I’m trying to breathe deeply, relax my shoulders, and follow the visual cues inside a pastel-colored landscape with an orange sunset. It was almost easy to forget that I was being closely monitored by many Meta and Headspace representatives, as if I were part of a laboratory experiment.
Trying to appear natural and calm while being watched and evaluated by unidentified observers? My mind forgot to be silent for a time, conjuring up images of myself in a police interrogation room, and I tried not to snort.
Meditation App Headspace, one of the top fitness and health applications, has announced Headspace XR, a “immersive playground” VR game with single-player and multiplayer modes based on meditation principles found in the app. And we got to visit Meta headquarters to try it out, ahead of launch
Headspace XR is a game developed by Meta and Nexus Studios for the Meta Quest 2, 3, and Meta Quest Pro headsets (some of the top VR headsets) that is advertised as an experience in which “users can move, play, meditate, or just explore with their friends”. The game is placed in a central hub universe with 13 locations to explore, each representing a distinct exercise aimed at promoting creativity, mindfulness, and positive thinking.
The game costs $29.99 in the United States and £22.99 in the United Kingdom, and it is now available via the Meta Quest store. We had an exclusive preview in London’s Meta HQ as we were writing this, and it was released today.
“We started with purpose,” Deborah Casswell, Nexus Studios’ senior creative director, told TechRadar. “We knew the Gen Z demographic we were creating this for was battling with their mental health. Headspace has always done an excellent job of reaching people where they are, so this provided an opportunity to reach a large number of individuals who are already using the Quest platform.
“In terms of creating it for VR, we took all of the positive stuff, such as social incentive, and approached it from the perspective of spending time with friends, as friendships are central to their identity. We’ve created a good environment where they can get together to feel better, stimulate talk about mental health, and participate in activities that can assist.”
Trying the game
I am a casual on-and-off mindfulness app user. I’ve used Headspace’s mobile app before, and I’ve previously written about my Calm membership. I’ve had some experience with mindfulness principles and how platforms like Headspace gamify and execute them via mobile apps. I’ve used VR in the past, but I’m not a heavy user these days.
I put on the headset, started the game, and found myself in a neutral shape-based environment filled with relaxing tonal pastel colors, predominantly blues, pinks, and yellows. At the center stood a tower comprised of numerous polyhedrons, stretching above the skies With practice, you could literally raise your head above the sky. A good, albeit apparent metaphor.
The sky was gorgeously depicted, and I appreciated how participatory the setting was: you could spend hours hurling colored bubbles (or “flow bursts”) at the walls and coloring them with a gratifying splat, or pressing your hand into the wall to gradually increase the spread of color.
With a little coaching, I was able to leave my mark on this lobby area and test a few games. One assignment required you to wave your hands or use a controller (I used controllers) to move energy balls around a room, moving them in tai chi-like motions to collect floating points. The result was similar to water bending in Avatar: The Last Airbender, with methodical, relaxing movements. The game was quite responsive, and it satisfied that itch in my brain. I appreciated it and felt as relaxed as I could be while wearing an unusual X-Men-style visor and being stared at by Meta and Headspace workers.
I also tried box breathing, a guided breathing exercise I had previously completed using the app. I breathed in for four counts, held for four, expelled for four, and then held at the “bottom” of my breath for another four. With the VR headset, I can utilize visual cues instead of verbal cues, with finished boxes fading into a sunset sky. This is all extremely clever stuff.
“Play is a fantastic wellbeing tool. You’re rarely more focused than while you’re playing. So, using the Meta Quest platform, we can use all of these gaming features to enhance our wellness experiences. What we concentrated on was helping you concentrate on one task at a time.” When I last used a virtual reality headset, I was constantly scanning the edges of my view for enemy snipers: this new use of immersion is a welcome change of pace.
VR mindfulness: Is it ever really viable?
When I first tried Headspace XR, I thought it was a cool way to incorporate meditation ideas into a video game. It was both enjoyable and enlightening, and I believe it was an effective approach to illustrate simple tactics and ideas, such as the power of play and certain breathing exercises, that can be used to boost your mood when you need it. That is frequently how meditation apps work, and I believe Headspace XR will be even more effective at guiding the user into a contemplative state thanks to VR’s natural immersiveness.
However, Headspace and Nexus Studios appear to be set on creating the VR experience a virtual space to relax in, transforming mindfulness into a social activity for Generation Z (not my words: Casswell emphasized designing the game with Gen Z in mind). Although there was a significant increase in these kind of warm shared experiences during the epidemic – I’m thinking of Animal Crossing on the Switch – there are a couple impediments to this. For starters, each companion must own a Meta Quest headset as well as a copy of the game, which costs $30 / £23 alone.
As a shared gaming experience, Headspace XR falls short: there’s satisfaction in playing without the constraints of response speed, strategy, or organization, but most groups of friends will need a meatier, more rewarding shared experience. The pastel-hued environment is lovely, yet it falls short of their goal of creating a safe, non-judgmental space. I realize Headspace intends to decrease the damage caused by over-stimulation, but as a game, I’m concerned it’s gone too far the other way.
Headspace is designed to be a challenge-free solo gaming experience, which is enjoyable for a time – but will it keep Meta Quest gamers coming back? I’m not certain that the mini-games are replayable. It’s fine to undertake short 10-minute (or even 20-minute) meditation sessions on an app, many of which can get repetitious, but having to log in and put on the headset adds another barrier to utilizing the game to create a meditation habit.
I enjoyed the experience, and as a casual mindfulness practitioner, I keep returning to the applications, but I don’t see myself donning a headset and passively playing with my friends. Perhaps I am just stuck in my millennial Younger readers will feel differently.
