Meta Quietly Retires Oculus Brand Despite Promises of No Changes
Shortly after Mark Zuckerberg promises that existing brands will not change during the Meta rebrand, the company announces it is killing off the Oculus name. The Oculus app and Oculus Quest headset will both adopt the Meta name early next year.
Mark Zuckerberg takes the stage at the Connect event to announce that Facebook is changing its name to Meta, promising that the company's mission and existing brands remain completely unchanged. However, this statement proves to be false just minutes later when CTO Andrew Bosworth reveals that the company is officially retiring the Oculus brand.
During the keynote presentation, the Oculus name is conspicuously absent, with features like the Oculus Store consistently being referred to as the Quest Store. Bosworth explains in a blog post that starting early next year, the company begins the process of renaming the Oculus app to the Meta app and the Oculus Quest headset to the Meta Quest.
Bosworth acknowledges that the team has a strong attachment to the Oculus brand and calls the decision a very difficult one. He insists that while the name is retiring, the original Oculus vision remains deeply embedded in how Meta plans to drive mass adoption for virtual reality, a space the company enters when it buys Oculus VR back in 2014.