Meta announces big price cuts for its VR headsets
Meta announced a dramatic price drop for its higher-end virtual reality headset, the Quest Pro, and for its Quest 2 headset, rolling out over the coming days.
Aliver
Meta will slash the prices of its Quest 2 and high-end Quest Pro headsets, the company announced Friday.
The price of the 256GB Meta Quest 2 will drop from $499.99 to $429.99, while the price of the higher-end Meta Quest Pro will be slashed to $999.99 from $1,499.99.
Meta lost $13.7 billion on its Reality Labs segment in 2022. That's the business unit responsible for building the company's ambitious metaverse technologies. Reality Labs generated revenue of $727 million in the fourth quarter, and $2.16 billion for all of 2022 — a decline from $2.27 billion in 2021 — including sales of Quest headsets.
The Meta's Quest Pro headset which according to the company has outward-facing cameras that capture the user's physical environment in full color and enable the overlay of virtual elements like 3D models, drawings and screens, is seen in this undated handout picture.
Meta | via Reuters
The Meta Quest Pro was launched in October, but its high price put it out of reach for most consumers. And there didn't seem to be a clear professional use case either. The lower price could make it more attractive to both audiences.
"Our goal has always been to create hardware that's affordable for as many people as possible to take advantage of all that VR has to offer," the company said in a release. The price change will begin rolling out on March 5 for the Meta Quest 2.
U.S. and Canadian buyers will also see the Quest Pro's new price on March 5. Its price will drop for the rest of the world on March 15.
— CNBC's Ari Levy contributed to this report.
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