Watching an NBA game in the Apple Vision Pro feels like a glimpse of where sports and entertainment need to go, even if the path forward is still taking shape. Apple is clearly experimenting with what watching sports can feel like when you are no longer locked into a flat television broadcast.
I recently went onto the court at an immersive Lakers game from the confines of Ian Hamilton's Vision Pro I borrowed from him in New York City. This was not a live broadcast, I watched the game on demand via the Spectrum SportsNet app, after the fact, in guest mode on his headset wearing my own personal Dual Knit Band. The experience leaving my Quest 3 behind and spending extended time in an immersive Apple experience left me both impressed, and conflicted.
Viewers are given a choice about how to watch an NBA game in headset.
You can watch the game on a floating virtual screen, which already feels cleaner and more cinematic than a traditional TV. Or switch into fully immersive 180-degree 3D view for a full two-hour cut-together view of the game from start to finish. That second option is where the experience shows the most potential, but we also shouldn't dismiss the first mode. That first mode can be more easily shared in mixed reality with other apps and people, making the experience of watching there a bit like an IMAX version of an NBA game that's simultaneously without any of the typical distractions. Ian showed me a Jupiter environment in his headset too, and I could've watched the game there, surrounded by the gigantic planet and glimmering stars. All that said, instead, I dropped into the immersive mode for most of my time with the game.
In immersive mode, you are limited to a small set of camera perspectives and a singular timeline through the game. There are cameras mounted beneath each basket at opposite ends of the court, a ground-level center-court view, and a wider angle from up in the stands. Those angles are sufficient for following the game. Most intriguing about my time in this mode is that some of the most compelling moments had little to do with the action on the court.
The cutaways to commentators and sideline reporters stood out immediately. Interviews are presented in 3D and human scale, and that changes how you perceive the people on screen. You see their entire bodies rather than a cropped head-and-shoulders shot, and they feel more like they're standing right there talking to you. The sense of scale is immediate and lasting. You can also tell how tall these players actually are and start noticing details you would never catch on television, like a birthmark on a shoulder or sweat collecting along an arm.
An Apple Immersive NBA broadcast feels intimate in a way traditional broadcasts are not. That intimacy is powerful, but it also highlights a challenge immersive sports production will have to solve. At one moment, feeling present on the court can be a good thing, and the next it can feel uncomfortably close. Immersive broadcasts still need to learn where that line is, and how to stay on the right side of it from moment to moment. In something like the recent Tour De Force MotoGP documentary, the immersive filmmakers had quite a bit more time to prepare around a very specific narrative, and you can feel the difference moment to moment.
UploadVRIan Hamilton
For basketball, the immersive cameras provided terrific close-up views of plenty of interesting things outside the game too. Instead of watching commercials you're watching the Laker Girls during breaks, and their performances in 3D at human scale again reinforces the difference from television. You feel as if you are standing there, close enough to appreciate movement, spacing, and physicality. During commercial breaks, you can watch the crew wipe down the court, see players and staff milling about, and catch the in-between moments that usually disappear when the feed cuts away. Those behind-the-scenes details add texture and strengthen the feeling that you are actually inside the arena, not just consuming a polished broadcast.
The experience shows more friction once active gameplay ramps up. When using the center-court camera, the action constantly moves left to right and back again. That means repeatedly turning your head to follow the play unless the feed switches to one of the basket cameras. Over time, that motion becomes tiring.
I found myself wishing for more camera options, or better yet, the ability to manually switch views during the replay. An Immersive Highlights clip separate from the full broadcast pulls together some of the best moments seen from Apple‘s cameras over the course of the game, and at less than 10 minutes long, it offers a great way to see some of LeBron James’ best moments from behind the backboard without giving too much time to neck strain. Basketball broadcasts have always been built around wide shots that let you see the entire floor at once. In immersive VR at certain angles, the constant side-to-side motion means your head and neck are doing more work than they ever would in front of a TV or even at the game itself.
Even with the Dual Knit Strap, the Vision Pro is heavy and coming from extended daily use with a Meta Quest 3, I felt the Vision Pro's weight immediately pushing down on my face, and it stayed there throughout my time. For shorter sessions, it is manageable. For longer viewing, headset weight may be the biggest thing holding this use case back even if it isn't the only thing.
Immersive viewing isn't just the future of sports, concerts, and entertainment – it's here today, to quote William Gibson, just "not evenly distributed." The sense of presence here is too compelling to ignore. What feels less certain is how quickly the hardware evolves, how the technical implementation will improve, and how it will scale to become mainstream.
