The Oculus Quest 2 is about to get a lot more expensive.
Starting August 1, 2022, one of the best VR headsets on the market will see its price go up to $400 / £400 / AU$630 for the 128GB version (over $299 / £299 / AU$479), and $500 / £500 / AU$790 for the 256GB model (instead of $399 / £399 / AU$639).
That means if you want to grab the Oculus Quest 2 (now officially the Meta Quest 2) before it sees a big price increase, you’ll only have a few days left. Meta warned that the price increase will also affect the best Oculus Quest 2 accessories and refurbished units – giving you even less reason to delay a purchase if you’re on the fence.
According to Meta, despite the incredible success their VR hardware has seen – with around 15 million Quest 2 headsets being sold and over $1 billion being spent on Meta Quest apps since launch – the price increase it is necessary to combat rising operational and development costs. This argument is similar to the one used by Amazon earlier today (July 26) when it announced that the price of Amazon Prime was going up in the UK and Europe.
Every cloud has a silver lining, though – sort of. In that case, if you buy a new Quest 2 between August 1 and December 31, 2022, you can get a free copy of Beat Saber – one of the best Oculus Quest 2 games – worth $30 / £23 / AU$47 .
To get the free game, you will not only need to purchase the headset within the above deadline, but activate it before January 31, 2023, using an account that does not already have Beat Saber. Do that and you’ll have 14 days to purchase and download Beat Saber at no cost – although you’ll still have to pay for DLC like the Fall Out Boy and Billie Eilish music packs.
Review: Bring back the 64GB Oculus Quest 2
While the Quest 2 will become more expensive from next month, it’s actually going back to its original price, at least in the US and UK – for those of you in Australia it will be AU$10 cheaper than it was at launch.
When Quest 2 came out, you couldn’t buy a 256GB version of the console. Instead, the 128GB model was the more expensive option at $399 / £399 / AU$639, with a cheaper 64GB headphone jack available at $299 / £299 / AU$479. That’s it. changed about a year ago when Meta decided to drop the 64GB model, reduce the price of the 128GB model, and bring in a new 256GB version.
However, the big problem with the Meta going back to its original price is that there’s now no $299 / £299 / AU$479 Quest 2 – and that’s a problem.
Sure, the Quest 2’s $399 / £399 / AU$639 price tag still makes it a little cheaper than rivals in the VR market (like the Valve Index), but it’s a hard pill to swallow nonetheless. . This is especially true when you look at games as a whole.
The full PS5 and Xbox Series X consoles are only slightly more expensive in some parts of the world at $499 / £449 / AU$749, while the discless PS5 ($400 / £360 / AU$600) or Xbox Series S ($300 / £250 / AU$500) are actually cheaper in some regions.
You may not have the unique VR experience, but you will have access to a very large selection of great titles and next-gen updates to some of your favorites from the PS4 and Xbox One era.
To combat this, Meta needs its cheapest VR headset – it needs the 64GB version of Quest 2.
In a recent teardown of why you shouldn’t buy the 256GB Oculus Quest 2 model, we explained that massive amounts of storage aren’t necessary for VR gaming. They reach the top in about 8.8 GB (opens in new tab) for Resident Evil 4 VR, and most are under 2GB, so even with the 128GB model you still have plenty of room for a lot of games.
And based on our experience, the 64GB version is good too. In fact, we still use our 64GB headphone jack, and while we have to delete and switch games, it’s not too complicated. Also, our headset’s hard drive is only full because we have a few games that we review; most people won’t push the limits of their hardware’s storage that much.
At the moment, Meta has yet to announce plans to re-release a 64GB headset for its original price of $299 / £299 / AU$479, but we expect that to change. Virtual reality is really starting to take off, and a big reason for that is that the Quest 2 is a relatively inexpensive gadget for people to pick up.
If cheaper rivals can hit the market, Meta could see its status as a leader in the VR world threatened – and that wouldn’t bode well for its future VR projects like the upcoming Project Cambria headset.
We previously postulated that the Meta drop would be more likely to come from its own mistakes than the success of its competitors – and today’s news lends weight to that theory.
