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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

#21

Post by dougmwne »

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 with the specific purpose to drive social avatars and make VR social more natural. Meta’s interest was always social and while the Quest might be great for gaming, that is not the addressable market they are going for.

And yeah, I realize that most people here are going to be a hard no on Meta owning their face data, but strategically this is what they are going for.

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

#22

Post by de6u99er »

archildress wrote: post #4

Sold my barely used Quest 2 a few weeks ago and had a real hard time getting even $235 for it.

I believe the main issue is content. Not only us it more difficult to create content for VR, it's at least twice as expensive. VR will IMHO have the same fate as 3D TV"s had. Fancy and interesting in the beginning, but too much of a hassle on the long run.

Did I get it right?

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

#23

Post by AceJohnny2 »

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…

Tangentially, there's Acron [1], which is an interesting mixed-mode multiplayer game, where the one VR player is the defender, and iOS/Android players are the attackers trying to steal from the defender.

It's a pretty fun party game, (though beginners get confused easily). I hope the concept gets expanded.

[1] https://www.resolutiongames.com/acron

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

#24

Post by sidibe »

vlunkr wrote: post #12

That's a significant increase. Can any game historians here tell us if a price hike this large has ever happened before? It's not a good look for something that seemed to be gaining a lot of traction.

It seems to be a very popular product that they were selling at a loss. I think I'd still get one for $400, it is much more useful and fun than most much more expensive AR/VR products right now

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

#25

Post by break_the_bank »

roody15 wrote: post #13
yonaguska wrote: post #3

As much as I wanted to get into VR, Meta taking over the Quest has thankfully saved me countless sunken dollars and hours.

Lol exactly. Really wanted to play Half Life / Alex but not about to give Meta any money … absolutely not going to use a facebook account to use a VR device.

They dropped the requirement to have a Facebook account for Meta Quest 2 a few weeks ago.

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

#26

Post by azinman2 »

trixie_ wrote: post #7

It's a strange move given Facebook changed their name to promote VR and the Quest is their flagship device. Also surprised that after mass producing this device for almost 2 years their manufacturing and supply chain costs aren't dialed in enough to maintain the current price. The message here is that VR is 'failing'. I hope it's not, but that's the message with this backwards move.

We don’t know how much their BOM increased. They likely were either losing money or not much margin, and with the market going downward they probably couldn’t afford to offset it as much anymore.

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

#27

Post by vlunkr »

emadabdulrahim wrote: post #8

I feel like an old grumpy man saying this, but I hate the idea of wearing a device on my face to literally hijack one of the precious senses one has. I'm sure over time I'll look back and laugh at myself for thinking that way.

I've been railing against VR for years, because I'm really picky about video games, but I was converted. It's really worth a try. It's not a replacement for current video games, nor do I see myself wearing one for hours at a time to hang out in some corporate dystopia (which seems to be what Meta wants), but there are some really cool and unique experiences. I think VR game design is still pretty immature, but in a way I find that refreshing. most of these games are simple enough that any casual player can pick them up, which hasn't really been the case since the Wii came out ages ago.

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

#28

Post by msbarnett »

lekevicius wrote: post #11

I've always felt they did Xbox / PlayStation strategy, selling headset below cost and earning on game store fees. Perhaps the math is not working out?

> Perhaps the math is not working out?

Bad sign for a company betting it all on "the metaverse".

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

#29

Post by digdugdirk »

Is VR broken out on the Meta balance sheets in a way that we can track profit/loss/expenditures that are associated to VR specifically? Anyone at Meta with a vague idea of how much of the company is working on VR specifically?

It seems odd, like the "vision" is "VR Everything", but the reality is more "We bought Quest and don't know what else to do". Does anyone have any insight on how it feels inside the org?

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