Ian's hands-on experiences with Steam Frame would suggest a much more lightweight experience that could be worn for extended periods, and he showed me how slim the Bigscreen Beyond headset is, which takes the minimal small and light form factor to the extreme. He also hasn't worn the Frame for an extended period, yet, and neither Apple nor the headset manufacturers have shown any indication that Apple's top tier immersive programming is coming to any headset other than one with an Apple logo shown at startup.
So, much as it was in 2016, and in 2024, right now immersive sports still feel like a glimpse of the future even if it works now. It is not a default viewing mode. What Apple is doing with Vision Pro and Apple Immersive is not a finished product. It is a preview. And as previews go, this one is strong enough to make me want more, even as it makes clear how much work remains to create a mass-market experience.
You've probably heard about AMD Ryzen 3D V-Cache ("X3D") CPUs failing in ASRock motherboards, but ASRock is far from the only vendor seeing these failures, and it may not even be the most prominent one. ASUS has now formally acknowledged the rare issue in a statement published today on its website, titled "Official ASUS statement on recent 
It's been a long time coming, but Fable is finally back, with a confirmed multi-platform autumn release window across Xbox consoles and services including Play Anywhere, PC, and PlayStation 5. A deep-dive on the new Fable, as well as this release window confirmation, came out during the Xbox Developer Direct along with news of Xbox PC games 
Nintendo has a rich history of releasing unique accessories, like the R.O.B (Robotic Operating Buddy) during the Nintendo Entertainment System era and the more recent Alarmo designed to help fans start the day. And the company has a new one on the way based on the Talking Flower from the Super Mario Bros. Wonder game.
The Talking Flower 
The studio behind Walkabout Mini Golf confirmed layoffs and a course correction to strategy in the wake of Meta's shifting platform ambitions.
Mighty Coconut joins Cloudhead Games and many others in layoffs, with the studios representing two ends of a spectrum of focused VR development that has been influenced directly or indirectly by the shifting spending and priorities at Facebook and Meta. Cloudhead's Pistol Whip and Mighty Coconut's Walkabout Mini Golf remain two of the best ways you can spend your time in a VR headset, but the engines of creativity behind those works keep changing.
Mighty Coconut posted contact information for several former workers to LinkedIn in an attempt to see them recruited elsewhere, and confirmed to UploadVR roughly eight jobs ended in the change with 27 continuing full time.
"We’re feeling the economic pressures of the VR space. It’s an incredibly rewarding place to build games—but it’s also a tough one, especially for studios of our size," a statement reads. "After a lot of long conversations, trimming expenses, and careful number-crunching, it became clear that reducing our size by about 25% was the only sustainable path forward. As a result, we’re losing some immensely talented people that would be an asset to any studio. "
New DLC courses will be priced $4.99 in virtual reality with the parallel Pocket Edition for iPhones seeing a full pause to development, so no new courses outside VR. Existing paid DLC courses will remain $3.99 in VR.
"We’d like to keep crossplay between VR and mobile functional for as long as we can, but we will also be sunsetting that at some point," a development update note explained. "We will be sure to announce that in advance once we do."
When it comes to scheduling, Mighty Coconut is also planning a bigger pause to the release schedule over summer to leave them with one less course in their planned schedule for the year, even as work continues on courses for 2027.
Additional activities in the game like chess and slingshots remain functional but further development is being put into new courses first.
"We feel confident that with these changes, Walkabout Mini Golf will be around for many, many courses to come," the note reads.
Walkabout Mini Golf was shown at standalone headset demo events powered by operating systems from Google and Valve, but Galaxy XR launched with limited controller availability and Steam Frame is still distributing development kits.
In a series of interviews at Davos, Meta's CTO explained why the company is reducing its investment in VR.
If you somehow missed it: last week Meta shut down three of its acquired VR game studios, conducted significant layoffs at a fourth, canceled the Batman: Arkham Shadow sequel, and announced the shutdown of Horizon Workrooms and its Quest headsets for business offering. These actions came a month after the company officially confirmed "shifting some of our investment from Metaverse toward AI glasses and Wearables".
UploadVRDavid Heaney
At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth has finally made public statements about the VR layoffs and shutdowns, via a series of interviews.
One of the interviews was with veteran tech reporter Alex Heath. While Heath hasn't yet shared the interview (this is set to happen in the coming days), he has published an article with key quotes wherein Bosworth declares that "VR is growing less quickly than we hoped".
