Ready to mingle with the Dunder Mifflin gang in virtual reality?
Meta, looking to spark broader interest in VR, announced a partnership with NBCUniversal under which the companies will team to bring the media company’s Peacock streaming app and a range of properties to the Meta Quest VR headsets. Meta announced the NBCU pact at Meta Connect 2022, its annual developers conference, alongside other content partnerships and product news.
The new VR content from NBCU, set to come to Meta’s Horizon Worlds service in 2023, will include virtual-reality experiences for hit sitcom “The Office,” Universal Monsters, DreamWorks Animation, Blumhouse and Universal Studios’ Halloween Horror Nights.
The centerpiece from the Connect presentation: CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Meta Quest Pro, the next generation of the company’s VR headsets. Priced at $1,500, the device will ship on Oct. 25. That’s three times the current list price of the more expensive Meta Quest 2 models ($500 for 256 gigabytes of storage, $400 with 128 GB).
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Previously code-named Project Cambria, the higher-end VR and mixed-reality headset is the first headset from Meta that integrates inward-facing sensors to “capture natural facial expressions and eye tracking,” according to the company. Meta Quest Pro’s outward-facing cameras capture four times as many pixels as Meta Quest 2 — making it the company’s first full-color mixed reality device — and features a sleeker design with a new, curved battery on the back. The unit includes 256 GB of storage, 12 GB of RAM, 10 advanced VR/MR sensors and spatial audio support.
“Virtual reality isn’t some obscure hobby anymore,” said Zuckerberg, claiming that millions of people are already using VR to play games, interact with others and collaborate with coworkers.
Among other news, Meta announced a partnership with Microsoft to bring its suite of productivity software and Xbox Cloud Gaming service to the Meta Quest headset. In addition, Meta announced plans to integrate Microsoft Teams and Zoom conferencing into its VR workspaces, to let users participate using their avatars.
Also on the gaming front, Meta revealed that “Marvel’s Iron Man VR,” previously available on PlayStation VR, will be coming to Meta Quest 2 on Nov. 3 through a deal with Sony Interactive Entertainment and Marvel Entertainment. In addition, “Among Us VR” will launch for Meta Quest 2 on Nov. 10 and Skydance Interactive’s “The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners – Chapter 2: Retribution” will debut for the platform Dec. 1.
Meta also showed off enhancements to avatars available across its platforms — including the addition of legs, with the introduction of full-body avatars. (It’s “surprisingly difficult” for VR to represent legs, according to Zuckerberg.) Meta’s VR avatars also will be getting new options for body types and skin tone, as well as new outfits including those coming from Netflix. Zuckerberg also showed off Meta’s research on eerily photorealistic VR avatars.
“We’ve investing in this because we believe there’s massive potential here,” Zuckerberg said.
On the NBCU partnership, details aren’t immediately available for what Peacock or the other experiences in VR will look like on the Meta Quest headset.
For its part, NBCU clearly is looking for every opportunity it can to push some wind into Peacock’s sails. Last week NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell claimed the media company’s streamer gained more than 2 million paid subscribers in the third quarter, to top 15 million. That came after Peacock’s paid customer base was flat in Q2. Shell credited a strong content lineup, including Peacock’s reclaiming day-after-air rights to episodes of NBCU shows from Hulu.
According to Meta, the Quest Store has generated $1.5 billion in sales to date, and that 33 of the 400 VR titles in the library have grossed more than $10 million to date. That said, Meta’s Reality Labs, which encompasses its VR and AR businesses, has been a drag on the company’s overall earnings. For the second quarter of 2022, Reality Labs’ operating loss widened to $2.81 billion versus a loss of $2.43 billion a year earlier as revenue increased $452 million (up 48% year over year).
