Meta partners with Microsoft to bring Teams, Office, Windows 365, and Xbox Cloud Gaming to Quest VR headsets in the coming months; Teams will use Meta's avatars
Good morning! Meta took the wraps off its Quest Pro VR headset … Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch : Meta partners with Microsoft to bring Teams, Windows apps and games to Quest devices Shubham Verma / BGR India : Xbox Cloud Gaming for Meta's new Quest VR platform announced Sam Sprigg / Auganix.org : Meta announces tools and partnerships to bring VR productivity and collaboration to businesses Cliff Saran / ComputerWeekly.com : Meta presents vision for business metaverse Tweets: Tom Warren / @tomwarren : Microsoft is partnering with Meta in to bring Teams, Windows, Office, and even Xbox Cloud Gaming to Quest VR headsets. It's the biggest Microsoft and Meta partnership since the Facebook and Windows Phone integration a decade ago. Full details here: https://www.theverge.com/... https://twitter.com/... Lucas Matney / @lucasmtny : RIP hololens @blackamazon : So how are folks gonna advertise back to office when they are partnering so hard with Meta .. Mandating VR headsets for onboarding ? https://twitter.com/... Jesse Hawken / @jessehawken : this was a more positive vision of the future workplace https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/... Alastair Coote / @_alastair : “Biggest partnership since Windows Phone” has just the right level of dread running underneath it https://twitter.com/... @libshipwreck : Imagine spending $1500 on a VR headset just so you can attend a meeting... https://twitter.com/...
The VergeTom Warren
Context & Ripple Effects
Announced alongside Meta’s Quest Pro moment, the partnership gives Quest a route to both workplace software and Microsoft’s game-streaming service rather than positioning the headset around Meta’s own apps alone. Microsoft later followed through with Xbox Cloud Gaming beta on Quest 2, Quest 3, and Quest Pro, showing that the gaming portion of the arrangement reached beyond the initial high-end headset launch.
Meta gains Teams, Office, Windows 365, and Xbox Cloud Gaming as named services for Quest, expanding the headset’s immediate work and entertainment proposition.
Microsoft gains a Quest endpoint for its collaboration, cloud-PC, and gaming services; Teams on Quest uses Meta’s avatars for meetings.
Second-order effects
Xbox Cloud Gaming makes Quest another subscription-service screen, while Microsoft’s testing of broader PC-game access can deepen the overlap between Quest use and its cloud catalog.
Meta’s business-focused Quest pitch becomes more dependent on Microsoft’s established workplace suite, giving enterprise buyers a familiar software layer on Meta hardware.
Third-order effects
If Meta continues pairing its hardware with outside services, the later Horizon OS partner-headset initiative points toward Quest software becoming a distribution layer across more devices rather than a feature set confined to Meta-made headsets.
The combination of cloud gaming and cross-device headset software favors VR platforms that can attract service providers and subscribers, not solely those that sell standalone hardware.
The trend: VR headsets are evolving into service endpoints for workplace suites and cloud-game subscriptions, with platform openness expanding their potential reach.
Microsoft is partnering with Meta in to bring Teams, Windows, Office, and even Xbox Cloud Gaming to Quest VR headsets. It's the biggest Microsoft and Meta partnership since the Facebook and Windows Phone integration a decade ago. Full details here: https://www.theverge.com/... ht…
So how are folks gonna advertise back to office when they are partnering so hard with Meta .. Mandating VR headsets for onboarding ? https://twitter.com/...
Given the positioning, Microsoft bringing its software stack to Meta Quest Pro makes a lot of sense. If it fails, it's a test and learn. If it flies, they were there first. https://blogs.microsoft.com/ ...
It's really personally satisfying for me to see my old and new families collaborating to build the future. So happy I got to be part of bringing this together. https://blogs.microsoft.com/ ...
This is all very familiar to me: for many years I held office hours, met with customers, and gave presentations in @SecondLife. But here's the thing: in SL I could still use my regular keyboard; in every VR world I've visited, typing is neigh impossible. https://www.theverge.com/…
Our vision for the metaverse includes new ways for people to collaborate and be more productive. Learn more about how we're helping to advance the future of work—with some powerful partnerships to boot: https://www.oculus.com/... https://twitter.com/...
My heart goes out to all the 150k Accenture employees who are being asked to use Microsoft Office products in a Meta headset. I really hope you get a fat bonus for wading through so much crud before being able to just do your job. https://www.oculus.com/...
The Skydance Interactive team which designed the brutally tactile combat of The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners has also been working in secret on a new project. Will you survive the grim new world of Behemoth? https://www.oculus.com/... https://twitter.com/...
The VR developer ecosystem is booming. To date, over $1.5b has been spent on games and apps in the Meta Quest Store: https://www.oculus.com/... We now have 33 titles that have made over $10m in gross revenue, and 55 apps have made over $5m in gross revenue since last year.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has shown up in the Meta Connect keynote to talk about productivity. The Game Pass / Xbox Cloud Gaming on Quest is part of his announcements, but sounds like it's much more about working in the metaverse and supporting enterprise software platforms.
to remove yrself from society even further, you can watch a sitcom about people working together in a physical office while you sit alone on your couch with giant goggles on, chuckling https://variety.com/...