Hi there! My name is Janko Roettgers, and this is Lowpass. This week: The return of Altspace VR, and new, unannounced hardware from Amazon and Roku 👀

Inside’s Altspace’s comeback plans

A pioneering social VR world is about to make a comeback: Altspace VR, which got shut down by Microsoft in March of 2023, is being resurrected by the team behind SideQuest, the alternative app store for VR apps and games.

The timing for Altspace’s return couldn’t be better. Altspace competitors Spaces and Rec Room both shut down their social VR worlds this summer. Meta put its own Horizon Worlds metaverse service into maintenance mode in June, making it impossible for creators to build any new worlds or experiences.

“Right now, there really isn't much of an alternative for people who want something different to VRChat,” says SideQuest CEO Shane Harris.

However, for Harris, bringing back Altspace is more than filling a void in the market. It’s also deeply personal. Altspace was one of the first VR worlds he spent time in a decade or so ago after first discovering virtual reality, and it’s a space he actively contributed to by building his own worlds. “When it shut down, there was a big hole that was left there,” he tells me.

Inheriting Alspace’s spirit, but not its code

Harris is not alone feeling nostalgic about Altspace, which officially launched in 2015 and was acquired by Microsoft in 2017. The pioneering social VR world was home to countless events and communities over the years, including meditation circles, comedy clubs, film premieres, presidential debates and even a virtual version of Burning Man.  When Microsoft decided to shut down Altspace in 2023, its community celebrated the “end of the world” with a funeral procession and wake that lasted until Altspace's admins pulled the plug.

Now, that same community will soon have a chance to bring back some of that spirit in a new version of Altspace. “I’m trying to pay homage to the original Altspace, but I’m also trying to change things,” Harris says. 

Some of those changes are by necessity: The new Altspace will launch with a completely rewritten code base, in part because Harris didn’t actually get his hands on all of the assets associated with the original VR world. “We just acquired the trademark,” Harris says. This also means that the new Altspace won’t have to deal any of the legacy platform’s technical debt. “We're using the latest engine technology, the latest rendering pipelines,” he says.

That said, the new Altspace team isn’t starting completely from scratch. For SideQuest, they already developed Banter, a social VR platform that allows creators to build worlds with voice commands, among other things. “We’re fairly well versed in how to pull a platform like this together,” Harris says.

A first version in six to seven weeks

The SideQuest team have already launched a standalone sandbox demo for Altspace, and plan to have a first version that actually lets you interact with others up and running in six to seven weeks. A full public release could happen early next year, Harris estimates.

At that point, Harris wants people to be able to host events in Altspace, build their own worlds while in VR and more. “We're gonna embrace the open web,” he says. “We're going to make it possible for people to quickly and easily share their content, and be able to cast to each other.”

The one thing AltSpace will be missing at launch will be any kind of in-game store, or other forms of monetization. “Building out a financial payment infrastructure is something that isn't really going to benefit us or the community at this stage,” Harris says. “We’re not going to try to monetize the user base until it reaches critical mass.” 

Scaling and monetizing social VR has been a challenge in the past. Microsoft wanted Altspace to be part of its broader mixed reality ambitions, which included both its Hololens AR headsets as well PC-based VR – plans that came to a screeching halt when the company laid off 10,000 employees at the beginning of 2023. 

Meta, meanwhile, had meant for Horizon Worlds to become the social “metaverse” layer of its VR efforts, but was never able to turn Horizon into a success with the masses. Even market leader VRChat hasn’t been immune to challenges. In June of 2204, the startup laid off 30% of its staff after expected user growth did not materialize.

One way Harris envisions to cover Altspace’s costs in the near term is to essentially white-label it, and make it available to enterprise clients looking to build their own VR worlds. SideQuest may also break out components, like Altspace’s live game networking service, and make them available to third-party developers for a fee. “Altspace will kind of serve as our dog fooding for that,” Harris says.

As for Altspace itself, the ner version will have one element that veteran users will immediately recognize: its iconic robot avatars. “We tracked down the original concept designer of the robots who worked on them maybe 12 years ago,” Harris says. “We will have a set of avatars, which will include robots and humanoids, and try [to]| capture the essence of all of the generations of Altspace avatars that kind of made them great.”

