Mark Zuckerberg reveals new Quest Pro VR headset
Mark Zuckerberg showed off the Quest Pro, a new VR headset, at an online event for developers.
With a price tag of $1,499 (£1,499), Quest Pro is almost four times more expensive than Meta’s current headset, the Quest 2, which starts at $399.
It has thinner lenses, a curved battery at the back of the head strap, and controllers that track themselves.
Users can also see their real surroundings around the edges of the screen when they wear the headset.
The difference between Quest Pro and its predecessor is that Quest Pro can show digital content on top of the real world.
Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta, said that mixed reality was “the next big step for VR.”
Tuong Nguyen, a Gartner analyst, said that the high price at launch made it better for “high-end, enthusiast, and maybe even enterprise users” than for the mass market.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella also said that the Windows 365 office platform will be available on it. Meta wants to make mixed and virtual reality a work tool as well as a way to have fun.
The company Meta (formerly Facebook) is staking its future on the development of a metaverse, a digital environment in which users can engage in mundane activities using digital representations of themselves (avatars) and fantastical adventures in alternate realities.
There are a lot of IT companies working on their own metaverses, but we won’t see any of them for a while.
There have been claims of avatar-committed acts of violence and sexual assault within Horizons, Meta’s current virtual reality universe.
It will be “a while” before there are “enough headsets out there,” Chief Technology Officer Andrew Bosworth has said.
It was “speed tracked” into people’s hands, according to PP Foresight’s Paolo Pescatore. If there isn’t any demand, there’s no reason to hurry, he reasoned.
VR apps
At the conference, attendees heard about the latest developments in virtual reality software, many of which have proven to be lucrative for their creators, such as the Resident Evil 4 VR app, which generated $2 million in sales in its first 24 hours.
The company also announced a relationship with Microsoft’s Xbox Cloud Gaming and the release of new virtual reality games like “Iron Man” and “Among Us.” Though some players were hoping for news on the long-awaited virtual reality adaptation of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, they were left disappointed.
One of the top downloaded apps from the Quest store, according to Andrew Bosworth, is YouTube VR.
Vishal Shah, Meta’s vice president of the metaverse, has said, “The ultimate goal for the metaverse is to feel like any other social experience, great and small.”
Join our 100,000+ members and never miss our members’ exclusive Breaking News and Entertainment Gist.
Gain Access to Our Private News Room
Popular Stories right now
- Why I joined politics – Banky W
- NAFDAC warns against social media impostors
- Musk’s proposal for China-Taiwan relations gets slammed
