Microsoft and Meta announce new partnership

For those of you who missed the announcement last week Microsoft and Meta announced some big news.

After Meta revealed their new VR headset Meta Quest Pro at Meta Connect, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg brought out Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. Together they shared the news that the two companies will be partnering up as they enter the Metaverse. The goal of the collaboration is to help how people work and game in virtual reality. Meta and their new headset the Meta Quest Pro will feature some of Microsoft’s biggest products including Teams, Office, Windows 365, and even Xbox Cloud Gaming.

When we think about Meta, we think about two big things gaming with their Oculus headset and social media with Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. Mark mentioned they feel good about how they will bring a social element to virtual reality. One thing that he said that was missing is that social element within the workplace environment. As a lot of companies are still remote or have adopted a hybrid model since the pandemic, work culture and that social element has either declined or gone away. Their partnership with Microsoft will be key to address this challenge companies face.

For Microsoft’s end Satya pointed out the partnership is part of their goal for “workplace productivity and collaboration is to ensure the software experiences we deliver can benefit users on all their favorite devices.” This partnership highlights the goals for workplace productivity within the metaverse and virtual reality. Another thing to point out is that this sets some sort of industry standard with two of the biggest players in the Metaverse market. If you read our blog post on what is the metaverse different industry standards is something they are afraid of.

The Meta Quest Pro will bring Mesh for Microsoft Teams, Microsoft 365 apps, Windows 365, and they are also going to explore bringing Xbox Cloud Gaming to Meta Quest Store. In short almost everything that you use daily whether Teams, Word, or windows will be available to use in VR. One of the coolest parts of this collaboration is users will essentially have windows desktop within VR. The definition of working from anywhere will take a whole new meaning. You can bring your entire workstation to the coffee shop, library, or doctors office.