Usually the prices of gaming hardware get cheaper over time. But Meta is bucking that trend and raising the price of the original Quest 2 VR headset by $100. The company formerly known as Facebook says it is going to help pay for innovation, a move that comes as Mark Zuckerberg’s social media company tries to fend off the rise of TikTok and billions in recent losses. Starting in August, the Meta Quest 2 will range from $300 to $400 for the 128GB model and from $400 to $500 for the 256GB model. Meta wrote in a post announcing the change that it has “invested billions of dollars to help nurture a thriving VR ecosystem” since the early days of PC and mobile, and that the huge price increase will “help [it] continue to invest for the long term.” The point of pricing Meta Quest 2 so low to begin with—like the Nintendo Switch, but for a wireless VR headset—was to aggressively drive early adoption and help revive a market that’s been stagnant for years. With the $100 increase, the Quest 2 will still be the cheapest handset on the market, but the 33% increase will still put the entry-level tech out of reach for many more people as a result. While it’s hard to swallow for a company that made more than $7 billion in profits last quarter, the temporary pullback isn’t shocking given the recent market turmoil. Meta’s share price has halved since the start of 2022. The new privacy changes enacted on Apple’s devices have reportedly cost the company around $10 billion in revenue. An overhaul of the Facebook and Instagram apps to try to copy TikTok resulted in a very public backlash from the Kardashians. Meta has been burning billions to promote VR technology for the past two years, but with his empire facing existential challenges, founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg is now preparing employees for a more brutal era of corporate austerity. Instead of cutting funding for R&D, raising prices is a way to keep its bet on a profitable VR transfer. “We can either cut funding for future things, or suffer more in terms of less profitability,” he told staff last month, in between threatened layoffs, according to The Verge. “Constitutionally, it’s more painful for me to slow the progress we’re making on a long-term basis than to have a short-term rough patch.” Meanwhile, Meta is gearing up to launch its high-end Project Cambria headphones later this year. And while partner projects like Splinter Cell VR were recently canceled, Ghostbusters, Among Us, and The Walking Dead VR games are still on the way. So does Sony’s new PSVR 2 headset. Still without a price or release date, the PS5 maker has continued to tease new details about the updated technology.
