Epic Acquires Rock Band Dev Harmonix, VR Township Expanding, Deep Fakes In The Metaverse

Epic Games Acquires Harmonix. The company behind the legendary hit video game Rock Band has been purchased by the company behind Fortnite. Harmonix says it will continue to support its existing franchises. 

VR Studio Alta Raises $12.4 Million to Expand Township Tale The Aussie developer announced it has raised a $12.4 million seed round to finance further development of the popular Quest 2 game.

AI startup behind Tom Cruise Deepfakes raises $7.5M London-based Metaphysic wants to endow NPCs with uncanny intelligence. Investing in the round were Section 32, 8VC, TO Ventures, Winklevoss Capital and Logan Paul.

We Met tin VR’s Sundance Debut. Joe Hunting’s new documentary is shot entirely in VR. “These people aren’t just escaping from their lives with VR,” says Engadget reviewer D. Hardawar. “Their lives are being made richer because of it.”

This Week in XR is now a podcast hosted by Ted Schilowitz, Futurist at Viacom, and Charlie Fink, the author of this weekly column. Our guests this week are Erik Murphy-Chutorian, founder and CEO of 8th Wall, and Tom Emrich, VP of Product. You can find us on podcasting platforms Spotify, iTunes, and YouTube. 

What We’re Reading

Prof Galloway Spanks the Crypto Crowd What is web3? It’s a hazy/vague term describing a crypto-powered internet, and a font of yogababble. (Scott Galloway/profgalloway.com)

Meta wants to build the world’s fastest supercomputer, for the metaverse and more The AI to power the Metaverse has to come from somewhere. (Morning Brew)

My Family Is Trapped in the Metaverse Virtual reality isn’t great, but it’s a lot better than dealing with everything else out there. (Adrienne So/Wired)

Innovation & Impact: An Interview with Virbela Co-Founder and President Alex Howland (Yancy Berns/Comparably)