Posted in: Games, Video Games | Tagged: apple, Apple Arcade

Apple Apparently Planning A VR Headset & AR Glasses

Published Wed, 13 Nov 2019 09:40:51 -0600

Apple apparently has bigger plans in store for its gaming section and Apple Arcade down the road with some peripherals currently being designed. According to a new article from Bloomberg, the company is planning both a VR Headset and a pair of AR Glasses, both of which will be out over the next couple of years. The plan appears to incorporate them into Apple Arcade, making their streaming gaming service competitive with others who use VR and AR tech. Here's a snippet from the piece.

In 2021 or 2022, Apple aims to release a combined VR and AR headset with a focus on gaming, watching video and virtual meetings. The company intends to roll out a lightweight pair of AR glasses as early as 2023, one of the people familiar with the plans said. Apple had originally intended to have the technology for its initial headset ready in 2019 for a release in 2020, but recently decided to push that back, the person added. The Information earlier reported that Apple told employees it is aiming to launch its first headset by 2022 and the glasses a year later.

Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook has talked up AR for some time, and the technology is the core of Apple's next big hardware push beyond the iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch. The new 3-D sensor system will be the centerpiece of this. It has been in development inside Apple for several years, and is a more advanced version of the Face ID sensor on the front of Apple's latest mobile devices, said the people.

The real question to ask here is whether anyone would be truly interested in owning these or not. Your average gamer usually chooses one or two systems for a generation of consoles or content, adding what they need over time. While VR is slowly becoming a standard with everyone to a degree, buying another piece of headgear that you can only use for one specific system doesn't sound like an appealing offer. If they were able to make the tech so you could use it with anything, that would be far more eye-catching and an ease on the wallet.

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