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It’s been a bit of a rollercoaster for Meta’s VR efforts over at Reality Labs. After losing just over $6 billion last quarter, the company laid off 1,500 people. While Palmer Luckey said abandoning VR was “obviously false,” Meta’s own actions screamed the opposite.
But there’s been some recent green shoots of optimism. Horizon OS got updated with a virtual keyboard that actually works, and a new lightweight headset with a compute puck has been leaked.
Well, Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth has been pretty vocal over the past few days, including an “ask me anything” session on his Instagram page to provide “the truth” and respond to the “doom and gloom.” And in his Davos interview, he seems to confirm that Quest 4 is still coming.
Put simply, Meta Quest is not dead. It’s evolving.
Meta is 'investing more in content than anyone else'
This first response came to a question about the “doom and gloom” of the layoffs. Bosworth says it's “mostly overwrought,” but he gets why it exists.
“First, there is a real cause for sadness. We had people doing work we were excited about, whether at the OS layer or great studios delivering great titles,” he commented. But he emphasized that Meta “remains extremely bullish on VR.”
“We are still investing more in content than anyone else, and more than we were four years ago,” Bosworth stated. “While we have receded from the 'high water mark,' we are still very much a net positive investor in the ecosystem.”
He acknowledged the “sadness regarding cancelled projects,” such as the Batman Arkham sequel, but the investment has been adjusted to “match the size of the growth.”
Quest 4 confirmed?
But that’s when he let the cat out of the bag. “Furthermore, these internal changes unblock roadmaps for us on hardware; the next two devices we are looking at are very exciting,” Bosworth added.
Wait, what two devices is he talking about!? Let’s go back to his interview with Alex Heath for more clarity. There were two devices leaked in a memo back in December — “Pismo High” and “Pismo Low.” Quickly, reports linked these to a Meta Quest 4 and Quest 4S.
And when talking to Heath, he seems to very strongly hint that these are still in the works. “I think it's officially leaked we've got two devices on the roadmap that we're super excited about coming out over the course of a period of time,” Bosworth responded.
Heath rightly pressed him on what “a period of time” meant, and Bosworth dodged the question pretty effectively by saying “it could be anything, could be tomorrow.”
No, this doesn’t mean Quest 4 is launching tomorrow. But it is a welcome sign of relief that Meta’s still cooking on its next-gen gaming headset.
What about the Steam Frame?
Another interesting question came up — namely, does Meta view the Steam Frame as competition, or does the company support this additional standalone headset?
“It is a little bit of both. I have said this before — and I will say it again, because it is really true — every time there is a new headset, we learn from it,” Bosworth responded. “We learn how consumers respond to the decisions made regarding architecture, resolution, and cameras.”
One key example he brings up here is the Steam Frame coming included with a wireless dongle for cable-free PC VR. Meta has “experimented” with wireless links like this, but in Bosworth’s own words, “we decided it was just too much hassle.”
But that doesn’t mean the company won’t revisit this idea: “If consumers love it, maybe there is a bigger market there than we realized.”
Analysis: VR’s not dead — it’s the platform that will give birth to true AR
As someone who lives a good chunk of his life in VR like it’s “Ready Player One,” it’s a relief to see Meta come out of the gates swinging. But the transition to AR and smart glasses is definitely happening.
Not only has Meta seen it, but we’ve seen it in our affiliate revenue numbers, too (the money we make when you click on recommended products from our website and buy them). And this has changed my perspective on trying exciting VR headsets and software features.
Namely, I believe all the VR goodness we’re seeing today is an exciting test bed for what we could see in next-gen smart glasses. This idea of “spatial computing” is continuing to evolve before our eyes, and glasses aren’t able to contain all the silicon/battery tech needed to nail it yet.
And that puts VR in an exciting position to be the platform that pulls back the curtain on what the specs of the future will be able to do. By the way, Andrew (if you’re reading this, hi), I’d love to talk to you further about this!
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