ASUS Republic of Gamers (ROG) and ASUS Metaverse today announced the release of the SL@SH206 Web3 project, which creates a gamified experience and Web3 community where players can explore the virtual world and unleash their creativity. The AI-generated stories are supported by cloud technology from Taiwan Web Service Corporation (TWSC), a subsidiary of ASUS. SL@SH206 is targeting users worldwide and is expected to support both Chinese and English languages.

Innovative Web3 gaming ecosystem
SL@SH206 is the first step in collaboration on virtual experiences between ASUS Metaverse and the ROG brand; it is built using Web3 technology that immerses players in a cyberpunk world. Players take on the role of an amnesiac robot, ZEI-6, in a society where humanity has sought refuge in the virtual world. Through AI-generated content and a gamified experience, they will gradually uncover the secrets of the SL@SH206 world. Along the way, players can discover various virtual objects, trigger game events, and be able to get SL@SH206 digital collectibles by completing missions. Additionally, players can join the official Discord community, where they can interact and participate in mini-games to accumulate points and earn valuable rewards.

Microsoft is discontinuing Windows Mixed Reality. This was discovered when the company added it to a list of deprecated Windows features. The Windows Mixed Reality platform, along with its accompanying Mixed Reality Portal app, and Mixed Reality for Steam VR, are on the list. For now it is deprecated, and Microsoft says that it will be removed in a future release of Windows. Mixed Reality was released in 2017, during the thick of the VR craze in the tech industry, a time when Facebook, having acquired Oculus, and betting big on the Metaverse, an endeavor that cost the company over $20 billion since. Mixed Reality served as a gateway to games and apps in the VR space. The company developed its own HoloLens Mixed Reality headset rivaling Oculus Rift, and got its OEM partners, such as Acer, Dell, Lenovo, ASUS, and HP, to invest in ones of their own. In all this, it doesn't look like Microsoft is winding down its enterprise-focused HoloLens 2 headset just yet.

TAITRA (Taiwan External Trade Development Council) today announced that NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang will deliver the keynote address in person at COMPUTEX 2023. The keynote will take place at the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center Hall 2 on Monday, May 29, at 11:00 AM (UTC+8), and cover advanced developments in the fields of accelerated computing and artificial intelligence. Welcome to join and Register Now. A livestream and replay of the keynote will be available here.

NVIDIA, the pioneer in accelerated computing that enabled the AI revolution, announced at its most recent GTC conference a series of breakthroughs in generative AI, simulation and collaboration that are boosting productivity and efficiency for leading companies around the world. At this year's COMPUTEX Forum, NVIDIA's Greg Estes, VP of Corporate Marketing and Developer Programs, will deliver a talk entitled "Racing Towards the Industrial Metaverse", sharing how NVIDIA and its partners are using Omniverse, generative AI, and accelerated computing to enable an exciting new era of 3D workflows. His talk will take place on Tuesday, May 30, from 2:30 to 3:00 p.m.

NVIDIA today announced six new NVIDIA RTX Ada Lovelace architecture GPUs for laptops and desktops, which enable creators, engineers and data scientists to meet the demands of the new era of AI, design and the metaverse. Using the new NVIDIA RTX GPUs with NVIDIA Omniverse, a platform for building and operating metaverse applications, designers can simulate a concept before making it a reality, planners can visualize an entire factory before it is built and engineers can evaluate their designs in real time.

The NVIDIA RTX 5000, RTX 4000, RTX 3500, RTX 3000 and RTX 2000 Ada Generation laptop GPUs deliver breakthrough performance and up to 2x the efficiency of the previous generation to tackle the most demanding workflows. For the desktop, the NVIDIA RTX 4000 Small Form Factor (SFF) Ada Generation GPU features new RT Cores, Tensor Cores and CUDA cores with 20 GB of graphics memory to deliver incredible performance in a compact card.

ASUS today announced its first move into Web 3.0 with the launch of Art Black hole, a new NFT platform created by its wholly-owned subsidiary, ASUS Metaverse Inc. ASUS Metaverse seeks to empower content creators, and create a trustworthy and deeper experience for all NFT users. Powered by the technological expertise of ASUS, especially in cloud computing, AI, and the blockchain, ASUS Metaverse aims to create an all-encompassing metaverse experience.

