Meta Platforms – the parent company of Facebook and Instagram – just announced that they will be raising the price of their virtual reality (VR) headset, the Meta Quest 2, due to rising manufacturing and shipping costs.
In a press release published yesterday, the company headed by Mark Zuckerberg told customers that the price of the product will increase to $399.99 and $499.99 for the 128GB and 256GB versions respectively.
In both cases, Meta is hiking the price by $100. However, in percentage terms, the increases are 33.3% and 25% for the 128GB and 256GB models respectively.
Despite citing higher costs as the main reason behind their decision, Meta told customers that the price increase will allow them to keep investing in cutting-edge research so they can keep producing best-in-class hardware for this up-and-coming gaming segment.
“By adjusting the price of Quest 2, we can continue to grow our investment in groundbreaking research and new product development that pushes the VR industry to new heights”. According to the company, users have spent over $1 billion on the apps the platform is currently offering for Meta Quest’s devices.
Meta Platforms’ Ongoing Pivot to the Metaverse Weighs on Its Finances
During the first quarter of 2022, the Reality Labs unit of the business lost $2.96 billion as research and development expenditures have increased dramatically due to Meta’s ongoing pivot to the metaverse.
In addition, the company produced just $695 million in revenue during that same period as most of its products are services are still in an early stage of their development.
To cushion the blow of this price hike, Meta is offering buyers a free download of the Beat Saber VR rhythm game if they purchase the Meta Quest 2 headset from 1 August to 31 December this year and activate the device before 31 January 2023. Users will have 14 days to complete the download after they activate their headset.
Meta Platforms (META) is currently working on the release of a new VR headset coming out of what they call “Project Cambria”. Rumors state that the device will be called Meta Quest Pro and will have a higher price tag of around $1,000 per headset.
Other VR devices competing with the Meta Quest 2 include the Sony PlayStation VR, which works for PlayStation games only, and whose price is listed at around $350 on Amazon. Others are the Valve Index VR headset, the HTC Vive Pro 2, and the HP Reverb G2.
The Metaverse Needs Affordable and Fully-Functional VR Headsets to Thrive
VR headsets will play a key role in luring individuals to the so-called metaverse as they will create first-person experiences in this up-and-coming virtual ecosystem.
In a virtual world, users can do virtually anything going from working to visiting a local bar and hanging out with friends. The more realistic the experience is, the more drawn users will be to this ecosystem, which offers the added bonus of not requiring the user to leave his/her home to meet with others.
During the pandemic, lockdowns and social distancing prevented people from gathering in groups. Many experienced isolation, angst, and felt depressed by this situation. A fully-functional metaverse would have given people a chance to interact with other humans in a safe environment with zero risk of contagion.
The value proposition and practical uses of the metaverse are quite extensive and research points to this industry possibly being worth around $5 trillion by 2030. Companies like Meta Platforms are working hard to become the pioneers while others from the decentralized space – also known as the web3 – are also promoting community-governed projects as is the case of The Sandbox (SAND) and Decentraland (LAND).
Meanwhile, projects like Battle Infinity are developing gaming ecosystems that include augmented reality experiences and many of the elements that make the web3 enticing for gamers such as play-to-earn (P2E) via the commercialization of non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
Battle Infinity’s native token IBAT Is currently in pre-sale and nearly 5,000 BNB have been raised by the developing team to launch this project. The pre-sale is hard capped at 16,500 and investors still have 75 days to research the project and invest in it at an early stage. Find out more about Battle Infinity by visiting their official website.
Other Related Projects:
- Top Play to Earn Games in July 2022
- 10 Best Metaverse Platforms to Play & Invest in 2022
- Best Metaverse Real Estate Projects for July 2022
Battle Infinity - New Metaverse Game
- Listed on PancakeSwap and LBank - battleinfinity.io
- Fantasy Sports Themed Games
- Play to Earn Utility - IBAT Rewards Token
- Powered By Unreal Engine
- Solid Proof Audited, CoinSniper Verified
This article was written for Business 2 Community by Alejandro Arrieche.
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