Why is Meta Slashing Costs on its VR Headsets?

“Meta is reducing costs for 2 of its digital actuality headsets because it continues attempting to spice up adoption for the nascent know-how on which it has wager its future,” experiences CNN:

The corporate introduced Friday that it’s slashing the value of its higher-end Meta Quest Professional headset by some $500, bringing its value to $999, roughly six months after it was launched. Meta can also be reducing the value of its Quest 2 headset from $499.99 to $429.99. The worth minimize for the Quest 2 will go into impact in additional than a dozen international locations together with the US on Sunday. The Quest Professional worth drop will take impact the identical day in the US and Canada and on March 15 in all different international locations the place it’s bought.

“Our purpose has at all times been to create {hardware} that is inexpensive for as many individuals as potential to benefit from all that VR has to supply,” the corporate stated in a weblog put up.

Yahoo Finance believes Meta is reducing costs “as a result of customers are, nicely, simply not shopping for as many as the corporate anticipated.” The Verge agrees that the Meta Quest Professional was “an absolute boondoggle of a tool” — however means that’s not the entire story.

“in the event you take a look at the Quest 2, which most individuals use for enjoying video games, as a recreation console, it is achieved moderately nicely.”

Mark Rabkin, Meta’s vice chairman for VR, informed workers that Meta has bought over 20 million Quest headsets so far. That features each the Quest and Quest 2…. That looks as if a small quantity, however the Nintendo GameCube solely bought 21 million consoles in its total lifespan, and the Xbox Sequence X and S are estimated to have bought roughly 20 million consoles so far. So in the event you take a look at the Quest 2, which most individuals use for enjoying video games, as a recreation console, it is achieved moderately nicely.
Their conclusion? “Meta may need large ambitions for VR headsets and their place within the metaverse, however the actuality is that the highest software program on the Quest 2 are all video games…. And whereas Meta is thrusting metaverse experiences onto customers, it is form of ignoring that core gamer viewers.”