Watch Meta Connect 2023 unveil the Quest 3 live here
The event should give us plenty of Quest 3 news.
The Meta Connect 2023 VR showcase event starts today and there are a couple of ways to watch it. It’s streaming live on Facebook, which is to be expected, but you can also access the showcase from Meta’s Horizon Worlds app with a Quest VR headset. The event itself is a two-day affair, but the keynote address was scheduled to start at 1PM ET on September 27. Unfortunately, there's a holdup at the event itself, as would-be attendees are stuck in the parking lot waiting to clear security. As such, we're told the event will not kick off until 1:30PM ET.
This should be a big one for Meta, as the Quest 3 headset is just around the corner. We’ll likely get an official release date, which is currently described as sometime toward the end of the year. The original Quest 3 announcement was also light on certain hardware specs, so expect announcements on RAM, CPU, battery life, lenses and more.
Here’s what we already know. The Quest 3 will cost $500 and feature full-color passthrough, with Mark Zuckerberg calling it "the first mainstream headset with high-res color mixed reality.” It’ll also boast redesigned ergonomic controllers, a more comfortable form factor when compared to the Quest 2, and a significant reduction in both weight and size.
Of course, any console is only as good as its games and experiences. We already know that the Quest 3 will be backwards compatible, so you’ll have access to every single title published for the Quest 2 and the OG model, but Zuckerberg and company are sure to announce plenty of new games exclusive to the forthcoming platform. It has already revealed some cross-platform titles, like Assassin’s Creed: Nexus VR and Ghostbusters: Rise of the Ghost Lord, so we should get information on pricing and availability. There’s also a game based on the hit Netflix show Stranger Things launching sometime before the holidays.
The VR wars are starting to heat up, as the Quest 3 releases just a couple of months before Apple’s long-awaited Vision Pro headset. The massive price gap between the two, however, makes the Quest 3 much more affordable for regular people.
Update September 27 12:57PM ET: This story was updated to note the delay of the Meta Connect keynote.