When Meta acquired Oculus, it created a problem where Meta wanted to integrate the software ecosystem of the VR headsets with its common Meta accounts system that spans Facebook, Instagram, and Threads; whereas some users from the pre-acquisition days, held out on the older Oculus accounts, continuing to use them for their cloud saves, purchase information, acquired software, DLCs, and more. Meta set up a system to port these Oculus accounts over to a Meta account, which would let you retain all your digital assets; but apparently not everyone switched. Such holdouts need to switch by the end of March 29, 2024, because Meta has decided to drop the hammer on the Oculus accounts system. All Oculus accounts will simply be deleted, any purchases, DLCs, or other digital assets you have, will be lost. If you're one of the holdouts, check your e-mail for a message from Meta with a unique link to port your account.

Microsoft is discontinuing Windows Mixed Reality. This was discovered when the company added it to a list of deprecated Windows features. The Windows Mixed Reality platform, along with its accompanying Mixed Reality Portal app, and Mixed Reality for Steam VR, are on the list. For now it is deprecated, and Microsoft says that it will be removed in a future release of Windows. Mixed Reality was released in 2017, during the thick of the VR craze in the tech industry, a time when Facebook, having acquired Oculus, and betting big on the Metaverse, an endeavor that cost the company over $20 billion since. Mixed Reality served as a gateway to games and apps in the VR space. The company developed its own HoloLens Mixed Reality headset rivaling Oculus Rift, and got its OEM partners, such as Acer, Dell, Lenovo, ASUS, and HP, to invest in ones of their own. In all this, it doesn't look like Microsoft is winding down its enterprise-focused HoloLens 2 headset just yet.

Meta Platforms, Inc. (formerly known as Facebook) has begun implementing widespread staff layoffs across multiple company departments. The cutback operation was announced last month, with the social media giant targeting 10,000 positions (throughout 2023) in an effort to become more efficient. 13,000 staffers were released from their jobs last year, representing 13% of the workforce at the time - advertising revenues had declined in 2022 and Meta said that the change was required in order to navigate economic downturns. A repeat of that sentiment has been issued this year and two internal games development studios have been affected quite heavily by the latest layoff initiative, reports suggest. Ready at Dawn and Downpour Interactive are getting a lot of press coverage - due to former staffers divulging details of Meta's cutbacks via social media.

Thomas Griebel, a (now former) Senior engine programmer at Ready at Dawn, took to Twitter two days ago and made claim that: "One third of the studio was laid off today, including the studio head." He also observes that the studio has been shrinking over time: "Also lost some really great people just due to attrition. Think we're down almost (down to a) half since when I started in August (2022)." Former Ready at Dawn technical designer Colin McInerney has also released a string of information about co-workers being let go. Michael Tsarouhas (senior designer) and Daan van Zelst (level designer) have confirmed that they were released from their roles at Downpour Interactive.

Oculus co-founder Palmer Luckey designed a new VR headset that adds the ultimate layer of realism to VR—mortality. Thought to be relegated to dystopian cyberpunk fiction, this new headset comes with the ability to literally kill its user if killed in-game. Its design involves an Oculus Quest Pro, with explosive charges strapped to the forehead, which activate when the headset receives a specific pattern of red color flashes from the game's display-head, to a photo receiver (typically the "Game Over" screen). There's already a concept for a game designed for this.

Mortality replaces visual fidelity and photorealism (or other forms of sensory realism); as the most powerful stimulus. You play the game like your life depends on it—which it literally does. You're in an MMO playing against another human in an unpausable PvP game, where the consequence of losing the duel is losing your head in real life. But first, the good news—the cursed thing isn't in mass-production, and while the US-FDA has approved for certain kinds of pain-stimulating gaming peripherals, it didn't approve killing the user. The product will have to pass through a long line of political, legislative, legal, and philosophical hurdles before it's released to market as something you can buy. Please don't.

