Meta are cutting the price of the Quest 2 and Quest Pro
The Quest Pro will be reduced by $500
Meta are lowering the price of their VR headsets. From tomorrow, you'll be able to pick up the Meta Quest 2 256GB for $430, down from $500, and the recently launched Meta Quest Pro for $1000, down from $1500.
"Our goal has always been to create hardware that’s affordable for as many people as possible to take advantage of all that VR has to offer," says the announcement. "While we aren’t lowering the price of Meta Quest 2’s 128GB SKU, a new lower price for 256GB of storage will let even more people feel the joy of fully immersive games and experiences."
The prices are lowering in the US and Canada, as well as across most of Europe, Austrailia, Japan and Taiwan. Regional pricing has not been announced, but the Meta Quest Pro costs £1500 GBP at its current price and so will hopefully cost £1000 come tomorrow.
It's worth noting that until last August, the Meta Quest 2 256GB was even cheaper, at $400. Meta increased the price of both versions of the headset by $100 as their stock price dipped. Since then we've learned that Meta lost $13.7 billion on VR and AR in 2022, and the social network company laid off 11,000 workers in November with more layoffs expected.
The Meta Quest Pro launched at its current price last October. It's pitched as an enterprise-level device rather than a device specifically for gaming, as Mark Zuckerberg continues to try to make the metaverse happen.
John Carmack ended his remaining part-time role with Meta last month, and wrote in his farewell letter that the company "constantly self-sabotage" their own VR efforts.
I love VR and have had many happy experiences inside a headset, and yet my Valve Index has been stuffed in a drawer untouched for months. I'd like a higher resolution device but I'm not sure I could justify spending hundreds or thousands of pounds just so Beat Saber looks a little less pixellated.