"VR Weekly Red List" VR investment is risky, cautious

The investment in the shopping mall is always full of suspense, and investors are not easy to bet on the treasure. The theory in the virtual reality industry is also common. The recent big move in virtual reality is that the Korean government's investment in virtual reality has shrunk by 42%. Of course, this is also indirectly affected by the South Korean presidential scandal. Economic downs will naturally affect other foreign investors, such as Facebook and HTC. When talking about good cooperation opportunities, I did not expect such changes in the middle, and investment will definitely be affected. However, the business community is so, there is no sure to make a steady investment. For Facebook and HTC, it is estimated that the two companies will be more cautious in the future. Ok, let's not say much, or return to our list this week to see what information is freshly on the list.

Top 1. Rift and Vive will be able to cut off the tail of the pig after the head

Nowadays, the products of the three major VR giants will be followed by the usual cables. This is because the high-quality VR heads need to rely on cables to connect to high-end computers to provide performance support. However, this and the cable behind the head display will limit the player's range of movement and experience, and many players hope to remove this drawback. Now hopefully, Rivvr hopes that their hardware solution will cut the cable, which will provide wireless playback for the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. Rivvr uses proprietary technology to compress smaller video signals from PCs and send only about 40-80 mbps of video signals over the air, by compressing the entire device of the original HDMI signal over the air. The device weighs about 300 grams, but does not make the head feel heavier because the weight of the cable has been removed. The wireless head is definitely one of the trends in the future. No one wants to have a long cable behind the head when playing. Although there are some flaws in the Rivvr hardware, it does not affect our expectations. Rivvr is a hardware startup company that was spun off from Sixa, a cloud computing PC manufacturer invested by Y Combinator. The Rivvr team wanted to combine technologies to deliver virtual reality content to users' heads-ups using Sixa's high-quality cloud computers.

Xiao V Comments: If VR equipment wants to achieve wireless, it can only say that it is beautiful, but it is still difficult to achieve it. After all, this is also a major difficulty affecting the development of high-end VR devices, but it is best to achieve wireless without compromising the user experience.

Top 2. New patents researched by Microsoft suggest that HoloLens will have eye tracking technology

A few days ago, Microsoft just held the WinHEC (Windows Hardware Engineering Industry Innovation Summit) conference in China. At the conference, Microsoft executive vice president Melson announced that HoloLens MR is undergoing approval by relevant departments and is expected to land in the first half of 2017. Chinese market. Microsoft's HoloLens device has attracted the attention of many companies since its commercial launch. Of course, in addition to its high technology, it has a wide range of application capabilities, which can be needed by many companies. Recently, Microsoft announced a new patent application, the research direction of which is to better track the user's eye gaze. According to the patent document published by Microsoft, the purpose of the new technology is to help users interact with computers, to overcome users who cannot use the mouse to move the cursor, and to help users who are overwhelmed by their hands, such as industrial control, aviation and emergency room. Natural outsiders wonder if HoloLens will have eye tracking technology. If Microsoft's patent is really going to work, then Microsoft will create a cost-effective, accurate and fast way to perceive what users are looking at. This will benefit future Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) applications and will also help anyone with a barrier to using a computer with a traditional keyboard and mouse.

Small V Comments: At present, all kinds of head-mounted devices can't reach the function of eye tracking technology. If Microsoft's HoloLens can take the lead in realizing this technology, it is estimated that it can take a big step to open VR equipment. Although HoloLens does not currently have a consumer version, Microsoft will certainly not miss this big market, and it is estimated that it will be enlarged next year.

Top 3. Kapukong EMEA executives said: "Resident Evil 7" can sell 4 million sets on the first day

The authenticity of Resident Evil 7 has reached a new height, and the protagonist and enemy will be directly reflected on the limb after being hurt. The knife wound on the protagonist's hand and the single hole hitting the enemy are clearly visible. As time goes by, there will be traces of mosquito bites on the protagonist's hand. Cardie EMEA marketing director Antonie Molant said in an interview that "Resident Evil 7" can sell 4 million sets on the first day, and most media ratings will be between 9 and 10 points (10 points out of 10), full of confidence. Why is he confident in his fascination? Molant said: "In the ideal case, the first day of the game can be sold globally to reach 4 million. From the current number of pre-orders we received and the trend of this period, we are very confident. According to market feedback, the situation is very optimistic in the UK and other regions. But we have not slackened, we still want to do better, it is so confident."

