Mark Zuckerberg will make his impassioned pleas that the metaverse is a real thing and a valid Next Big Business for Meta (neé The Facebook) on Tuesday. The annual Meta Connect developer conference kicks off with a keynote starting at 10 AM PDT / 1 PM EDT, which is followed immediately by a more technical “Developer State of the Union,” which starts at 11:35 AM PDT / 2:35 PM PDT. Later on, John Carmack is giving a chat at 2:30 PM EDT / 5:30 PM PDT which should be good because he doesn’t stick to talking points and tends to be critical of Meta’s approach when he feels it’s merited.
To watch the event live, you can tune in on Meta’s own Reality Labs events page, which will be streaming starting just before the keynote kicks off. If you happen to have a Quest headset and are more committed to in-‘Verse experiences than apparently a lot of the people working on metaverse stuff inside Meta itself seem to be, you can also join a live virtual stream of the event in Horizon Worlds in the virtual Meta Square that apparently exists there.
There’s definitely a lot riding on this Meta Connect presentation, given the recent reports of turmoil within the company around its metaversal pivot, and investor attention on this big bet in light of worries around growth and engagement for Meta’s actual revenue-makers, Facebook and Instagram. I’m also betting we get a look at a much fancier virtual France and Spain, given Zuck’s obvious frustration with the meme-fodder from earlier this year.
We also know we’ll get a look at Meta’s new pro-level VR headset hardware, which the Facebook founder confirmed would get a debut at this event. And of course, expect us to have all the news on TC as it happens, so stay tuned for plenty more.
