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Meta is raising the price of the Quest 2 to 400 USD

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Re: Meta is raising the price of the Quest 2 to 400 USD

#121

Post by ehsanu1 »

emadabdulrahim wrote: post #63
rgovostes wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you ever wear headphones?

I do, but I'm not entirely deaf when I wear them. I can hear my surroundings easily if I wanted to. Is there a mode in those VR headsets where one can see what's in front of them without taking them off? I'm ignorant about the tech of VR.

There is "passthrough", where cameras on the Oculus are relayed to the screens within, and it seems to be capable of mixing that with the virtual world too: https://developer.oculus.com/blog/mixed-reality-with-passthr...

Also, there's a lot of innovation happening in display tech for AR too which will be even better, since you'll just see the real world more or less directly.

Re: Meta is raising the price of the Quest 2 to 400 USD

#122

Post by agloeregrets »

zlsa wrote: post #50
agloeregrets wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Current price" Seemed to be purely invented to move units. The hardware margins had to be very large negative numbers. They were losing $2.5B/Quarter for the last two years. To put it in context, the specs of a base Quest 2 are actually somewhat similar to Microsoft's $1000 Surface Pro X or a Galaxy S20 but adding the motion controllers and the specific ground-up custom OS.

> specific ground-up custom OS There are no doubt huge changes made, but Quest 2 runs Android underneath.

Sorry yeah absolutely, I intended to frame it as they have effectively thrown out pretty much all of the Android UI/UX along with building an app store from scratch.

Re: Meta is raising the price of the Quest 2 to 400 USD

#123

Post by rjh29 »

balls187 wrote: post #30
mark_l_watson wrote: post #5

It seems strange to raise the price of something that has been on the market for a while, right? I do love my Quest 2.

What do you love about it? I have a Quest 2, and it still seems very niche for me.

I like Beat Saber (play daily), Walkabout Golf (feels like minigolf, can play with friends anywhere in the world) and Resident Evil 4 (a classic game excellently ported into immersive VR).

Also the price. Before the Quest I'd have needed to buy a gaming PC and expensive headset like the Vive or Index. And it's wireless and doesn't need any sensor units placed around you. The tracking works great and it tells you when you're about to leave a safe area. It can even do hand tracking so you don't need controllers.

Re: Meta is raising the price of the Quest 2 to 400 USD

#124

Post by papito »

echelon wrote: post #107
pathartl wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Alyx is probably one of the greatest gaming experiences I've had... but I was also able to borrow a Vive from a friend to play it. I'm a Half-Life nut so I would have bought a headset anyway, but I'm glad I haven't bought a Quest.

The immersiveness is fantastic, but movement feels like trying to use a 1970's pong controller while something is strapped to your head. I want standard joystick-based movement. I suppose too many get motion sickness, or that joysticks are ergonomically awkward to place onto motion controllers while maintaining the "pointing" and "picking up" metaphors. VR's "aim and teleport" mechanic is the worst, though. It ruins…

Alyx "smooth motion" is in settings - game settings, not Oculus or anything, and yes, you have to be careful. Sometimes I can barely maintain my footing if something happens too fast.

Re: Meta is raising the price of the Quest 2 to 400 USD

#125

Post by balls187 »

mark_l_watson wrote: post #98
balls187 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you love about it? I have a Quest 2, and it still seems very niche for me.

I do the Thai Chi lessons everyday. I find the ping pong game is a great way to unwind, a 5 minute game is enough. I enjoyed the Star Wars Vader Immortal series. I use my quest for about 1 hour a week, so I am not a heavy user - but I do enjoy it. BTW, I worked in the VR field about 25 years ago for SAIC and Disney.

I too enjoy the VR experience, and to me, it scratches a similar itch as going to a high-end arcade and playing Mechwarrior. Fun to do occasionally, but not how I spend a majority of my entertainment hours.

> BTW, I worked in the VR field about 25 years ago for SAIC and Disney.

Nice. I remember my first VR experience was about 30 years ago at the local kids science center.

Re: Meta is raising the price of the Quest 2 to 400 USD

#126

Post by skazazes »

sillysaurusx wrote: post #10

I'm shocked that there aren't more multiplayer VR experiences. Yes, sure, there's Pavlov and VR Chat. But unless you have a friend who's into VR Chat, it's remarkably difficult to find a game that can immerse two different people at the same time. It felt a bit ironic that mini golf was one of the most fun multiplayer party games. My wife was like "You should bring over your quest 2!" to our new house -- she already…

If you have any interest in flight simulators, VTOL VR is a fantastic multiplayer VR flight sim with large multiplayer lobbies. It strikes a good balance between arcade and realism too and is incredibly immersive. Unfortunately (maybe not?) its on steam VR so you will need a PC to handle the rendering but can stream it to a quest using link

Re: Meta is raising the price of the Quest 2 to 400 USD

#127

Post by [deleted] »

dougmwne wrote: post #21

I assume that Meta is done subsidizing the sales of the Quest. They have likely sold about 10 million units at a loss. I wonder if they have decided that the Quest is not yet the feature complete product that will run whatever they want the metaverse to be. Quest was basically an experiment and it seems they have learned what they need to. Their next headset, the Quest Pro, will have eye and face tracking cameras wit…

[deleted]

Re: Meta is raising the price of the Quest 2 to 400 USD

#128

Post by corytheboyd »

sillysaurusx wrote: post #10

I'm shocked that there aren't more multiplayer VR experiences. Yes, sure, there's Pavlov and VR Chat. But unless you have a friend who's into VR Chat, it's remarkably difficult to find a game that can immerse two different people at the same time. It felt a bit ironic that mini golf was one of the most fun multiplayer party games. My wife was like "You should bring over your quest 2!" to our new house -- she already…

My friends and I got a lot of fun nights out of taking turns in beat saber, especially after mods. Not saying you're wrong, just a fun anecdote.

Re: Meta is raising the price of the Quest 2 to 400 USD

#129

Post by ceeplusplus »

terafo wrote: post #108
whywhywhywhy wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

VR wouldn’t even be a thing anymore without their efforts. PC Tower VR is a dead end where the complexity and hardware costs will never take it the customer base size that justifies developing non-indie content. I don’t think Valve would have even bothered building Index without the Oculus threat.

5 millions PSVR sold beg to differ.

That's an estimated 1/3 of what Quest 2 sold [1]. And Sony already has a huge install base of subsidized consoles to sell into, whereas high end PCs required to run VR are a rarity.

[1] https://uploadvr.com/quest-2-sold-almost-15-million-idc

Re: Meta is raising the price of the Quest 2 to 400 USD

#130

Post by KerrAvon »

nanna wrote: post #47

Am I the only one who struggles to take the name 'Meta' seriously, and still calls Zuckerberg's empire Facebook? Its a name that straddles pretentiousness and inanity ('That is sooo meta.') too acutely, and I resent them adopting a name of a broader movement of engineering for themselves. Or rather stealing it from https://meta.is/ .

Not at all.

Slightly tangential, but I still see news headlines use "Facebook" where it technically should be "Meta". I assume this is because only techies know what Meta is; everybody knows what Facebook is.

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