Meta Opens First Store To Sell Quests, Portals, and Glasses

Meta's campus in Burlingame, California will be home to its first physical retail space where you can check out Quest 2 and its accessories as well as the Ray-Ban Stories sunglasses and the Portal video-calling device. UploadVR reports: The store opens May 9 with interactive demos for "Beat Saber, GOLF+, Real VR Fishing or Supernatural on a large, wall-to-wall curved LED screen that displays what you're seeing in-headset," according to a blog post from the company. "If we did our job right, people should leave and tell their friends, 'You've got to go check out the Meta Store,' Martin Gilliard, Head of Meta Store, is quoted as saying. "We're not selling the metaverse in our store, but hopefully people will come in and walk out knowing a little bit more about how our products will help connect them to it."

The store is said to be 1,550 square feet and also offers the ability to do a test call with the Portal video calling device and try out different styles of the Ray-Ban Stories camera glasses. It sounds like the main attraction here, however, will be the Quest 2-powered mixed reality installation, which promises to give VR players "a 30-second mixed reality clip of your demo experience that's yours to share," with the video wall offering a live view into VR as it is being experienced.

Meta? More like

[Caro Cogitatus]

Meh-ta.

"Meta" = "Metastasize"

[Sebby]

Meh-ta.

Nah, it's "Meta" for "Metastasize"

in store sales experience

[awwshit]

Come in today and we'll try to wow you and give you the hard sell.

Software to hard sell?

[Catvid-22]

Are there any examples of a software company (I'm assuming FB is "soft" ware) that managed to successfully transition to a hardware company? Microsoft seems to be the rare example with its Xbox console. Then again, it's always had experience selling boxes.

Re: Software to hard sell?

[fermion]

Ms opened three stores in my area. Only one is still open. Apple has like 6. Google has tried to do hardware. It is not so much that Google is a software company. It is that Google has no experience servicing end users. It is strictly a company that exploits end users.

Re:

[Catvid-22]

Unless someone can come up with a better example, MS is probably the gold, er silver, standard for software companies doing hardware. Apple's always been first a hardware company. Except for a brief period in (I think) the early 1990s and the notable exception of software designed to interface with Apple products (RIP iTunes), Apple software for non-Apple hardware hasn't been widely deployed.

Personal note: I don't know if it's simply co-branded, but I still have memories of my MS ergonomic keyboard. Probabl

Re:

[znrt]

Google has tried to do hardware. It is not so much that Google is a software company. It is that Google has no experience servicing end users. It is strictly a company that exploits end users.

that might well be, but google never pursued hardware as a business model. they launched a few phones just to create a market and spur competition (which is why they involved several competing manufacturers in successive product) and help android accrue critical mass. and they were very successful at that, literally swamped the world with android phones or derivatives while apple's ios is still a minority with all their fancy stores and their lauded customer service.

barring that and radical experiments like

Re:

[fermion]

Google glasses. Big push. They have never successfully pushed a hardware product, because the see end users only as a product.

Re:

[tlhIngan]

Are there any examples of a software company (I'm assuming FB is "soft" ware) that managed to successfully transition to a hardware company? Microsoft seems to be the rare example with its Xbox console. Then again, it's always had experience selling boxes.

It's because hardware is atoms, while software is just electrons. Physics already tells you electrons are easy to move about (they're very very small), and very, very light. Atoms however are gigantic compared to the electron and they weigh a lot more than

Re:

[Catvid-22]

Then there are the pesky things called humans, because when dealing with software and electrons, you can usually deal with them via electronic means. But when dealing with atoms, humans may want in-person service to be able to show what's wrong with their assembly of atoms.

But sometimes all these humans need to do is to press or click the button that would recycle the electrons in their assembly of atoms.

Re: Software to hard sell?

[ArmoredDragon]

Microsoft has been doing hardware since long before Xbox.

https://www.thewindowsclub.com... [thewindowsclub.com]

I still remember during the 90s, by far the best mice were made by Microsoft. Other brands wouldn't last nearly as long. Even today Microsoft's mice way outlast others, but I don't use them anymore because they don't make any mice with more than 4 buttons. Not having forward and backward navigation on the mouse sucks.

Re:

[Catvid-22]

I know. I had an MS ergonomic keyboard, the split type. I don't know if it's their invention though, but it was the best keyboard I've ever used. The first mouse I used was either an East Asian brand or Logitech. Would you consider CD-ROMs hardware? I had an MS Encarta, the best electronic encyclopedia of its time. Compared to it, the Britannica's electronic edition was simply a database with an interface.

Re:

[znrt]

I still remember during the 90s, by far the best mice were made by Microsoft.

i had one of those and i concur. build quality like that doesn't even exist anymore in the mass consumer market.

not to mention the legendary ibm keyboards ... :-)

yeah right

[znrt]

"If we did our job right," ... "We're not selling the metaverse in our store, but hopefully

no, you just set up a demo for a few vr hit titles of ... wait, 2019? wow, that's a hell of a way of showcasing teh future! :D

this gets more pathetic every day. i'm loving it ...

Jumped the shark

[Gavino]

Looks like Zuck donned the leather jacket and skis for this Metaverse nonsense. Then again, I should never underestimate the stupidity of the average person.

Boom

[dohzer]

GOLF+, Real VR Fishing or Supernatural? Looks like they're really going after the boomers, which works since they're the only ones using Facebook these days.

What a great idea

[DrXym]

Who doesn't relish the idea of putting on a headset potentially covered in someone else's dead skin, grease, bacteria and lice eggs?

2d6

[Bitbeard]

Am I the only one who thought this topic was about RPGs?