Fast Travel Games today announced a publishing deal with VirtualAge Games for Guardians Frontline, a strategic VR shooter set in a sci-fi setting. Featuring powerful weapons, structural crafting, and an in-game map editor, Guardians Frontline allows players to take on the role of both soldier and commander. Originally released as Guardians on Oculus App Lab, Guardians Frontline will launch for Meta Quest 2 and SteamVR in early 2023.

In Guardians Frontline, players must defend the federation from an enemy onslaught as they attempt to extract a mysterious energy source. Battlefields can be strategically secured with a blend of brain and brawn, including tactfully spawned buildings, mechs, spaceships, heavy weapons, and more. The game can be enjoyed solo in single-player mode, four-player co-op, or with up to eight friends in PvP.

Meta (Oculus) is readying its next-gen high-end VR HMD, the Meta Quest Pro. Someone left a retail-looking box behind in a hotel room, with an engineering sample. At this point we don't know if it's a Meta employee who got very sloppy with their ES, or an ISV eligible to receive an ES. It was found by a hotel employee, who also claims to be a game streamer. He claimed to have found several such boxes full of Meta samples. The Quest Pro VR appears lightweight, with no unnecessary bulk anywhere, Meta seems to have redesigned the head-straps and light-blockers of the HMD. The controllers feature a more compact appearance, as if to better with with smaller hands. Meta is expected to formally launch its "next-gen" headset at the Connect Conference on October 11, but we can't tell if this is what the company is planning to unveil.

Meta has recently announced that it will be increasing the cost of the Quest 2 VR headsets by 100 USD with the 128 GB model set to retail for 399 USD effective August 1st. The 256 GB Quest 2 will now sell for 499 USD while the various accessories and refurbished headsets will also see price increases at the same time. Meta has stated that the price increases are a result of increasing component prices and will allow the company to further invest in VR technology. This announcement comes after the Facebook account requirement were dropped and Meta will also be including a free copy of Beat Saber for all Quest 2 headset purchases until 2023.

Hopefully you were able to tune into our second annual Meta Quest Gaming Showcase today. But if not? Don't worry, we've got you covered. Below you'll find a recap of every announcement from today's show (and all of the trailers too). NFL PRO ERA, Among Us VR, Red Matter 2, Bonelab—the list goes on. Best of all: Every game we showed off today is slated to release within the next year.

We're also celebrating today's show with a sale in the Meta Quest Store. Grab games like Moss and The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners so you can get caught up before the sequels drop later this year. And we gave away the world the showcase took place in as a new Home environment—look for Crystal Atrium under the Personalization tab of your settings menu.

AR/VR device shipments revised up to 14.19 million units in 2022, with an annual growth rate of 43.9%, according to TrendForce research. Growth momentum will come from increased demand for remote interactivity stemming from the pandemic, as well as Oculus Quest 2's price reduction strategy. Microsoft HoloLens 2 and Oculus Quest 2 are first in market share for AR and VR, respectively.

According to TrendForce, the topic of the Metaverse has driven brands to actively plan for and stimulate product shipment performance. However, the AR/VR device market has yet to experienced explosive growth due to two factors: component shortages and the difficulty of developing new technologies. In addition, cosmetic and size considerations have made the more optically and technically difficult Pancake design the first choice for new high-end products. Furthermore, various embedded tracking feedback technologies key to enhancing the user's immersive experience such as eye tracking and 6DoF further affect the development progress of a new product as a whole. Since there are no new foreboding products on the horizon, TrendForce believes, no other branded products have a chance at supplanting the current mainstream status of Oculus or Microsoft until at least 2023.

