Meta Quest is a mess of a rebrand we don't want or need

Oculus Quest 2 headset and controller
(Image credit: Boumen Japet / Shutterstock)

Oculus means an eye-like opening and when applied to the world of VR as it was when Palmer Lucky launched Oculus VR in 2012 and later with Oculus Rift and Quest VR headsets, it implies a view into another world. But now that eye has squeezed shut, blinked in confusion, and reopened as Meta Quest: a Frankenstein word salad that means less than the sum of its parts.

Meta, formerly Facebook, announced the changes late last year, soon after renaming the entire Facebook conglomerate to steer into the heady fumes of a still unrealized Metaverse. Everything Mark Zuckerberg's creation would do from that point forward would be in service to building out this virtual world and experience.

It started with Oculus

At the forefront is Meta's sizeable investment in Oculus, which it bought for $2 billion in 2014. Since then, it's done an admirable job of funding the research and development and growing the brand with new, more affordable, and consumer-friendly virtual reality headsets including the Oculus Quest, the Oculus Quest 2, the upcoming Oculus Quest 3, and the bleeding edge Project Cambria.

These headsets are the doorway to what is still a vastly underdeveloped Metaverse. There's Facebook's Horizon Worlds and, that's pretty much it. Despite the disappointment of the current Metaverse experience, Oculus' role as the standard-bearer for what the Metaverse might were bound to its branding: it's about seeing, and seeing is believing in the Metaverse.

The new name, which is now starting to appear on social media and, it seems, inside the Metaverse (Horizon Worlds), force-feeds Facebook's new Meta brand, making "Quest" its unwilling partner. To be fair, the former Oculus Team, now Reality Labs, is 100% on board with the rebranding.

The reality

As Reality Labs VP of AR/VR Andrew Bosworth explained in an October 2021 Facebook post:

"When people buy our products, we want them to clearly understand that all of these devices come from Meta and ladder up to our metaverse vision. That’s why we’re evolving our brand across our current lines of hardware in-market, as well as for all future products, in order to bring more consistency across the portfolio and more transparency to consumers."

He said they wanted to make it clear that Quest is a Meta product and that meant "shifting away from the Oculus brand for our hardware."

Well, maybe, they weren't 100% into the idea, Bosworth also wrote this:

"We all have a strong attachment to the Oculus brand, and this was a very difficult decision to make. While we’re changing the brand of the hardware, Oculus will continue to be a core part of our DNA and will live on in things like software and developer tools."

But DNA is not branding and, soon, all remnants of "Oculus" will disappear.

In the meantime, the change is proceeding along a bumpy path to completion. The initial changes have been met with derision.

When Meta Quest - blech - highlighted the name change in a tweet, the replies were almost universally negative. People called it an "awful, awful decision," and pointed out that "Oculus sounds way better and perfectly describes how your interact with the virtual environment."

To its credit, Meta and Meta Oculus jumped in to remind people that the name better reflects the company's mission.

But does it? The mission is to show people a new world and maybe a new way of living. Oculus reminds people that this is something they need to see. Meta Quest sounds like a journey you probably won't take, or you'll think about taking and maybe draw a picture of yourself using a Meta Quest headset, without ever actually doing it. So Meta.

Oculus founder Palmer Lucky, who is no longer with Meta, took note of the blowback, retweeting the Meta Oculus Tweet with a single word, "Ratio." He was highlighting how the likes and retweets of the news were rather low, but the comments were quite high, a typical indication that no one is happy. They call it "getting ratioed."

Better names

If they had asked us, we would've suggested:

  • Oculus, a Meta company (which is really a great way to describe a VR firm)
  • Oculus Quest by Meta
  • Oculus
  • Oculus Quest, the Metaverse company list
  • Anything else

Slapping "Meta" everywhere might help the company streamline its operations, but it's leaving consumers confused and a little over "Meta" and the "Metaverse" before it really gets started. 

Why leave potential Metaversians with a bad taste in their mouth simply because you're worried about branding? Meta Quest is a bad name. It'll never be a good one in this world or the Metaverse.

TOPICS
Lance Ulanoff
Editor At Large

A 38-year industry veteran and award-winning journalist, Lance has covered technology since PCs were the size of suitcases and “on line” meant “waiting.” He’s a former Lifewire Editor-in-Chief, Mashable Editor-in-Chief, and, before that, Editor in Chief of PCMag.com and Senior Vice President of Content for Ziff Davis, Inc. He also wrote a popular, weekly tech column for Medium called The Upgrade.

Lance Ulanoff makes frequent appearances on national, international, and local news programs including Live with Kelly and Mark, the Today Show, Good Morning America, CNBC, CNN, and the BBC. 

Read more
Hamish hector drawing a bow in VR while wearing the Meta Quest 3S.
Meta's Horizon app was the no. 1 iPhone app on Christmas Day – and I'm not surprised. Here's why
The Meta Quest 3 on a notebook surrounded by pens and school supplies on a desk
Leaked Meta memo teases 'half a dozen' new AI wearables, a mixed-reality push, and the return of the metaverse
Does anyone care about VR anymore? It still doesn't have that "killer" app
The Meta Quest Pro on a desk on its charging station with its controllers on charge too
Meta Quest Pro 2: the latest news and what we know about the rumored VR headset
Best VR headsets
The best VR headsets in 2025: top virtual reality headsets from Meta, Valve and more
The Meta Quest Pro on its charging pad on a desk, in front of a window with the curtain closed
Meta Quest Pro 2 could be back from the dead (yet again), and Quest 4 is reportedly in the works
Latest in Virtual Reality Gaming
A Dragonborn warrior, Tiefling rogue and Halfling mage preparing for battle next to a sign saying "Demeo x Dungeons & Dragons: Battlemarked"
First Dungeons & Dragons VR trailer teases a beginner-friendly tabletop game – but I’m just begging for a custom game mode
Meta Quest 3S with Batman: Arkham Shadow banner behind it and red background with black TechRadar lowest price sign
Save $50 on the Meta Quest 3S with a free copy of Batman: Arkham Shadow
Aliens crawl out of the dark to attack Zula
Alien: Rogue Incursion review: superb survival horror with monsters I wish were more terrifying
Hamish Hector next to Ryan Rayton and a shadowy Batman
Exclusive: the head of Batman: Arkham Shadow answers our 5 biggest questions about a sequel, DLC, and that twist ending
Metro Awakening screenshot
Metro Awakening review: a survival horror adventure that'll land with the right audience, but that's not me
Batman using his grapnel gun
Batman: Arkham Shadow review: an almost flawless VR experience
Latest in News
Google Pixel 8a in aloe green showing
Google Pixel 9a benchmark link teases the performance of the upcoming mid-ranger
Quordle on a smartphone held in a hand
Quordle hints and answers for Monday, March 17 (game #1148)
NYT Strands homescreen on a mobile phone screen, on a light blue background
NYT Strands hints and answers for Monday, March 17 (game #379)
NYT Connections homescreen on a phone, on a purple background
NYT Connections hints and answers for Monday, March 17 (game #645)
Apple iPhone 16 Pro HANDS ON
Leaked iPhone 17 dummy units may have given us our best look yet at all four models
A super close up image of the Google Gemini app in the Play Store
It's official: Google Assistant will be retired for phones this year, with Gemini taking over