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VR games and a royal visitor: inside Meta's new London HQ

Evening Standard

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April 12, 2022

The tech empire’s new King’s Cross hub has been officially opened by Charles and Camilla. Katie Strick took the tour

VR games and a royal visitor: inside Meta's new London HQ

AT META’S new 11-floor tech palace in King’s Cross, the Prince of Wales is trying out a VR headset while his wife, the Duchess of Cornwall, stares at me through a pair of Ray-Bans, which would be surreal enough without the fact that they’re connected video-capturing Ray-Bans, called Ray-Ban Stories, which means she’s filming me too.

“The only problem is it makes me feel totally dizzy, like I’m about to be sick,” our future king tells Frankie, Meta’s demonstrator, who is in charge of showing us the new VR headset, the Meta Quest 2.

Later, I try the headset myself and am transported to Machu Picchu. The prince is right, the technology is dizzying: ledges so realistic I steady myself for fear of falling; birds so lifelike I duck out of the way; views so stunning I can barely believe I’m in a room full of people waiting their turn to try the headset themselves.

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