Joe Hsieh, ASUS Chief Operating Officer, explained why the company has chosen to enter the metaverse: "ASUS is particularly attentive to the development of new technologies and industries, especially the potential of Web 3.0. So, we have established a new company to declare our determination to operate in the metaverse for the long term. The first step is to build out an NFT platform and invite content creators from various fields to become our new partners."

D-Link Corporation unveiled today its much-anticipated DWA-F18 VR Air Bridge, a wireless dongle designed specifically for Meta Quest 2 in an exclusive partnership with Meta. The DWA-F18 VR Air Bridge provides high-performance wireless links between Meta Quest 2 and PCs/laptops, eliminating cable clutter to provide enhanced and safer VR gaming experiences.

"While connecting Meta Quest 2 through a PC/laptop will significantly boost performance and graphic quality, most gamers are connected via the home Wi-Fi router or a dedicated gaming router. Many home Wi-Fi router connections can be unstable and are likely affected by other connected home Wi-Fi devices. Gaming routers can be significantly higher in cost, more time consuming to set up, and definitely not tuned for optimized Meta Quest 2 connectivity," explained CJ Chang, CEO of D-Link Corporation.

Logitech today announced a new integrated audio solution designed from the ground up for Meta Quest 2 to be the ultimate audio integration, the Logitech Chorus. "From the start, we wanted to help more people discover all that VR has to offer," said Vadim Kogan, head of AR/VR business group at Logitech. "Chorus enhances the fit and comfort of Meta Quest 2, while allowing those who love long play sessions to stay immersed in their favorite games and experiences through the audio integration in a comfortable design built for the VR gamer."

The new Logitech Chorus reaches a new level of immersive, ultra-realistic audio thanks to a new approach to headset design with custom-tuned off-ear acoustics. Featuring an open-back design, rotating speakers, and an integrated strap solution, this new design is the optimal solution for Meta 2 Quest users, allowing them to stay cool, while moving fast and free in the Metaverse. Nothing in or around your ear interferes with your game, your workout, or your creativity.

Star Atlas, a next-gen metaverse with triple-A game design and Unreal Engine 5 graphics built on the Solana blockchain, today announced its partnership with iBUYPOWER, a leading manufacturer of custom gaming PCs, and now the official computer hardware provider of Star Atlas. This is the first step in a long-term relationship to onboard new gamers to the metaverse.

"We're really excited to join forces with iBUYPOWER to accelerate the adoption of web3 gaming," said Michael Wager, Co-Founder and CEO of ATMTA, Inc., the principal development studio of Star Atlas. "There is a lot of skepticism around web3 gaming, and we're happy to partner with the leading gaming hardware maker because we understand the needs of traditional gamers. iBUYPOWER builds great products, and we're glad they share our vision and want to help get their gaming community in the Star Atlas metaverse so they can see just how great of a gaming experience it's going to be."

On May 26, STEPVR, an innovative company focusing on VR technology research and development, released VR Gates to the metaverse called Gates01 in Beijing. This product is similar to the "Oasis" in the movie Ready Player One. The omnidirectional motion system and the technical equipment that restores five senses allow users to enter the virtual world for sports, entertainment, education, and work. Being the world's first company to achieve MMO games in the VR world, STEPVR has surpassed companies such as Meta and taken the lead in launching software and hardware systems that enter the metaverse. The commercial version of VR Gates released by STEPVR is named Gates01. The product covers an area of approximately 3m2. The deck is a self-developed omnidirectional motion system where users can run freely and achieve running and instant stopping movements. In addition, Gates01 can also restore the sense of vision, hearing, touch, smell, and vestibular balance in the virtual world, allowing users to experience the real and immersive virtual world in a small and convenient space.

STEPVR was founded in 2013. Its founder, Guo Cheng, studied at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands and obtained a doctorate degree. The company focuses on the research and development of laser positioning technology and virtual human motion capture technology. In 2019, STEPVR launched an ultra-space free-roam VR esports brand, Future Battle, in China. In less than a year, Future Battle has opened more than 140 stores through brand authorization and franchising. Despite the impact of the epidemic, there are still more than 60 partner stores to be opened. The number of users that have signed up for membership has reached 70%, and 22% of the partners have opened a second store. Through the operation of free-roam VR stores, STEPVR has gained more than 1 million users, becoming one of the brands with the most VR users in the world.