Scoop: Amazon, Roku are getting ready to launch new streamers

Both Amazon appear ready to launch new streaming devices this fall, if recent FCC filings are any indication. Amazon had a filing for a new remote control that appears to be built for one of its Fire TV streaming adapters passed through the FCC last week. The agency published filings for a total of four Roku remotes earlier this month.

Filings for the actual devices each company may introduce this fall have yet to be made public.  Spokespeople for Roku and Amazon spokesperson declined to comment.

Both filings are heavily redacted, with manuals and complete photos of the devices themselves not being available to the public yet. However, the documents filed do provide a few clues:

Roku’s four remotes all use Bluetooth LE for connectivity, and are powered by AA batteries. That sets them apart from the company’s existing Voice Remote Pro, which incorporates a rechargeable battery. Two of the remotes feature a “buzzer” used for find my remote functionality, and two come without the company’s iconic Roku fabric tag. Compared to previous models, Roku also appears to have increased the output power, which should improve connectivity.

Amazon’s new remote is about the same size as the company’s existing Alexa Voice remote for Fire TV streamers, which was released in 2024. Much like Roku, the company is also going back to AA batteries instead of a rechargeable internal battery like the one used for the Voice Remote Pro. The remote uses BLE for connectivity, but doesn’t appear to offer IR functionality to control older TVs or other third-party equipment.

A few other educated guesses: With four new remote variations, I expect Roku to unveil at least two new devices, if not more. The company’s most recent product introduction was in April of 2025, when it launched two streaming sticks. The variants without Roku tag are most likely for special edition versions the company frequently launches with select retailers.

Amazon on the other hand may introduce just one new streamer, or perhaps even an Echo Show with built in Fire TV functionality. The company launched its Fire TV Stick 4K Select a year ago, followed by the Fire TV Stick HD this spring, and is unlikely to refresh either model just yet.

The big question: What are these new devices going to cost? Roku just raised the prices of its streaming hardware by up to 60 percent in response to AI-fueled memory shortages. Streamers from companies like Apple and Walmart have also seen significant price hikes. 

Amazon has yet to increase its streaming hardware prices, and is benefiting from its transition to Vega OS. The new, Linux-based operating system needs less memory than the company’s legacy Android-based streaming OS. Whatever Amazon launches this fall is all but certainly going to run Vega again.

What else

YouTube wants to pay creators to snub Netflix. The Google subsidiary is promising top creators millions of dollars to keep their videos exclusively on its service.

Sonos appears ready to launch a new soundbar. The still-unannounced product appears to be a refresh of the company’s Beam soundbar. Sonos will likely introduce it alongside its new Ace Ultra headphones.

Peacock is getting more expensive, again. The cheapest plan now costs $8.99 per month. This is Peacock’s fourth price hikes in as many years.

Amazon Prime Video just leaked Jason Statham’s latest movie. The film was briefly available for streaming two days before it’s scheduled to hit theaters. Oops!

Netflix shuts down Night School Studio. The game studio best known for its Oxenfree title had been acquired by Netflix in 2021.

VR game studio Maze Theory has been acquired by Agis. The UK-based studio most recently developed a VR experience for Project Hail Mary.

Alexa+ is now free for all Fire TV users. Amazon is giving owners of its Fire TV devices free access to Alexa+, even if they don’t subscribe to Amazon Prime.

Console sales decline by 29 percent year-over-year. Game hardware sales are hit by memory shortages and the resulting price increases.

FAST sports programming sees massive growth. Not only is the number of FAST sports channels up nearly 14 percent, the number of games and events shown on FAST actually increased by 37.5 percent, according to Gracenote.

That’s it

Have you ever played Bananagrams? It’s like Scrabble for introverts, and my family has fallen hard for it. We spent a good chunk of our recent vacation rearranging letter tiles, and we’re at a point where we are starting to think about adding side bets and special rules. Now, if I only could convince them to let me spell out German words … Donaudampfschiffahrtsgesellschaftskapitaensmuetze, anyone?

Thanks for reading, have a great weekend!