Meta announced new partnerships with major brands, including Microsoft and NBCUniversal on Tuesday, while also unveiling its next-generation VR headset. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg led the company's Connect event, demonstrating advances in virtual reality—at one point revealing legs on avatars, which is a step in the right direction toward bringing people into digital worlds.

Connect, which was held virtually, was Meta’s most comprehensive look at its metaverse strategy since the company rebranded from Facebook last year. Meta’s metaverse plans have been met with some skepticism, with critics doubting that the company could switch from running social media apps to building an entirely new computing platform. There also has been some confusion about what the metaverse even means, and what Meta’s role would be in developing it. Zuckerberg discussed key partnerships and products that fleshed out the metaverse vision, focusing on work, commerce, media and creators.

Meta also launched Meta Quest Pro, a $1,499 headset, which could attract more companies into virtual reality, because it’s higher powered to handle more intense computing compared to older models. The new model costs $1,000 more than the Meta Quest 2. (It is also priced $200 higher than the starting price for Apple's 13-inch MacBook Pro.)

Microsoft deal

Microsoft’s involvement in Connect, including an appearance by Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, was a big deal for Meta and its new VR device. Microsoft is partnering with Meta to bring its suite of enterprise software into Meta Quest devices, which means workers could access Microsoft Teams, Office and Windows. Microsoft has been investing in its own metaverse technologies and it was somewhat of a surprise that it would so closely align with Meta at this stage.

Meta also announced it would enable Zoom meetings in Horizon Workrooms, its VR work app. Adobe and Autodesk were also mentioned by Zuckerberg as tools that are “helpful for design and architecture and all kinds of creative work.”

Accenture CEO Julie Sweet joined Connect to talk about how the company has partnered with Microsoft and Meta to bring its 700,000-person workforce into virtual reality. Accenture has a metaverse office called Nth Floor.

NBCU streams into VR

Meta announced a new partnership with NBCUniversal to “co-create experiences” in virtual reality. Vishal Shah, Meta’s VP of the metaverse, said the collaboration with NBCU will draw from “The Office,” Universal Monsters, Dreamworks, Blumhouse and Halloween Horror Nights. Also, Peacock, NBCU’s subscription streaming service, will launch as an app on Meta Quest.

Meta did not provide many details about the NBCU experiences but said they would tie into Horizon Worlds, which is Meta’s open-world VR app.

NBCU is not the only media giant that is developing for the metaverse. Disney has made VR and Web3 technologies part of its future growth. Media and entertainment companies are looking for ways to bring content, theme parks, video games, connected TV and commerce into new digital worlds.

Commerce and avatars

Meta devoted a good portion of Connect to demonstrating improved avatar technology. Meta has taken flack for some of its design quality in virtual reality. Zuckerberg tried to silence the doubters by appearing with a more realistic-looking avatar, and revealing how the team finally cracked legs.

The full-body avatars, with more varieties of expressions, won’t be available until later next year, Zuckerberg said. The updated avatars could help Meta as it pushes into virtual goods. Consumers have been buying digital versions of clothes, such as sneakers and hoodies. Netflix will have a line of virtual outfits in Meta’s avatar store, Zuckerberg said. 

Meta also is trying to make avatars more useful by designing them to crossover onto other apps. Developers will be able to build on top of Meta’s avatar platform. “If you buy a sweater, you’re going to want to be able to wear that on your avatar,” Zuckerberg said, “no matter what app you’re using.”

Meta also showed how it would integrate VR avatars into its mobile apps. For instance, avatars will be able to shoot Reels videos, the short-form videos, and then share them to Instagram. People could also use their avatars while video messaging.

Video games

One of the main uses of VR so far has been video games, and Meta touted some new titles coming to Quest ahead of the holiday sales rush. “Among Us,” the multiplayer mystery game, will come to Quest in November as will Marvel’s “Iron Man VR.”

Microsoft also announced it would bring the Xbox Cloud Gaming platform to Quest’s app store. Microsoft CEO Nadella did not say when Xbox games would launch on Quest, but he joked with Zuckerberg that the two could jointly play “Flight Simulator” next time they meet in VR.