Hello, everyone,

Thank you so much for taking the time to visit the website and sending positive feedback and support over the last two and a half years.

That said, we have a lot to digest when analysing the events from 2023.

We have seen a whirlwind of activity, with a lot of ups and downs within the extended reality industry. However, this has not deterred many of the brilliant minds working in this sector whom have helped to revive it from the cataclysms of 2022.

From this, a lot of companies have suffered at the hands of market chaos and turmoil—not simply those like Meta Platforms, HTC VIVE, Google, Sony, Microsoft, Varjo, but enterprises both big and small have faced volatile tech markets, wiping out their fortunes and forcing their executives to restructure their human and financial resources.

Some like Magic Leap have even seen changing leadership, while others like AR firm Mojo Vision have been placed on hold indefinitely.

Despite these challenges, we have collectively responded head on, and I think there’s a lot to be said about how the tech industry showed up to tackle such obstacles across markets from 2022 to part of 2023.

Most notably, there was much to be proud of over the course of last year, and, of course, I speak of this at the start of 2024.

With the first steps of this year, we as an industry have the opportunity to grab our proverbial morning coffee whilst reflecting on the hangover of 2022.

This will provide that essential fresh start, mental clarity, and reset needed to proceed towards progress into the future.

Let’s think about some of the milestones from 2023, so that, as we look into 2024, we can do so with renewed optimism.

Meta Quest 3

Firstly, a plethora of cutting-edge mixed reality headsets have debuted over the last few months. One in particular — the Meta Quest 3 — rapidly and strategically developed within the halls of the Menlo Park-based firm.

Upon the headset’s big revewal, global media praised the Quest 3 as a resounding success. This was an emphatic win for the company amid a sea of setbacks and the tide now shifts in favour of Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, Andrew Bosworth, and many of the tech giant’s C-Suite executives.

Since the company pivoted to developing infrastructure for the Metaverse in 2021, profitability has remained a stumbling block.

Meta has faced historically severe penalties for alleged European Union transnational data flow violations. It has been placed under the microscope for privacy, safety, and advert concerns, and has weathered austere funding shortages due to huge research and development (R&D) investment demands. Ignominious quarterly reports and a loss of 21,000 employees has earmarked the “Year of Efficiency” so frequently communicated by the company.

Hopefully, with the Quest 3’s incremental successes, Meta can turn around its fortunes and reputation whilst simultaneously evolving its ecosystem with its next-gen passthrough capabilities, low form factor pancake lenses, and Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 processor, among others.

Ideally, these hardware advancements will renew hope for consumers, developers, and enterprise users alike with a host of key use cases, games, and new avenues to communication spatially. More importantly, unlocking this potential into tangible returns on investment (ROIs) is critical.

Apple Vision Pro

Moving on, we saw the pomp and circumstance of the Apple Vision Pro, which debuted on June 5 last year. Although facing repeated setbacks and delays, the Vision Pro’s launch was a major victory, which, concurrently, also left some scratching their heads over the price tag $3,500 and imagining the headset’s future role in the tech marketplace.

That said, it does show that the world’s tech innovations could once again inspire conversations around extended reality. Furthermore, the Vision Pro presented tech enthusiasts with the opportunity to explore what was possible on different ecosystems, as well as how headset manufacturers were beginning to compete for the top spot in mixed reality hardware.

Apple CEO Tim Cook and many at the Cupertino-based company were able to finally present a snapshot of something quite astoundinig and truly groundbreaking. Although I sit on the fence when it comes to my take on Apple and their product ecosystem, I would definitely sat that they created a visionary device with the Apple Vision Pro, no pun intended.

I wish them all the success in the future for what they have created, and when the device releases early in the year, we’ll see where Apple needs to refine its headset and where it will pay off.

The Industrial Metaverse: Just Getting Started

Finally, I just wanted to say that 2023 has been an incredible year for developers, from my point of view, despite the debilitating limitations of 2022, triggered by serious repercussions from investing too soon too fast.

I think now is the time to take a step back and reflect on 2023 to recalibrate the industry’s understanding of XR and how it can best serve humanity, rather than just individuals seeking a quick quid or buck.

The saturnine consequences of 2022 have forced people involved in XR to genuinely take the time to build something of utility and lasting value. This has taken place with the triumphant rise of use cases within the industrial metaverse, which has slowly revealed how the technology can create a proper return on investment rather than just a quick return on investment.

This also came through several ecosystems, which are refining how next-gen headsets can benefit industry verticals, especially the educational sector. Meta’s alliance with several universities across the United States hopes to demonstrate this by boosting adoption rates for their products and find relevant ways that individuals can liberate their imaginations to further their education and to create a new generation of learners.

Empowered by XR, new generations of students can prove to the world that XR is a rudimentary, complementary tool in the learning and development (L&D) community. With heightened learner retention rates and unprecedented levels of engagement, I think there’s a bright future in the sector.

NVIDIA’s Omniverse has also showcased the unlimited potential XR can provide to educators, designers, people in the architectural, engineering, and construction (AEC) sector, and those piloting the industrial and enterprise metaverses. No longer synonymous with reportedly dead-eyed avatars and the virtual naff of NFTs, the Metaverse has received an upgrade of epic proportions, leading to untapped potential for industries.

Varjo and Vrgineers have led in flight training, completely distrupting the flight simulation industry and standards needed to receive pilot licences. I congratulate both companies and their teams for reaching this milestone with their respective class-leading XR-4 and XTAL 3 mixed reality headsets. I very much enjoyed stopping by the Varjo office in London on my birthday to try out their incredible immersive demos and chat further about their plans for mixed reality.

Here’s to the Future!

In conclusion, we’re no longer looking to the future with the previous sense of unmitigated bravado that left the sector fragile and retreating. Instead, we look to the future with a sense of careful, rational optimism in developing this magnum opus called XR.

As complementary emerging technologies like artificial intelligence, the internet of things, cloud and edge computing, and the Metaverse receive both innovation and regulation, we are in desperate need of the discussions to steer the course of their development or face serious repercussions in the future, as indicated in the Future of Life’s open letter.

I believe that, in 2024, the efforts from companies like Open AI and organisations like the AI Alliance, the XR Association, XR4Europe, Future for Privacy Forum (FfPF), the Metaverse Standards Forum, the Gatherverse, and many others will become instrumental in the ethical development of these scientific innovations.

These institutions have irrevocably catapulted AI into the forefront of our minds. We are now in dire need of these global discussions, which will determine the role humanity will facilitate in AI’s future.

This will also reveal whether humanity will become a bystander, or even worse, a byproduct of that future. This its of the utmost importance and we as an industry, let alone civilisation, should take great care and caution.

It has been a wonderful 2023, and it goes without saying that this list is simply a taste of the global achievements and highlights within XR.

So much has taken place across automotive, healthcare, research, music, entertainment, and even sports, leaving us with enumerable sources of inspiration. There’s still so much to discuss regarding the Sony PSVR 2, the HTC VIVE Flow and XR Elite, Pico 4, Ray-Ban Stories 2, XREAL Max, Rokid Air Max, and so many others that have debuted last year.

With the birth of Deus x Machina, I hope to contribute so that that future plays out for the better of humanity. Here’s to a bright and beautiful 2024.

Which events in 2023 were the most memorable for you? Share your thoughts in the comments below!