Meta reportedly has three new Quest VR headsets on the way
The Meta Quest 3 is still set to release later this year
Meta reportedly plans to release three new Quest VR headsets over the next few years and will launch the Meta Quest 3 later in 2023.
That’s according to a company roadmap presentation that was given internally by Meta’s Reality Labs division earlier this week and reportedly shared with The Verge.
➡️ The Shortcut Skinny: Meta Quest models
🥽 Meta still plans to release the Meta Quest 3 later this year
😲 It will support several new mixed-reality features
🙌 The company has two more Quest headsets in development
🤔 A cheaper, accessible model could arrive in 2024
The roadmap included numerous details about Meta’s incoming product lineup and its hopes for VR and AR technology.
Per the presentation, the Meta Quest 3 will be twice as thin as its predecessor, at least twice as powerful and cost slightly more than the Meta Quest 2, which had its price hiked by $100 last year.
Like the recently released PSVR 2, it will include front-facing cameras to support mixed-reality passthrough, although will step further into the field of AR. Mixed reality looks to be a major selling point of the device, which Meta hopes will convince users to opt for it over the current Quest 2.
“The main north star for the team was from the moment you put on this headset, the mixed reality has to make it feel better, easier, more natural,” Mark Rabkin, vice president for VR at Meta, reportedly said.
“You can walk effortlessly through your house knowing you can see perfectly well. You can put anchors and things on your desktop. You can take your coffee. You can stay in there much longer.”
At least 41 new apps and games will ship alongside the Quest 3, including many that take advantage of its new mixed-reality hardware.
A second, more “accessible” headset is also planned for release in 2024. Rabkin said “The goal for this headset is very simple: pack the biggest punch we can at the most attractive price point in the VR consumer market.”.
Finally, a third device is set to release “way out in the future”. It will support photorealistic avatars and sounds like something akin to the expensive Meta Quest Pro.
“We want to make it higher resolution for work use and really nail work, text and things like that,” Rabkin said. “We want to take a lot of the comfort things from Quest Pro and how it sits on your head and the split architecture and bring that in for comfort.”
Meta lost one of its key VR architects last year and laid off 11,000 employees after overestimating its post-pandemic growth. This roadmap suggests the company is still betting big on VR, although it’s not the only big tech firm exploring the field. Weigh up the PSVR 2 vs Meta Quest 2 to find which is right for you.