Xiao V Comments: At present, no matter whether it is a well-known game manufacturer or a small game developer, the VR game has not caused much repercussion and pursuit in the market. The "Resident Evil 7" VR version is not worried about no user to buy, I do not know because the game content itself is wonderful, or because the game has a user base, but how to sell it, it depends on the user after the final launch. Purchase situation.

Top 1. South Korea’s heart is shrinking on VR spending, is Facebook and HTC investing money to be squandered?

Recently, some media reported that the South Korean government had cut spending on the VR industry development plan last week, and the investment dropped to 9.8 million US dollars, a 42% reduction. According to outside suspicions, this move by South Korea is estimated to be caused by the rapid rise of the Park Geun-hye scandal. Although there is no direct connection between the two, a government oversight agency in South Korea said that the reduction in investment reflects the government's concerns about the transparency of the VR industry development plan and the lack of understanding of the goals of the development plan. In fact, since the beginning of 2016, South Korea has increased its investment in virtual reality. For example, in August, the South Korean government plans to set up a virtual reality and augmented reality special fund of about 35.8 million US dollars (about 240 million yuan). The minister in charge of technology, communications and future planning said on Sunday that the special fund will be managed for seven years and will be dedicated to game companies, theme park companies and educational resource companies in the AR/VR direction. Now that the South Korean presidential scandal has estimated that it has indirectly affected the development of the Korean domestic economy, the guilty measures against VR at this special time have also surprised the outside world. After all, the government’s policy and financial guarantees have been reduced. Enterprise development VR still has a lot of difficulties. Does South Korea’s approach to the virtual reality industry indirectly affect the VR investment plan announced by Facebok and HTC earlier in Korea?

Xiao V Comments: A few months ago, South Korea launched several policies on how to promote the development of virtual reality in China. However, it was unexpected that the presidential scandal had caused a negative impact on Korean politics and economy. In desperation, South Korea can only reduce the investment in VR, but for Facebook and HTC, it is undoubtedly a good one. After all, just talking about good cooperation opportunities, will actually kill such a moth.

Top 2. A week after the video fraud, Magic Leap’s public relations director announced his departure

Recently, Magic Leap began to move to the altar position. There were negative news reports. Some executives left the company before. In the past few days, there were media reports that Magic Leap’s popular AR video on the Internet turned out to be fraud. The so-called AR actually Is a synthetic effect. A wave of unrest, a wave of ups and downs, and today there is news that Magic Leap has executives leaving. According to the VR Daily, Andy Fouche, the deputy general manager of Magic Leap Public Relations (PR), has left the company, but he has also found the next company. He posted on Twitter that he will join another startup founded by Andy Rubin (the most well-known achievement of Andy Rubin is to lead Google to develop Android). In such a short period of time, the departure of Magic Leap's public relations director will inevitably lead to suspicion. Is this because of the video fraud that broke out before and has reached other executives? However, the prototype of Magic Leap has not been shadowed yet. The video fraud has greatly affected the user's trust in the product. It is inevitable that the public suspects that magic Leap is being touted too high, and the expectation value is not so high. Magic Leap's financing to date is about $1.4 billion. Investors include Google, Alibaba, Anderson Horowitz Fund and Warner Bros. I don’t know if the products launched by companies with such high prices can’t be beaten?

Xiao V Comments: Many people mention Magic Leap is still shocked by its ability to absorb gold. After all, the company's valuation has reached 1.4 billion US dollars so far, which is indeed a big financing for startups. It’s just that there have been a series of outbreaks of negative news, and the launch of the product has been delayed. It’s inevitable that the outside world will suspect that it is a name.

Top 3. Hideo Kojima thinks that the current VR games are "junk" and plan to go in person.

When it comes to Hideo Kojima, it is estimated that game fans will not be unfamiliar to him. Hideo Kojima became famous as the world's most famous Japanese game producer by leading the development of the game's first tactical espionage action game "Metal Gear" series. Although there are many well-known game makers such as Ubisoft and Sony that have launched VR games, it seems that the response has not achieved the desired results. Recently, Hideo Kojima accepted an interview with the Japanese media IGN Japan, saying that there is no VR game that he can call "like" so far, so that he wants to make a really good VR game. Why today's VR games can't satisfy users, the reasons may be many, whether it is hardware devices or content. Hideo Kojima said. "Now VR game producers have turned VR into an extension of traditional games. I can't agree with this kind of cognition." Since Hideo Kojima has plans to do VR games, when will it be possible to make it? According to the VR Daily, he is currently busy with his latest game "Death Stranding". It is estimated that before the game is completed in 2018, there should be no time to develop a satisfactory VR game.