The Meta Quest 3 has been fully revealed, and it releases on October 10. Pre-orders are currently available for $499.
During Meta Connect 2023, CEO Mark Zuckerberg took the stage to show off what he calls "the first mainstream mixed reality headset." During the presentation, he showcased a number of Meta Quest 3's key features, some of which are designed for gaming and others for work, exercise, home decoration, and more.
The big reason Meta is calling the Quest 3 "mixed reality" instead of VR is because of the way it utilizes your real-life physical space. One example Zuckerberg used during the presentation is a game that uses the couch in your living room as an in-game barrier you can take cover behind while enemies shoot at you.
There are also games, including Lego Brick Tales and Bam!, which you can place on top of a physical surface and play while still surrounded by your normal living space. Exercise apps will also fling objects at you without distorting your physical surroundings, making it less likely you bump into stuff and hurt yourself.
The Stranger Things game, meanwhile, will open portals to the Upside Down in your living room. A big bonus is that, as Zuckerberg points out, Quest 3 displays your physical space with ten times the pixels and "twice the graphics performance" as Quest 2, making it look that much more true to life and surreal when blended with various digital worlds.
Zuckerberg also revealed that the Xbox Cloud Gaming service will be available on Meta Quest 3 in December, which means you'll be able to play hundreds of Xbox games including Halo, Minecraft, and Starfield on a massive virtual screen that you can drop into your physical space without completely changing your surroundings.
Naturally, there will also be regular ol' VR games in Quest 3, and we got to see some Assassin's Creed Nexus gameplay during the showcase, which indeed looked genuinely impressive.
Meta Quest 3 pre-orders are now live ahead of the October 10 release date
Already armed with a headset? Check out the best Meta Quest 2 accessories and enhance your experience with one of the best VR headsets. If you’d rather stay in the real world, take a look at the best gaming monitors and choose a screen that isn’t strapped to your face.
