Meta Quest Pro and Quest 2 are now cheaper, permanently.
Generous offering? Or cunning tactic?
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That’s right, folks, despite only releasing back in October of 2022, Meta has already cut the price of the Quest Pro from $1500 to $1000. Additionally, the Quest 2 has also received a $70 price cut, almost reversing the price increase we saw last year, though this only affects the 256GB SKU.
Meta Quest Pro VR headset
Chipset
Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2+
Storage
256GB
RAM
12GB
Display resolution
1832 x 1920 per-eye
Battery Life
1-2 hours
Weight
1.59lbs/0.72kg
When the Quest Pro released on October 25th, reviews were generally great, with a lot of praise going to the AR integrations and slimmer design than the Meta Quest 2.
However, there was a pretty sizeable elephant in the room: The price. At $1500/£1499/€1799, the cost was far higher than other standalone VR headsets. it was 3 times higher than the Meta Quest Pro and PICO 4 VR, for example.
Meta Quest 2
Chipset
Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2
Storage
128GB/256GB
RAM
6GB
Display resolution
1832 x 1920 per-eye
Battery Life
3 hours
Weight
1.1lbs/0.53kg
This made for a very hard-to-swallow price tag, which understandably put a lot of people off. When we reported on the price, we theorized that it was due to Meta wanting the Quest Pro to be more of a business/enterprise device.
It certainly seemed that way too, with a large proportion of the official announcement concentrating on co-working and office applications. Of course, $1500 is far more tenable for a business than it is for a single consumer, tax write-offs notwithstanding.
Now, though, as per the subject of this article, the change in price has had a strong affect on the value of the Meta Quest Pro. This means that a lot of people will be reconsidering a purchase. However, why did Meta drop the Quest Pro price now? What gives?
Why Meta dropped the price of the Quest Pro and Quest 2
We hasten to add that this is just our theories, and we haven’t had any official comment from meta on the subject. That being said, the timing of this price drop is very convenient.
Regular readers of the website will know that we’ve been preparing extensive coverage of the Vive XR Elite ahead of its release, and during our research to write the pages, it became clear that it might be a Quest Pro killer, offering very similar specs and reported capabilities, while being about $300 cheaper than the Quest Pro.
At least it was, until Meta decided to drop the Meta Quest Pro price by $500, undercutting the Vive XR Elite price by $100, just a few short days before the XR Elite’s release date. Well acquainted with sneaky corporate tactics, this can’t be a coincidence.
This is a well-considered move by meta to make folks rethink their Vive XR Elite pre orders. Though, it might also help with lacklustre growth in Meta’s VR division, indeed the VR section of the company lost $14bn in 2022 according to gamesindustry.biz.
So, we think that the Quest Pro and Quest 2 price drops are a tactic to kill two birds with one stone: undercut the Vive XR Elite just before release, and quickly recoup some of what they lost by lowering the price of their most popular products to more enticing prices.
Will it work? Well, no company is going to release date on pre order, sales, or cancellations, unless they are notably strong, so, we don’t know yet. However, we do know, that HTC are probably starting to sweat.
HTC Vive XR Elite VR headset
Chipset
Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2
Storage
128GB
RAM
12GB
Display resolution
1920 x 1920 per-eye
Battery Life
Up to 2 hours, comes with a hot-swappable 26.6Wh Battery
Weight
1.37lbs/0.62kg