Meta announced today that it will be opening its first retail store at its Burlingame, California campus in early May.

This will be Meta's first hardware retail store and it will open starting on May 9 from 11 am to 6 pm, Monday through Friday. The idea of the store is to allow users to get hands-on experience with its products, similar to how Apple's retail stores allow customers to interact and demo various products in the tech giant's ecosystem before buying.

The new retail store will feature a dedicated space to test the Meta Quest 2. This includes trying games such as Beat Saber, Real VR Fishing, and GOLF+, and an option to take home a mixed reality recording of you trying out the virtual reality headset.

Meta's retail store will also include a demo area for customers to test video calling videos on the Portal videophones and an opportunity to demo the Ray-Ban Stories, a pair of smart glasses released by Meta last year in collaboration with the luxury sunglasses company Ray-Ban.

This is not the first time Meta provided a chance for potential buyers to try its VR headset. Back in 2016, Meta teamed up with retail chain Best Buy to provide VR demo stations.

While the retail store sounds spacious, Meta notes that the storefront is only 1,550 square feet. This is unsurprising given that the location is near the Meta Reality Labs headquarters and not located in a major metropolitan city such as NYC or Los Angeles.

News of Meta opening its first hardware retail store come as the company is preparing to develop new products in the VR and AR market. Current projects in the works include Project Cambria, a high-end headset that focuses on face and eye-tracking.

Taylor is the Associate Tech Editor at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.

Meta announced today that it will be opening its first retail store at its Burlingame, California campus in early May.

This will be Meta's first hardware retail store and it will open starting on May 9 from 11 am to 6 pm, Monday through Friday. The idea of the store is to allow users to get hands-on experience with its products, similar to how Apple's retail stores allow customers to interact and demo various products in the tech giant's ecosystem before buying.

The new retail store will feature a dedicated space to test the Meta Quest 2. This includes trying games such as Beat Saber, Real VR Fishing, and GOLF+, and an option to take home a mixed reality recording of you trying out the virtual reality headset.

Meta's retail store will also include a demo area for customers to test video calling videos on the Portal videophones and an opportunity to demo the Ray-Ban Stories, a pair of smart glasses released by Meta last year in collaboration with the luxury sunglasses company Ray-Ban.

This is not the first time Meta provided a chance for potential buyers to try its VR headset. Back in 2016, Meta teamed up with retail chain Best Buy to provide VR demo stations.

While the retail store sounds spacious, Meta notes that the storefront is only 1,550 square feet. This is unsurprising given that the location is near the Meta Reality Labs headquarters and not located in a major metropolitan city such as NYC or Los Angeles.

News of Meta opening its first hardware retail store come as the company is preparing to develop new products in the VR and AR market. Current projects in the works include Project Cambria, a high-end headset that focuses on face and eye-tracking.

Taylor is the Associate Tech Editor at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.

Star Wars fans have been wanting a closer look at Disney Plus’s upcoming Obi-Wan Kenobi series ever since the trailer dropped. Thanks to the folks over at Total Film, we have three new images to pine over while we wait for the next tease.

Many have wondered exactly what Obi-Wan Kenobi was up to after he dropped a very young Luke Skywalker off on Tatooine, and the series aims to do just that. It follows Obi-Wan ten years after the end of Revenge of the Sith. These new photos give us a glimpse at Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan in both Tatooine and on the neon-lit planet of Daiyu.

New stills for ‘Obi-Wan Kenobi’ has been released.

(Via: @totalfilm) pic.twitter.com/KBN5SbN1cT

— Mr. Scoop (@mrscoop_) April 25, 2022

We’ve heard from Hayden Christensen on the “surreal” experience of returning as Darth Vader. Darth Vader won’t be the only villain in the series Obi-Wan deals with, though. The final photo highlights the foreboding and sinister Grand Inquisitor, played by Rupert Friend. The Inquisitor is known to fans of the animated series Star Wars Rebels, but he’s far from the first animated Star Wars character to make the jump to live-action.

