Call it a summer surprise. Meta suddenly raised the entry price for his two-year-old Quest 2 VR headset, jump from $299 to $400 starting on August 1. A product that becomes more expensive two years after release does not normally occur. But these aren’t exactly normal times, and the Quest 2 was never a normal headset.
While Meta’s reasoning is that the price increase will increase its investment in VR and the metaverse, the Quest 2 headset has always been artificially priced lower than such a device should have cost. It’s a shame, but it’s not the end of the price hikes for VR technology just yet. Based on what we know about the next wave of the most anticipated VR headsets, it’s going to be a lot more expensive soon.
I’m not trying to stress you or anything, but these next devices will hardly be impulse buys.
Read more: Best VR headsets of 2022
Meta’s pro-level headset coming later this year will be even more expensive.
meta
Meta’s next headset, the expected “Quest Pro” also called Project Cambria, should come this fall. It will have eye tracking, better quality displays and mixed reality capabilities that will blend the real world with VR using color passthrough cameras. It is also expected to cost more than $800.
Apple’s highly anticipated VR headset, now projected for release in 2023, could rise to $3,000, according to reports. Apple monitor cleaning cloths are expensive. His headphones are expensive. There’s no way a VR headset, especially if it’s standalone, features next-level Apple processors, and is capable of retina-level resolution with eye-tracking and high-end audio, won’t do much. cost.
PlayStation VR 2: It can also be expensive.
Play station
The “most affordable” of the three is arguably the Playstation VR 2, a headset expected at the end of this year. However, signs point to premium prices. The PSVR 2 isn’t a standalone device, but its high-resolution OLED screens, spatial audio, rumbling haptics-compatible headset, eye-tracking and custom advanced haptics-compatible controllers sound extremely refined. PC VR headsets like this one cost at least $600. The original PSVR cost $400. You also have a $500 one. required Playstation 5 to use it, if you can find one to buy.
“I wouldn’t call it a wave, but I do believe that the Quest 2 will remain the most complete VR solution in that price segment,” said Anshel Sag, VR/AR analyst at Moor Insights and Strategy. “All signs point to Cambria and other headsets being significantly more expensive.”
At the same time, Sag says he sees a return from VR to consumer headsets rather than business-oriented models. “I think the PSVR will help with that, even if the Quest 2 goes up in price.”
There was a time when VR cost $100, or was nearly free. Small plastic glasses for phones, or cardboard foldout displays, were making capable small stationary VR devices in the mid-2010s. Those days are long gone. Meta’s Quest 2 has been the new stand-in and as a $300 all-in system it was an extremely attractive proposition.
Even with Meta’s many questionable data policies and behavior, and the $100 price hike, and Meta’s financial problemsThe crazy thing is that the Quest 2 is still by far the best and most affordable VR headset. And that probably won’t change: TikTok parent company ByteDance and its VR hardware company, Pico, could be releasing a competitor’s Quest 2 headset soon — but the software library won’t be able to catch up with Meta anytime soon. HTCs Vive Hardwarewhile promising, is still business-oriented, while the experimental telephone connection Flow headset doesn’t have many apps. Qualcomm continues to promise a wave of phone connections VR/AR headsets that could cut costs by using phones as the main processing power, sort of a throwback to the world of cheap phone-based VR… but which manufacturer will make one and with what app library? without apple, google, SamsungValve, Amazon or Microsoft on board, it will be a challenge to ever catch up.
For now, the Quest 2 remains the likely cheap option. Hence perhaps Meta’s gamble to increase the price. It doesn’t make the Quest 2 any more appealing, but by the end of the year it could be surrounded by much much more expensive competitors.
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