Oculus Quest 2 owners will no longer require a Facebook account in order to use their VR headsets next year. This is according to VP of AR/VR at Facebook, Andrew Bosworth, who shared a post on his feed indicating that this controversial requirement will be dropped next year. No exact date was given, but Bosworth promised that the team was looking into new ways for Quest users to log in without having to sign up for the world’s biggest social network.
From Bosworth:
As we’ve focused more on work, and as we’ve heard feedback from the VR community more broadly, we’re working on new ways to log into Quest that won’t require a Facebook account, landing sometime next year. This is one of our highest priority areas of work internally.
Bosworth goes on to reveal that the company behind Facebook, which has renamed itself to Meta, is going all in with its new branding. Oculus Quest and the Oculus App will be renamed to Meta Quest and Meta Quest App, respectively.
VR will be the most immersive way for people to access the metaverse and as we look toward our goal of bringing 1B people into VR, we want to make it clear that Quest is a Meta product. For this reason, we’re simplifying our brand architecture and shifting away from the Oculus brand for our hardware. Starting in early 2022, you’ll start to see the shift from Oculus Quest from Facebook to Meta Quest and Oculus App to Meta Quest App over time.
We all have a strong attachment to the Oculus brand, and this was a very difficult decision to make. While we’re changing the brand of the hardware, Oculus will continue to be a core part of our DNA and will live on in things like software and developer tools.
Oculus users who unlink their Facebook accounts will still be able to keep their purchased content, according to a tweet from Bosworth.
Yup
— Boz (@boztank) October 29, 2021
Source: Andrew Bosworth