On November 11th, Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily (Reporter Zhang Yangyang): There have been new developments regarding Tencent's agency for Meta VR devices.
On the noon of the 10th, media reports reported that Meta had reached a preliminary agreement with Tencent, which will start selling Meta's affordable VR head display devices as an agent by the end of 2024. Among them, Meta will account for the majority of device sales revenue, while Tencent's revenue will come more from content and services.
The Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily has sought confirmation from Tencent regarding this matter, and as of press release, there has been no response from the other party. Meta has not responded to this matter either.
The VR headsets currently on sale by Mete include Quest 3 in 2023, Quest Pro in 2022, and Quest 2 in 2020. The reporter learned from industry chain insiders that Meta is indeed expected to launch a new VR device in the first half of 2024. But according to convention, Meta usually releases VR new products at the Connect conference at the end of September each year.
The above person also stated that Meta's VR new product may be named Meta Quest 3 Lite, and the basic model is expected to sell for $199, equivalent to no more than 1500 yuan in Chinese yuan. To clarify the level division, the built-in chips of this new product may have some performance downgrades.
Since the beginning of this year, there have been multiple sources indicating that Tencent and Meta are negotiating to introduce Quest. However, Tencent's own XR business has been in a state of uncertainty.
In February of this year, Tencent disbanded the majority of XR's business, and the official response stated that the previous plan to directly acquire the hardware ecosystem from building XR would change the path.
After six months of closure, Tencent fought XR again.
In October, Tencent released an internal email stating that the IEG Interactive Entertainment Business Group had established a new "XR Device and Content Business Department" in September, mainly responsible for the research and development, sales, market promotion, and content ecosystem construction of Tencent's own brand XR devices. The first person in charge of this department is Qian Geng, Assistant General Manager of the XR Equipment and Content Business Department of the IEG Interactive Entertainment Business Group XR Business Line. He is fully responsible for relevant business and team management and reports to Tencent Senior Vice President Ma Xiaoyi.
The industry believes that Tencent had already disbanded its self-developed XR team, but due to the impact of the release of Apple Vision Pro, it reorganized the XR team and planned to act as an agent for Meta's VR head display Quest, in a similar way to Tencent and Nintendo Switch.
But looking at the entire XR industry, it has not been peaceful in recent days.
On November 7th, industry leader PICO officially announced a reduction in short-term investment and related team size, with over 300 employees being laid off, accounting for approximately 23% of the total. With the retreat of PICO, the already negative sentiment in the XR industry has once again hit a bottom.
Regarding the collaboration between Tencent and Meta, an insider told the Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily that Meta has always been willing to enter the Chinese market with Quest and has also had cooperation negotiations with multiple Chinese technology companies. "The cooperation with Tencent is not that simple," which is not only about business exchanges between the two companies, but also involves content regulation, data security, and the current state of Sino US relations, These are all factors that need to be considered.