After six annual Oculus Connect conferences, Facebook is rebranding its XR developer event with the name Facebook Connect. This year the event will be held online on September 16th.

Although it no longer bears the Oculus name, Facebook says that Facebook Connect will continue to focus on the company’s XR efforts. Ostensibly the company’s other events, like F8, will still focus on Facebook’s broader portfolio of services. The rebranding announcement comes just after the company announced that its VR headsets will eventually require the use of a Facebook account.

The Coronavirus pandemic has resulted in Facebook Connect being shifted to an online event this year, which Facebook announced today will be held on September 16th. The online event will be free for anyone to attend; keynote presentations and sessions will be broadcast on the Facebook Reality Labs Facebook page.

While most sessions will be pre-recorded, Oculus’ Chief Technology Officer, John Carmack has confirmed that his longstanding unscripted keynote will be delivered live. This comes despite Carmack having lessened his commitment to Oculus last year when he announced that he was moving to a “consulting CTO” role to focus most of his time on other projects.

Mark Zuckerberg on stage at Oculus Connect 3

Besides an avenue to connect with XR developers, Facebook has long used Oculus Connect (now Facebook Connect) to make major announcements about upcoming games, hardware, software, and its long-term vision. Facebook is expected to announce the next Quest headset at this year’s event, and we wouldn’t be surprised to see a formal launch of Horizon, the company’s first earnest attempt at a metaverse-like VR social experience. As with years past we’d also expect to get an update from Michael Abrash, the Chief Scientist of Facebook’s XR research division, on the company’s R&D efforts.

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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."
  • Rudl Za Vedno

    The last nail in the coffin. Oculus is officially dead. Zuck says ** to early O adopters.
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/656aaa525be8759766c8258aa64630f7828ff87fde644c79ffb90064a0c93a8b.jpg

    • NooYawker

      I mean, he did call people who trusted him dumb fucks.

      • Andrew Jakobs

        Don’t we all…..

  • TechPassion

    Fucking facebook. Nothing else can be written. Facebook = what an idiotic name for internet web page.

  • xyzs

    To Suckerberg: you are the only one to think that Facebook is a cool brand and company.
    Please stop screwing up with the hard work from others and the community around Oculus just because you can.

  • RockstarRepublic

    Time to sell my CV1 and Rift S. They said they would not do this, and they did it anyway. So sick and tired of FB.

    • TechPassion

      Sell it or trash it. HP reverb G2 is waiting for your pre-order :)

      • RockstarRepublic

        My index preorder just went through, so I’ll stick with that for now. I’m done with Oculus (FB).

        • Charles

          The Samsung Odyssey+ will remain the best overall headset for the foreseeable future. The panels used by the Reverb G2 have just as horrible contrast as the G1 and Index.

          • Bob

            It’s LCD so it’s expected.

            On that note it’s a big shame that no company as of yet is willing to take the plunge and go all-out with a super high resolution AMOLED display. Yes it’s expensive but we all have to start somewhere, right?

            At the rate we’re going now every company is riding the LCD train with VR HMD’s and meanwhile every company is gradually ditching LCD with TV displays and going OLED or emissive displays. The irony is hilarious.

            Either way still preordered the thing just to arouse my curiosity in regards to the monumental leap in sharpness and clarity over the HMD I’m currently using.

            Best thing we can do now is suck it up and hope for the best with the future of HMD displays.

          • geogan

            You realize the first Rift CV1 had OLED displays right? With amazing black levels and contrast? The Rift S is terrible compared to it. Problem was the low resolution of the pentile OLED panel. Its reason they all swapped to LED panels.

        • Done with FRL , are ya …? lol
          Yeah. Sure you are …. When “Quest 3” hits,
          you’ll be falling all over yourself to get one.
          Everyone will.

      • james beaumont

        See james beaumont post above…….

    • james beaumont

      What does anyone care about all of this Facebook stuff…..In the old days if some company did something some consumer didn’t like, all you would hear is the line, ‘ I’m going to cancel my subscription’…..All hot air and nonsense…..Let Facebook do what it wants, and you carry on enjoying whatever parts of the company you enjoy…Stop thinking that whatever you do means anything at all to anyone, especially Facebook.. You are only aggravating yourself………

    • Andrew Jakobs

      Uhm, you will still be able to use your CV1 and Rift S without having a facebook account.. But then again, selling them to buy a newer better headset would make sense anyway..

