Toni Hobrecht
Facebook parent company Meta has reduced the prices for its VR headsets. Starting March 5th, the Quest Pro will now be selling for $1,000 instead of $1,500 previously. Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg wants to give more people access to VR. The Meta Quest 2 with 256GB of storage will also be cheaper, going forward to selling for $429 instead of $500 previously. The base Quest 2 with 128GB of storage retains its $400 price tag, meaning you get double the storage for just $30 more.
However, the price drop isn’t enough to match the Quest 2’s original price. That’s because Meta significantly increased the price of the Quest 2 last year. The 128GB model went from $300 to $400, while the 256GB headset went from $400 to $500. At that time, Meta justified the unusual price increases with higher production and shipping costs. Facebook also promised that the additional revenue would be used to increase investment in VR research and development.
While there’s no telling if that promise has become reality, Meta is known to be investing a whopping 20% of its total spend in 2023 in its Reality Labs division. There’s no doubt that Zuckerberg is investing heavily in VR. This is also supported by the fact that, according to rumors, the next generation of Quest headsets will be launched this year. So Meta may be trying to get rid of leftovers of the current generation.
Regardless of whether you want to get into virtual reality with the best-selling Quest 2 or the more expensive Quest Pro, the timing seems good right now.
