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Trending technologies at this year’s European consumer electronic show IFA were AI, 8K and 5G – all a bit fuzzy in terms of definition, marketing lingo and rather scetchy future perspectives. VR was not in the focus, but still served as an innovation booster for brand polishing. Some new players showed up in the XR space, mostly related to sound developments. Immersion now goes for easy listening mode. Ch

Gamescom displayed different states of VR on various levels in separated areas on the fairgrounds. A planned ‘XR Boulevard’ did not materialize. Devcom offered a glimpse into the future, SPOBIS stuck to flat games promotion, Gamescom-Congress got stuck in funding uncertainties. Nevertheless, by putting together all scattered pieces from all trade areas, this year’s Gamescom served as an indicator fo

Just before Gamescom opened the showroom with an impressive gala show, the developer conference Devcom and the eSports convention SPOBIS took care of the warm-up. VR was not in the focus of both conferences. But gaming physicality played a decisive role for both event platforms – and made an enormous difference in the double-faced self-conception of the game industry. Full-body haptics at Devcom It became obvio

Wear-It Innovation Summit is a two-day convention on wearable trends and tech-innovations, packed with lectures, workshops and an expo area with demo booths. I went there to find out if any current or future wearable trends may apply to Virtual Reality developments. Current VR treats the headset mostly as an additional screen device instead of an additional body part. The community of Wearables does not really make a

In contrast to most event platforms of this year’s Berlin Gamesweek, the Amaze Festival positioned VR, not in a fringe area, but dedicated half of the show floor to VR installations. Originally coming from an independent fringe area of the game industry itself, Amaze now stands as a central pillar of Berlin Gameweek for experimentation, inspiration and trend indication in an increasingly diverse industry enviro

Berlin Gamesweek offered many exciting events during a week full of playful and business-oriented activities. Apart from the stellar event platform Amaze Festival (see here), VR was not in the focus. Traditional Gameweek components had few offers for VR enthusiasts. Associated events like TwitchCon and eSport Summit draw a lot of attention as epiphenomenon related more to the media than to the gaming industry. The co

Virtual Reality was quite a topic at the European Film Market section of the Berlinale Film Festival this year. The market presented a whole range of cinematic VR productions on the show floor. And the festival dedicated a whole day to a conference program and project presentations on the relation between film and VR. Showbiz seems to go for Virtual Reality now! Cinematic Market Adjustments VRNow Summit started with

MediaTechCon is a new convention format, overarching three joint special events formerly related to media digitization, film technology and virtual reality. The event took place at the Berlin Babelsberg film studios and presented an extensive conference program, an expo area for immersive technologies and an award competition for VR applications. Given the rather traditional locality of the film studios and the fact

UK’s most prominent gaming event EGX started a satellite show this year in Berlin. Taking place just a few weeks after Gamescom, I went there for comparison, and for checking out the promotion of gaming VR. A regional playing field ‘for the players’ The size of EGX is just a small fraction of Gamescom, but this results in a more charming and intimate atmosphere here. Game testing is clearly the main