Back in April of last year, Meta hinted at something exciting on the horizon: they were getting ready to roll out Horizon OS, a brand-new operating system exclusively for Quest, to other headset makers. Our ears perked up at the mention of ASUS, Lenovo, and Xbox potentially jumping on board, but Meta’s kept their cards pretty close to their chest since then. Fast forward to now, and it looks like ASUS might be the first to take the plunge, if a new scoop from the well-known leaker ‘Luna’ holds any water.
Luna’s reputation precedes them, with a knack for spilling the beans on upcoming VR tech. Remember when they dropped the name Quest 3S before anyone else did, or when they revealed that cool Action Button feature for the headset? Yup, that was Luna. Plus, they even managed to lay their hands on details, like that room-scanning setup video for the Quest 3 before it hit the market in 2023. They’ve got quite the track record for unveiling Quest software features before they officially break cover, such as the time Meta was tinkering with ways to pin apps to the Universal Menu dock.
Now, Luna is back with another intriguing tidbit, allegedly sourced from a mystery insider. This time, they’re saying the Republic of Gamers headset from Asus “will likely be one of the first [third-party] Horizon OS HMDs to ship.”
Apparently bearing the code name ‘Tarius,’ this headset is shaping up to be pretty impressive. According to Luna, it’s packing both eye-tracking and face-tracking capabilities, which means it could compete with the high-end features of Quest Pro. The display tech doesn’t sound too shabby either—they’re either going for fancy quantum dot LCD with local dimming or micro-OLED displays.
If what Luna’s hearing is accurate, it seems Asus isn’t just slapping some RGB lighting on a Quest 3S copy and calling it a day. Instead, they’re aiming to create something that truly stands apart from Quest’s current lineup, which includes the $500 Quest 3 with 512GB of storage and the $300 Quest 3S featuring 128GB.
Of course, it’s wise to keep your skeptical hat on with these leaks, but there’s no denying Meta seems eager to make a splash soon. This is particularly true with Google stepping onto the XR scene with Android XR, set to launch with Samsung’s mysterious new XR headset, Project Moohan, which is slated for consumer release sometime this year. Keep your eyes peeled; it’s shaping up to be an exciting time in the world of VR!
