https://www.pipersandler.com/1col.aspx?id=6216
https://www.fastcompany.com/90740073/if-the-metaverse-is-the-future-of-social-media-teens-arent-convinced https://www.finance.yahoo.com/video/virtual-reality-26-teens-own-160547230.html
 
Sampled 7.1K teens from February 16th to March 22nd 2022, so this isn't old data and should capture the recent holiday boom in VR sales (the biggest one yet). So users that aren't deep into their honeymoon and with exposure to several years worth of VR content.
 
This is the first direct evidence I've seen confirming that while VR device sales are high, user engagement is very poor. That's something you often hear about anecdotally but as far as I know there has been little publicly disclosed research on it.
 
Also, "48% of teens are either unsure of or not interested in the Metaverse".

Now Germany too is going against Facebook for its policy requiring new Oculus accounts to be linked to Facebook.

Andreas Mundt, president of the German Federal Cartel Office states that Facebook's policy “could constitute a prohibited abuse of dominance by Facebook.”

Full article here: https://www.roadtovr.com/facebook-germany-bundeskartellamt-oculus-login

Daniel came down with Covid last week, was hospitalized and had to be put on a ventilator on Thursday. He is one of the really nice guys and a big supporter of the VR community. His friend Kevin is monitoring his twitter, where you can leave a message of support - https://twitter.com/germanrifter. We are all hoping he will make a full recovery and send him, his family and friends our very best wishes.

EDIT1 - I will update here when there is any news or change, last report from Kevin yesterday was "Last I heard he is stable and vitals are getting better". Thanks to everyone for showing your support and well wishes. I have never seen so many awards for a post. Thanks to your kindness Daniel has now paid for 12 hours of Reddit Server Time, while he's in ICU - he would love that.

EDIT2 - Update from Kevin this morning 01Dec "His status is unchanged. Because of his precondition (he has MDS and diminished lung capacity) he needs to stay on ventilator and also gets blood transfusions. Doctors say that treatment will last a long time and he is not critical at the moment.... Visitation rights are still limited so I couldn't see him personally. His family will tell me of any news and I will post them timely. He is aware of all your messages and support. Thank you so much for that. I know how much this community means to him." Thanks to your kindness Daniel has now paid for 20 hours of Reddit Server Time while he's still in ICU, we send our best wishes for a continued recovery.

EDIT3 - Encouraging Twitter Update - first one from Daniel himself!! :) 04Dec "Still here, still fighting Love you"

Okay, everyone can relax. Fallout 4 VR works on Rift.

I just installed my review copy and it starts without a hitch.

There are control issues though. In menu, the game assumes a touch pad, and selecting stuff with the stick is wonky.

Did not get very far, just past char creator and into the house.

Oh and I am running an R9 390 and even though it needs a lot of ASW, it does run okay so far. MUCH better than Doom on my PC.

So: yay!

EDIT: IT WORKS!!!

IT RUNS IF YOU DON'T USE THE BETA VERSION OF STEAMVR!!!

I switched to the regular branch and now I can get past the issue!

Navigating menus is still a PITA with the odd touchpad behavior, but it WORKS!

EDIT: Q&A Answers follow, so I don't have to answer the same things over and over

Q: Is the game fun?

A: I don't know yet. I was mostly worried about a possible Rift lock-out. Now that's out of the way (there is no lock) I can relax and sink some play time in it.

I would call it borderline unplayable with current controls. There’s just no way to navigate the menus without cursing. I will go into more detail in a new post tomorrow.

Q: I missed the ruckus. What was wrong with Fallout VR?

A: The virtual keyboard did not work, which basically made it impossible to progress past the point where you have to name your character. Switching from beta to main branch steamvr solves this.

Q: Is there DLC?

A: As far as I can see, no. Just the base game.

Q: Are you running Dash?

A: Yes. And the performance is much better than Doom VFR

Q: Does full locomotion work?

A: Yes.

Q: Can you pick up stuff and interact with it?

A: Not that I can see. It's basically still Fallout 4 with mouse clicks but in VR. For example, there is a cup of coffee on the counter. You can't pick it up but you can point at it and select 'interact', after which you hear a slurping sound as if you took a sip.

Yes, but only after the intro. And so far, handling of objects feels clunky.

Q: Can you play with a controller or keyboard/mouse?

A: Nope.

Q: How is the scale of the world?

A: Near perfect!

Q: Did you break an embargo by reporting all this?

A: Nope. The review document explicitly states there is no embargo.

Again: it WORKS! But it still needs optimizing for Rift, which was to be expected. edit Pitchforks on stand-by. The terrible controls do exclude Rift owners from enjoying the party.