Meta to increase Oculus Quest 2 price in August

Meta, formerly Facebook, has announced that their standalone VR headset, the Quest 2, will be getting a price increase starting in August.

In an unprecedented move in the middle of a piece of hardware’s life cycle, Meta has announced that they’ll be increasing the price of the Quest 2 by $100 starting August 1st.

Meta has stated on their blog that the company is changing the price based on the virtual reality plans that it currently has.

“Starting in August, Meta Quest 2 will cost $399.99 USD and $499.99 USD for the 128GB and 256GB versions respectively.”

The price increase will also pertain to refurbished units and accessories, with those yet to be seen.

In the blog, Meta states that alongside their plans for the future, the current manufacturing process has increased in costs, presumably following the electronics shortage that has plagued the tech and video game industry since Covid-19.

Recently, Meta has seen its first-ever user decline, with fewer users signing up and more leaving the platform due to the overall bad optics the company’s methods have caused. It was also reported that the company might be in for its first real monetary hardship since its inception in 2005.

Reuters obtained a recording of Mark Zuckerberg’s Q&A with his employees, alluding to Meta’s current misfortunes:

“If I had to bet, I’d say that this might be one of the worst downturns that we’ve seen in recent history.

“Realistically, there are probably a bunch of people at the company who shouldn’t be here.”

From this obtained recording, Zuckerberg’s plans to hire engineers have been cut by around 30%, as the company begins to turn up expectations from its employees to reach new goals.

“Part of my hope by raising expectations and having more aggressive goals, and just kind of turning up the heat a little bit, is that I think some of you might decide that this place isn’t for you, and that self-selection is OK with me.”

To add to the pressure being mounted against employees as the company begins to see less growth, Chief Product Officer Chris Cox posted to Workplace, a version of the Facebook platform intended for work purposes, posted a memo to the internal Meta board:

“I have to underscore that we are in serious times here and the headwinds are fierce. We need to execute flawlessly in an environment of slower growth, where teams should not expect vast influxes of new engineers and budgets.”

The Meta Quest 2 is also planned to be followed up in the coming months by a high-end VR headset, currently codenamed Cambria. It could feature eye tracking and full facial mapping, something that Meta is incredibly interested in pushing, as they’ve been working on a remote working virtual space for the last couple of years.

You can get the Oculus Quest 2 for its original price at Best Buy.

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