  • Erik Middeldorp

    It’s great to hear John Carmack will be doing a talk! I’d assumed he wouldn’t be since he left Oculus. I guess he’s still more involved than I assumed. That and Michael Abrash’s talk about their R&D and the future of vr are the things I look forward to most. And the possibility they might announce or at least give more info on a varifocal display headset.

    • Ad

      At this point I don’t want to hear about new tech that wouldn’t make its way into a mass market headset anyway. I want to hear these things from their competitors.

      • What “competitors” …?? lol

    • marcandrdsilets

      Same here, can’t wait to see the conference. I’m glad that John Carmack and Michael Abrash are still part of the event. Even if they don’t announce a new headset it’s great their r&d prototype and learn what they are working on for the future. I’ve tried the new venues and I really have high hope for Horizon now.

      • Bob

        Carmack is working on general AI for facebook. Essentially he’s still employed as a facebook employee but not specifically for frl (facebook reality labs).

        • Sven Viking

          He’s part-time long-distance “Consulting CTO” for Facebook’s Oculus VR division. As far as I know the AGI work he’s spending most of his time on now is for his own benefit, not for any employer.

          • Bob

            He is under the official payroll of Facebook which makes him an employee of the company regardless of his job title as “consulting” or not.

            The AGI research he is working on is technically for Facebook since if you haven’t been aware already AI is one of the driving forces of the majority of their future projects. And since Carmack hasn’t officially cut ties with Facebook, any work that he does will inevitably be shared with the company.

            None of this is a coincidence; the decision to suddenly change direction in his career was pushed by Facebook compounded with the fact that Carmack loves solving unsolved problems – AGI being one of them.

          • Sven Viking

            All of that is entirely dependent on his specific agreement with Facebook — his aerospace work was done while employed by id, for example, and none of it involved or belonged to id or (later) ZeniMax.

            He talked about his reasons for working on AGI when he stepped away, and none of them involved being encouraged by Facebook. He said the choice was between AGI and nuclear fission reactors, in fact, which to my knowledge Facebook has no interest in. He is not listed anywhere as having any position with Facebook apart from Consulting CTO for Oculus.

          • Bob

            Just because the information isn’t disclosed publicly about his position does not in any way discount the fact that he is still employed by Facebook under a contract. So again let me reiterate; if you’re in contract with any company, you are their employee. Again there isn’t need for me to repeat this over and over again to you unless you have difficulty understanding how contractual obligation works then in that case I’d suggest you do a little more reading about this topic.

            Yes he did state the next things he would like to work on was between AGI and Nuclear fission but he also stated in another interview (which unfortunately I cannot remember the website where this was taken) that he had more big ideas for the future of VR that he’d like to play a more “hands-on” approach.

          • Sven Viking

            Let me reiterate: that isn’t universal to employment contracts, especially not with professionals at his level who have a lot of latitude to negotiate. Again there isn’t need for me to repeat this over and over again to you unless you have difficulty understanding how contractual obligation works then in that case I’d suggest you do a little more reading about this topic.

          • Bob

            Furthering this discussion would be akin to talking to a brick wall. Or worse, a troll.

            Have a great day very misinformed internet random.

          • Sven Viking

            I know how you feel. The kinds of all-encompassing agreements you’re thinking of are not even legal in the state of California, by the way.

            In California, for example, an invention assignment agreement is not valid as to inventions created entirely on the employee’s own time, without using any of the employer’s resources or property (including intellectual property).

            https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/should-you-sign-inventions-assignment-agreement.html

    • Sven Viking

      He’s technically still “Consulting CTO”. I agree though.

  • sebrk

    I hope Carmack takes his 90 minutes to tell Zuck and Facebook to fuck off. Lying, thieving POS! How anyone with a hint of conscious wants to work for that cancer is beyond me.

    • TechPassion

      Zuck bought Carmack. He can’t say anything bad to his sponsor.

    • james beaumont

      And yet here you are, talking about them, engaging with them. See the james beaumont post/reply post above.

