We went hands on with the Apple Vision Pro and took a deeper look at the Disney & Epic Games $1.5B deal

Welcome to the first edition of the Future Forecast! In this series we delve deep into the implications of emerging technologies, examining how they'll transform industries, societies, and daily life.

Join us for a thoughtful journey through the opportunities and challenges of tomorrow's tech landscape.

Apple Vision Pro

Disclaimer: We did not purchase an AVP (yet) and these remarks are purely a reaction to the Apple Store demo

Did you try the Apple Vision Pro yet? Did you buy one? Perhaps if you did you returned it as many people are starting to do. There have been many reviews from different people (including Mark Zuckerberg) that range from extremely positive to “if you aren’t a developer, don’t buy this”. Thankfully here at Vision Quest we have a developer and someone that demoes software for a living which gives us a unique view on Apple’s first spatial computer.

First Impression

Our first impressions were pretty similar when it comes to using the device for the demo. In terms of comfort, coming from a Quest 2 the headset is much more comfortable, but after using a Quest 3 that feeling doesn’t hold. The Quest 3 - especially with a 3rd party head strap - is more comfortable than the AVP. The UI and input method of gaze and pinch was intuitive and easy to pick up especially if you’re familiar with the Apple ecosystem. One thing that we’ll get back to but deserves a mention when it comes to the UI and user experience was the digital crown. Surprisingly they chose to use a physical input for some of the most important actions. Not only does it break immersion but without being able to see it the digital crown can be hard to find.

Displays

The displays were a highlight across all of our reviews. The passthrough was high quality and made it difficult to distinguish the in headset view from reality. The passthrough is better than the Quest 3 in some ways but there have been reviews about the motion blur while moving around in the AVP is worse than the Quest 3. More testing would be needed to validate this for ourselves.

Passthrough wasn’t the best part of the displays though. The clarity of the content that you could easily place around your physical world was beautiful. The spatial videos and photos were definitely impressive but what really caught our eyes were the immersive videos. The word immersive hits this on the nose. You truly felt like you were there. The video takes you through a bunch of scenes but the ones that stood out the most were the sporting events from unique vantage points and someone walking a tight rope between two cliffs. They ask you if you have a fear of heights or animals before the video starts - I could imagine someone having some trouble thinking they might fall off the cliff watching that person walk hundreds of feet above open air!

The Demo

Now besides the device itself, we had some thoughts about the demo and instructions. Keep in mind we are power users so the demo is probably more than enough for someone less familiar with technology this advanced.

We didn’t get a chance to look at a lot of apps, just a select few that helped you learn gestures critical to operating the device. If we were able to explore more and try more of the pro functionality that comes with this device that would have made it more exciting and potentially lead to a purchase. We were able to visualize how we’d use this for entertainment but didn’t get to try out the productivity horsepower that is all over the internet and ads.

But where’s the killer app?

Our last thought before looking to the future is that the device and spatial computing/AR/VR/MR/whatever still lacks the killer app. Yes it looks like entertainment will be a magical experience and if you put the time in you can be productive with 10 floating screens around you - but how much will that swing the masses?

After we tried the device we were discussing “what would make me HAVE to put this headset on? what would I not want to miss?” and the answer was……nothing. As gamers we have the urge to hop onto Fortnite or Call of Duty with our friends to be social or see a live event (like a Travis Scott concert or Marvel crossover) but that feeling doesn’t exist for headworn devices - yet. In the next section we will discuss how this might change in the next few years with the new Disney and Epic Games collaboration.

But before we get to that, let’s put together our forecast of what the first spatial computing means for industry, society and daily life.

The Future

By 2030 society is going to be absolutely bonkers. This headset is the first iteration of an Apple product in a new category (for them). The last few times this happened it was a massive success (Watch, iPad, iPhone, iPod) and almost all of them met heavy criticism upon launch. Our assumption is this will follow the same pattern. More devices are undoubtedly in development, more consumer friendly and comfortable. Developers are getting their hands on the AVP and their minds are being blown with new possibilities. And as they say, rising tides lifts all boats.

Meta is seeing benefits from the AVP launch as they take the position of rival against Apple with the lighter weight and low cost alternative that does almost all of the same things the AVP does. Apple’s entrance into the market will help everyone. It will drive more sales to alternative devices and change societal norms around these facial computers.

That killer app we mentioned, it will be coming. Someone out there is going to build Flappy Bird or TikTok for spatial computing in the next few years. With AI in the mix its inevitable. The time it takes to be creative with technology is shrinking by the day and the recently announced Open AI Sora text to video product is a testament to the accelerating AI landscape. Imagine being able to talk to Jarvis like Iron Man and create videos on demand like that! Even better, what if you could create 3D environments with the same amount of ease. That is waiting for us this decade.

By 2030 we will most likely see the first iteration of this technology fitting into a pair of glasses. They might not look EXACTLY like a regular pair of glasses but with the current versions out there of both lightweight AR glasses and heavy spatial computers we are bound to find something in the middle that is affordable, comfortable and socially acceptable.

