VR Weekly: Cloudhead Layoffs, Steam's 2025 Winners & Hardware Shake-Ups

Well folks, it's one of those days in VR where we're celebrating wins while simultaneously watching the industry take some gut-punches. From Steam's most-played games of 2025 to devastating studio layoffs, today's roundup has everything you need to know about what's happening in our beloved virtual reality space. Grab your headset—or maybe just a coffee—and let's dive in.

The Cloudhead Games Catastrophe: 70% Layoffs Hit Pistol Whip Studio

Let's start with the heaviest news because, honestly, it's been weighing on my mind all day. Cloudhead Games, the veteran studio behind the absolutely killer rhythm shooter Pistol Whip, has laid off a staggering 70% of its staff. Yeah, you read that right—70 percent.

For those unfamiliar, Cloudhead isn't some fly-by-night operation. This is one of VR's most senior and successful studios, the kind that's been in the trenches since the early days. Pistol Whip became a legitimate VR phenomenon, combining John Wick-style gunplay with rhythm game mechanics in a way that just worked. It's the kind of game you show to VR skeptics to make believers out of them.

The timing is particularly brutal. We're seeing developers across the industry grappling with what UploadVR is calling "shifting platform prioritization," which is industry-speak for "the rules of the game are changing and nobody's quite sure what the new playbook looks like." When even successful studios with proven hits start making cuts this deep, it's a warning sign about the current state of VR game development funding and sustainability.

What this means for you: Pistol Whip isn't going anywhere—the game's still there, still awesome. But this raises questions about future updates, DLC, and what comes next from a studio that clearly knows how to make great VR experiences. It's also a sobering reminder that even success in VR doesn't guarantee stability in today's market.

Steam's 2025 VR Champions: The Games That Dominated

Now for some better news: Steam has dropped its mega-list of the most-played PC VR games of 2025, and it's a fascinating look at what's actually keeping players in their headsets. While the full details are over at Road to VR, this annual roundup always tells us something important about where VR gaming is actually thriving versus where the hype is.

These lists matter because they cut through marketing noise and show us what games have genuine staying power. We're not talking about launch-week numbers or hype cycles—these are the games that kept players coming back month after month. The titles that made it to the top are the ones that figured out what PC VR players actually want: depth, replayability, and experiences that justify strapping on a headset instead of just gaming on a monitor.

What's particularly interesting is seeing how the list evolves year over year. Some games become permanent fixtures (looking at you, social VR platforms and certain multiplayer shooters), while others surge and fade. The 2025 list will likely show us which new releases managed to break into the upper echelons and which legacy titles are still holding strong years after launch.

Here's the full breakdown from Road to VR:

Platinum Tier

• No Man's Sky (2016)
• Beat Saber (2019)
• Hot Dogs, Horseshoes & Hand Grenades (2016)
• The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR (2018)
• Phasmophobia (2020)
• Gorilla Tag (2023)
• Blade & Sorcery (2024)
• Ark: Survival Evolved (2017)
• Vtol VR (2017)
• VRChat (2017)
• Half-Life: Alyx (2020)
• Assetto Corsa (2014)

Gold Tier

• BONELAB (2022)
• The Forest (2018)
• Hard Bullet (2020)
• Superhot VR (2017)
• War Thunder (2013)
• Pavlov (2024)
• BONEWORKS (2019)
• Google Earth VR (2016)
• Euro Truck Simulator (2012)
• Blood Trail (2019)
• Rec Room (2021)
• Half-Life 2: VR Mod (2022)

Silver Tier

• Automobilista 2 (2020)
• DCS (2013)
• Assetto Corsa Competizione (2019)
• Arizona Sunshine II (2023)
• Ghosts of Tabor (2023)
• Bigscreen (2016)
• The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners (2020)
• The Lab (2016)
• Contractors Showdown: ExfilZone (2024)
• Five Nights at Freddy's: Help Wanted (2019)
• Subnautica (2018)
• Metro Awakening (2024)
• Into the Radius 2 (2024)
• Fallout 4 VR (2017)
• Tactical Assault VR (2023)
• Elite Dangerous (2015)
• Into the Radius (2020)
• Propagation VR (2020)
• Job Simulator (2016)
• VR Secretary: Ailey Edition (2025)
• DiRT Rally 2.0 (2019)
• Hitman World of Assassination (2022)
• VTOL VR Mod Loader (2024)
• Contractors (2018)
• Arizona Sunshine Remake (2024)
• BeamNG.drive (2015)

The takeaway: If you're looking for games with active communities and proven staying power, Steam's most-played list is basically a shopping guide for "games that won't leave you in empty lobbies."

Hardware Happenings: Pimax Ships, Panasonic Bails, and AR Waveguides Level Up

Pimax Dream Air: Finally Shipping (Sort Of)

After what feels like approximately seventeen delays (okay, maybe I'm exaggerating, but am I though?), Pimax has finally begun shipping the Dream Air in "small batches." The catch? It's shipping with a temporary headstrap. Because of course it is—this is Pimax we're talking about, where "shipping" is more of a philosophical concept than a concrete event.