Inquisitors are Jedi-hunting assassins who work for Darth Vader. For a full rundown on these deadly villains, be sure to check out our Sith Inquisitors guide for the low down on who they are and how they fit into the Obi-Wan Kenobi series.

The first two episodes of Obi-Wan Kenobi premieres Friday, May 27 on Disney Plus.

Casey David Muir-Taylor is a freelance writer at IGN.

Star Wars fans have been wanting a closer look at Disney Plus’s upcoming Obi-Wan Kenobi series ever since the trailer dropped. Thanks to the folks over at Total Film, we have three new images to pine over while we wait for the next tease.

Many have wondered exactly what Obi-Wan Kenobi was up to after he dropped a very young Luke Skywalker off on Tatooine, and the series aims to do just that. It follows Obi-Wan ten years after the end of Revenge of the Sith. These new photos give us a glimpse at Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan in both Tatooine and on the neon-lit planet of Daiyu.

New stills for ‘Obi-Wan Kenobi’ has been released.

(Via: @totalfilm) pic.twitter.com/KBN5SbN1cT

— Mr. Scoop (@mrscoop_) April 25, 2022

We’ve heard from Hayden Christensen on the “surreal” experience of returning as Darth Vader. Darth Vader won’t be the only villain in the series Obi-Wan deals with, though. The final photo highlights the foreboding and sinister Grand Inquisitor, played by Rupert Friend. The Inquisitor is known to fans of the animated series Star Wars Rebels, but he’s far from the first animated Star Wars character to make the jump to live-action.

Inquisitors are Jedi-hunting assassins who work for Darth Vader. For a full rundown on these deadly villains, be sure to check out our Sith Inquisitors guide for the low down on who they are and how they fit into the Obi-Wan Kenobi series.

The first two episodes of Obi-Wan Kenobi premieres Friday, May 27 on Disney Plus.

Casey David Muir-Taylor is a freelance writer at IGN.

Microsoft's Xbox Series hardware was the best selling platform of the first quarter (Q1) of 2022 per dollars made. The NPD Group's latest analysis revealed that the combined front of Xbox Series X and S topped not only March's sales figures but the entirety of Q1, despite the PlayStation 5 leading the way early on in the year.

While the Xbox Series made the most money, Nintendo's Switch took first place in terms of units sold both for March and Q1.

It also marked the most successful March for Microsoft in over a decade, as its previous best for units sold was set in 2011 when the Xbox 360 was still the latest available console. Its record March in terms of dollars made came in 2014 after the Xbox One was released.

Hardware sales across all platforms dropped 24% compared to Q1 2021, accessories fell 16%, and games 7%, amassing to an overall decline in games industry spending (incorporating hardware, accessories, and games) of 8%.

Elden Ring remained on top of software sales in March, growing by a double-digit percentage compared to its launch month of February. It's still the best-selling game of the year and is now the second-best selling game of the last 12 months, falling only to Call of Duty: Vanguard.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer who occasionally remembers to tweet @thelastdinsdale. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.

Microsoft's Xbox Series hardware was the best selling platform of the first quarter (Q1) of 2022 per dollars made. The NPD Group's latest analysis revealed that the combined front of Xbox Series X and S topped not only March's sales figures but the entirety of Q1, despite the PlayStation 5 leading the way early on in the year.

While the Xbox Series made the most money, Nintendo's Switch took first place in terms of units sold both for March and Q1.

It also marked the most successful March for Microsoft in over a decade, as its previous best for units sold was set in 2011 when the Xbox 360 was still the latest available console. Its record March in terms of dollars made came in 2014 after the Xbox One was released.

Hardware sales across all platforms dropped 24% compared to Q1 2021, accessories fell 16%, and games 7%, amassing to an overall decline in games industry spending (incorporating hardware, accessories, and games) of 8%.

