Meta Platforms Inc. (META) offic✨ially released details about its Quest 3 headset at the beginning of its two-day developer conference on Wednesday, the latest step in the company's virtual and augmented reality play.

In a keynote speech to kick off the developer event, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced what he called the first “mainstream reality headset.” The headset allows users to play games, do interactive fitness routines, and view other "immersive" entertainment.

The product is set to ship on Oct. 10 and will retail at $500 for the base model with 128 gigabytes of storage, while the 512 GB model will cost $650. The mixed reality headset will go up against the higher-priced model from tech rival Apple (AAPL), which has 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:a price tag of $3,500.

"People say, ‘The digital world isn’t the real world,' but we really think the real world is a combination of the physical world we inhabit, and the digital world we’re building,” Zuckerberg said.

Earlier in the summer, second-quarter financial reports showed that Meta's virtual and augmented reality unit had a $3.7 billion operating loss on $276 million in sales.

Meta released a four-year roadmap for its virtual reality and augmented reality hardware earlier this year. The new Quest headset will be followed in 2025 by a set of smart glasses and a smartwatch which will further pit Apple and Meta against each other for virtual world hardware dominance.

Reports this week said Meta is set to release its own brand of chatbots, each with their own personality, in a bid to attract a younger audience to 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:generative AI tools. The Wall Street Journal was given access to internal Meta documents which highlighted the initial release of "Bob the Robot," which was said to be based on a character from the Futurama cartoon series.