Meta, born from Facebook, It may be one of the most influential and ambitious companies in the world, but that doesn’t mean it’s immune to broader economic woes. On the same day, a series of news reports revealed the extent to which Meta has recently tightened its belt, and the company said it was raising the price of its Quest VR headset.
This is a notable update, and the industry generally believes that as technology improves, the price of gadgets will drop. The higher price of one of the world’s most popular VR headsets also creates another potential hurdle for Meta’s quest to get more consumers into virtual reality.
Starting in August, both available configurations of the Meta Quest 2 VR headset will increase by $100. The 128GB model is $400, and the 256GB version is $500.popular free downloads beat saber Normally priced at $30, the game will ship with the headset by the end of the year. That brings the Meta Quest 2 headset closer to the $549 HP Reverb G2 and HTC Vive Pro prices, which start at $599 for the headset alone (without the hand controller).
Meta said through a spokesperson that it has invested billions of dollars in the VR ecosystem and that the company is “adjusting the price of our Meta Quest 2 headset to allow us to continue investing to continue to drive this growing competition. industry moving forward. For consumers and developers alike.”
The Meta Quest price change marks a rethinking of the company’s strategy for the Metaverse as it — and other tech companies — adapt to changes in the advertising market and prepare for a possible recession. Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg made it clear that he sees VR as a long-term investment. Last year, Meta said it planned to invest $10 billion in virtual worlds. The department has been bleeding since then. Meta has spent more than $10 billion on VR in 2021 alone, and in its first-quarter 2022 results, the company reported a loss of nearly $3 billion in its Metaverse division.
IDC researcher Francisco Jeronimo, Shared via Twitter last month Since its initial launch in 2020, Meta has sold nearly 15 million units of the Quest 2, and Meta has managed to grab the vast majority of the VR market. But its dominance may not last forever. While VR shipments are expected to grow this year, with as many as 14 million units likely to be shipped in 2022 alone, ByteDance, Sony and Apple’s headsets are expected to put pressure on Meta, IDC analysts warned.
But at the same time, the $100 price increase for the Quest 2 is unlikely to significantly increase Meta’s profit margins.It may just mean the company is slightly losing money less As it continues to tout its vision for our computing future, it gets funding on a metaverse push.
“Most people expect Meta to lose money on VR and probably break even at some point,” said Anshel Sag, principal analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy. “The problem with this price hike is that people typically expect, When a product has been on the market for so long, it gets a price cut, instead of increasing. This is the most shocking part of it. It goes against the usual consumer electronics trends. He added that the company may still want to offer a discounted version of Meta Quest 2 over the holidays, but the “discounted” price can now be in line with the product’s original pricing.
