Mark Zuckerberg wants to make the metaverse a useful place to play, socialize… and even work. On the sidelines of the Meta Quest Pro announcement, its new virtual reality headset dedicated to the wealthiest among usMeta announced have entered into a partnership with Microsoft to integrate all the tools of the Redmond giant within Horizon Worlds, the metaverse made in Facebook.
All Microsoft tools in Horizon Worlds
This collaboration between the two companies, which until now seemed more competitors than friends in the marvelous world of the metaverse, will see the arrival of Microsoft Teams, the Office suite, Windows 365 and even Xbox’s cloud-gaming offer within Horizon Worlds. “This new partnership integrates Microsoft’s popular productivity tools with Meta’s virtual reality devices, giving people greater flexibility in how they collaborate and work.” proudly states Meta in its announcement statement.
Concretely, this means that you can, for example, join video calls from meeting rooms in the metaverse and use the Office suite on a virtual computer. The integration of Windows 365 even implies that you will be able to use your full instance of Windows in the cloud, inside the metaverse. In order to work virtually in a virtual world. For the company, it’s a way to position its headset as “a device suitable for enterprise use, easy to use, deploy and manage at scale”.
If crashing in front of a computer in VR doesn’t sound much more interesting to you than crashing in front of a computer in real life, the Xbox Cloud Gaming offer may appeal to you more. By making Game Pass available within the metaverse, Microsoft allows you to enjoy your favorite games on a giant screen projected within the VR headset. It is not a question here of launching VR titles which simulate a 360° environment, but rather of playing as in your living room, on a larger screen.
For Microsoft, deploying its tools in the metaverse is just one more step in the company’s desire to be present on all platforms. Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, said it himself during the conference: integration is about “ensure that our software can benefit users on all their favorite devices”. For Facebook, it’s a way of being taken seriously by the corporate world, which is partly the segment targeted by the all-new Meta Quest Pro. It remains for the two firms to explain how going through Excel spreadsheets in the metaverse is fundamentally more exciting than doing it in front of your real office.