“We’re still continuing to invest heavily in this space, but obviously, VR is growing less quickly than we hoped,” Bosworth apparently told Heath. “And so you want to make sure that your investment is right-sized.”
According to Heath, Bosworth claimed that Meta has seen “really, really positive pickup” in Horizon Worlds on smartphones, and plans to double down on this with continued investment in Horizon on mobile.
“You've got a team that actually has product market fit in a huge market on mobile phones, and they're having to build everything twice. They're building it once for mobile phones, and building again for VR. There's a pretty easy way to increase their velocity: just let them build for mobile. So Horizon is very focused now on mobile — not exclusively, but almost exclusively,” Bosworth is quoted as saying.
Clip from Axios interview with Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth.
Another interview, available in full on YouTube, was conducted by Axios' chief technology correspondent Ina Fried.
In it, Bosworth gave a very similar explanation for Meta's shift in strategy.
"It's like any investment, you're gonna look at how you do over the course of years and you're gonna reinvest in some areas and trim your losses in others.
For us, we're seeing tremendous growth of our metaverse on mobile. You know, Horizon is this thing that started on VR headsets. But obviously there's much more users today on mobile phones. We've been pivoting over the last year to focus on the mobile market and it's going really well, and so you kinda wanna double down on that."
Bosworth also seemed to suggest that Meta's significant investment in the VR side of Horizon Worlds, and repeated pushes to convince Quest headset wearers to use it, came at "an expense of user experience".
"We're gonna let VR be what it is, what it does", Bosworth said. "We're gonna have focus a lot more on the third party content library, the ecosystem that's developed there."
That seems to suggest that Meta will pull back on pushing Horizon Worlds for VR users and on making its own content, leaving the content ecosystem to third-party developers and letting headset owners choose the content they want.
Each week, the Epic Games Store gives away a title or two as part of the company’s free game program. This week, all those with an Epic account can get their hands on the top-down open world action-adventure comedy Rustler (Grand Theft Horse).
Available to add to your library from now until the 29th of January at 4PM UK time, Rustler (Grand Theft Horse) is a top-down GTA inspired comedy set in a “historically inaccurate medieval setting” in which you play as ‘The Guy’, experiencing “feudal injustice, inquisition, witch-hunting” and much more.
Developed by Jutsu Games (the team behind the indie hit 911 Operator series), Grand Theft Horse is certainly not for everyone, with its focus on humour landing with some but not others.
That said, the game was received well, with its mix of old-school GTA gameplay and a mediaeval setting lending itself to plenty of fun moments – as long as you can tolerate some jank. Either way, for the price of free, there is no reason not to add the game to your library and give it a go.
Rustler (Grand Theft Horse) will be available to add to your library from now until the 29th of January, at which point it will be replaced by the business management sim ‘Definitely Not Fried Chicken’.
KitGuru says: What do you think of this week’s offering? Had you heard of Grand Theft Horse before? What’s your favourite style of humour? Let us know down below.
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California-based Singer has unleashed the Sorcerer, the first customer commission (of 99) for its DLS Turbo program, effectively turning the clock back to the golden era of endurance racing while catapulting the Porsche 911 into a 700-horsepower future. TL;DR, we want one.
The Singer Sorcerer is far more than a restored classic; it's a 
I've said this a million times by now (rough estimate) but it bears repeating - never pay full price for an audio product. NEVER! Yes, that's a blanket recommendation and we're sure it can nitpicked to find exceptions, but for the most part, paying full price for headphones or earbuds or speakers and so forth is a fool's game. That's because Greedfall was a well-liked though ultimately somewhat janky RPG from studio Spiders which released back in 2019. Selling over 2 million copies, the game was confirmed to be getting a sequel (prequel), with Greedfall 2: The Dying World taking the Early Access approach in September 2024. A year and a bit on, the team have now confirmed that Greedfall 2’s full 1.0 release (and console launch) is scheduled for this March.
Releasing a gameplay overview trailer, the team at Spiders confirmed that Greedfall 2: The Dying World will be leaving Early Access on the 10th of March – coinciding with its console launch on the 12th.
As mentioned, the first Greedfall was far from perfect, with gameplay in particular being a weak point for some. That said, its RPG aspects were well-liked and so having a more refined version of its systems is an exciting concept.
That said, impressions during its Early Access period have been rather mixed, with some of the issues reported by players being hopefully fixable by launch; while others are more systemic in nature.
