Breakdown
- Meta is renaming its OS to Meta Horizon and bringing it to third-party headsets
- Lenovo, ASUS, and Xbox are among the first partners to be developing headsets with Meta Horizon in mind
- Meta Horizon OS will give users access to Game Pass games in VR
Meta, formerly known as Facebook, has surprised VR enthusiasts by revealing that their OS, now named Meta Horizon, will be available in third-party headsets.
In a recent blog post, the tech giant outlined its plans and explained that this move aims to provide consumers with more choices while fostering a larger ecosystem for developers to innovate and build upon.
Adding to that, all the devices where the Horizon OS is available will have access to the Meta Horizon Store, formerly known as the Meta Quest Store, which offers a wide variety of VR games and apps.
The blog post also confirms Meta has partnered with global technology companies to introduce a new generation of hardware running on Meta Horizon OS. ASUS's Republic of Gamers, Lenovo, and Xbox are among the key players working on specialised devices.
ASUS will be working on a gaming headset, Lenovo will look to introduce "mixed reality devices for productivity, learning, and entertainment," and Xbox will launch an exclusive Quest headset in collaboration with Meta.
Meta announced in December of last year that Quest users could get access to Xbox Game Pass and play a select variety of titles in VR. By allowing the Meta Horizon OS to go third-party, access to the Xbox Game Pass VR library won't be exclusive to Meta Quest headsets.
Meta is also expanding its app ecosystem by integrating App Lab titles into the Meta Horizon Store and developing a spatial app framework. This is in addition to making the Meta Horizon OS available to third-party hardware makers.
As for the specifications of the devices, things are understandably mostly kept under wraps barring a few technical details. According to Meta, all of these devices will have processors developed by Qualcomm Technologies, a company known for its Snapdragon technology.
Qualcomm's Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 Platform launched with Meta Quest 3 and, according to Meta, "delivered breakthrough performance that pushed the boundaries of what’s possible in mixed reality."