    • Andrew Jakobs

      Uhm, maybe because they pay well and give them a nice place to work? Because you don’t agree what Facebook does, doesn’t mean they won’t give a lot of employees like Carmack the freedom to do what they want, when they want..
      It’s been 6 years since Facebook bought Oculus, and internal politics change, also lets not forget it makes integration of internal systems a lot easier which in time will save a lot of money..

      • Ad

        Instagram still doesn’t need a facebook account.

        • Andrew Jakobs

          But instagram isn’t anywhere comparable to Oculusaccounts, and maybe they even had something in the contract when they sold instagram to facebook..

  • Ad

    I was apparently banned from UploadVR, although the most toxic Facebook fanboy was not. I think the post that did it was me saying they should be more critical of Facebook now, I didn’t expect that response.

    • gothicvillas

      I think UploadVR are woke crowd…

      • Ad

        I’m a communist, so I don’t think it’s that.

        • Charles

          You might find this entertaining:
          https://youtu.be/QwqnRYPcrl0

          • Ad

            “American Institute for Economic Research educates Americans on the value
            of personal freedom, free enterprise, property rights, limited
            government and sound money. AIER’s ongoing scientific research
            demonstrates the importance of these principles in advancing peace,
            prosperity and human progress.”

            No thanks.

          • sebrk

            Yeah you are right. NO to freedom! Please make the choices for me!

          • Ad

            Freedom in this context is a worthless buzzword. When people get killed by agents of the state in racist executions, the AIER isn’t there, apparently that isn’t a matter of freedom. They’re only interested in covering up history and lying to you, and that’s why billionaires donate to them. They’re cheesy propaganda.

          • Charles

            Here’s a very informative article by a black man about those supposed racist executions. Please give it a quick read and share your thoughts.
            https://www.city-journal.org/reflections-on-race-riots-and-police

          • Ad

            It’s really sad how people like you scrounge for any person of color who will give you moral cover for ignoring reality, even after the police let a shooter who killed three people and injured more just walk away.

          • Charles

            The data does not support your claim of what reality is:
            https://archive.is/JDNxE
            And again (try actually reading it / checking its references): https://www.city-journal.org/reflections-on-race-riots-and-police

            Focusing on that lie rather than addressing the REAL issues holding back inner-city black people HURTS black people. And the BLM organization promotes ideas that directly hurt black people, such as encouraging fatherlessness. Destroying black businesses and neighborhoods hurts black people.

          • Ad

            Imagine having so little to do with your time you post random racist diatribes on a VR news site’s comment section.

    • iThinkMyCatIsAFlea
      • Ad

        I asked about this, they said it was a seperate office and all of them were fired.

    • Ahhh, you’re just sore, is all.

  • dk

    next Facebook logo on the headset and everything …no Oculus logo :P

  • JB1968

    LOL It’s funny how many people thought Facebook wouldn’t screw them. I would never buy any Oculus product even if it was the best hmd on the market.

    • james beaumont

      Yeah you would…..See the james beaumont post/reply above.

  • Amni3D

    It’s great to see Facebook killing the brand early in. Speed run, any%.

  • Mateusz Pawluczuk

    I knew mandatory logins might happen at some point but totally didn’t see this one coming. As RoadToVR noted Facebook already has it’s annual F8 conference

  • Rosko

    TBH i’m don’t care too much about the politics, I just want to know about the PCVR technology. Chances are this will be about quest & i’m just not interested in that either unless it’s amazing.

    • Andrew Jakobs

      Well, it could be the new Quest has DV over USB-C instead of having to stream it, so it would essentially make it a PCVR headset like the current Rift S (which I think will be the last dedicated PCVR headset we’ll see from OculusFacebook. But if it performs just as well, I wouldn’t really care, it’s easier to support the new Quest through native and PC than having to support the new Quest native and PC AND another Rift version. With the upcoming new GPU’s we’re finally getting somewhere for supporting highend headsets, but we’re still some time from it becoming really mainstream, with suggested prices of the RTX3060 at $399 with the performance of a RTX2080, it’s still too high a price for the general public who buys their cards at $250 max..

  • Mateusz Pawluczuk

    I knew mandatory logins might happen at some point but totally didn’t see this one coming. As RoadToVR noted Facebook already has it’s own annual F8 conference.

