Meta has introduced that its subsequent Quest Gaming Showcase will happen on June 1, and it guarantees to disclose twice as many video games, apps, and updates because it did in the course of the 2022 showcase.
As we’ve seen in earlier years, these showcases give Meta an opportunity to disclose the VR software program that it and its companions have been engaged on for its VR headsets – the Oculus Quest 2 and Meta Quest Professional. We’ve seen some fairly large bulletins these previous couple of years, with among the finest Oculus Quest 2 video games being featured within the 2021 and 2022 showcases. So anticipate many thrilling bulletins for this 12 months’s occasion, too.
One announcement we aren’t anticipating nonetheless is an Oculus Quest 3 reveal – or any VR {hardware} for that matter. Meta could take the chance to tease its upcoming headset however a full-on reveal is almost definitely being reserved for its Meta Join 2023 showcase due in October primarily based on the way it normally runs its occasions. Its June Showcase is often software-centric, whereas its October Join is extra hardware-focused.
If you wish to tune into the upcoming showcase, it’ll occur on June 1, 2023, at 10am PT / 6pm BST / June 2 at 3am ACT. Meta hasn’t revealed the place and how one can tune in however we think about it’ll present Fb and YouTube livestream hyperlinks quickly.
However let’s not dwell on what received’t be on present, as an alternative let’s attempt to guess what we’d see as an alternative of the Quest 3 on the upcoming Meta occasion.
As we talked about above, Meta has teased that this 12 months’s occasion may have “double the information” of its 2022 showcase. Final 12 months we have been handled to 12 new video games and updates, so this 12 months we will anticipate 24 bulletins.
We think about most of the reveals shall be up to date software program we already love. This might be within the type of a brand new Walkabout Mini Golf course, a brand new Beat Saber music pack, or a brand new location to discover in Gorilla Tag amongst different choices.
Moreover, there are quite a few tasks Meta teased that haven’t but launched, so hold a watch out for these. Revealed eventually 12 months’s showcase as Ghostbusters VR, Ghostbusters: Rise of the Ghost Lord will probably get proven off once more – hopefully with a launch date reveal, too. We’d additionally lastly hear extra about GTA: San Andreas VR which was teased at Meta’s 2021 showcase and hasn’t been heard from since.
We wouldn’t be stunned if Meta additionally gave us extra particulars about Xbox Recreation Cross streaming and Microsoft’s Workplace apps coming to its VR {hardware}. Throughout the Meta Quest Professional reveal throughout Meta Join 2022, Meta and Microsoft teased that Xbox sport streaming and the Workplace suite of productiveness instruments can be coming to Quest headsets. If we’re fortunate we’ll discover out when these apps will arrive in the course of the June showcase.
It’s tougher for us to guess what new video games and apps shall be revealed however now we have a number of concepts.
For a begin, we anticipate (learn: hope) blended actuality will characteristic prominently. The Meta Quest Professional and different blended actuality headsets (just like the HTC Vive XR Elite) are held again by the extreme lack of worthwhile blended actuality video games and apps. With the Quest 3 set to pursue blended actuality too, Meta can be good to fill out its catalog now in order that when the brand new {hardware} launches gamers will be capable to take full benefit of its capabilities – and to assist present Meta Quest Professional house owners not really feel an excessive amount of like they’ve been neglected within the chilly.
As for a pie-in-the-sky prediction, we’re going to go along with: Name of Obligation VR. VR headsets are house to many superb titles however presently lack the vastly iconic gaming franchises discovered on conventional consoles – video games corresponding to GTA San Andreas VR and Name of Duy VR would change that, and certain appeal to quite a lot of new gamers to Meta’s platform.
The thought isn’t too absurd. Activision Blizzard – which owns Name of Obligation – is presently within the means of being acquired by Microsoft, which is already in offers with Meta to deliver its software program to Quest headsets. What’s extra a Name of Obligation VR announcement would additionally present regulators that Microsoft and Activision aren’t hoarding the Name of Obligation IP.
Given how lengthy sport growth takes, it’s near-impossible that such an announcement can be in response to UK regulators blocking the acquisition; however contemplating the deal has been within the pipeline for over a 12 months it’s not outdoors the realm of risk that the concept might have been hashed out many months in the past and that growth might have not less than began.
Don’t get your hopes up although. That is very a lot a pipe dream and we’d be gobsmacked if Name of Obligation VR truly will get introduced throughout Meta’s June 2023 gaming occasion. If it is not, you will nonetheless be capable to get pleasure from all the opposite bulletins and the large vary of finest VR video games already obtainable in your Quest headset.