MediaTek today unveiled its new Genio platform for AIoT devices and introduced the first chip in the Genio family, the Genio 1200 designed for premium AIoT products. MediaTek Genio is a complete platform stack for the AIoT with powerful and ultra- efficient chipsets, open platform software development kits (SDKs) and a developer portal with comprehensive resources and tools. This all-in-one platform makes it easy for brands to develop innovative consumer, enterprise and industrial smart applications at the premium, mid-range and entry levels, and bring these devices to market faster. With MediaTek Genio, customers have access to all the hardware, software and resources needed to go from concept to design and manufacturing.

Customers can choose from a range of Genio chips to suit their product needs, and then use MediaTek's developer resources and the Yocto Linux open platform SDK to customize their designs. MediaTek also makes it easy for customers to access its partners' system hardware and software, and leverage partners' networks and sales channels. By offering an integrated, easy-to-use platform, MediaTek Genio reduces development costs and speeds up time to market, while providing long-term support for operating system updates and security patches that extend the product lifecycle. "Today MediaTek powers the most popular AIoT devices on the market. As the industry enters the next era of innovation, MediaTek's Genio platform delivers flexibility, scalability and development support brands need to cater to the latest market demands," said Jerry Yu, MediaTek Corporate Senior Vice President and General Manager of MediaTek's Computing, Connectivity and Metaverse Business Group. "We look forward to seeing the new user experiences brands bring to life with the Genio 1200 and its powerful AI capability, support for 4K displays and advanced imaging features."

Leia Inc., the leading 3D experience platform leveraging proprietary nanotechnology and AI to democratize the Metaverse, today unveiled its next generation of 3D Lightfield displays, which offer a "window like'' view into the Metaverse and will connect more people, faster. The Metaverse will be one of the most transformative innovations of our generation, connecting and even crossing boundaries between our digital and physical worlds. Showcased in a 15.6" monitor at the Display Week Conference in San Jose, all Leia devices share the ability to switch between full-resolution 2D and 3D Lightfield. The 15.6" operates in 2D at 120 Hz in 4K, which supports traditional 2D uses like gaming, and switches to a 12-view Lightfield display when prompted by the app. The 3D parameters of the display respond to head-tracking, with a high refresh rate, and a rapid camera that works seamlessly with the SDK to update individual pixels on and with the monitor; the result is a deep sense of immersion and clarity—similar to how humans see things in the real world—while remaining comfortable for the naked eye.

The Continental Automotives Infotainment/Cluster system is also being shown, featuring a passive 8view Lightfield display driven by the Qualcomm SnapDragon 8155 chipset. The three-dimensional navigation solution for vehicle cockpits brings more intuitive interactions between driver and vehicle, thus enhancing driver safety. Leia's 12.3" switchable 3D Lightfield display developed with Continental is the first product ready for mass production. It comes in a flat or curved form factor to enable both traditional and modern cockpit designs.

"The beauty of 3D Lightfield is it enables a naturally immersive viewing experience on any display-based product from mobile phones to vehicle cockpits," said David Fattal, CEO of Leia Inc. "Leia's production facility is now fully certified automotive grade and we're working with leading companies across several industries to integrate 3D Lightfield displays into existing product lines. The power and potential of the Metaverse can only be unlocked when everyone can access it. Making this accessible to consumers everywhere is why Leia exists."

Today Epic Games announced a $2 billion round of funding to advance the company's vision to build the metaverse and support its continued growth. This round includes investments from existing investor Sony Group Corporation as well as KIRKBI, the family-owned holding and investment company behind The LEGO Group, with each party investing $1 billion respectively. All three companies highly value both creators and players, and aim to create new social entertainment exploring the connection between digital and physical worlds. Epic continues to have only a single class of common stock outstanding and remains controlled by its CEO and founder, Tim Sweeney.

