The Meta Quest 3 may sell just two million units in the second half of 2023, far fewer than the Meta Quest 2, leading to lay-offs in the Reality Labs division.
But Meta/Zuckerberg is squandering it. There is a huge disconnect between the price of thing (OVER $500) and the value proposition. It's bad at gaming. It's still less powerful than even current-gen smart phones, let alone modern consoles or gaming PCs... and what little gaming content is out there makes that abundantly clear. Asgard's Wrath 2 does it no favors given those realities. And what are the uses beyond gaming?
Exercise could be a compelling value proposition, but they aren't leveraging even that obvious marketing angle. "You can do your supernatural workouts!" How many people know what that is? I do, but ask a rando on the street. They have no idea. And what are the other options beside Supernatural workouts? Oh, nothing? Nothing for my stationary bike? Nothing for a rowing machine? Nothing for treadmills? With all those funds, they are not exploring the practical applications at all and the product is failing as a result. Instead, Zuck STILL hasn't given up on his Metaverse/Horizons MMO idea.
And that's before we even get into Meta/Facebook's inherent creepiness as a company.
None of my friends have a Meta Quest (or any VR headsets for that matter). On the extremely few occasions the headsets are brought up, all the conversations are the same; “it’s kind of cool but it’s made by Facebook”.
I wonder how many people would be in the market for a relatively cheaper headset like the Meta Quest if it wasn’t a Mark Zuckerberg project
Its a mixed bag. The Pico headsets are around the same price point but at that price point, you are typically paying with your user data as well. Its just a question of who you are giving it to facebook or some random ass Chinese company. While Facebook trying to own "VR" for itself is bad I will at least thank them for making headsets that make it more likely people are willing to dip their feet into VR. While facebook sucks, only having to pay 300 to 400 to get into something you may absolutely hate. They make for great "starter" headsets that you can probably easily find on the 2nd hand market for sub 200. Try out VR on a quest and if you like the concept and feelings of it probably invest more on a better headset. Hopefully we will hear more about Valve's Deckard soon.
Edit: I almost forgot to mention PSVR 2 which is pretty damn good but for 550, I don't think it will have a massive appeal to console games seeing as they are gaming on something funnily worth less than that headset. It being locked to only the PS5 is also a massive penalty against it and there is no news of a fan made driver for it on pc.
They're not just entry level headsets. You can link them to a powerful gaming computer through Steam Link and then they're the equivalent of a $1200 headset from Valve or HTC.
This is what happens when you stop focusing on building immersive VR gaming experiences and go towards mobile quality graphics and stupid metaverse / workplace productivity improvements. When will these companies ever learn to focus on the games? Sony learned it with the PS3, MS with the Xbone, and now Meta.
I am a VR fanatic but even I won't buy a Quest 3 because there's just no quality VR games that make me want to upgrade. The fact that no game has yet matched Half-Life: Alyx in terms of immersiveness is just sad.
You mean the Lone Echo series and Echo VR? Yeah I thoroughly enjoyed those games, but those were released so long ago. Definitely up there with HL: Alyx for me though.
I'm not suprised. On one hand, there wasn't exactly a lot of marketing around it. I didn't even know it was announced until last week, and I follow gaming news and some VR news. On top of this, its an expensive, casual device - the sort of thing a kid will ask for after seeing someone else using it, not something people are lining up day-one to buy. At least something like the Valve Index, for all its disadvantages, very clearly targets enthusiasts who will go out of their way to seek out newer or better products. If Valve decided to release a Valve Index 2 (or for a more direct comparison, a Valve Index Pro) I'd be willing to bet their day-one numbers would look better, even if their overall market is much smaller.
I had/have the first two quests. But needing a Facebook account was one thing I had to think hard about when I got it because I wanted to delete my account. With Facebook getting worse and worse it means I have zero desire to get a new one.
And to address the article, I would say it isn't that interest in VR is decreasing, people don't want meta VR or anything tied to Zuckerberg. I would love a valve index personally, just need to wait to afford it.
Lol what did they even expect... Their VR team has to be dysfunctional in some way. Like my quest2 somehow got worse after a new upgrade. They added these stupid ass cartoon arms (which cannot be disabled!!) and also your headset is used as a controller after your controllers idle for 5 minutes, which became a huge pain in the ass when watching movies. (Also can't be disabled btw)
Idc about all that Facebook shit (although it'll be way nicer to not have it), but everything about the quest except the hardware is just so fucking stupid. I have way higher expectation on Apple's device... Say what you want about them, but they don't have braindead product design (most of the time hehe)
And you can't reject an update. They won't even let you use your headset if there's an update available. I haven't used mine in months because every time I try to use it the battery is dead, then once I get it charged it needs an update, and by the time that's done I don't have any time left.
Hahahah fr... Like all I want is to play some simple games (eleven vr for example) and watch movies. Why tf you gotta add all these extra bs. But I guess that's just them as a company. Rift S is so much easier to use
Omg I thought I was the only one who hated the arms. Nothing worse than putting down your controllers on the table and then having those stupid arms spaz out around your screen as it tries to resolve how your hand could possibly be in that position.
I totally agree. Each firmware upgrade has just made my Quest 2 worse and worse.
When's the last time you heard the word metaverse? Love all the companies that tried to immediately follow, assuming it was going to be a thing. They're probably on to AI now.
So the complaint is that sales are not as large as the inflated projections. Have these clowns in three piece suits even tried their shitshow of a product?
a lot of people suffers from motion sickness, and that totally ruins the experience
most of the software is unispired shit or just bad games. I've tried a parkour game for example (don't remember the name) and it was absolutely crap, it was impossible to do what you wanted, because controls just didn't work how they should
Yeah... I tried the htc vive back when it came out and the experience was incredible but ultimately there's not much it can do other than be a cool experience. Maybe vr will find its footing one day but it's a really hard thing to get right
I mean, the VR hype from a few years ago has mostly tapered off. Meta clinged onto it for quite a while with their Metaverse idea, but even they seem to have given up on it earlier this year, as LLMs stole the last bit of spotlight they had.
And the PS VR 2 launched earlier this year, too, was generally well-regarded from a hardware viewpoint, but the lack of hype means there's still not terribly many games being released for it.
It also is an expensive investment and people aren't exactly flush with money, thanks to inflation + countermeasures. So, if there is a chance, they buy this headset and no games get released for it, many people will hold off on that.
I think we’re still YEARS away from this tech taking off. It’s too expensive, it’s too bulky, and it’s not powerful enough.
I think the Apple Vision headset will be the first meaningful step forward since the CV1, and even that is just one step on a journey that could take another decade.
Personally, I have no trouble believing that. Thing is, these companies' investors don't really benefit from long-term plans. So, if it does not pay out in the next two or so years, I expect them to scrap that endeavour altogether.
I just find it weird that Apple decided to jump on that train now, but it's also possible that they started development at the peak of the hype and finished only just now.