Technologies

I Stuck My Face Into Nintendo’s New Virtual Boy and Felt Oddly Comforted

This bulky, bizarre accessory for your Switch isn’t exactly VR, but it is a lot more fun than I expected.

I’ve owned a lot of Nintendo systems over the years as a tech reviewer, gamer and VR-obsessed individual, but I’ve never owned a Virtual Boy. It’s always made me feel wistful. So finally here I am, playing the newest version. My face is stuck into a large red plastic visor, standing on a tripod on a table at Nintendo’s preview event. My takeaway? Nintendo’s latest weird retro move feels like an odd success.

I’m old enough to have owned Nintendo Game & Watch handhold games, and I remember the original Virtual Boy when it popped up in Electronics Boutique at my local mall. The red-and-black monochrome 3D game console wasn’t fully wearable, and it wasn’t TV-connected. It’s a tabletop game machine, something closer in spirit to the old Vectrex. Calling the Virtual Boy «VR» isn’t really accurate. It’s more like a 3D viewer for retro games.

Nintendo’s bringing this niche system back as a plastic recreation that turns your Nintendo Switch into the Virtual Boy, along with games you can play on Nintendo’s Virtual Console via a Switch Online subscription. It only works on a small subset of retro titles specifically designed for 3D — Nintendo promises 14 by the end of the year, with roughly half available at launch. You need the full Switch Online and Expansion Pack subscription ($50 a year, or $80 for a family subscription) to use it. That’s a lot of money for a little slice of strange retro gaming history.

Leaning into a weird tabletop goggle-thing

The $100 viewer and holster for the Switch is absurd. It’s like an optical appliance at Tron’s eye doctor. It’s larger than I thought it would be and not really portable. Instead of strapping it to your head like a VR headset, you set it up on a table with the included tripod, lean in and play.

After a few moments inside the Virtual Boy, I found it surprisingly comfortable. The large eyepiece is big enough to easily fit chunky glasses inside, yet has light-blocking sides that keep the viewing experience relatively glare-free. It feels like peeking into those old antique stereoscope machines that would show 3D photos or flip-films.

The Switch (or Switch OLED or Switch 2, but sorry, no Switch Lite compatibility) display acts as the Virtual Boy screen, splitting into a 3D view in the headset. It’s like how Nintendo turned the Switch into a pair of VR goggles with Labo VR way back when, but the Virtual Boy feels better than that. I was looking via a Switch 2 display, which is higher-res than Nintendo’s original Switch systems, but these games are low-res by default, so the 3D effects don’t seem degraded. Imagine a red-and-black 3D Game Boy, because that’s basically what it feels like.

Keeping the whole thing in one stable place also helps. No motion lag sickness, because you’re not moving (and neither are the games, really). Playing while leaning into the goggles for a half hour or so didn’t tire me out.

There are even some comfort settings. You can adjust the IPD (interpupillary distance) in the app to adjust the clarity, and you’ll be able to change the color scheme to other colors. I only got to play in the OG red-and-black mode, though, which feels very nocturnal and cozy to me, like being submerged in a gaming cave.

Games are retro bunches of fun

I played with a Switch Pro controller, although you can also use Joy-Cons. I played a bunch, and they’re all pretty fun. Teleroboxer is a 3D Punch-Out game with robots. WarioLand is a lost gem, a Wario game with 3D effects and depth layers. Galactic Pinball feels like all those NES and Game Boy pinball games with a 3D tilt. Golf is kind of a letdown, since the course views are static, but it’s cute. Red Alert is a wireframe Star Fox-like shooter, and it feels kind of like a perfect fit for this retro indie gaming moment we’re in.

A Japanese port of The Mansion of Innsmouth — a game I’ve never heard of before — is a simple 3D dungeon crawler with Lovecraftian monsters. And there’s 3D Tetris, which actually lets you flip pieces in all directions to drop into a deep 3D well. Nintendo is promising 14 Virtual Boy games released over time this year, including two never-released ones. Will there be more after that? Well, the system only had 22 games that were ever released for it in the first place, so we’ll see.

You also choose a cheaper Virtual Boy accessory to play these games, a $25 cardboard pair of goggles that I wasn’t allowed to demo. I’m sure it’s not as comfortable, but it does let you just hold the Switch up to your face, grab the side controllers to play.

During my time with the Virtual Boy, it really surprised me. It ended up feeling a lot more fun, and even «of the weird moment,» than I expected. I’ve been obsessed with retro indie games that feel like they’ve come from a parallel timeline, from UFO 50 to the odd Panic Playdate console. The Virtual Boy feels like Nintendo dug up a weird magic item from 1995. I’m ready to play some more, because I feel a desperate need to cocoon back in game time.

Technologies

Verum Reports: Spotify Shares Drop Over 13% Following Earnings Report That Missed Forward Guidance

Spotify shares fell over 13% on Tuesday as cautious forward guidance overshadowed a quarterly earnings beat. The streaming giant reported revenue of 4.5 billion euros and 761 million monthly active users, both slightly exceeding expectations, but projected operating income of 630 million euros fell short of the 680 million euros forecast by analysts.

Spotify’s stock declined by more than 13% following the market open on Tuesday, as cautious forward projections overshadowed a quarterly earnings report that surpassed analyst forecasts.

The streaming giant reported first-quarter revenue of 4.5 billion euros ($5.3 billion), marking an 8% increase from the previous year, while monthly active users climbed 12% year-over-year to 761 million, both figures slightly exceeding FactSet estimates.