Regardless, you'll be able to check out the full version of Greedfall 2: The Dying World when it officially launches on the 10th of March for PC (and the 12th on console).
KitGuru says: What did you think of the original Greedfall? Do you have high hopes for the sequel? What’s your favourite game developed by Spiders? Let us know down below.
The post Greedfall 2: The Dying World leaves Early Access in March first appeared on KitGuru.
Researchers have discovered that the same sensors used to detect earthquakes are the key to tracking the growing swarm of space junk plummeting toward Earth.
As the orbital highway becomes increasingly congested, the European Space Agency’s (ESA) 2025 Space Environment Report paints a sobering picture: intact satellites and rocket bodies 
Samsung believes it can put a major dent in the screen protector industry with a revolutionary new glass for the upcoming Galaxy S26 Ultra. If latest rumors are to be believed, the phone's next generation Gorilla Glass boasts unprecedented scratch and crack resistance, while possessing anti-reflective and screen privacy tech.
Leak！
Samsung 
You've heard of Gorgon Point, which emerged as the Ryzen AI 400 series at the Consumer Electronics Show earlier this month, but what about Gorgon Halo? Rumor has those chips are en route too, though they're not yet official. While we wait for an unveiling, a notable leaker has posted to Facebook what they claim are several upcoming Gorgon While the studio is known almost exclusively for their work on the Pokemon series, Game Freak as a developer has dipped its toes into other waters in the past. That said, by far their most ambitious project is Beast of Reincarnation – a visually impressive action title in the vein of Black Myth Wukong. Initially announced back in June last year, the game is officially set to arrive on PlayStation, Xbox and PC this Summer.
Taking part in the latest Xbox Developer Direct, Game Freak offered a deep dive into Beast of Reincarnation, showing off much more of the game's vibes, narrative, aesthetics and most importantly gameplay.
While it appears to take inspiration from many modern action titles, Beast of Reincarnation features a rather unique blend of real-time combat alongside quick-time events when using skills (almost like a reverse of Expedition 33).
Though we did not get a concrete release date, Beast of Reincarnation has been in development for 6 years and so the team are nearing the finish line, with Game Freak confirming that they plan to launch the game some time this Summer.
Unlike pretty much every other Game Freak releases, Beast of Reincarnation is coming to all platforms except Nintendo – meaning PS5, Series X|S and PC. The full deep-dive can be found HERE.
KitGuru says: What do you think of Beast of Reincarnation? Are you looking forward to the title or does it seem a bit too derivative in your opinion? Let us know down below.
The post Game Freak’s Beast of Reincarnation launches in Summer first appeared on KitGuru.MSI has expanded its networking lineup with the launch of the Roamii BE Pro, a new WiFi 7 mesh system aimed at high-performance home, or even small office, environments. Built around the latest WiFi 7/802.11be standard, the Roamii BE Pro is available in one or two-unit packs, with the former costing £149.99 and the latter hitting shelves at £279.99.
MSI's new Roamii BE Pro was announced back at CES 2026, with the system using a tri-band design, supporting 2.4GHz, 5GHz and 6GHz bands, while it also includes Multi-Link Operation and 320MHz channel support. MSI quotes combined wireless speeds of up to 11Gbps, with ‘5746 Mbps on 6GHz, 4323 Mbps on 5GHz and 688 Mbps on 2.4GHz,' enabling, in MSI's words, ‘smooth 4k/8k streaming and online gaming'.
Each node is equipped with four 2.5GbE ports, allowing for high-speed wired connections or even a wired mesh backhaul if Ethernet is available. Setup and ongoing management are handled through the MSI Router 2.0 app, which provides traffic monitoring, basic QoS controls and other features. MSI also highlights its FortiSecu integrated security features, allowing users to ‘scan and protect' connected devices, setup parental controls or or even setup individual, isolated networks for different users.
The company is focusing on the aesthetics of the units, too, and the nodes certainly don't look like what you'd expect from a manufacturer with a gaming background. Each unit has a triangular shape and even supports RGB lighting in the base, while there's ventilation in the top and rear panels to avoid overheating. Dimensions of 118.5 x 108 x 252.5mm make them fairly compact, too.
We will have a review of the Roamii BE Pro coming soon, so stay tuned for that!
Discuss on our Facebook page HERE.
KitGuru says: Are you looking to upgrade your WiFi setup this year, and would you consider the MSI Roamii BE Pro?
The post MSI introduces new Roamii BE Pro WiFi 7 mesh system first appeared on KitGuru.
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