Call it a summer surprise. Meta suddenly raised the entry-level price of its two-year-old Quest 2 VR headset, jumping from $299 to $400 from August 1. A product that becomes more expensive two years after its release normally does not arrive. 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 helps its investment in virtual reality and the metaverse, the price of the Quest 2 headset was still artificially lower than what a device like this should have cost. It’s unfortunate, but that’s not the end of price increases for VR technology. From what we know about the next wave of the most anticipated VR headsets, things are about to get a lot more expensive.
Not trying to stress you out or anything, but these upcoming devices are hardly going to 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 helmet, the expected”Pro Quest” also called Cambria Project, expected to arrive this fall. It will have eye tracking, higher quality displays and mixed reality capabilities that will mix the real world with virtual reality using passthrough color cameras. It should also cost over $800.
Long-awaited Apple VR headset, now slated for a 2023 release, could hit $3,000, according to reports. Apple’s monitor polishing cloths are expensive. Its headphones are expensive. There’s no way a VR headset, especially one that’s standalone, has next-level Apple processors and is capable of retina-level resolution with eye-tracking and premium audio, wouldn’t will be cheap.
PlayStation VR 2: It could also be expensive.
PlayStation
The “most affordable” of the three might be the PlayStation VR 2, a helmet expected by the end of this year. The signs point to premium pricing though. The PSVR 2 isn’t a standalone device, but its high-resolution OLED displays, spatial audio, rumbling haptic headset, eye tracking, and custom advanced haptic controllers are supremely refined. PC VR headsets like this cost at least $600. The original PSVR cost $400. You will also need $500 PlayStation 5 to use it, if you can find one to buy.
“I wouldn’t call it a wave, but I think the Quest 2 will remain the most comprehensive VR solution in this price segment,” says Anshel Sag, VR/AR analyst at Moor Insights and Strategy. “All signs point to Cambria and other helmets being considerably more expensive.”
At the same time, Sag says he sees a return of virtual reality towards consumer headsets, compared to business-focused models. “I think PSVR will help with that even if the price of Quest 2 goes up.”
There was a time when virtual reality cost $100 or was almost free. small plastic glasses for phones, or cardboard fold-out displays, made small stationary VR devices capable in the mid-2010s. Those days are long gone. Meta’s Quest 2 was the new replacement, and as a $300 all-inclusive system, it was an extremely attractive proposition.
Even with Meta’s many questionable data policies and behavior, and the $100 price increase, and Meta financial problems, the crazy thing is that the Quest 2 is still by far the best and most affordable VR headset. And that’s not likely to change: TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, and its VR hardware company, Pico, may soon release a competing Quest 2 headset – but its software library won’t be able to catch up with Meta’s quickly. HTC Live Materialalthough promising, is still business-oriented, while its experimental phone connected Flow helmet does not have many applications. Qualcomm continues to promise a wave of connected phones VR/AR headsets it could cut costs by using phones as the main processing power, a throwback of sorts to the world of low-cost phone-based virtual reality… but which manufacturer will make one, and with which app library? Without apple, Google, SamsungValve, Amazon or Microsoft on board, it will be a challenge to catch up.
For now, the Quest 2 remains the cheapest option. Hence, perhaps, Meta’s price increase bet. That doesn’t make the Quest 2 any more appealing, but by the end of the year it could find itself surrounded by plenty of much more expensive competitors.