Trying to draw attention back to its Metaverse ambitions, Meta dropped the price of its 128 GB to $250. That’s exactly half of what the company’s latest Quest 3 costs. An extra $50 will net you the 256 GB Quest 2, but if you’re looking to get one even cheaper, the company is advertising refurbished headsets starting at $230 and $270, respectively.
No matter what, Meta is still in charge, and if the company giveth, it may also taketh away. Over the past week, Meta silently removed the option to let users stream to Chromecast. Android Central first reported during the holidays that users no longer find the option to cast to Chromecast, though they can still cast to a phone or computer.
With the Chromecast dongle now useless for casting, users must first stream to a phone or computer before mirroring it on their TV. Meta’s help page now mentions that “Chromecast is not fully supported with Meta Quest,” and while the page notes it was updated a week ago, there’s nothing official to say why this is happening now. Gizmodo reached out to Meta for more information, but we did not immediately hear back.
Advertisement
This change is impacting all Quest headsets, and it’s a big annoyance for anybody who depends on a dongle to show their VR on-screen. It’s a shame since the $500 Quest 3 has already proved itself a damn good VR headset thanks to its mixed reality capabilities with full-color passthrough. It’s $50 less MSRP than Sony’s PSVR2, and it’s capable of playing more than just the exceedingly slim PlayStation 5 VR library.
Advertisement
When Meta’s Quest 2 first came on the scene in 2020, it was billed as the loss leader to corner the VR market thanks to its wireless form factor and small price tag. The 64 GB version cost just $299 upon release. The price was such a big factor that when Meta upped the price of the 128 GB and 256 GB Quest 2s by $100 back in 2022, it was seen as a sign that Meta’s pricing strategy wasn’t working out as planned. Last year, Meta cut the price of the Quest Pro by $500 after the headset failed to gain any modicum of popularity as the Quest 2 had.
Advertisement
Meta has also been seemingly far more open about its own software ecosystem as of late. The company now allows you to stream games from Steam VR, and you can load up Xbox Game Pass on a Quest as well. Meta has its own subscription service akin to Game Pass, but it’s very limited in terms of what titles become available every month.
Extra accessories like the elite strap and carrying case have also dropped in price. Meta makes the claim that it’s the “most affordable way to get into VR” out there, and that might not just be mere puffery. The Quest 2 works well as a baseline VR headset if all you want to do is play some VR games, though it lacks any AR capabilities that will become the main selling point of this year’s headset releases, namely Apple’s Vision Pro set to drop early this year.
Advertisement
Speaking of, with the $3,500 Vision Pro on the way, Meta is trying to get in front of what may be its biggest competition yet, even though a Quest 2 now costs a bare fraction of Apple’s “spatial computer.”
Oft-cited industry analyst Ming Chi Kuo wrote on Christmas Eve that Apple’s only shipping around 500,000 units, and shipments are supposed to begin this month. It’s going to be a very complicated release, so we might still have some time on our hands before the great VR wars of 2024 truly begin.
Services Marketplace – Listings, Bookings & Reviews