Meta Abandons Authentic Quest VR Headset

A woman wearing a Oculus Quest VR headset holding controllers and looking at a screen. — The unique Oculus Quest was utilizing ageing expertise even when it debuted in 2019, although now Meta has determined to finish help for the system.

With just one iteration forward, Meta has declared that its first Meta Quest VR headset received’t be receiving any extra love or TLC.

In an e-mail despatched to Meta Quest 1 customers and later posted to Twitter, the corporate spelled out how it will likely be dropping help for its unique, cheaper digital actuality system. Most significantly, the system will now not obtain future content material updates. By 2024, the system will now not get any bug fixes or safety patches.

Notably, customers will now not have important performance. Although Meta promised you’ll nonetheless have the ability to use the headset and its put in video games and apps, Quest 1 customers will now not have the ability to be a part of events, and they’ll additionally lose entry to Meta’s function product Horizon Residence on March 5 this yr. Customers will now not have the ability to invite others to their houses or journey over to a different person’s house.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg introduced what was initially known as the Oculus Quest in 2018 because the premiere wi-fi VR headset. The corporate launched the headset in 2019 (so Meta is a little bit off of their letter after they stated they launched the system “over 4 years in the past”), and this was all earlier than Meta formally renamed the units and its varied companies in 2021. So the Quest 1 is working off four-year-old tech, and it will make some sense why Meta wouldn’t need to help ageing {hardware}.

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The Meta Quest 2 has been billed as a funds, entry-level VR headset, however that was Meta attempting to engender help for his or her complete idea of the “metaverse” whereas operating at a loss, a technique which lastly bit them within the bottom in Q3 final yr. Meta then instituted worth will increase for the Quest 2, elevating prices to $399 for its 128GB model and $499 for its 256GB version.

The unique Quest debuted for $399 for a 64GB model and $499 for its 128GB rendition, however you’ll be able to simply discover cheaper variations nonetheless being offered for less expensive on-line. It simply means there shall be one much less low cost(er) headset available on the market, and there don’t appear to be any new releases to exchange it.

The tip of help for the Quest 1 means entry-level VR will change into that rather more costly for the common individual. Pico, which is owned by TikTok father or mother firm ByteDance, introduced its personal $425 and $499 headsets final yr, however the firm was absent at CES 2023, and we nonetheless don’t have any phrase of U.S. launch plans. Past that, there’s been little push for extra budget-friendly VR as of late. Meta has its personal $1,499 Quest Professional it launched final yr to decidedly combined evaluations. This yr, HTC launched its VIVE XR Elite combined actuality headset for $1,099, which Gizmodo acquired to strive at CES.

And, after all, there’s Sony and its PlayStation VR2. The corporate had these headsets prepared for demo at CES, however scheduling difficulties meant Gizmodo didn’t get the chance to demo the system. We’ll simply must see what occurs with Sony’s $549.99 headset when it lastly releases in February.