[2] The Reality Labs unit is the result of the merger of several initiatives under Meta Platforms and the incorporation of several acquired companies.

[3][4] As a head-mounted display (HMD) designer at the University of Southern California Institute for Creative Technologies, Palmer Luckey earned a reputation for having the largest personal collection of HMDs in the world and was a longtime moderator in Meant to be Seen (MTBS)'s discussion forums.

[5] Palmer created a series of new technologies that resulted in a VR headset that was both higher performance than what was currently on the market and was also inexpensive for gamers.

To develop the new product, Luckey founded Oculus VR with Scaleform co-founders Brendan Iribe and Michael Antonov,[6] Nate Mitchell and Andrew Scott Reisse.

[21] Many Kickstarter backers and game industry figures, such as Minecraft developer Markus Persson, criticized the sale of Oculus to Facebook.

[32] The lease was executed in late 2018, and the site, owned by Kylli, a subsidiary of Genzon Investment Group, is expected to be complete by 2020.

[38] On November 13, 2019, John Carmack wrote in a Facebook post that he would step down as CTO of Oculus to focus on developing artificial general intelligence.

Ars Technica noted that there is no clear way to opt-out of information tracking and that the collected data will likely be used for targeted advertising.

[43] In September 2020, Facebook temporarily suspended sales of all Oculus products[52] in Germany; a German watchdog had presented concerns that this integration requirement violates the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which prohibits making use of a service contingent on consenting to the collection of personally identifiable information, and the requirement that existing users also link to a Facebook account to use Oculus hardware and services.

He also stated that "as we've heard feedback from the VR community more broadly, we're working on new ways to log into Quest that won't require a Facebook account, landing sometime next year.

[64][65] In January 2022, the Oculus social media accounts were renamed "Meta Quest" in reference to its current VR product line.

[35] It supports games and applications downloaded via Oculus Store, with ported launch titles such as Beat Saber and Robo Recall.

Due to this design, it has more limited inter-pupillary distance options than the original Quest, with the ability to physically move the lenses to adjust for 3 common measurements.

[83][84] In October 2022, Meta unveiled Quest Pro, a mixed reality headset aimed primarily at enterprise and prosumer markets.

The headset uses quantum dot displays, with thinner optics using pancake lenses for a more visor-like form factor, and has upgraded color passthrough cameras designed to facilitate mixed reality applications.

It features design and hardware features from the Quest Pro, including pancake lenses for a slimmer build, upgraded hardware (including the Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 system-on-chip) and higher resolution displays, color passthrough cameras for mixed reality, as well as a depth sensor, and updated controllers inspired by the design of the Quest Pro (albeit still using inside-out tracking via infrared sensors, as with its predecessors).

[91] On April 22, 2024, Meta announced that its Android-based system software would be branded as "Horizon OS", and that it would license the platform to third-parties.

Meta announced initial hardware partners such as Asus and Lenovo, as well as a partnership with Microsoft for a "limited edition" Xbox-branded Quest bundled with Xbox Wireless Controllers and Game Pass.

[29][101][102] While official sales numbers have not been released, according to IDC the Oculus Go and Xiaomi Mi VR had sold nearly a quarter million units combined during the third quarter 2018,[103] and in January 2019 market analysis firm SuperData estimated that over a million Oculus Go units had been sold since the device's launch.

[104] In his keynote at 2018's Oculus Connect developer conference, John Carmack revealed that the Go's retention rate was as high as the Rift's, something that nobody at the company had predicted.

Initially the division was more broadly focused on funding, publishing and giving technical advice to third & second party studios to create games and experiences for Oculus Rift.

As focus moved away from the Rift and towards the very successful Meta Quest 2, the priority shifted to acquiring developers as first-party studios, so they could make exclusive games inhouse instead.

Ready at Dawn, a game studio composed of former members of Naughty Dog and Blizzard Entertainment (and had also developed the Oculus Rift exclusive Lone Echo) were acquired in June 2020.

[117] In 2021, Meta began a deliberate effort of buying up studios that had made strong sales on their Quest 2 platform.

In April 2021, Downpour Interactive, the developer of the virtual reality FPS multiplayer game, Onward, were purchased.

The developer had been a successful second-party studio for Meta since 2017, and had produced the VR games Wilson's Heart, B-Team, Defector, and Path of the Warrior, all exclusively for Oculus platforms.

[122] In July 2022, the FTC attempted to sue Meta, as it was felt with the purchase of the studios behind both Beat Saber and Supernatural, they would unfairly corner the VR fitness market.

Camouflaj were best known for making Republique, and the PSVR exclusive Iron Man VR for Sony - this deal would see them port the latter game to the Quest 2 platform.

[126] In 2023, Meta announced the formation of a new division called Oculus Publishing aimed at third-party content funding, development support, and marketing.

[135] In May 2022, Immersion Corporation sued Meta Platforms for patent infringement relating to the use of vibration functions in their gaming controllers.