Is Gaming the Future of the Apple Vision Pro?

PLUS: Bringing Captions into the 21st Century

Author

Steve
March 11, 2025

Greetings Hollywood tech nerds!

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Is Gaming the Future of the Apple Vision Pro?

Aside from the ongoing legal dramas of my beloved Aunt Joan, this newsletter’s longest-running storyline is probably my insatiable interest in the Apple Vision Pro. Specifically: What is its use case? Why is it so expensive? Who is buying it? How gross do its eye cushions get?

Based on its initial release, clearly Apple was gambling on immersive entertainment being the AVP’s killer app. Wouldn’t it be cool to put on a heavy, clunky headset to watch The Mandalorian projected in a distracting Star Wars-themed environment instead of sitting on your comfortable couch in front of a big TV? Wait, it wouldn’t? Uh-oh!

The patent, published February 2025, is for “handheld input devices.” While it isn't expressly, overtly connected to the Apple Vision Pro, the summary describes it as potentially controlling “an electronic device such as a head-mounted device,” which “may have a display configured to display virtual content that is overlaid onto real-world content.” That sure sounds like what the Apple Vision Pro does…

The document also describes a lanyard that can be tracked by external cameras, and shows a few possible uses for the technology, including being held vertically, somewhat like the grip-type controllers found on other headset platforms. Crucially though, the patent doesn't appear to show any buttons, triggers, or thumbsticks on the handheld input device…

However, the patent does suggest that “the handheld input device may may include a haptic output device to provide the user's hands with haptic output,” and haptics—vibration—alone can dramatically improve gameplay in VR.

As Wired goes on to note, this might ultimately mean nothing; companies file patents all the time that go nowhere. Or this might be yet another failed attempt to make fetch happen, in this case “fetch” being “watching a movie on a headset.” “Now you can use your Apple headset handsets to draw on the faces of your favorite movie stars. Wow!”

However, Apple cracking VR or AR gaming really would be the killer app to make the AVP explode. PlayStation’s PSVR 2 sales have proven there is an interest in VR games from gamers at the right price point. Apple is at a disadvantage compared to the established video game hardware companies… but that’s what they said about the iPhone.

Bringing Captions into the 21st Century

About a year ago I highlighted the ongoing accessibility issues that plague entertainment. Populations that are blind, deaf, and hard-of-hearing remain chronically underserved by our business.

I was reminded of this by IndieWire’s coverage of the re-release of Compensation, a 25 year old film festival favorite finally receiving theatrical distribution. As Compensation features deaf characters:

For a film that is about communication and the deaf community, Davis adapted the cinematic language of early silent film. This included old-fashioned intertitles as well as captions. With new open caption technology, Davis worked with hard of hearing filmmaker Alison O’Daniel (“The Tuba Thieves”) to create all-new captions that opened up the film to a new world of storytelling possibilities. “[O’Daniel ] helped us really create the tableau of the scene to include captionings in strategic parts of the frame,” said Davis.

With the ability to use the entire frame and work captions into the composition, O’Daniel and Davis placed music descriptions in the upper left-hand corner of the frame, sound effect descriptions in the upper right-hand corner, and altered positioning of the dialogue. “Alison taught us as a team that we should put the captioning closer to the person who’s speaking, if it’s a multiple character scene, so the deaf and hard of hearing know who is actually speaking,” said Davis.

This is super cool and is exactly the type of accessibility we should be able to achieve in 2025. You can check out the video interview with the film’s director Zeinabu irene Davis below:

One part of the interview that stuck out to me was Davis’s description of how far behind captioning was at the time of the film’s initial release:

Because back in ’99, we were only limited to two lines of dialogue, two lines of captioning, 31 characters max. You had to condense, even the dialogue, you had to condense it so it would fit, and it had to be at the bottom center of the screen.

Here’s the crazy part: what Davis describes is not limited to 1999. There are tranches of film and television content across the streaming services that have these ancient captions on them. Don’t believe me? Go to any streamer and throw on a movie from the 2000s or earlier. It won’t take you long to find exactly what Davis mentions: ancient captions, sometimes in all-caps, sometimes with truncated dialogue, often not updated since their initial creation.

That’s because while there are FCC guidelines for captioning, they are somewhat vague and certainly don’t lay down any detailed, specific standards. Those are left up to the streamers who don’t have any particular incentive to thoroughly update them, resulting in antiquated accessibility for people who deserve better.

Here’s a round-up of cool and interesting links about Hollywood and technology:

How do you shoot in front of a blue screen and make it look good? (link)

19 highly-anticipated films at SXSW. (link)

When it’s time to finish a sound mix. (link)