"As a creative entertainment company, we are thrilled to invest in Epic to deepen our relationship in the metaverse field, a space where creators and users share their time." said Kenichiro Yoshida, Chairman, President and CEO, Sony Group Corporation. "We are also confident that Epic's expertise, including their powerful game engine, combined with Sony's technologies, will accelerate our various efforts such as the development of new digital fan experiences in sports and our virtual production initiatives."

Having been developing its brand in the consumer market and creating high-quality gaming products for many years, TEAMGROUP continues to heavily invest in R&D and design, and is now utilizing its strong product development capabilities and foresight to invest in the NFT (non-fungible token) market. With the expansion of NFT applications, TEAMGROUP is launching innovative limited edition digital card content, providing consumers around the world the joy of card collecting, and bringing an all-new type of value to its digital content. TEAMGROUP invites everyone to join together for creative, next-gen thinking in the Metaverse, leading gamers to a new era of collectibles in consumer electronics.

According to statistics provided by blockchain analysis company, Chainalysis, up until December 15th, 2021, US$40.9 billion has been invested in the smart contracts of developing global NFT. TEAMGROUP announced today that it is entering the NFT market through the world's largest NFT trading platform, OpenSea, with the release of its first limited edition TEAMGROUP NFT card. The design team has meticulously crafted its digital content to be highly collectible and to give players an exciting collecting experience. The product is not only unique in the virtual world but also an important asset in the future Metaverse. From digital art creation to venturing into the creative blockchain market, TEAMGROUP forges brand new paths, showing its determination and strength in technological innovation.

AR/VR device shipments revised up to 14.19 million units in 2022, with an annual growth rate of 43.9%, according to TrendForce research. Growth momentum will come from increased demand for remote interactivity stemming from the pandemic, as well as Oculus Quest 2's price reduction strategy. Microsoft HoloLens 2 and Oculus Quest 2 are first in market share for AR and VR, respectively.

According to TrendForce, the topic of the Metaverse has driven brands to actively plan for and stimulate product shipment performance. However, the AR/VR device market has yet to experienced explosive growth due to two factors: component shortages and the difficulty of developing new technologies. In addition, cosmetic and size considerations have made the more optically and technically difficult Pancake design the first choice for new high-end products. Furthermore, various embedded tracking feedback technologies key to enhancing the user's immersive experience such as eye tracking and 6DoF further affect the development progress of a new product as a whole. Since there are no new foreboding products on the horizon, TrendForce believes, no other branded products have a chance at supplanting the current mainstream status of Oculus or Microsoft until at least 2023.

Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. today announced the company has opened Extended Reality (XR) Labs in Europe. Europe already has a thriving augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) community and Qualcomm Technologies is committed to making XR the future of mobile computing. The XR Labs will focus activities on XR R&D, engineering and key technology development areas such as advanced hand tracking and gesture control, 3D Mapping and SLAM/Localization services, multi-user experiences, and image recognition. Also, XR SDKs providing access to foundational XR technology including object and geo-tracking.

The new labs in Europe build on Qualcomm Technologies' commitment to make XR accessible to the masses and will be located across six cities in Europe initially, with the intention to add more in the future. The goal is to help design lightweight, sleek headworn glasses and make innovative technology available for developers through Snapdragon Spaces XR Developer Platform to build experiences that will transform everyday consumer, retail, industrial, enterprise, education and healthcare. Qualcomm Technologies is pushing the boundaries and charting its course to everyday use through continued R&D advancements.

Exponential demand growth for remote and unmanned terminals in smart home, logistics, manufacturing and other end-user applications has driven iterative updates in Wi-Fi technology. Among the current generations of technologies, Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac) is mainstream while Wi-Fi 6 and 6E (802.11ax) are at promotional stages, according to TrendForce's investigations. In order to meet the connection requirements of industry concepts such as the Metaverse, many major manufacturers have trained their focus on the faster and more stable next generation 802.11be Wi-Fi standard amendment, commonly known as Wi-Fi 7. Considering technical characteristics, maturity, and product certification status, Wi-Fi 6 and 6E are expected to surpass Wi-Fi 5 to become mainstream technology in 2022, with global market share expected to reach 58%.

