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End of an Era: Oculus Accounts Transition to Meta
Anyone still using a legacy Oculus account will need to migrate it to a Meta account by the end of the month. If they don’t, they’ll lose all their purchased apps, games, and DLCs as well as friends, achievements, and other account data on March 29.
The Shift from Oculus to Meta: A Timeline
Meta (then Facebook) first announced the end of Oculus accounts almost four years ago in July 2020, a month before launching Quest 2. Instead, new headsets would need to be set up with an active Facebook social media account and existing Oculus account users would have until 2023 to merge a Facebook account, the company said.
Tying the use of a hardware device to the standing of a social media profile was a widely unpopular decision, and left some users with a paperweight. Responding to this, Meta dropped the Facebook account requirement two years later in August 2022 when the company introduced Meta accounts. Meta accounts are much like traditional Oculus accounts in that they just require an email and password, not a social media profile.
How to Migrate Your Account
If you still have a legacy Oculus account and haven’t yet migrated it to a Meta account, you can do so with a few clicks on this webpage.Meta will delete your Oculus account on March 29, 2024, if you’re still using the old Quest login method. If you’re a longtime Quest 2 owner, you might have a big library of VR games at risk.
Resistance and Change
This shouldn’t come as a surprise. Meta started moving people away from Oculus to a Facebook account as far back as 2020. That move was met with resistance and Meta removed the requirement for Quest users to sign in with Facebook, allowing the use of a Meta account instead.
If you recently created a new account to play mixed reality games on your Meta Quest 3, you don’t have to do anything. This only affects older accounts created for the Oculus Rift, original Quest, and Quest 2.
Email Warnings and User Reaction
Despite the early warning, some people were suspicious of a recent email reminder and warning from Meta about the need to update to a Meta account. Redditor tangentlyric posted the email they received, asking if it was a “fake email.”
It’s good to be wary of scams, but in this case, it’s real. You need to update your Quest login to use a Meta account or you’ll lose access to all the games, apps, and downloadable content you’ve purchased, as well as your friends list and other Oculus account data.
What Lies Ahead for Oculus Users
Meta announced it’s finally closing the door on Oculus accounts by the end of the month, which means all users with old Oculus IDs will either need to migrate to a Meta account or lose access to purchased content, achievements, friends list, and more.
This closes a chapter to one of the platform’s biggest controversies. Even after being acquired by Facebook in 2014, early adopters were offered the ability to make Oculus accounts tied to email addresses, which notably didn’t attach any sort of user-identifying data.
With Oculus accounts gone, the company has few ties left to its legacy as a VR startup; its co-founders Palmer Luckey, Brendan Iribe, Michael Antonov and Nate Mitchell have all since left Meta/Facebook, along with Oculus CTO John Carmack, who departed the company in late 2022.
Still present however is Reality Labs Chief Scientist Michael Abrash, who said famously at Oculus Connect 2 in 2015 that “you’ll remember with clarity what a remarkable and exciting time this was, and you’ll be right. You may not realize it yet, but believe me. These are the good old days.”
