In a major move from Meta, announced back in April of last year, they set the stage for Horizon OS—an operating system exclusive to Quest—to finally make its way onto third-party headsets. Big names like ASUS, Lenovo, and Xbox were all slated to roll out XR devices running this new OS. However, Meta has kept a pretty tight lid on the details since then. Fresh buzz, though, from the reliable source and serial leaker ‘Luna’, suggests that Asus might be the first to break cover.
Luna, well-versed in unveiling secrets of the virtual reality world, has a track record that speaks for itself. Previously, this leaker revealed some of Meta’s plans, including the Quest 3S name long before its official debut and even the Action Button feature on the headset.
Diving deeper with datamining skills, Luna exposed a room-scanning setup for the Quest 3 ahead of its 2023 launch. And that’s not all—various Quest software functionalities came to light through Luna, such as Meta testing a feature for keeping apps pinned to the Universal Menu dock.
Drawing insights from an anonymous insider, Luna now claims the Asus Republic of Gamers headset might be among the first third-party devices to launch with Horizon OS. It’s reported, under the codename ‘Tarius’, that this headset will boast advanced features like eye-tracking and face-tracking, lining it up with the latest Quest Pro offerings. The display technology is expected to be cutting-edge, likely using quantum dot LCD displays or possibly micro-OLED.
If these reports hold water, it looks like Asus is planning to offer more than just a Quest 3S lookalike with flashy RGB lighting. Instead, they might be aiming for a significant upgrade from Quest’s typical consumer range, which currently includes the $500 Quest 3 with a hefty 512GB and the $300 Quest 3S offering 128GB.
Although it’s wise to stay cautious and not jump to conclusions just yet, these developments certainly underscore Meta’s strategic moves. They appear to be gearing up to challenge Google’s Android XR, which is debuting on Samsung’s highly anticipated XR headset, codenamed Project Moohan, scheduled for consumer launch later this year.
