The Immersed IRL event, held yesterday in Austin, Texas was the company’s big moment to showcase its upcoming headset and build confidence that it was on track to deliver on the promise of an ambitious headset. But a botched demo may have done the opposite.
At the end of the keynote, Bijoy said that the headsets were being updated to a new firmware, and that the start of promised demos might be slightly delayed. I headed to the demo line, scheduled to be part of the first demo group at 11am. At 11:30, a harried-looking group of Immersed employees pressed quickly through the crowd with headsets cushioned in styrofoam and disappeared behind the black curtain screening off the demo area.
For the next couple of hours, we waited patiently, getting occasional hints from event workers that setup was still in progress, and that demos should start soon. Eventually, a voice over the intercom announced that demos were starting, but that software issues meant that they would be “hardware only” demos.
What that ended up meaning was that we could look at and handle the headsets, and we could even put them on our heads to feel the comfort and weight. But that none of the headsets would actually be powered-on. I asked if we could at least power them up to see the quality of the displays, even if we couldn’t use them running a proper virtual environment, but was told no. Questions to determine when an actual demo might be possible—late in the day? Tomorrow?— were met with discouragingly noncommittal responses.
I have been banned from Immersed’s discord server since I made a single critical comment of their crypto land sale. No warning, just banned for a single message. They cancelled their crypto land system and to their credit refunded the investors. However they have been taking deposits for this new headset for a year + with a delivery date of “2024” which clearly isn’t happening. I truly believe they are just horribly mismanaged, naive, and unable to deal with criticism. Scam? Not intentionally, but the outcome may look very similar.
At least there’s actual hardware, which is more than can be said for a lot of those companies.
Software ought to be fixable, assuming that the hardware is decent. If the company survives.
We do need an alternative to Meta’s offering. Steam’s headset is too pricey for the market. A 500 €/$ price point seems roughly reasonable.
Also I’ll have to upgrade my Oculus CV1 one of those days.
At least there’s actual hardware, which is more than can be said for a lot of those companies.
Considering nobody was allowed to turn them on, I’m not convinced that there’s actually hardware. Sketchy, scummy, suspicious bullshit is what this is. Giving them a pass is absurd.
One had working displays and apparently they were as good/sharp as apples vision pro
There might be hardware then.
I didn’t even know that they existed before I read the article, so I have no real opinion on the matter.
I was actually looking forward to this stupid thing. Oh, well.
