Meta Oculus Quest 3 at around $400 confirmed, positioned to take on Sony's PSVR 2
Mark Zuckerberg says there will be a Quest 3 with a price range of $300 to $500
➡️ The Shortcut Skinny: Meta Quest 3 is coming
🥽 Meta Oculus Quest 3 will launch – just not this year, says Zuckerberg
💰 It’ll cost between $300 and $500; cheaper vs the $1,500 Quest Pro
📆 It’s not releasing this year, but the target audience is consumers
⬇️ Zuckerberg hints Quest Pro features may trickle down to Quest 3
💿 Rival: Sony will launch the PSVR 2 in ‘early 2023’ for PS5 gamers
There’s going to be a Meta Oculus Quest 3 with a price range of $300 to $500, confirmed Meta CEO and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. The news, first spotted by Ben Thompson’s Stratechery newsletter, comes from an interview between Zuckerberg and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.
This is good news for people who saw the Meta Quest Pro headset launch at the company’s Oculus Connect event this week… with a staggering pre-order price of $1,499 on Amazon and Best Buy. Many of my Twitter followers were perplexed.
In the interview, Zuckerberg clarified that Quest Pro is meant for “high-end professionals and knowledge workers [who] are willing to pay $1,500 for a laptop, $2,000 for a laptop for [a] workstation.” In other words, it’s not meant for average gamers, despite the Quest name.
But Meta Quest Pro ideas and tech may trickle down to a consumer device in time. He mentioned that the Quest Pro “gives us the ability to build in a lot of technology there, and also improve that technology and build out the development ecosystem before we can get that down to the price point that’ll fit with consumers.”
Oculus Quest 3 in 2023 to rival PSVR2
Everyday gamers have a new Oculus-inspired VR/AR headset to look forward to now that we know Meta’s roadmap officially includes a Quest 2 sequel. It’s about time.
Zuckerberg mentioned that “it’s not this year,” which means that by the time Oculus 3 launches (I’d suspect next year), the Quest 2 will be 3 years old next year (it came out in October 2020).
It’s about time also because Sony’s PSVR 2 pre-order date will happen soon. Sony has said that the headset will launch in “early 2023” and this VR headset will appeal to everyone who secured a PS5 restock in the last two years. Demand will be strong for the headset, which may also have a $499 price point (Sony has yet to confirm a price or release date).
If both Meta and Sony launch their VR headsets at a $399 price, then it’ll come down to the ecosystem and supported games library. Our PSVR 2 games list already reveals the next-gen VR games already announced, and that PSVR 2 will require a USB-C cable to be tethered to the PS5 console. Meta Quest 3 will likely be fully wireless.
Competitive pricing and drive for innovative software are only going to be good for consumers in virtual and actual reality.