Just like before when people were wary of “having a phone in your pocket at all times” and our teachers told us “you won’t always have a calculator with you” (well we do and now it has artificial intelligence!) - the idea of face worn computers will have the same effect on society. First come the non-believers and early adopters. Then the builders take notice and create new and riveting experiences (immersive video) and then it’s game on. A device comes out that is accessible to the masses and life changes forever.

I hope you’re excited, because we are. And we are very much looking forward to guiding you through all these technological advancements for years to come at Vision Quest!

Disney & Epic $1.5 Billion to build the digital future

The Deal

The Disney & Epic deal is a signal of what’s to come in the social entertainment and gaming sphere. It’s clear that the younger generations (Millennials, Gen Z) are more interested in gaming than lean back entertainment. This move shows that Disney and Epic are trying to position themselves well to serve the needs of the younger demographics by realizing the vision of our shared digital future.

“Disney’s $1.5 billion stake in Epic Games is not just a play to make video games. It’s Disney’s first step towards a potentially transformative future media business: the metaversal theme park.”

This is Digiday’s opening line in their article related to the deal. Could this deal stoke the metaversal flames in the eye of the consumer and media? The Metaverse was a topic that has dropped in popularity until late with the release of the first Apple spatial computer and deals like this one. So what does this investment really mean? What will come of it?…

Old Friends

In order to know where this deal will bring these two companies, we should take a brief look at what they’ve already done together. Disney has already partnered bringing multiple Marvel and Star Wars characters to Fortnite for both regular play and special events. When Marvel was at its peak for the Infinity Saga we distinctly remember playing in the special game mode with Thanos and the Infinity Gauntlet. Throwing lightsabers around at your opponents to achieve victory royale hits different as well. These integrations were early evidence of the blending of gaming and entertainment and inching closer to the vision of the Metaverse that hit the big screens in Ready Player One.

The teaser video shows more than just gaming, highlighting some of the IP that currently doesn’t exist in Fortnite (Frozen, Avatar). This new interconnected entertainment experience is going to be a game changer if successful. Similar to what Zuck is trying to do with Horizon Worlds, the video shows a way to “play, watch, shop and engage with” characters and storylines from Disney, Marvel, Star Wars, Pixar and others (1).

The Future

There are limitless possibilities for this collaboration given the popularity of both Fortnite and Disney IP combined with the powers of Unreal Engine but let’s put some blinders on and focus. The 3 areas we will speculate on are Social, Immersive and Shopping.

Social

Even now friends get together virtually to play games and just hangout across a myriad of platforms with Fortnite being one of the most popular in the world. With the release of Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN) anyone can easily put together the virtual world of their dreams. Now Disney has explicitly stated they are building a universe of their own within Fortnite that surpasses just gaming.

With younger generations congregating together in shared digital experiences more than watching TV like previous generations you can imagine that providing more than just gaming experiences will be fruitful as long as they are high quality and engaging. Being able to hop into the world of Avatar and participate in the story with friends, relive a Star Wars battle on the Death Star or just create your own Avengers Tower to hang out with your friends after work is what the Metaverse we were sold sounds like. The question is, how retentive will these experiences be through just PCs and gaming consoles?

Immersive

With the release of the Apple Vision Pro and the continued popularity of Quest devices this is where we think things could get interesting. Only time will tell but at Vision Quest we think it’s inevitable that all of these experiences and technologies will converge into a world where rather than peering into a virtual world through a physical 2D screen, you will be another 3D character in that environment. Yes there will still be people who prefer flat screen gaming or want to do both, but the capabilities these devices will provide in the next 5-7 years are going to be a revelation.

Combine that with Disney’s latest announcement of an omni-directional floor (which they probably will only use in their parks for now) then we will truly have a high quality Ready Player One experience at our fingertips. Whether you’re visiting Disney World in real life or their metaversal theme park expect your mind to be blown!

Shopping

One thing that I’m personally excited about is the idea of perusing a virtual store to buy both digital and physical goods. This was teased in Ready Player One with their store experience. Take a look at the video and the recognizable brands that are involved and how different this store is from the ones in real life. Imagine Disney brought their content and products to in a similar way!

I’ve been collecting 3D objects for free via SketchFab (acquired by Epic Games, what a coincidence) which can be downloaded in universal file formats like USDZ for AR and GLTF for game engines like Unreal. But being able to dive into a 3D world to browse these objects or even go to a store that defies the laws of physics to entice me to buy a real world product is even more exciting. This decade is when the truly creative people are going to do more with AI and these new creator tools than we’ve done as a society in the last 50 years.

That was our first edition of Future Forecast. We are truly enjoying putting this content together for y’all and would love to know if you have any feedback about this edition or anything else that could be improved about our newsletter here at Vision Quest.

We are continuing to build out our brand and content strategy so there will be more Epic adventures on the horizon to decipher the present and predict what might unfold in the future!