Mark Zuckerberg has recently announced a rebrand of Facebook to Meta during the companies Connect 2021 AR/VR event. This change will involve the dissolution of the Oculus brand for hardware naming and will also introduce an arguably more significant change in that Oculus/Meta accounts will be disassociated with Facebook accounts removing the need for a Facebook account to use the headsets. This change has allegedly come about due to the negative connotations regarding the Facebook brand and to encourage new users who aren't interesting in creating a Facebook account. While these changes won't be fully implemented until 2022 some users have reported that Oculus support is able to unlink Facebook accounts immediately while retaining purchases and most non-social features on the headset.

Andrew BosworthAs we've focused more on work, and as we've heard feedback from the VR community more broadly, we're working on new ways to log into Quest that won't require a Facebook account, landing sometime next year. This is one of our highest priority areas of work internally.

Facebook has recently announced they have paused global sales of the Oculus Quest 2 while they work to include a silicon cover to supplement the original foam face pad. The original foam cover caused skin irritation for select users so Facebook has launched a voluntary recall of the cover in the US and Canada while they work to ensure that all new products will ship with the updated silicon cover. Facebook has received 5,716 reports of skin irritation where 45 cases required medical attention from 4.2 million units shipped in the US and Canada. Facebook will also introduce a new 128 GB model when the Oculus Quest 2 resumes sales on August 24th which will replace the original 64 GB model at the same 300 USD price.

When Oculus launched the Oculus Quest 2 at a record low price of just 299 USD for the base 64 GB model and 399 USD for the 256 GB model many people suspected Oculus was losing money on the device and was subsiding the loss with the introduction of mandatory Facebook account linking. These suspicions seem to have been confirmed with the launch of the Oculus Quest 2 business version for 799 USD which features identical hardware specifications to the consumer 256 GB version available for 399 USD. This 400 USD premium allows the device to be managed via enterprise software instead of with a linked Facebook account and will stop Oculus from sending your data to Facebook. The Quest 2 business version must be purchased from Oculus Business and also requires a yearly subscription of 180 USD after the first year for added business services and support.

Today we're announcing features that will begin rolling out soon in the v28 software update to Oculus Quest headsets. Oculus Air Link is a wireless way to play PC VR games on Quest 2, while new Infinite Office features make getting work done in VR even easier. We're also announcing native 120 Hz support for Quest 2 for an ultra-smooth gameplay experience.

Since launching in 2019 and exiting beta last year, Oculus Link has been a widely used feature across the Quest Platform. With a gaming PC and a compatible USB-C cable, Link has given people access to Rift's impressive content library, including games like Asgard's Wrath, Lone Echo, Stormland, and more. But of course, being tethered to your PC can break immersion and limit your mobility. We know gamers want to use Link without a wire—to experience the full freedom of movement offered by Quest 2 while playing the high-end titles that can only run on a gaming PC. That's why we've been working on a new streaming technology called Oculus Air Link—a completely wireless way to play PC VR content on Quest 2 using WiFi, built on the successful Oculus Link streaming pipeline.

The Oculus Store is the primary way to purchase and download content on Oculus Quest devices. The Oculus Store features a limited library of highly curated content making it difficult for smaller less-polished games to join the platform, users previously had to use programs like SideQuest to get around these restrictions and install such programs. Oculus has recently announced the App Lab as a home for this content, the introduction of App Lab will allow users to access experimental, beta, and niche content through an official program. App Lab content will still support all Quest features and will have to adhere to Oculus content standards. Oculus also announced that third-party distribution such as through SideQuest will be officially supported. Oculus App Lab is now rolling out to Oculus Quest devices with update version 25 and should be available on all devices in the coming days.

Facebook has recently announced during their Q4 earnings call that the companies non-advertising revenue had risen to 885 million USD up 156% from 346 million USD in Q4 2019. This drastic increase in non-advertising revenue can be attributed to strong Oculus Quest 2 sales in the holiday quarter. The Oculus Quest 2 launched for 100 USD less than its predecessor while offering much more powerful hardware, however the headset does require a Facebook account to use. Facebook also confirmed that they are working on a successor to the Quest 2 which will be fully compatible with existing Quest titles.

