Meta set to open first physical shop in US in metaverse push

Shoppers will be able to try out and buy virtual reality headsets and latest gadgets when outlet opens on May 9 in California

A visitor tries the 'metaverse service' at GSMA's 2022 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Reuters

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Meta Platforms is set to open its first physical shop where people can try out and buy virtual reality headsets and latest gadgets as the company plots a course to take its highly touted metaverse mainstream.

The 144-square-metre Meta Store at the company's Burlingame campus in California opens on May 9, and will feature demos for its Quest 2 VR headset and video calling device Portal, as well as Ray-Ban's augmented reality glasses, Meta said on Monday.

The devices, except for the Ray-Ban glasses, will be available for purchase at the shop. Products can also be bought online, naturally, through a new shopping tab on meta.com, the company said.

Meta is investing heavily in metaverse — a virtual space where people interact, work and play — by adding new features to hardware devices that serve as access points to the virtual world.

The Facebook owner this month said it would start testing tools for selling digital assets and experiences within its virtual reality platform Horizon Worlds, a VR platform Meta launched late last year.

Meta said it would charge a 47.5 per cent fee from creators of digital experiences and assets, a move that has attracted criticism from some app developers.

Shoppers tracking the space are awaiting the next version of the Quest 2 VR headset, likely to be released in the second quarter and regarded widely by analysts as critical to the company's metaverse plans.