Facebook today announced that its XR conference, Facebook Connect (previously called Oculus Connect) will be held on October 28th. This is the second year running that the event has been in an online format due to the Coronavirus pandemic.

Facebook Connect is the company’s annual conference for AR and VR developers. It’s also often used as a platform for the company to make major announcements relating to its XR initiatives.

While prior versions of the event have been an on-site multi-day affair, for the second year running the event will be hosted online. The company announced today that Facebook Connect will happen on October 28th, likely comprised of pre-recorded video segments.

Beyond the date and confirmation that this year’s event will once again happen online, there’s no information yet about the event’s program, with the official website asking visitors to “check back for registration and event updates.”

By my recollection, October 28th is the latest in the year that the event has ever been held. In 2020 it happened on October 13th and in 2019 it kicked off on September 25th.

Considering that the event is being hosted online, Facebook doesn’t have to contend with venue schedules, which likely means the company carefully picked late October to align with its strategic objectives. The holiday shopping period has been huge for Quest and Quest 2 in years past; a late October event seems poised to generate excitement on the run up to the holidays.

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Last year Facebook announced Quest 2 at Facebook Connect. It was somewhat surprising considering that the company had just shipped the original Quest the year before, and it was unclear whether they would follow up so quickly with a successor (especially during the pandemic chaos).

It’s similarly unclear this year if the company will attempt to keep up a yearly pace for hardware improvements, but Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has spoken about the idea of a ‘Quest Pro’ headset. There’s also those AR glasses the company has been working on.

If anything, Facebook’s greatest interest in upgrades to Quest 2 right now is likely focused on upgrading its cameras to support the headset’s experimental AR capabilities.

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Ben Lang
Ben is the world's most senior professional analyst solely dedicated to the XR industry, having founded Road to VR in 2011—a year before the Oculus Kickstarter sparked a resurgence that led to the modern XR landscape. He has authored more than 3,000 articles chronicling the evolution of the XR industry over more than a decade. With that unique perspective, Ben has been consistently recognized as one of the most influential voices in XR, giving keynotes and joining panel and podcast discussions at key industry events. He is a self-described "journalist and analyst, not evangelist."
  • xyzs

    Let me bet:
    we will get AR announcements for future products but nothing even concrete.
    Facebook/metaverse new social platform project announcements.
    zero VR headset with improved FOV.

    • ViRGiN

      let me guess – it hurts you so much that fb is “withholding progress”, but you won’t bat an eye for anything that valve does (not) do.

      • xyzs

        I don’t care about Valve.

        • Elite-Force_Cinema

          Yes you do! You DO care about Valve simply because you think you praise and worship Gaben Newell as your god and master for video games a whole!!!!

    • Blaexe

      They won’t talk about AR products – that’s still too far away. They will definitely announce the smartglasses though and they will sell soon after Connect.

      At least they will talk about VR tech and the state of research again – unlike last year. There likely won’t be a new VR headset formally announced, but they might tease a Quest Pro which imo will also have an improved FoV (nothing too fancy, around Index / PSVR2 levels).

      • Christian Schildwaechter

        They might announce the Quest Pro with eye tracking as a HMD for smaller companies that have no use for their current enterprise level business program, but want to use the Horizon Workrooms VR conferencing system that Facebook just launched.

        • Blaexe

          I don’t see them releasing any hardware specific to businesses. Quest Pro will be for businesses and customers. Still, I wouldn’t expect an announcement.

  • I bet they will announce smartglasses

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  • Azreal42

    Wonder what’s the quest pro might be.
    I would love to see a quest with high-end lens, and slightly more resolution, and better hand tracking (improved camera)
    That would truly enable to work in VR, and it would be in line with their latest focus on work and productivity.

  • kakek

    Quest 1 very short shelf life was already kind of a problem.
    They are conscious of it, and claimed multiple times that the quest 2 was here for a while. They know they cannot afford to release a significant update that would make Quest 2 buyers feel like their brand new device is already obsolete.
    That would not fly a second time and would alienate to much of thei potential customers.

    But at the same time, Quest 2 is already showing it’s limitation for their future ambition. Notably it’s very limited capacity for AR, with B&W only cameras and lack of eye/mouth tracking.

    My bet is anouncement will be more on the software side, with some other big AA title exclusive to Quest 2.

    And, I will also make an unlikely prediction : hardware addon for Quest 2 !
    something that plugs in the USB port to add eye tracking, high quality camera for color passthrough, or better 3D camera/lidar for environement and hand capture.

    Those upgrade could then be integrated in a Quest 2 pro whithout giving Q2 buyers the feeling they bought a devellopement kit.

    • ViRGiN

      There is no real need for better VR/AR, until software is produced – and Quest 2 does more than enough for it’s first inception. Would be obsolete to release Next Quest with better AR, and having next to nothing to use it with.

      • duked

        Better pass-through and lenses would be really nice, with current software.

        • ViRGiN

          What software could use better passthrough today legitimately, other than more clear tilt-down-to-s3e-r3al keyboard?

          We never had any official support for “YouTube of 3d models on the web”, sketchfab, despite Brendan, initial co-founder of Oculus investing into it, while always getting motion sick from vr, at the same time being the front face of vr. This guy believed in vr so much that he never used it, yet let the company when his “rift 2” Project got trashed

          • duked

            Yes, I was thinking of Horizon Workrooms.

    • Arno van Wingerde

      I do not see a problem there are not many games that do not run on the Quest 1… If I had a Quest 1, I would likely have upgraded to a Quest 2, after all you can buy 2-3 Quests for a single VR set from another manufacturer!
      However, even if you opted not to upgrade, there would still be many new games for the Quest 1, probably more than when the Quest 2 had not come on the market and enlarged the market. So, bring it on for the Quest 3, if it has significant improvements over the Quest 2. I will happily upgrade and wait for the Quest 4. If I do not consider an upgrade worth my money, I will simple skip a generation or, as I do with smartphones.