Elden Ring remained on top of software sales in March, growing by a double-digit percentage compared to its launch month of February. It's still the best-selling game of the year and is now the second-best selling game of the last 12 months, falling only to Call of Duty: Vanguard.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer who occasionally remembers to tweet @thelastdinsdale. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.

Activision has very high expectations for Call of Duty: Warzone 2.

The publisher said in its first quarter financial results that the sequel to its 2020 Battle Royale will feature "groundbreaking innovations" that will be revealed later this year.

"Development on this year’s premium and Warzone experiences, led by Infinity Ward, is proceeding very
well," Activision said. "The new free-to-play Warzone experience, which is built from the ground-up alongside the premium game, features groundbreaking innovations to be revealed later this year."

The report didn't indicate a release date for Warzone 2 but at least said that fans will hear more about it relatively soon.

Activision announced the sequel in February, saying it would be built in a new engine and feature an "all-new playspace and a new sandbox mode".

Developer Infinity Ward's co-studio head Pat Kelly admitted that it "f**ked stuff up" in the original Warzone as the team is "not happy" and "determined to fix the issues with the game". Fans had criticized its overall stability and lack of content, especially given the install sizes that Infinity Ward itself admitted were "f**king crazy".

Warzone was refreshed with its Season Two Reloaded update, and Infinity Ward certainly tries to keep things interesting with its various events. These include the additions of Godzilla and King Kong plus colossi from both the anime and rap worlds with Attack on Titan and Snoop Dogg DLC.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer who occasionally remembers to tweet @thelastdinsdale. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.

Activision has very high expectations for Call of Duty: Warzone 2.

The publisher said in its first quarter financial results that the sequel to its 2020 Battle Royale will feature "groundbreaking innovations" that will be revealed later this year.

"Development on this year’s premium and Warzone experiences, led by Infinity Ward, is proceeding very
well," Activision said. "The new free-to-play Warzone experience, which is built from the ground-up alongside the premium game, features groundbreaking innovations to be revealed later this year."

The report didn't indicate a release date for Warzone 2 but at least said that fans will hear more about it relatively soon.

Activision announced the sequel in February, saying it would be built in a new engine and feature an "all-new playspace and a new sandbox mode".

Developer Infinity Ward's co-studio head Pat Kelly admitted that it "f**ked stuff up" in the original Warzone as the team is "not happy" and "determined to fix the issues with the game". Fans had criticized its overall stability and lack of content, especially given the install sizes that Infinity Ward itself admitted were "f**king crazy".

Warzone was refreshed with its Season Two Reloaded update, and Infinity Ward certainly tries to keep things interesting with its various events. These include the additions of Godzilla and King Kong plus colossi from both the anime and rap worlds with Attack on Titan and Snoop Dogg DLC.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer who occasionally remembers to tweet @thelastdinsdale. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.

The Mummy reboot director Alex Kurtzman has described the 2017 Tom Cruise-led film as "probably the biggest failure" of his life, even though the process helped him as a filmmaker.

Kurtzman recently appeared as a guest on the Bingeworthy podcast where he reflected on the "brutal" experience of making The Mummy reboot. The film was intended to kickstart Universal's Dark Universe but it ended up being a critical and commercial disappointment. Despite being poorly received, Kurtzman says he learned a lot from its failings.

"I tend to subscribe to the point of view that you learn nothing from your successes, and you learn everything from your failures," Kurtzman said. "And that was probably the biggest failure of my life, both personally and professionally. There's about a million things I regret about it, but it also gave me so many gifts that are inexpressibly beautiful. I didn't become a director until I made that movie, and it wasn’t because it was well-directed — it was because it wasn't."

The Mummy reboot marked Kurtzman's second time sitting in the director's chair for a feature, following 2012's People Like Us, and he hasn't helmed another movie in the years since. However, he noted that the experience gave him more knowledge and insight into the filmmaking process and that he's much more likely to trust his instincts from now on.

