Meta’s next big VR headset is officially coming in October

We’re only a few weeks away from Meta’s latest VR headset announcement. There’s still a lot shrouded in mystery, but Mark Zuckerberg confirmed that its next VR device would be coming out in October on the latest episode of the Joe Rogan Experience. That should line up with Meta’s annual Connect conference where we’re expecting to see what the company has been working on with its VR, AR, and metaverse departments.

The next VR headset is largely believed to be the “Project Cambria” codename that’s been floating around for some time now. Bloomberg also spotted some leaked code that shows that Meta could be going with Meta Quest Pro for the VR device’s name.

This would be a follow-up to the popular Quest 2, but it seems that Meta wants its next VR headset to be more capable for work purposes, not just VR gaming. This makes sense as Meta has been pushing its latest VR experiences, like Horizon Worlds or Horizon Workrooms.

Real-time facial expressions — Zuckerberg only revealed snippets of information about the upcoming VR headset during his three-hour discussion on the Joe Rogan Experience. The Meta CEO said that the next VR headset would focus on “social presence,” or in other words: feeling completely immersed in the metaverse.

Zuckerberg described a few features, like having your avatar reflect your smile, frown, or pouting in real time. Zuckerberg also said that the VR headset’s eye and facial tracking would make these new social options possible in order to highlight the more subtle parts of communication, like maintaining eye contact.

Meta is working on making the metaverse experience feel as real as possible, hopefully much more real than Horizon Worlds’ disappointing showings. It’s clear that the Quest Pro is far more ambitious than the Quest, which provided to be a solid VR gaming device.

It’s likely that the Quest Pro will handle VR gaming just fine, and probably even better with improved specs. Yet, it’s hard to say if the Quest Pro can follow up on the continued success of the Quest 2 headset, since it’s seems to be keying in on a different experience tied to its metaverse offerings.

Pro pricing incoming — There’s no pricing details yet, but Zuckerberg said that it would be a big upgrade over the Quest 2 during the podcast. We’re going to guess that the Quest Pro will be more expensive than the $400 price tag that Meta recently bumped the Quest 2 up to.

Beyond the Quest Pro, the company is working on several other VR and AR options. Zuckerberg said during the podcast that the Meta AR glasses are a few years away from release, though. However, the Quest Pro would be able to handle AR applications, as well. For the moment, we’re focused on the Quest Pro, and hoping that Meta doesn’t blow it by making it as lame as Horizon Worlds.