This week's Game Developers Conference came at just the right time for Magic Leap, a company that was riding a wave of bad news from legal troubles and rumors regarding Magic Leap One. The event was the ideal backdrop for the company to unveil its Creator Portal and SDK, with several big names from the tech industry announcing partnerships with the Florida-based company. But its good fortune wasn't just a distraction from negative stories, as the company also managed to close the book on at least one troublesome issue. Meanwhile, display maker Avegant is looking to endure its own tough times with a major change of leadership.

Magic Leap Secures Allegiance with Unity, Unreal & Mozilla Following the surprise release of Magic Leap's SDK on Monday, March 19, Unity, Unreal Engine, and Mozilla followed up by announcing official partnerships with the company. "We are proud to partner with Magic Leap to integrate the Magic Leap platform with Unity," Unity announced on its official blog. "For all creators looking to get started today, we're thrilled to make available the Unity Technical Preview and the Lumin SDK available on the Magic Leap Creator Portal!" Learn more about this partnership here and follow all of our Magic Leap coverage here... Image via Unity & Magic Leap REALITY BITES: Market intelligence firm IDC predicts that demand for augmented and virtual reality will increase by 48.5% over 2017 as new vendors, use cases, and business models emerge.

Magic Leap Quietly Concludes Dispute with Security Officer Flying under the radar during Magic Leap's big week at the Game Developers Conference, the company settled a potentially ugly lawsuit with a former employee. Earlier this month, we reported that Magic Leap's senior director of global security, Todd Keil, was embroiled in a dispute involving his claim of alleged violations of the Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA) related to HoloLens shipments to the company and age discrimination. Subsequently, Magic Leap denied the allegations in a legal filing against Keil in the Eastern District of Texas, where Keil lives. However, it now appears that the contentious legal wrangling has come to a swift end. Read on to catch up with the dénouement to this saga... Image by Double A Events/Twitter REALITY BITES: According to TechCrunch, Google is on the verge of acquiring digital imaging company Lytro, which holds 59 patents for light field and other imaging technology that could have applications in augmented and virtual reality.

Avegant's Founder Takes Over as CEO Amid Layoffs Augmented reality hardware maker Avegant has reportedly laid off between 20 and 30 employees, with founder Edward Tang returning to the CEO role at the company. Citing unnamed sources, The Verge reported on Saturday that Avegant reduced its staff last month to 20 employees, mainly in research and development. What does this mean for Avegant and its light field AR technology? Read on to see the light... Every Friday, Next Reality reviews the latest headlines from the financial side of augmented and mixed reality. This weekly Market Reality column covers funding announcements, mergers and acquisitions, market analysis, and the like. Check out previous editions of Market Reality for more news you may have missed.

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