Meta’s Quest 2 was released in 2020 and in comparison to its predecessor has aged exceedingly well. Even with the launch of Quest 3 in 2023, Quest 2’s relevance within the VR industry has stayed strong. In part helped by a permanent price reduction to $200. However, with new hardware comes new creative opportunities for developers, creating bigger, more elaborate VR experiences. While Meta has maintained it’ll support Quest 2 for years to come, the time for a Meta Quest 3 is rapidly gaining steam.
Bye, bye Quest 2
There’s no denying that Meta Quest 2 was (and still is) a great headset – especially at its new low price. The original Oculus Quest (2019) introduced standalone VR to the masses and Quest 2 refined it. Lighter, comfier and with a more powerful Qualcomm processor, Meta’s second standalone VR iteration provided quality VR experiences without breaking the bank.
But the VR industry doesn’t stand still for long. Its thirst for improvement and refinement is unquenchable, and while rivals have circled – even more powerful ones – the Meta Quest lineup has remained the defacto system for many. Over the years Meta Quest 2 has seen countless updates, upgrading the inside-out tracking and hand tracking, expanding upon its mixed reality capabilities and (most recently) adding new features like a Lying Down mode.
Quest 2’s death knell is coming, with the horn only just beginning to sound recently.
Quest 3 Exclusives – Batman and Alien
Up until only last month, Meta had ensured complete parity between all of its headsets. Quite the feat considering the likes of Arizona Sunshine 2 and Asgard’s Wrath 2 would’ve made great Quest 3 system sellers. Financially though, maintaining system-wide support made far more sense due to the number of Quest 2 owners out there.
That’s beginning to change, most notably thanks to two major IPs, Alien and Batman. VR veteran Survios is developing Alien: Rogue Incursion for PSVR 2, Steam and Quest 3. It’s the first big, upcoming game to confirm it won’t support Quest 2 when it launches in late 2024. That’s quite the step, yet it’s an important one. Because moving away from Quest 2 means Survios can build a far better-looking game from the ground up, rather than adding improved graphical fixes later on.
Batman: Arkham Shadow, on the other hand, is a slightly different beast. That’s because it’ll be a Quest 3 exclusive from Marvel’s Iron Man VR studio Camouflaj. That’ll allow the team to explore the potential of Quest 3 fully, from the Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 processor to its 2064×2208 pixels per eye resolution, maybe even its mixed reality features.
These aren’t the only games focused on Quest 3 – Niantic’s Hello, Dot and Laser Dance are two more – but they’re the most significant.
A Meta Quest 3 Upgrade
This moves us to the main reason for dropping Quest 2 support, selling more Quest 3’s. How do you sell a new gaming platform? By giving gamers cool new titles that showcase the new technology. At $200, Meta is likely losing money on each Quest 2 it sells. But that gets you in the door. After that, a Quest 3 will begin to look more tempting, even at double the price. And if you’re a fan of either Alien or Batman – who isn’t – they’re the cherry on the cake.
So yes, the demise of Quest 2 is inevitable but so was the demise of PS4 and Xbox 360 and look at how long they lasted! Developers will keep supporting Quest 2 because of the player base – power to the people and all that – so it’s not an expansive paperweight just yet.
Have you made the upgrade to Meta Quest 3? Or are you sticking with Quest 2 for now? Let us know in the comments below!