Following the announcement of Meta’s Quest Pro virtual/mixed reality headset, Microsoft has announced an extensive partnership that will introduce virtual reality versions of most of its flagship products. The list includes the Teams video conferencing software, the Office suite of office software, and even the Windows operating system and the Xbox Cloud Gaming cloud gaming service.
In the case of Teams, it is a full integration of the service within the virtual world of Meta. Users will be able to conduct meetings in virtual reality and use 3D characters (avatars). “You can connect, share and work together as if you were in the same room,” according to Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella. The service will be supported on the virtual reality glasses Quest 2 and also on the new Quest Pro.
The virtual reality versions of Windows and Office are slightly more limited. It is actually a two-dimensional display that will appear inside the virtual world of Meta. The advantage, from the company’s point of view, is the possibility of creating an office environment rich in displays and computers, and switching between them smoothly while maintaining the user’s account, the documents and files he worked on on other platforms.
The same goes for Xbox Cloud Gaming: at this stage the service will actually be a kind of giant TV screen in the virtual world on which 2D games can be played. The service will support all games available through Microsoft’s Game Pass package.
The company has not yet published a launch date for the virtual reality versions of its products, or whether it will charge an additional fee for using them. Also, it is not clear whether the close cooperation between Microsoft and Meta is expected to affect its plans for the production of augmented reality glasses. In the past, Microsoft invested a lot of effort in the field through its HoloLens products, but it seems that at this stage the project is on hold and the company is not announcing new hardware products.