With new hardware comes the desire to quickly move on. Meta Quest 3 is now out in the wild providing upgraded VR and mixed-reality entertainment over its predecessor. That has meant developers quickly adapting to the new device, rolling out visual improvements or adding MR modes to their games. And while it’s great to see and experience what Quest 3 can offer, it’s important to note that there are far more Quest 2’s out there. Which made me think about the nature of reviews and how to handle them in the near term. Because, quite frankly, they’re cut from different cloth when it comes to Quest 2 vs Quest 3 reviews.
It’s natural for journalists and reviewers to embrace the latest hardware. We’re all keen tech fans at the end of the day. Not everyone can, or wants to upgrade so quickly, however. The Quest 2 has been available for three years already, building up a big player base who aren’t all going to get the new model. And then there are the newcomers, making use of Quest 2’s recent price reduction effectively making half the cost of Quest 3.
Quest 2 vs Quest 3
That cost gap is significant, most recently highlighted by some new Amazon figures. As reported by Road to VR – from an X post – Amazon sales figures have shown that approximately 240,000 Quest headsets were sold. Of which 70% (164,000) were Quest 2. That’s a huge amount! Those figures are only for Amazon, so we don’t know how many the official Meta store or other retailers have sold.
Even so, those numbers mean catering to the largest player base means catering to Quest 2 owners. Which is an important distinction to make.
Firstly, processing power and graphics. Developers will indeed ensure compatibility with all Quest devices. But one look at a game like Red Matter 2 and you can instantly see the difference in quality. That can greatly affect how you might approach certain scenarios in a game. Can you see a sniper in the distance, for example? Or does one environment feel more immersive due to the definition of objects?
Secondly, there are other hardware considerations like the controllers. Some players have already reported that they don’t find the new Quest 3 control scheme as accurate as the previous generation. This then leads to having to analyse both systems which the majority of readers don’t need. So is it a waste of time?
Our concern is that we’re seeing VR content creators go all-in on the new headset, providing their impressions of games solely on Quest 3.
This is why, for the near future at least, we see a specific need to focus on Quest 2 reviews. It serves a far larger demographic who know that what we experience in VR will be replicated in their device. We’ll probably add Quest 3 snippets here and there to help both parties though.
Let us know what you think. Should our Quest reviews continue on Quest 2? Or should we completely move over to Quest 3? Let us know in the comments.