We've all been there - we've all looked longingly at someone elses' flashy paperweight - an Escher puzzle, a coffee mug, a smartphone, a badly flashed GPU or even a face mask are all worthy contenders vying for our attention. Facebook, however, has been turning the paperweight game on its head, and in the real world too - some users who bought the most recent Quest 2 headset (which is apparently selling pretty well) are being given the opportunity to adorn their desks with this high-tech, low-key paperweight due to its Facebook-required integration. Essentially, users who have their Facebook accounts banned (or, more specifically, with pending verification) have been met with difficulties in actually using their Quest 2 (which, by all accounts, is a huge step forward for the VR space).

In a recent interview with Chris Pruett, Facebook's Director of Content Ecosystem at Oculus it was revealed that the Oculus Quest 2 launch had been a huge success exceeding the companies expectations. Chris Pruett commented that the Oculus team "really couldn't be happier" with the launch and noted the headset was selling "faster than Quest did" and "maybe a little bit beyond what we expected". VR developers have been echoing these comments with Rec Room noting a 250% larger launch over the original Quest and a 10x increase in sales.

The data from Rec Room also shows that the majority of Oculus Quest 2 purchases are from people trying VR for the first time which is great news for the VR industry in general. Facebook has been able to keep up with the demand for the new headset which has evidently proven to be a great success even with controversy surrounding the Facebook account requirements.

Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., a subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated, is powering better-than-ever virtual reality (VR) gameplay and experiences with the launch of Oculus Quest 2, the first-to-launch VR device powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 Platform. Oculus Quest 2 is a culmination of years of collaboration between Qualcomm Technologies and Facebook to create the most advanced and immersive gaming VR experiences for consumers to-date.

Purpose-built for extended reality (XR), the Snapdragon XR2 Platform unlocks staggering improvements including twice the CPU and GPU performance compared to its predecessor which powers the original Oculus Quest headset. The Snapdragon XR2 Platform delivers significant performance enhancements in Oculus Quest 2 including:

Logitech G, a brand of Logitech, and leading innovator of gaming technologies and gear, today announced new Oculus Ready immersive audio solutions for Oculus Quest 2 gamers. The new Logitech G333 VR Gaming Earphones and the Logitech G PRO Gaming Headset for Oculus Quest 2.

"The teams at Oculus and Logitech G share the same passion for gaming, and the same ambition to push innovation, design and technology to new heights. We are proud to be partnering with Oculus to deliver a next gen Oculus Ready VR audio experience," said Vadim Kogan, head of business development for VR and AR at Logitech. "The Logitech G333 VR Gaming Earphones and the PRO Gaming Headset have both been thoughtfully designed to support VR set up and to provide the most immersive and refined audio experience possible."

In a recent video accidentally published on the Facebook Blueprint developer site and officially confirmed by the vice president of Facebook Labs details all the new features and changes found on the Oculus Quest 2. The leak confirms many of the existing rumors about the upcoming headset which is set to be announced later this week at Facebook Connect. The Oculus Quest 2 will feature the Snapdragon XR2 processor which has been specifically designed for AR/VR devices and should provide a significant performance increase over the Snapdragon 835 found in the original quest.

The Oculus Quest 2 will feature "nearly 2K Resolution per eye" which would put the total resolution at just under 4K possibly 3,840 x 2,160. The video did not mention if the display refresh rate would be increased from the 72Hz found on the original Quest but the XR2 platform can support up to 90Hz screens. The ram has been increased to 6 GB from the 4 GB found on the original and max storage has been expanded to 256 GB.

