Metaquest 2
Meta may be permanently discontinuing stock of the Meta Quest 2, signaling the end of an era for mainstream virtual reality.
The original Quest headset has also taken another big step towards the digital graveyard.
Meta’s online stores around the world are sold out of Quest 2 stock, with the one notable exception being the UK, where the 128GB model is still available to buy for £199.
The Quest 2 headset has reportedly sold more than 20 million units to date, making it the most popular mainstream VR headset to date; Sony’s original PlayStation VR has sold around 5 million units.
The more important question for existing Quest 2 owners is when support for the 2020 headset actually ends.
In fact, this has already started: several games have been announced for the Quest 3, including Batman: Arkham Shadow and Alien: Rogue Incursion, but none have been announced for the Quest 2 yet.
Meta is likely to implement a fairly hard end of support for the Quest 2 at some point in the future, just like it did with its predecessor. The first Quest end of support was announced in 2023, and on June 29th, 2024, Meta announced an end of hardware support for the headset on August 31st.
“You will be able to download new apps or continue to use existing apps as long as their developers support them. However, if security vulnerabilities are discovered in the future, any personal data stored directly on or accessible from the device may be at risk,” Mehta said in a statement.
These modern VR headsets are certainly a far cry from the consoles of old, but the Quest 2 is likely to enjoy a significantly longer lifetime of support than the original Quest, thanks to its massive user base.
There’s a balance to be struck here: Meta wants to encourage users to upgrade to the new Quest wherever possible, but being too aggressive could result in a significant drop in their overall target audience.
This upgrade may not cost as much as you might think: Meta plans to launch cheaper versions of the Meta Quest 3 later this year, called the Quest 3S or Quest 3 Lite, which won’t include all of the pricey upgrades of the standard Quest 3, but will likely get an upgraded processor and add color pass-through.