The rumors have been swirling for months, but the annual Facebook Oculus conference is finally almost upon us. In a Facebook blog post, Facebook confirmed the date for Oculus Connect 7 as well as the rebranding. Facebook will be streaming the event live for all to see on September 16, which will be made available in VR on Oculus Venues and across all platforms via Facebook Live.
Henceforth, Oculus Connect will be known as Facebook Connect. Similarly, Facebook is pulling all of its AR and VR teams under one roof known as Facebook Reality Labs. This name was once given to the research division of Oculus, and will now be known as Facebook Reality Labs Research. That’s a lot of change at once, and it spells some pretty big things on the horizon for Oculus and Facebook, as a whole. Facebook explains that the rebranding is being done to further clarify that all of these products and services are being offered by Facebook, including Oculus properties.
This fits right in with Facebook’s new requirement to use a Facebook account on Oculus devices, starting this October. Facebook has been slowly reigning in the Oculus branding since its purchase of the property in 2014. While Facebook fell short of making specific announcements for what to expect at Facebook Connect next month, we’re pretty darn certain that the Oculus Quest 2 is going to make its debut on September 16 as the rumors have said.
In fact, just today the Oculus Quest 2 name appeared on the Oculus app, signaling that the Oculus Quest 2 is likely right around the corner. Facebook also says that it continues to work on other AR technologies like AR glasses, but those are still expected to be a few years out.