Emerge, a social virtual connection company, today announced the launch of the Emerge Home system: the first product to enable immersive 'bare-hands' tactile experiences in the Metaverse. A recent study from National Research Group, uncovering consumer views of the Metaverse found that the majority are excited about the Metaverse, but 78% of consumers say "when interacting with people virtually, I miss the ability to physically touch and interact with them." Online, we miss non-verbal cues, sensory experiences, and ways of feeling things together. As virtual worlds become the epicenter of shared social experiences, they still lack a key pillar of our human experience - the ability to use our bare hands to feel, interact, and physically connect with those who matter most to us, our "inner circles".

The Emerge Home system consists of three components: the Emerge Wave-1 device, the Emerge Home social virtual experience, and the Emerge Home mobile app. The Emerge Wave-1 is a new tabletop device that invites your bare hands to be your controllers. Around the same footprint as a 13" laptop, it emits sculpted ultrasonic waves that allow users to feel and interact via touch in the virtual world. Through the use of Emerge's patented technology, the Emerge Wave-1 creates a mid-air field of interaction up to three feet above the device and 120 degrees around it.

The leading global motherboard, graphics card, and mini PC manufacturer, ASRock, today announces to join the era of metaverse and support the designer and creator community. ASRock issues the first non-fungible token (NFT), Phantom Gaming EVO on OpenSea, the world's first and largest NFT marketplace. ASRock Phantom Gaming EVO is a crypto art, a short footage of the evolution Phantom Gaming logo. ASRock plans to release 100 pieces of Phantom Gaming EVO. The first 30 pieces are sold on January 28th and priced at 0.1 ETH each.

As digital experiences continue to evolve and attract increasing amounts of people's attention, the launch of the Phantom Gaming EVO leads ASRock to embrace the era of the metaverse. By leveraging the new technology and design, the NFT delivers the next generation collectibles for preservation. This helps ASRock to serve and connect the community closely and extend the digital footprint to the new stage.

GIGABYTE TECHNOLOGY Co. Ltd, the world's top leading brand of personal computers, now proudly presents the AERO Creator Laptop Series with the 12th Generation Intel Core Processors: AERO 16, AERO 17, and AERO 5. As the concept of the Metaverse blossoms, immersive content has been regarded as a crucial element for Metaverse development, and the Creator Laptops are expected to become extremely popular with their unique positioning: high performance with premium visual experiences. Targeting the Generation-Z creators and in response to the wishes of the massive user base, the GIGABYTE AERO Series product aspires to be a visionary masterpiece that breaks through the new epoch of 16" Creator Laptop as 16:10 4K+ OLED and AmLED display technologies are introduced to the series for the first time, along with the evolution of product designs. Rooted in humanity and heading back to nature, its appearance consists of the pure aesthetics from the integrally formed chassis crafted through CNC technology, and the core tenets are driven by the powerful core performance accompanied by minimalist designs, granting endless splendid wonders to the creators while intensifying the immersion of their creative journey. A trend of laptop replacement is to be expected.

The world's largest trade show dedicated to innovation is back! The 2022 edition of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) will take place from January 5 to 8 in Las Vegas. Among the innovations presented, Actronika's haptic vest Skinetic promises to be a sensation. Skinetic allows users to experience a new generation of immersive VR by allowing them to feel life-like sensations of every interaction within the virtual world. Virtual reality has evolved a lot in recent years thanks to the improvement of VR headsets. But the experience can't be truly immersive because although they allow us to see and hear, headsets don't let us touch. It is therefore necessary to develop haptic technologies to integrate touch into virtual experiences.

"A few players are beginning to add the sense of touch into VR. However, the tactile illusions are still very flat. We decided to take this technology from black and white to full color!" explains Gilles Meyer - CEO of Actronika. Armed with more than 30 years of expertise in haptics (science of touch), Actronika created a device to feel real-life sensations for unique virtual experiences: the Skinetic vest. From gaming to training, it enables a totally immersive experience - the user can feel every raindrop in a storm, wind when standing near a cliff edge, or even the impact of bullets during a war game.

GSC Gameworld is hard at work on S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2. As a highly awaited sequel to some of the most acclaimed games, the company is naturally looking to cash in on as much awareness for the game as possible. And since one of the hot buzzwords in the market are Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs), the company has now announced that these will be present, in some forms, in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2. One such NFT will be particularly special: its holder will have the digitally-recognized, intamperable right (and that's what NFTs are mostly about, in theory) to become a "Metahuman" - an in-game character modeled after the actual NFT holder.