    Will happily listen to both Carmack and Abrash but overall disappointing news.

  • FrankB

    This will massively backfire and kill oculus. They are alienating the very people who are most likely to heavily buy into VR, whereas most FB users are racist pensioners, middle aged Karen’s and mums social groups.

    • mirak

      Large amount of people who invest little in VR will generate more profit than the little amount of people who spend large amounts in VR.

    • NooYawker

      You underestimate people’s stupidity. Facebook and oculus will do just fine. I mean they actual have people who to this day don’t believe Facebook datamines you!

      • Kevin White

        You’re right about the stupidity. I know there are people right now who are waiting for Apple to invent VR, for example.

    • Christian Schildwaechter

      It may kill Oculus, but it will not kill Facebook VR. Pretty sure in a few years we will have Facebook branded HMDs that sell in large numbers primarily for social VR, and most people who buy them will never have heard of Oculus. Which was probably the plan from day one.

      • james beaumont

        Bang on….At last, someone with a brain on here…..

    • james beaumont

      No……Millions will buy the headsets. Nobody cares about any of this nonsense.
      Facebook are bigger than you and all of this silly outrage.
      See the james beaumont post/reply above.

  • marcandrdsilets

    Hater’s gonna hate. Oculus was already owned by Facebook. And you’r account was already linked indirectly and was probably using the the same server, Facebook invested so much money into oculus and this is the reason why VR is so strong right now. I don’t get all the hate.

    • NooYawker

      So why’d he lie and say they would never force oculus users to sign in with Facebook? Just to lie for the sake of lying? Or does Zuck lie on a consistent basis about what goes on with your data and how he gets it?

      • Buster

        Palmer Lucky promised that, Zuckerberg never said shit

        • Sven Viking

          Although he says he was relaying a promise authorised by Facebook, something that could be easily denied if untrue.

          Either way, though, if an official representative of your company makes a public promise on your behalf, and you not only fail to correct the record (for years) but also fail to prevent the promise from being repeated in future, it is your company’s promise. You can’t get out of a false advertising charge by saying years later “it’s not our fault, our employees made that ad!” Most promises and advertisements are made via employees, not directly from the mouth of a CEO.

      • james beaumont

        Who cares about your data…Forget about it and enjoy VR from Facebook or any other.
        Relax. Breathe. Live.

    • james beaumont

      Bang on….a second brain shows up here. Well done.

    • iThinkMyCatIsAFlea

      vr isn’t strong right now.

      • marcandrdsilets

        vr active users is at it’s lowest point since 2012 and is still going down.
        nobody is buying headset anymore and no companies are trying to develop new tech for it.
        headset are never sold out and are super easy to find.
        there’s no interest in vr league or vr entertainment at the moment.
        facebook is trying to kill VR they are NOT trying to make it mass market…they just want to control your brain.
        you’r right vr is weak right now.

        • Blaexe

          vr active users is at it’s lowest point since 2012 and is still going down.

          Yeah…no.

          https://www.vrlfg.net/Charts

          And that’s not even counting the Quest.

          • marcandrdsilets

            It was sarcasm and a reply on my own comment, so thanks for the support :)

          • Blaexe

            Oh well…sarcasm can be hard to spot nowadays. This exact comment could be meant in a serious way, lots of facebook haters :)

  • NooYawker

    Who the hell believed Zuckerberg? Apparently a lot, lesson learned people, I just hope its a lesson retained.

  • MeowMix

    Quest 2 ‘price leak’ at $299. Do a Google for the sources.

    • Andrew Jakobs

      Can’t find a thing about Quest 2 being $299.. googled it, binged it.. Only suggestions of the original Quest going to $299 and the Quest S at $399..

  • How people see it:
    Facebook Connect – Means some facebook related crap
    Oculus Connect – VR Stuff

    How would this not be confusing…

  • Next the VR device shall be re-banded Facebook Rift.

    Shall get even more confusing.

    • Sven Viking

      The Facebook Oculus2Go: Rift Quest

  • asd

    Sorry I think you have a typo.
    Isnt it IOI Connect?

  • Karris Tmpk

    Could you redirect me to a VR blog that includes Vive news. Thank you.