The Oculus Quest is dead, long live the Meta Quest
The Oculus Quest is now called the Meta Quest, in line with Facebook's continued rollout of its un-catchy new name
Do you own an Oculus Quest or an Oculus Quest 2? Well, you don't anymore – Meta, the social network platform previously known as Facebook, has changed the name of the hardware to better fit into its weird new branding, so now you own a 'Meta Quest'. Sounds more like a way to level up in an MMO than a hardware brand. Ew.
The social media accounts for the brand have been updated to suit the new name, as the company had previously warned would happen. The Twitter bio for 'Meta Quest' now sports a hateful 'new handle, who dis?' description, and the name change was kicked off with a simply horrible Meta-isnpired take on an old meme (below) that attracted the ire of many gamers. A simple glimpse at the replies shows you how well (ahem) it's all gone.
"We understand our community will miss the Oculus name, but change doesn't always have to be a bad thing!" says the weirdly personal account, replying to a user that simply said 'so cringe'. "We're hoping to make our ambitions to help build the metaverse more clear with our new name!" Why Meta couldn't simply have Oculus exist under its own brand umbrella is beyond me, frankly.
Facebook – or, should I say, Meta – acquired Oculus way back in 2014, emptying its wallet to the tune of $2 billion in order to secure the rights to the hardware and the tech behind the Oculus Rift. Since then, the company has pushed the brand quite hard, though there have been notable setbacks – whether its in the form of skin irritants in the padding of the headset or ill-advised in-game VR ads, it's not been a particularly smooth ride for Oculus since the buyout. And that's before you get to the whole Facebook/Oculus account merge fracas.
Our own Tom Orry is a big fan of the Oculus Quest 2 and recommended the headset for gamers eager to experience a real next-gen wow if the likes of the XBox Series X/S and PlayStation 5 aren't delivering those for you. We recently learned that the Oculus Quest 2 supports wireless VR play on PC, too.
And yes, I'm still going to call it the Oculus Quest for a little while because all the links say that on them and I don't want to wreck our SEO cred. Take that, Facebook –– I mean, Meta.