Apple Has Over 150 3D Movies and 250 Games Ready for the Vision Pro

Apple has been hard at work to ensure its new Vision Pro headset launches with a bang once it goes on sale next month, with a considerable selection of immersive movies and games already available for the long-awaited mixed-reality headset.

This week, Apple kicked off the first non-holiday Monday of 2024 by giving us an official release date of February 2 for the Vision Pro, and among the finer details in Apple’s announcement, the company says it already has “the ultimate entertainment experience” ready for early Vision Pro adopters.

Since the Vision Pro features a pair of incredibly high-resolution displays that can deliver 4K+ resolution to each eyeball, Apple can present a screen that will feel 100 feet wide and show full HDR content from just about any streaming service, whether that’s Disney+ or Max.

It’s less clear how Netflix will look on the Vision Pro, as the streaming giant has explicitly declined to create a visionOS app for the headset. The Netflix iPad app should run fine on the Vision Pro, but it may not offer the same immersive virtual theatre experience as a proper visionOS app.

The good news is you can be confident that Disney+ will be on board at launch. Disney CEO Bob Iger was one of the folks who took the stage during the original Vision Pro unveiling last June, where he promised that not only will Disney’s current content be ready to go for Apple’s headset but that his company is working on creating “deeply personal experiences that bring our fans closer to the characters they love.” Since Disney also owns ESPN, there have been hints of an NBA tie-in where “fans would be able to watch an NBA game as if they were sitting courtside.”

However, the most powerful entertainment experience for the Vision Pro will be coming from Apple, which has pioneered a new Immersive Video format that puts users “inside the action.”

These are 180-degree, three-dimensional 8K recordings captured with Spatial Audio, and Apple says it has 150 3D titles ready to go out of the gate, plus some that will even be interactive, like “Encounter Dinosaurs.”

Naturally, Apple Arcade fans will also be able to get in on the action, as Apple has promised that all 250+ titles on the service will be playable on the Vision Pro, where users can play “on a screen as large as they want with incredible audio and support for popular game controllers.” This includes hit titles like NBA 2K24 Arcade Edition and Sonic Dream Team.

However, Apple is also rolling out several new spatial games on Apple Arcade, including Game Room, What the Golf?, and Super Fruit Ninja, all of which pique the imagination as to what kind of engaging gameplay experiences these will deliver in Apple’s immersive new world.

Of these three, Game Room is something of an enigma, as it’s an entirely new title we haven’t heard about before, and Apple isn’t offering up anything more than the name. Super Fruit Ninja will undoubtedly involve slicing fruit in a full 3D environment, and What the Golf? is an expansion of the popular whimsical golfing title that’s been on Arcade for a while.

Although the Vision Pro games on Apple Arcade may be available to anybody with a subscription at no extra charge, Apple hasn’t said whether that’s the case, nor what its new 3D Immersive Video movies will cost in the Apple TV app.

Other game developers have been surprisingly quiet about their plans for the headset. In June, there was speculation that No Man’s Sky would be a flagship launch title. Still, when Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) came and went with no mention of that — or any other specific titles — we were left wondering what was going on.

Apple typically partners with key developers to show off the capabilities of its hardware, and many iPhone and iPad launch events have had game companies taking the stage to present their newest titles. That was not the case for the Vision Pro. Although Susan Prescott, Apple’s VP of Developer Relations, said at the unveiling that Apple has been working with Unity and other developers to bring Vision Pro support to an even wider range of games, Apple has yet to mention even a single new title by name other than those three above that are seemingly being developed under Apple’s own banner.

Still, the Vision Pro is about much more than just gaming, and it’s fair to say that Apple wants to avoid the risk of people pigeonholing it into a single-purpose device. There may be some compelling game titles coming — we certainly hope so — but it’s too early to predict what direction the new headset will ultimately go in, and Apple is trying to keep things broad and diverse for now.