"As brutal as it was, in many ways, and as many cooks in the kitchen as there were, I am very grateful for the opportunity to make those mistakes because it rebuilt me into a tougher person, and it also rebuilt me into a clearer filmmaker," he shared. "That has been a real gift, and I feel those gifts all the time because I'm very clear now when I have a feeling that doesn't feel right — I am not quiet about it anymore. I will literally not proceed when I feel that feeling."

Universal's first attempt at launching its own Monsterverse (dubbed "The Dark Universe") may not have gone according to plan, with The Mummy reboot failing to make a lasting impact at the box office, but the studio later found success with The Invisible Man starring Elizabeth Moss, which earned $98.3 million on a budget of only $7 million when it hit theaters in 2020.

Universal is now focused on building out its monster portfolio with even more high-profile titles, many of which are already in development. Amongst those projects, there is a monster movie centered around Dracula-adjacent character Renfield, a Ryan Gosling-led Wolfman film helmed by Derek Cianfrance, and Blumhouse's adaptation of The Thing's source novel.

While Kurtzman has stepped away from the monster genre, he hasn't shied away from tackling new iterations of past works. His latest small-screen endeavor, The Man Who Fell to Earth, premiered on Showtime on April 24. IGN awarded the first episode a 5 out of 10, saying the premiere was "divided between fish-out-of-water comedy and tech bro tropes."

Adele Ankers-Range is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow her on Twitter.

The Mummy reboot director Alex Kurtzman has described the 2017 Tom Cruise-led film as "probably the biggest failure" of his life, even though the process helped him as a filmmaker.

Kurtzman recently appeared as a guest on the Bingeworthy podcast where he reflected on the "brutal" experience of making The Mummy reboot. The film was intended to kickstart Universal's Dark Universe but it ended up being a critical and commercial disappointment. Despite being poorly received, Kurtzman says he learned a lot from its failings.

"I tend to subscribe to the point of view that you learn nothing from your successes, and you learn everything from your failures," Kurtzman said. "And that was probably the biggest failure of my life, both personally and professionally. There's about a million things I regret about it, but it also gave me so many gifts that are inexpressibly beautiful. I didn't become a director until I made that movie, and it wasn’t because it was well-directed — it was because it wasn't."

The Mummy reboot marked Kurtzman's second time sitting in the director's chair for a feature, following 2012's People Like Us, and he hasn't helmed another movie in the years since. However, he noted that the experience gave him more knowledge and insight into the filmmaking process and that he's much more likely to trust his instincts from now on.

"As brutal as it was, in many ways, and as many cooks in the kitchen as there were, I am very grateful for the opportunity to make those mistakes because it rebuilt me into a tougher person, and it also rebuilt me into a clearer filmmaker," he shared. "That has been a real gift, and I feel those gifts all the time because I'm very clear now when I have a feeling that doesn't feel right — I am not quiet about it anymore. I will literally not proceed when I feel that feeling."

Universal's first attempt at launching its own Monsterverse (dubbed "The Dark Universe") may not have gone according to plan, with The Mummy reboot failing to make a lasting impact at the box office, but the studio later found success with The Invisible Man starring Elizabeth Moss, which earned $98.3 million on a budget of only $7 million when it hit theaters in 2020.

Universal is now focused on building out its monster portfolio with even more high-profile titles, many of which are already in development. Amongst those projects, there is a monster movie centered around Dracula-adjacent character Renfield, a Ryan Gosling-led Wolfman film helmed by Derek Cianfrance, and Blumhouse's adaptation of The Thing's source novel.

While Kurtzman has stepped away from the monster genre, he hasn't shied away from tackling new iterations of past works. His latest small-screen endeavor, The Man Who Fell to Earth, premiered on Showtime on April 24. IGN awarded the first episode a 5 out of 10, saying the premiere was "divided between fish-out-of-water comedy and tech bro tropes."

Adele Ankers-Range is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow her on Twitter.