News: 0180412723

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Meta 'Pauses' Third-Party Headset Program (roadtovr.com)

(Wednesday December 17, 2025 @10:30PM (BeauHD) from the first-party-only dept.)


Meta has [1]paused its third-party Horizon OS headset program , effectively canceling planned VR headsets from Asus and Lenovo as it refocuses on "building the world-class first-party hardware and software needed to advance the VR market." Road to VR reports:

> A little over a year and a half ago, Meta made an "industry-altering announcement," as I called the move in my reporting: the company was rebranding the Quest operating system to 'Horizon OS' and announced it was working with select partners to [2]launch third-party VR headsets powered by the operating system. Meta specifically named Asus and Lenovo as the first partners it was working with to build new Horizon OS headsets. Asus was said to be building an "all-new performance gaming headset," while Lenovo was purportedly working on "mixed reality devices for productivity, learning, and entertainment."

>

> But as we've now learned, neither headset is likely to see the light of day. Meta say it has frozen the third-party Horizon OS headset program. "We have paused the program to focus on building the world-class first-party hardware and software needed to advance the VR market," a Meta spokesperson told Road to VR. "We're committed to this for the long term and will revisit opportunities for 3rd-party device partnerships as the category evolves."



[1] https://www.roadtovr.com/meta-horizon-os-third-party-headset-cancelled-asus-lenovo/

[2] https://tech.slashdot.org/story/24/04/22/1718249/meta-opens-quest-os-to-third-parties-including-asus-and-lenovo


Legs (Score:3)

by awwshit ( 6214476 )

Mark was afraid that these third party headsets might render legs. Mark demands no legs.

Re: (Score:1)

by Tablizer ( 95088 )

Legs are obsolete! We superior humans just float. Non-floaters will be deported to El Salvador.

Metaverse (Score:2)

by Himmy32 ( 650060 )

Now that the "metaverse" shifting away from being the ruler of the VR headset space, will they rebrand their company again? If so, my vote would be to focus on their core demographics: "Bad AI Memes for Grandmas and Low Child Self Esteem Inc."

Is the future of VR 2d? (Score:2)

by jelwell ( 2152 )

The speculation I've seen for this decision revolves around Google's vast 2d app/gamestore and/or Valve/Steam's vast 2d game store. Valve has already decided that 2d gaming in VR is the future - with VR essentially just a really big monitor pressed up to your face. Likely Lenovo and Asus agreed, or asked to wait and see if Valve was right. If Valve is right then Google's 2d app/game store far outweighs Meta's 3d app/game store. Which means any third parties are best partnering with whatever Google goes with

Re: (Score:1)

by Zuck Enabler ( 10503068 )

What are you talking about valve is releasing a new headset probably q1 2026

Meta (Score:2)

by RitchCraft ( 6454710 )

Meta - a group of dumb shits with way too much money.

Re: (Score:1)

by Tablizer ( 95088 )

To be honest, if I had that much money I too would chase pie-in-sky ideas.

But this VR chase is stupid. Meta should purchase the Second Life or Roblox franchise, get a web-based world working well with FaceBook, and THEN gradually add 3D and reach stuff. He has it backward.

Will Asus and Lenovo sue? (Score:2)

by ddtmm ( 549094 )

> "We're committed to this for the long term and will revisit opportunities for 3rd-party device partnerships as the category evolves."

I imagine the 3rd parties' investment in development to date was not zero. Good luck getting 3rd party developers to trust them down the road.

They trust me (Score:1)

by Zuck Enabler ( 10503068 )

The dumb fucks

I have sacrificed time, health, and fortune, in the desire to complete these
Calculating Engines. I have also declined several offers of great personal
advantage to myself. But, notwithstanding the sacrifice of these advantages
for the purpose of maturing an engine of almost intellectual power, and after
expending from my own private fortune a larger sum than the government of
England has spent on that machine, the execution of which it only commenced,
I have received neither an acknowledgement of my labors, not even the offer
of those honors or rewards which are allowed to fall within the reach of men
who devote themselves to purely scientific investigations...

If the work upon which I have bestowed so much time and thought were a mere
triumph over mechanical difficulties, or simply curious, or if the execution
of such engines were of doubtful practicability or utility, some justification
might be found for the course which has been taken; but I venture to assert
that no mathematician who has a reputation to lose will ever publicly express
an opinion that such a machine would be useless if made, and that no man
distinguished as a civil engineer will venture to declare the construction of
such machinery impracticable...

And at a period when the progress of physical science is obstructed by that
exhausting intellectual and manual labor, indispensable for its advancement,
which it is the object of the Analytical Engine to relieve, I think the
application of machinery in aid of the most complicated and abtruse
calculations can no longer be deemed unworthy of the attention of the country.
In fact, there is no reason why mental as well as bodily labor should not
be economized by the aid of machinery.
-- Charles Babbage, Passage from the Life of a Philosopher