Samsung XR App and Mobile Service Ending Late September
Download Uploaded Videos to Keep Them
Gear VR
[Asia Economy Reporter Han Jinju] Samsung Electronics has withdrawn from the VR (Virtual Reality) business. Following the discontinuation of support for GearVR technology, the platform providing VR-related content will also be terminated this September.
On the 19th, Samsung Electronics announced that it will end the online platform service 'Samsung XR,' which has been available through the web, mobile, and VR headsets, as of September 30.
After September 30, Samsung Electronics will deactivate all Samsung XR user accounts and permanently delete account information, data, and uploaded videos. To separately save 360-degree videos uploaded directly, users must download or back them up from the Samsung XR webpage before the service ends. Starting June 30, the Samsung VR Video app will be removed from the Oculus Store, and support for Oculus Go, Oculus Rift, and Oculus Quest will also be discontinued.
The termination of Samsung Electronics' VR service was a foreseeable step. Earlier, Samsung Electronics and Oculus stopped supporting the 'Oculus' app for GearVR from April. Downloads of 360 Photos developed by Oculus and the Oculus Video app became unavailable, and Oculus Browser updates were also halted. Since December last year, GearVR support via the Oculus SDK was discontinued, and Unity Engine ended GearVR support starting January.
In November 2014, Samsung Electronics collaborated with VR specialist Oculus to launch the mobile VR headset 'GearVR.' Samsung released renewed versions of GearVR annually from 2015 to 2019, but starting with the Galaxy S10 series in 2019, smartphones released afterward no longer support GearVR. Compared to PC-based VR headsets, GearVR was relatively affordable and accessible, selling over 780,000 units as of 2017 and achieving cumulative sales exceeding 5 million units.
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