Oculus Quest 2 is about to get a lot more expensive
The price of the Oculus Quest 2 is set to increase significantly. One of the best VR headsets available will increase in price starting August 1, 2022, ranging from $299 to $399 to $400 to £400 to AU$630 for the 128GB model and $500 to £500 to AU$790 for the 256GB model. You just have a few days left if you want to purchase the Oculus Quest 2 (now officially known as the Meta Quest 2) before it experiences a significant price increase. Meta has warned that the price increase will also apply to refurbished and the best Oculus Quest 2 accessories, which gives you even less reason to buy.
Meta claims that the price increase is required to offset rising operations and development costs despite the phenomenal success its VR technology has seen, with an estimated 15 million Quest 2 headsets sold and over $1 billion spent on Meta Quest apps since launch. This argument is comparable to the one that Amazon made earlier today (July 26) to justify raising the cost of Amazon Prime in the UK and Europe. However, there is a sort of silver lining to every cloud. In this scenario, you can get a free copy of Beat Saber, one of the top Oculus Quest 2 games, valued at $30 (or £23 or AU $47), if you buy a new Quest 2 between August 1 and December 31, 2022.
You must purchase the headset during the specified window of time in addition to activating it before January 31, 2023, using an account that does not already have Beat Saber installed. If you do that, you will have 14 days to purchase and download Beat Saber without paying a dime, though you will still be required to pay for DLC like the Fall Out Boy and Billie Eilish song packs. A console with 256GB of storage was not available when the Quest 2 first went on sale. Instead, the 64GB headset cost $299, £299, or AU $479, while the 128GB model was the more expensive alternative at $399, £399, or $639. About a year ago, Meta changed this by getting rid of the 64GB model, lowering the price of the 128GB model, and adding a new 256GB model.
The main problem with Meta going back to its previous pricing, though, is that there is no longer a $299/£299/AU $479 Quest 2. It’s true that the Quest 2 is still quite affordable compared to competitors in the VR industry (like the Valve Index), but that doesn’t make it any easier to swallow. When you consider gaming as a whole, that is particularly accurate. The full-powered PS5 and Xbox Series X consoles cost $499, £449, and AU $749, respectively, in various places of the world, while the diskless PS5 costs $400, £360, or AU $600, while the Xbox Series S costs $300, £250, or AU $500.