Meta Quest 2: Something is missing on the new packaging
The Oculus brand disappears and remains at the same time. Meta's VR boss explains why.
In October, Mark Zuckerberg announced a radical realignment of his company to the Metaverse. This was accompanied by the renaming of Facebook to Meta. At the same time, the company announced that it was phasing out the Oculus brand. At least as far as the hardware it produces is concerned. Oculus Quest became Meta Quest.
Since then, the Oculus brand has been disappearing more and more. At the end of the year, the VR headset got a new lettering with a Meta logo that replaced the old Oculus lettering on the official website. At the beginning of 2022, the official Twitter handle changed from Oculus to MetaQuestVR, and anyone who recently rebooted the device is greeted by the blue Meta logo. Previously, a white Oculus squiggle was visible.
Meta instead of Oculus: New packaging and engraving
The next big steps in this transition are the renaming of the smartphone app from Oculus to Meta Quest and new packaging with Meta branding. The latter will apparently follow shortly.
VR Youtuber Nathie retweeted a photo from Japan showing Meta Quest 2 packaging with a new logo and lettering instead of the Oculus branding. Meta did not announce the change separately.
Ladies and gentlemen, the new Meta Quest 2 box is here. https://t.co/4aVwYnidTy
- Nathie (@NathieVR) March 27, 2022
A closer look also reveals that the Oculus engraving on the front of the VR headset is missing. Instead of the Oculus lettering, the Meta logo is now emblazoned there. This was already announced in Meta's Super Bowl commercial. This almost completes the changeover of the brand.
Oculus will remain as a software brand
However, the Oculus brand will not disappear completely. When announcing the new branding, Meta VR and AR CEO Andrew Bosworth already made it clear that Oculus would "live on in software and developer tools".
The original packaging of the Meta Quest 2. | Image: Meta
In his latest Q&A on Instagram, Bosworth elaborates on what he means by that and why the hardware should be associated with Meta instead of Oculus in the future.
"I wanna everyone who buys a headset from us to know the company that is building that headset, that company is Meta. They gotta know who they have a relationship with, because we got services that we're providing," Bosworth said. "So over time, Oculus is increasingly going to be a brand you see as it relates to our studio's work. It's a brand we love and are keeping alive, but more and more the headset itself, is gonna be Meta-branded."
Read more about Meta:
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- Cambria: Metas new VR headset with next-gen display after all?
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