In August 2022, Beijing’s municipal government unveiled plans to regulate the “Digital Human Industry”, which covers digital assistants and virtual influencers (Meaghan Tobin/Rest of World)

Jay Peters / The Verge:
Meta announces Horizon Worlds avatars are getting legs using an AI model to predict the body’s position, an avatar store, avatars are coming to Reels, and more  —  Meta’s Horizon avatars will be getting legs.  So far, the company’s avatars have weirdly just hovered off the ground …

Amanda Silberling / TechCrunch:
Netflix VP of Gaming Mike Verdu says the company is “seriously exploring a cloud gaming offering” and plans to open a new gaming studio in Southern California  —  At TechCrunch Disrupt, Netflix VP of Gaming Mike Verdu dropped two bits of news about the streaming giant’s foray into games.

Scott Stein / CNET:
A look inside Meta’s Reality Labs, with demos of its neural input wristband, 3D audio, photorealistic avatars with Codec Avatars 2.0, and 3D object scanning  —  My visit to a future that isn’t quite here yet: neural wristbands, ghostly 3D audio and lifelike avatars.  Plus, the new Meta Quest Pro.

Fortune:
How Reddit’s blockchain-based Collectible Avatars, which avoid the NFT label, became popular; Polygon data shows the total sales volume was $10M+ by November 2  —  At 2:59 p.m. ET on Oct. 20, when Reddit announced its second generation of collectible avatars, Ethan Clark was ready, phone in hand.

Tom Warren / The Verge:
Logitech unveils the $350 Android-powered G Cloud Gaming Handheld with a 7″ display, Snapdragon 720G, and Xbox and GeForce Now cloud gaming, arriving October 17  —  Logitech is officially announcing its G Cloud Gaming Handheld today after a teaser and a leak last month.

Stephen Totilo / Axios:
Saudi Arabia’s Savvy Gaming Group says it plans to invest $37.8B in gaming to expand the kingdom’s role in the sector, including $18B for minority investments  —  Saudi Arabia’s government-funded gaming conglomerate The Savvy Gaming Group will invest $37.8 billion in gaming as part …