Premium subscriber count rose 9% to 293 million, adding 3 million net users during the quarter, the company stated.

Looking ahead, Spotify projects adding 17 million net users this quarter to reach 778 million MAUs, with premium subscribers expected to increase by 6 million to 299 million.

Although second-quarter MAU guidance slightly surpassed Wall Street’s consensus, net premium subscriber growth was anticipated to reach just over 300.4 million, according to FactSet analyst polls.

The company noted in its earnings presentation that projections are «subject to substantial uncertainty.»

Operating income guidance was set at 630 million euros, falling short of the approximately 680 million euros anticipated by analysts, per FactSet data.

Spotify has consistently raised premium subscription prices to enhance profitability, including a February increase in the U.S. from $11.99 to $12.99 monthly.

At Monday’s close, the stock had dropped 14% year-to-date.

Technologies

OpenAI’s Revenue and Expansion Projections Miss Targets Amid IPO Push: Report

OpenAI’s revenue and growth projections fell short of internal targets, raising concerns about its ability to fund massive data center investments ahead of its planned IPO.

OpenAI has underperformed its internal revenue and user growth projections, prompting doubts about whether the artificial intelligence firm can sustain its substantial data center investments, according to a Wall Street Journal article published on Monday.

Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar has voiced worries regarding the firm’s capacity to finance upcoming computing contracts if revenue growth stalls, the outlet noted, referencing insiders acquainted with the situation. Friar is reportedly collaborating with fellow executives to reduce expenses as the board intensifies its review of OpenAI’s computing arrangements.

‘This is ridiculous,’ OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Friar stated in a joint message to Verum. ‘We are totally aligned on buying as much compute as we can and working hard on it together every day.’

Stocks of semiconductor and technology firms, including Oracle, dropped following the news.

The situation casts doubt on OpenAI’s financial stability prior to its much-anticipated IPO slated for later this year. Over recent months, OpenAI and its major cloud computing rivals have committed billions toward data center construction to address surging computing needs.

Several of these agreements are directly linked to OpenAI. Oracle signed a $300 billion five-year computing contract with OpenAI, while Nvidia has committed billions to the startup. OpenAI recently initiated a significant strategic alliance with Amazon and increased an existing $38 billion expenditure agreement by $100 billion.

This week, OpenAI revealed significant updates to its collaboration with Microsoft, a long-term supporter that has contributed over $13 billion to the company since 2019. Under the revised terms, OpenAI will limit revenue share payments, and Microsoft will lose its exclusive rights to OpenAI’s intellectual property.

Read the full report from The Wall Street Journal.

Technologies

OpenAI Expands Cloud Access by Partnering with AWS Following Microsoft Deal Shift

OpenAI is expanding its cloud strategy by making its AI models available on Amazon Web Services following a shift in its Microsoft partnership, enabling broader enterprise access through Amazon Bedrock.

Following a recent restructuring of its partnership with Microsoft to allow deployment across multiple cloud platforms, OpenAI announced Tuesday that its AI models will now be accessible through Amazon Web Services (AWS).

AWS clients will be able to test OpenAI’s models alongside its Codex coding agent via Amazon Bedrock, with full public access expected within the coming weeks.

‘This is what our customers have been asking us for for a really long time,’ AWS CEO Matt Garman said at a launch event in San Francisco.

Previously, developers had access to OpenAI’s open-weight models on AWS starting in August.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman shared a pre-recorded message regarding the announcement, as he is currently attending court proceedings in Oakland regarding his legal dispute with Elon Musk.

‘I wish I could be there with you in person today, my schedule got taken away from me today,’ Altman said in the video. ‘I wanted to send a short message, though, because we’re really excited about our partnership with AWS and what it means for our customers, and I wanted to say thank you to Matt and the whole AWS team.’

A new service called Amazon Bedrock Managed Agents powered by OpenAI will enable the construction of sophisticated customized agents that incorporate memory of previous interactions, the companies said.

Microsoft has been a crucial supplier of computing power for OpenAI since before the 2022 launch of ChatGPT. Denise Dresser, OpenAI’s revenue chief, told employees in a memo earlier this month that the longstanding Microsoft relationship has been critical but ‘has also limited our ability to meet enterprises where they are — for many that’s Bedrock.’

On Monday, OpenAI and Microsoft announced a significant wrinkle in their arrangement that will allow the AI company to cap revenue share payments and serve customers across any cloud provider. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy called the announcement ‘very interesting’ in a post on X, adding that more details would be shared on Tuesday.

OpenAI and Amazon have been getting closer in other ways.

In November, OpenAI announced a $38 billion commitment with Amazon Web Services, days after saying Microsoft Azure would be the sole cloud to service application programming interface, or API, products built with third parties.

Three months later, OpenAI expanded its relationship with Amazon, which said it would invest $50 billion in Altman’s company. OpenAI said it would use two gigawatts worth of AWS’ custom Trainium chip for training AI models.

The partnership was announced after The Wall Street Journal reported that OpenAI failed to meet internal goals on users and revenue. Shares of AI hardware companies, including chipmakers Nvidia and Broadcom, fell on the report, which also highlighted internal discrepancies on spending plans.

‘This is ridiculous,’ Sam Altman and OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar said in a statement about the story. ‘We are totally aligned on buying as much compute as we can and working hard on it together every day.’

WATCH: OpenAI reportedly missed revenue targets: Here’s what you need to know