Today Meta made what is likely to be an industry-altering announcement: it plans to open up the Quest operating system to third-party device makers. Asus, Lenovo, and Xbox have been tapped to create new headsets built on the operating system which is being branded ‘Meta Horizon OS’.

Meta has just made its biggest strategic move in the XR space since betting the farm on standalone headsets over PC VR. Today the company says it’s formally branding the Quest operating system as Meta Horizon OS, and with it, plans to allow third-parties to make new headsets that run the software stack.

The company has already confirmed that Asus and Lenovo are building new headsets for Meta Horizon OS. Meta also says it’s collaborating with Microsoft on a “limited-edition Quest” that’s “inspired by Xbox,” surely leaning into the partnership which brought the Xbox Cloud Gaming app to Meta’s existing headsets.

Sharing a common operating system means all of these headsets will be able to draw not only on the XR tech that Meta has built (like tracking, interface, playspace boundary, and more) but also plug into the company’s leading library of standalone VR content. Meta says it’s rebranding its content library to the ‘Meta Horizon Store’.

Meta also says all headsets running Meta Horizon OS will share the same social layer, allowing users to use their existing accounts, avatars, and friends list no matter which of these headsets they choose.

  • @fer0nMEnglish
    1•7 months ago

    Making your own OS is likely very difficult, especially if it involves having your own store that developers have to submit to.

    Maybe part of the reason why they’re doing this is to have a stronger stance against google if/when they release something with the Android play store included, which seems like one of the biggest problem meta currently has.

    I wonder if the other headset makers get a cut from the games they sell on their devices. Meta is taking a hit selling the hardware and tries to make up for that with selling software. If others don’t get a cut, that likely means they’re going to be more expensive. I’m excited to see what comes from this.