Facebook Technologies, a subsidiary of Facebook Inc. and owner of Oculus, has today "temporarily" suspended sales of Oculus VR headsets in Germany. The news is coming today after Oculus announced that all of the new Oculus accounts have to move to the Facebook login system before January 1, 2023, when all of the current Oculus accounts will be suspended. The German data protection law is extremely suspicious of Facebook's behavior and how they handle user data in general, so Oculus has potentially decided to stop the sales to avoid any possible antitrust regulations from the German government. The exact reason is unknown, and it is yet to be revealed, however, the suspicions laid out here may be part of the reason.

Back in 2014 when Facebook acquired Oculus for $2 billion, then Oculus CEO Palmer Luckey said that the acquisition was made with respect for the Oculus ecosystem as a whole, and that its management would be akin to that of a private entity that just so happened to be under Facebook's umbrella. Fast forward to 2020, though, and that seems to no longer be the case. Facebook has announced that Oculus accounts will be phased out; come this fall, all new Oculus accounts will have to go through a Facebook one - if you are one of the holdouts from that particular social network, you'll just have to bit the bullet.

The transition will be gradual; starting this October, new accounts will have to be linked through Facebook. Existing standalone Oculus accounts will still be supported; however, they will only be grandfathered until 2023. According to Facebook, they'll still allow users to run their content on these accounts; but any new apps and content that's acquired for the system after then will not be available for usage in such scenarios. Facebook further said that some content might stop working by then, due to integration of some applications' backends with Facebook-bound accounts, capabilities and servers. And thus, Facebook will finally be fully integrated with Oculus, ensuring a new ecosystem of users, and thus, new data on which to base their publicity and marketing efforts. It's all about the value a user brings; and perhaps some social network integration with your VR environments. Because nothing makes more sense than creating Facebook-bound communities in the VR space, and seeing a Like emote pop up on your most recent spaceflight maneuver.

The Oculus Quest is a standalone VR headset released in May 2019, the headset features a Snapdragon 835 and inside-out tracking. The headset has received various software updates bringing features such as hand-tracking and SteamVR tether support which have proved to be a hit with consumers. A leaked image of a potential Oculus Quest successor was posted on Twitter by @h0x0d which shows an iterative upgrade to the original headset.

The leaked image shows updated Oculus Touch controllers and general ergonomic improvements however, most improvements are likely to be internal with speculation of a faster screen and updated processor. This seems like a logical move for Oculus which recently discontinued their budget Oculus Go headset and announced their intentions to focus on Oculus Quest going forwards.

Since we launched Oculus Go two years ago, VR technology has improved at an incredible pace. Oculus Go's success first proved that the all-in-one form factor can deliver highly immersive experiences. A year later, Oculus Quest redefined the category, with full head and hand movement powered by our Insight tracking system. Quest enabled incredible VR games like Beat Saber, Dance Central, and The Climb with the freedom of an untethered experience, plus access to high-powered PC games like Asgard's Wrath and Stormland through Oculus Link. Just past the one-year anniversary of Quest, we're humbled by its continued success. The community response has been overwhelmingly positive, and you've told us loud and clear that 6DOF feels like the future of VR. That's why we're going all-in, and we won't be shipping any more 3DOF VR products. We'll end sales of Oculus Go headsets this year as we double down on improving our offerings for Quest and Rift.

In a recent driver update for the Oculus Quest references to the upcoming "Oculus Jedi" controllers were discovered by Gerald McAlister. The "Oculus Jedi" controllers are expected to complement the next-generation "Del Mar" standalone VR headset. In an analysis of the drivers UploadVR discovered several key changes in the new design.

When the new "Oculus Jedi" drivers are compared to the existing Oculus Touch controller firmware it is revealed that new controllers will retain the original inputs and layout of the Touch controllers with a thumbstick, index trigger, grip trigger, A/X button, B/Y button, and a system/menu button. The Jedi controller may receive a tracking update with faster controller polling and a new ICM-426-series TDK chip. The updated IMU should greatly reduce noise and improve resolution of tracking to allow more precise positioning of the controller. Other improvements may include updated an updated haptics driver and analog finger sensing like what is found on the Valve Index.