VR enthusiasts can finally cut the Facebook cord next month

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Meta (Facebook) buying Oculus and requiring a Facebook account to use the device is a big reason why I bought an HTC Vive over any Oculus device. I have a Facebook account, but it doesn’t see a whole lot of use.

It isn’t so much that I’m wildly concerned about my data – I basically live and work on the web. My data is out there. But I like the polite fiction that a website or company isn’t going to shell that data out to anyone willing to pay.

I mean, they absolutely will. That’s how it works, mostly. But the fiction is comforting. It’s kind of like how people refuse to use Facebook but are happy to use Instagram. 

So it’s a device hungry eye that caught the announcement that Meta will begin rolling out Meta accounts in August. The new accounts are mandatory; if Quest owners have been using a Facebook account, or a Facebook/Oculus merged account they’ll need to make a Meta account right away. Users who have been using an Oculus account will be able to keep using it until January 2023.

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Users who migrate accounts should continue to have access to all their history and purchases, which is kind of a big deal. Previously, deleting your Facebook account lost you all your Oculus purchases.

The change is happening, at least in part, because of a promise from then Oculus boss Palmer Luckey. When Facebook originally purchased Oculus for $2 billion