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.)