VR Glasses aren\u2019t really a straightforward Quest replacement though, as they\u2019re substantially more expensive, less immersive due to a lower field-of-view<\/a>, and are being positioned around productivity, communication, and casual media consumption rather than gaming.<\/p>\n When asked why VR Glasses aren\u2019t a Quest Air, Quest 4, or Quest Pro 2, Meta\u2019s Vice President of VR Ryan Cairns explained VR Glasses are a part of the company\u2019s glasses continuum.<\/p>\n \u201cThe thing we wanted to signal with the product is: it\u2019s a different product for a different market. It reads like glasses, so we wanted to have it in the spectrum of glasses that go from audio to full immersive VR Glasses.\u201d<\/p>\n To their credit, VR Glasses are sleek and light, and are basically what Apple Vision Pro should have been in the first place<\/a>. They\u2019re also taking some of the best bits from Quest, repackaging them as new, and selling them to a new audience. But they aren\u2019t Quest, at least not according to Meta.<\/p>\n A Stepping Stone to AR<\/p>\n Anyone who\u2019s followed Meta\/Facebook can attest to how erratic its VR strategy has been over the years. So, even with the new, more grownup version of its VR ambitions on display with VR Glasses, it\u2019s difficult to say exactly what the company\u2019s product strategy is right now.<\/p>\n What is certain, though: Meta has shown it can easily cast away years of brand recognition in service of The Bigger Picture\u2122, and drastically redefine its hardware ambitions.<\/p>\n In 2021, the company retired the Oculus name, which up to that point included Oculus Rift DK1, Oculus Rift DK2, Oculus Rift (oft referred to as CV1), Oculus Go, Oculus Quest, Oculus Rift S, and Oculus Quest 2\u2014making Oculus nearly synonymous with VR. It even changed the name of its most successful VR headset to date mid-generation, retroactively applying the Meta name to Quest 2 that year.<\/p>\n We may be seeing another rebrand, if a quieter one. But it looks more like a broad bet on augmented reality. <\/p>\n VR Glasses are light and hand-tracking-first, and they also have a more limited field-of-view, making them a natural bridge to the AR glasses Meta is clearly working toward, and more similar in function to Orion AR glasses prototype<\/a> unveiled alongside Quest 3S in 2024.<\/p>\n The VR Pullback<\/p>\n Let\u2019s rewind a bit. It all started earlier this year when Meta shut down three of its most-important internal VR studios<\/a>: Armature Studio (Resident Evil 4 VR), Twisted Pixel (Deadpool VR), and Sanzaru Games (Asgard\u2019s Wrath), all of which were actively developing premium VR content.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Meta also pulled funding from a number of partner studios, which allegedly led to the cancellation of a Harry Potter Quest game<\/a> from Skydance Games, VR veteran Cloudhead Games, and a \u201cmajor project\u201d from Moss developer Polyarc. The cancellation left Polyarc in bad enough shape that the studio was forced to shut down last month<\/a>.<\/p>\n It\u2019s fairly clear the company was reacting to an underperforming games market and reining in a multi-million-dollar spending spree on content for a platform that still wasn\u2019t turning a profit after seven years of Quest headsets.<\/p>\n Shortly after Meta announced Reality Labs was pivoting to wearables and AI, Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth acknowledged the shift, saying the \u201cgravy train has come to a stop.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n It\u2019s an accurate, if indelicate, way of describing the situation. Millions of dollars put toward content was turned off like a spigot, but the fallout went beyond the individual games shelved mid-development.<\/p>\n Hard-won expertise, which Meta worked to attract and shape over the years, had to look elsewhere. Schell Games, the studio behind the VR hits Until You Fall, Among Us VR, and the I Expect You to Die trilogy, has been one of the most ardent opponents against layoffs. Only now has the studio conducted its first layoff in its 24 years of existence<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was a time when headset-based VR was 80% of our work, but at the moment it is more like 30%,\u201d said Schell Games CEO Jesse Schell. \u201cWe are doing more and more work that is VR-adjacent, such as projects involving interactive projection for location-based entertainment, which we think is a growing trend.\u201d<\/p>\n Mighty Coconut, developer of hit golfing game Walkabout Mini Golf, has been through its second round of layoffs.<\/p>\n \u201cDue to the current state of the games industry and especially VR, Mighty Coconut will need to downsize, and over the next several months we will be saying goodbye to 10 talented people who have helped make Walkabout what it is,\u201d CEO Lucas Martell said last week<\/a>.<\/p>\n Closing studios, upending a highly-specialized developer ecosystem, and cancelling multi-year projects isn\u2019t generally something you do if you plan to launch another console-class headset anytime soon.<\/p>\n Metaverse Lost<\/p>\n The pullback goes beyond VR games too. Meta has since shuttered Horizon Workrooms and disentangled Horizon Worlds from Quest entirely, making it a purely non-VR social platform. <\/p>\n And it doesn\u2019t seem to be a temporary correction to Meta\u2019s games budget either; more like a broader redefinition of what Quest, or rather VR Glasses, is supposed to be, as the metaverse simply isn\u2019t company\u2019s spiritual anchor anymore.<\/p>\n With VR Glasses for grownups coming next year, Meta is also planning to release VR avatars for grownups too<\/a>, which feel more like a sober Zoom meetings than a magical metaverse full of people and things to do. It\u2019s a decidedly Apple-like move, and I suspect it\u2019s aimed at beating the Cupertino Fruit Company at its own game.<\/p>\n No Assurances of Quest 4 at Connect<\/p>\n Bosworth is a polarizing figure, but is also one of the more open windows into Reality Labs. He regularly hosts Q&A sessions on Instagram and runs the \u2018Boz to the Future\u2019 podcast. Few other Meta execs speak as regularly and as candidly about Meta\u2019s XR direction.<\/p>\n Earlier this year, he said Meta had two VR headsets planned<\/a>, and later noted in July that the company had \u201cmultiple\u201d next-gen VR headsets in the works<\/a>. One become VR Glasses, previously codenamed Project Phoenix. But what about the others?<\/p>\n Meta is constantly spinning up (and down) XR prototypes, so almost anything can be explained away. But when it comes to actual products, the company seems only talk about one device generation at a time.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1791466088_356_meta-vr-glasses-1.jpg\")
<\/a>Courtesy Meta<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/imgi_39_oculus-quest-rift-s-edited.jpg\")
<\/a>Oculus Quest (left), Rift S (right) | Courtesy Meta <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/asgards-wrath.jpg\")
<\/a>Asgard\u2019s Wrath 2 | Courtesy Sanzaru Games<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/horizon-worlds-edited.jpg\")
<\/a>Horizon Worlds | Courtesy Meta<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/meta-vr-glasses-scott.jpg\")
<\/a>Meta VR Glasses | Photo captured by Road to VR<\/p>\n