"The idea of the related NFT is to give the right to recreate its owner's identity within the game through one of the NPCs," clarified GSC. "The person will need to come to our studio for a detailed scanning procedure and after that, we will have everything to make this person appear in the game world as one of the characters." The feat is being pulled with the help of NFT platform DMarket. DMarket will be holding an NFT auction dubbed the "STALKER Metaverse" in January 2022 through its partnership with GSC; there, users will be able to bid for an NFT offering that prize. Like any NFT, it can then be traded - up until a deadline specified by GSC, which will lock the prize to whoever has blockchain-verifiable possession of the NFT at the time.

We've had remote gaming for several years now—where your laptop with a basic iGPU can stream gameplay as it's being rendered on your gaming desktop, either across your home network, or across the Internet. We've also seen cloud-gaming, where you pay a provider like NVIDIA GeForce NOW to host your digital game licenses, and render your game in datacenters, to stream it across to your device. What if this idea is turned on its head—what if your laptop holds your software or games, and it simply streams close-to-metal data over network, to use their hardware resources? Intel thinks this is possible.

Intel today pulled off a fascinating presentation titled "Powering Metaverses," along the sidelines of the Real-Time Conference 2021 (RTC 2021) virtual summit. Dubbed "resource abstraction," Intel is working on a technology that intelligently senses compute resources available to a device across other devices on the network; accounts for network bandwidth and latency; and treats these resources as if they are available to a local machine. The company put out a conceptual demo of a laptop with a basic iGPU dramatically improving gaming performance by roping in hardware resources of a gaming desktop on the network; without the game actually being installed on that desktop. If latency-sensitive applications like games could be pulled off on this system, it bodes really well for applications that aren't as latency-sensitive, or even as bandwidth-sensitive. Resource Abstraction will feature a lot as Intel steers toward Web 3.0 and metaverses. The concept video can be found here.

EM3, a VR start-up company, recently released an ultra-thin VR glass prototype named Ether. The thickness of Ether is only 6.8 mm, and its weight is around 37 g. It is by far the lightest VR near eye display solution. Due to the current weight and size of the VR helmets, users will develop physiological discomfort after wearing them for about 20 minutes, limiting the applications to immersive VR games. Other Metaverse scenarios such as social networking, online education, training, design, conference, and convention, would request lighter yet smaller VR glass. Since 2014, numerous companies have been trying to reduce the thickness of VR headsets. However, limited by the principles of optics, it is difficult. Not until recently, companies using Pancake optics reduced the VR headset thickness to 25 mm in total and the weight of 160-180 g. Nevertheless, there is still a gap between VR headsets to VR glass.

The EM3 Ether prototype glass contains two micro-displays, 2560x2560 pixel resolution in full color. The FOV (field of view) per eye is 80° for now. EM3 claims that by using a larger format micro-display, the FOV per eye is expected to increase to 100° while the total thickness of the glass is unchanged. The Ether prototype adopts tethered design, which can be connected to a smartphone. According to EM3, Ether uses a unique near eye optical module, which converges full spectrum light within a short length to achieve precise imaging, therefore significantly reducing the VR glass's thickness. According to EM3, the company's goal is to launch its VR glass product Ether in late 2022.

Factors such as the rising popularity of topics related to the metaverse and UGC (user-generated content), as well as the rapid increase in AR/VR device shipment, will likely result in the creation of a growing body of virtual reality content in the market, according to TrendForce's latest investigations. TrendForce expects annual global virtual reality content revenue to grow at a 40% CAGR from US$2.16 billion in 2021 to US$8.31 billion in 2025.

TrendForce further indicates that gaming/entertainment, videos, and social interactions comprise the primary categories of virtual reality content. Incidentally, as the construction of the virtual world and the development of virtual reality content are unlikely to be accomplished by only a handful of companies alone, companies in this space will therefore place an increasing emphasis on UGC instead. Leading companies will likely leverage the build-out of virtual reality platforms/environments and the provisioning of developmental tools/interfaces in order to not only lower the barrier to entry for content creation, but also raise user participation, thereby driving up the content market for virtual reality applications.