Announced via Twitter, and further explained on the Meta Quest website, the company’s VR headset, the Meta Quest 2, will be receiving a price increase from August 1, 2022. It will now cost $399.99 USD and $499.99 USD for the 128GB and 256GB versions respectively; each one becoming $100 USD more expensive than they are now.
In order to soften the blow for future buyers, Meta also announced that by buying the headset, from August up until the end of the year, customers would have Beat Saber available on the device at no additional cost.
The Meta Quest 2, originally the Oculus Quest 2, launched on October 13, 2020, as the successor to the original Oculus Quest. Owned by the mega-corporation Meta, which owns several social media apps like Facebook and WhatsApp, Oculus was one of the first big players in the VR space. Their first product, the Oculus Rift, was one of the few high-end headsets available at the time of its release in 2016. This model required a wired connection to a powerful computer, but that changed with the Oculus Quest which functioned as a stand-alone headset that could play games without any additional hardware. Now, the market as a whole has shifted to developing products like these.
The Meta Quest 2 was celebrated for its original low price point of $299.99, as this made it the most financially accessible headset of the bunch. It didn’t require ownership of other hardware like with PlayStation VR, and it was significantly cheaper than the Valve Index. Though it’s still quite cheap for a VR headset after the price hike, the increase has irked some.
Meta goes on to say that the costs of shipping and manufacturing have been rising and that by increasing the headset’s price they can continue to invest in research and development “that pushes the VR industry to new heights.” They go on to tout the positives of the product such as its continued affordability and its lineup of upcoming titles.
Manufacturing materials and spaces are in high demand with low supply. These difficulties have extended beyond video games and can be seen in many other types of electronic appliance markets. These economic conditions are also the reason behind the lack of readily available PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X consoles. Furthermore, inflation has been on the rise in many Western economies.
Despite consoles generally going down in price in the subsequent years after release, the Meta Quest 2 will be bucking this trend with a price increase.
