Meta announced in April of last year that it was preparing to release Horizon OS, its Quest-exclusive operating system, to third-party headsets for the first time. XR devices running Horizon OS were set to arrive from ASUS, Lenovo, and Xbox, although Meta has remained tightlipped about the headsets since. Now, a report from trusted serial leaker ‘Luna‘ points to Asus being the first out of the gate.
Luna, who shares information about upcoming virtual reality hardware and software, has leaked a number of Meta projects in the past, including the name of Quest 3S before its official announcement and the inclusion of an Action Button on the headset.
Luna’s datamining also revealed a room-scanning setup video for Quest 3 before its launch in 2023, as well as various Quest software features before their unveiling, like when Meta was testing the ability to show and keep apps pinned to the Universal Menu dock.
Luna, ostensibly drawing from an anonymous inside source, now reports the Asus Republic of Gamers headset “will likely be one of the first [third-party] Horizon OS HMDs to ship.”
Reportedly codenamed ‘Tarius’, Luna maintains the headset is planned to include eye-tracking as well as face-tracking, putting it conceptually at parity with Quest Pro’s most modern features. Displays are also said to be quantum dot LCD displays with local dimming, or micro-OLED.
Provided this is true, it would suggest Asus isn’t just putting out a Quest 3S clone adorned with RBG lighting, but rather a true departure from Quest’s middle-of-the-road consumer offerings, which now include the $500 Quest 3 (512GB) and $300 Quest 3S (128GB).
While the report should be taken with a grain of salt, it’s clear Meta hopes to make a move soon to counter Google’s release of Android XR, which is making its debut on Samsung’s upcoming XR headset, codenamed Project Moohan, which planned for consumer release sometime this year.