Look, I say this with love for the enthusiast-grade hardware Pimax produces, but their track record on timelines is... let's call it "ambitious." The Dream Air promises impressive specs for PC VR enthusiasts who want the absolute cutting edge, but if you're the type who needs your hardware to arrive exactly when promised with all final components, maybe temper those expectations.

Panasonic and Shiftall: It's Complicated (Now It's Over)

In news that'll matter to fans of high-end, niche VR headsets, Panasonic has officially ended its collaboration with Shiftall on the MeganeX series. The MeganeX headsets were always interesting pieces of kit—super lightweight, pancake optics, aimed at the Japanese market first—but they never quite broke through to mainstream success.

This is part of a broader trend we're seeing: companies reassessing their VR strategies and partnerships. Not every headset needs to be a Quest-killer to be successful, but it does need to find its market and its business model. Sometimes that doesn't pan out, even with big-name backing.

AR Waveguide Wars: Lumus Claims 70° Field of View

For the tech nerds in the audience (and let's be honest, if you're reading SpaceRoach, that's probably you), Lumus—the company that provides waveguide technology to Meta—is claiming the "world's first" 70-degree field of view waveguide. That's their Zoe system, and if it delivers on the promise, it's a meaningful step toward AR glasses that don't feel like you're looking through a mail slot.

Why should gamers care about AR waveguides? Because the line between VR and AR is getting blurrier (pun intended), and the display technology that makes good AR glasses will eventually filter into mixed reality headsets. Today's AR breakthrough is tomorrow's passthrough improvement.

Goertek's Reference Design: Your 2026 Headset Preview

Speaking of tomorrow's tech, Chinese manufacturer Goertek—which produces headsets for many major brands—showed off a new MR reference design at CES. Think of reference designs as the industry's homework assignment: "Here's what we can build with current tech and costs, now go make something cool with it."

These designs often preview features that'll show up in consumer headsets 6-18 months later. So if you're wondering what the next generation of mid-range MR headsets will look like, Goertek's reference design is a pretty good crystal ball.

Platform Prioritization: What the Hell is Going On?

UploadVR's report on developers being "shocked" by shifting platform prioritization deserves more attention than its brief summary suggests. This is the story underlying a lot of today's other news—including those Cloudhead layoffs.

Here's what's happening: the platforms that VR developers build for (Quest, PSVR2, PC VR) are changing their strategies, their funding approaches, and their priorities. Some platforms are pulling back on certain types of content funding. Others are pushing different directions than developers expected. It's creating uncertainty in an industry that was already pretty uncertain to begin with.

For developers, this is like planning a road trip and having someone keep changing the destination mid-drive. For players, it means the games we get—and don't get—are being shaped by platform holder decisions that aren't always transparent or predictable.

The Apple Vision Pro Sports Experiment Continues

In lighter news, Apple's continuing its immersive Lakers coverage, though with a quirky caveat: live games are only available to Vision Pro users "in Southern California, Hawaii, and parts of Nevada." Because apparently, Apple's vision of the future of sports viewing still respects traditional broadcast territory restrictions. We're living in the future, but it's a future with regional blackouts.

Still, for the handful of Lakers fans with Vision Pros in the right zip codes, this is probably pretty cool. Immersive sports viewing is one of those VR applications that makes sense on paper—the question is whether it makes sense at a $3,500 entry point.

Looking Ahead: Bigscreen's Beyond 2 and the Long Game

Finally, some optimism: Bigscreen founder Darshan Shankar is reflecting on 10 years of Bigscreen Beta while ramping up production on the Beyond 2 headset. His quote—"We stay focused on VR"—feels almost defiant in today's climate, and I mean that in the best way.

Bigscreen represents the long-term believers, the folks who've been in VR through multiple hype cycles and subsequent "VR is dead" articles. They're making their own hardware now, focused on enthusiasts who want the best possible visual experience for virtual cinema and desktop work. It's a niche, but it's their niche, and they know it inside and out.

The Bottom Line

Today's news is a microcosm of VR in 2026: exciting technological progress happening alongside real business challenges. We're seeing hardware advance (better waveguides, new reference designs, actual Pimax shipments), while simultaneously watching talented studios struggle with an industry in transition.

The Cloudhead layoffs hurt because they represent real people losing their jobs, and because they show that even doing everything "right"—making a successful, beloved game—isn't always enough in the current VR market. At the same time, Steam's most-played list reminds us that players are still out there, still engaged, still spending time in VR.

For VR to succeed long-term, we need sustainable business models that let great studios like Cloudhead thrive, not just survive. We need platform holders to provide clear direction and consistent support. And we need hardware that continues to improve without requiring a second mortgage (sorry, Vision Pro).

The good news? The technology keeps getting better. The games people are playing are getting more sophisticated. And despite everything, there are still true believers like Darshan Shankar saying "we stay focused on VR."

That's what'll get us through days like today—the belief that we're building toward something worth the struggle. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to fire up Pistol Whip and appreciate it while supporting a studio that deserves every bit of success it's achieved.

Stay virtual, friends. And maybe give your favorite VR devs some extra love today. They're fighting the good fight.