titles” for Samsung’s headset, joining launch titles Enigmo and Inside [JOB] as one of three currently exclusive Android XR games. However, while Enigmo is a timed exclusive that’s coming to Quest, no further platforms were mentioned in today’s announcement, so it’s unknown if Oh My Galaxy! will eventually arrive elsewhere.

Oh My Galaxy! is available now on Samsung Galaxy XR for $9.99.

The follow-up to a cult favorite is getting a frosty reception

The post <i>Let It Die: Inferno</i> Dev Gets Shockingly Transparent About Using Gen AI As Fans Fight Over Microtransactions And PVP appeared first on Kotaku.

Save $75 on the first generation Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses at Amazon.

The post Meta Ray-Ban (Gen 1) Just Fell Even Lower Than Black Friday, the Smart AI Glasses Are Now Priced Like No-Name Sunglasses appeared first on Kotaku.

The pricey figures let you do things most games would let you do for free

The post <em>Metroid Prime 4</em> Makes You Drive Around The Desert In Silence Unless You Buy This $30 Amiibo appeared first on Kotaku.

The Brotherhood of Steel doesn’t have it easy in Oshii’s Commonwealth

The post <i>Ghost In The Shell</i> Director Is Obsessed With <i>Fallout 4</i> And Killing The Brotherhood appeared first on Kotaku.

Save 27% on the JBL Flip 7 Bluetooth speaker for a limited time over at Amazon.

The post JBL Makes a No-Margin Play With Its Flip 7 Speaker to Offload Leftover Black Friday Stock appeared first on Kotaku.

Stream your PS5 library in 1080p with full DualSense haptics and adaptive triggers.

The post Amazon Dumps PlayStation Portal Handheld Stock, Still at Black Friday Record Low for PS5 Owners Only appeared first on Kotaku.

One of Apple’s newest smartwatches is still under $200 nearly a week after the big day of deals.

The post Apple Watch SE 3 Gets Cleared Out at All-Time Low, Practically Renewed-Level Pricing for Its Latest Smartwatch appeared first on Kotaku.

Full racing setup at a new record low price.

The post Logitech Failed to Clear Racing Wheel at Black Friday, Now Liquidating Stock at Record Low appeared first on Kotaku.