04 Jan 2022 Year In Review
2022 was an eventful and fulfilling year with new projects, amazing clients, exciting virtual experiences, and revolutionary tech. We began working with Delta, Mars Wrigley, Genuine Parts Company, Boys and Girls Clubs of America, and ARCO. JLG won the 2022 Rental Editors Choice Award from Rental Magazine, for the JLG AR app we have continued to build upon. Georgia-Pacific published a feature of the virtual reality training work we’re supporting. All these feats were made possible by our talented team, which continued to grow with new additions to development, design, art, marketing, and production roles this year.
We started the year off strong by launching our first consumer game – Loam Sandbox! The game launched for Meta Quest headsets at the start of 2022 and was produced to be a relaxing and creative gardening and decorating experience. This is something we have been passionate about as a team, and we have thoroughly enjoyed watching it come to life and grow with each new feature update or themed content pack – like space, spooky, crystal, stone, and more! We also made the decision to launch Loam Sandbox as a free-to-play game in order to make it more accessible to everyone. As the number of Loam Sandbox players grows each month, we are so thankful that people are enjoying growing their virtual gardens as much as we enjoyed creating the game. If you haven’t gotten a chance to play yet, the game is free and supports all Quest virtual reality headsets. Check it out here!
The Futurus team took a metaverse field trip in early April to learn more about what makes a metaverse, as it has truly become a common household term this year. That experience has helped us explain the possibilities and limitations of metaverse platforms and better educate on this constantly changing concept. While there is no one definition for the metaverse, we look forward to keeping an eye on this as the internet and how we know it evolves.
We attended various events such as Southern Fried Gaming Expo, NACD Summit, Limitless Futures Conference, GDC, and several XR Atlanta meetups. Each of these events served as a great opportunity to learn more about the industry and meet other people who have found a passion for it. Through these events we’ve strengthened relationships with hardware manufacturers and mobile device management platforms, which help us stay ahead of trends and plan deployment strategies for our longer-term projects.
We added several new devices to our hardware collection in 2022! As each new piece of tech comes out, we are so excited to get our hands on it, learn more about what developments have been made, and explore what doors can be opened. Throughout the year, we have acquired Rayban Stories, Vive Focus 3, Pico Neo 3 Pro, Meta Quest Pro, Conquest VR Headphones, and Nreal Light devices.
Some other industry advancements worth mentioning are the PSVR 2 and Pico Neo 4 announcements, Meta’s shift to not requiring a Facebook account for Quest headsets, and Niantic launching their AR development kit, Lightship. We’re also always evaluating new software and have ongoing R&D projects to evaluate Speech Graphics for audio-driven facial animation and Move.ai for suitless motion capture. This research will aid in our creation of an internal library of diverse and realistic-looking characters, optimized for our virtual reality training experiences.
This recap only scratches the surface of all that the Futurus team has accomplished. I’m so proud of the work everyone puts in to shaping the future of technology. As we enter a new year, we’re also refreshing our company image with a new logo. We hold steady in our roots, but as technology evolves, so does the company. The center of the brand, Futurus, remains the same, but our phoenix is now represented by three feathers over our name. Each one stands for an integral pillar of our business.
Innovation – We are constantly challenging ourselves to think outside of what exists before us. The answers may not yet be defined, and we work together to find solutions.
Imagination – In order to design the future, we must first imagine the possibilities. We lean on our resourcefulness to stretch our ideas beyond the obvious to create the extraordinary.
Integrity – The work we do is powerful. It can change lives, save lives, and enrich lives. We must treat the work with respect and design a future we want to live in.
Cheers to 2023 and all that we will create together!
