{"id":626677,"date":"2025-12-11T17:23:15","date_gmt":"2025-12-11T17:23:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/626677\/"},"modified":"2025-12-11T17:23:15","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T17:23:15","slug":"meta-reportedly-set-to-raise-vr-headset-prices-keep-existing-devices-in-market-longer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/626677\/","title":{"rendered":"Meta Reportedly Set to Raise VR Headset Prices, Keep Existing Devices in Market Longer"},"content":{"rendered":"

Meta appears to be planning to raise the price of its VR headsets moving forward, according to a recent internal memo, which company leaders hope will combat rising costs. Meta may also be retiring the Quest 3 and 3S line a little later than expected.<\/p>\n

The News<\/p>\n

As reported by Business Insider<\/a>, a December 4th memo from metaverse leaders Gabriel Aul and Ryan Cairns notified employees that Meta has \u201cmade a shift\u201d in its VR efforts which could include price increases to combat costs associated with tariffs, as well as keep existing hardware in the market for longer.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur devices will be more premium in price going forward, but we\u2019ll have a healthier business to anchor on and free ourselves from feeling existential about any singular device\u2019s success,\u201d Aul and Cairns\u2019 memo reads.<\/p>\n

The memo, which thus far has only been viewed by Business Insider, also includes a call for high-quality software experiences meant to match the \u201cexcellence\u201d of its devices. Additionally, Aul and Cairns\u2019 said Meta will \u201cship new hardware at a slower cadence going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re committed to VR for the long-haul so we need to align our business model and roadmap to an approach that will make this possible,\u201d the memo says. \u201cWe\u2019ve been working hard to bend the curve and accelerate ahead of the category\u2019s natural growth rate, which means running multiple programs in parallel as well as carrying costs like tariffs and subsidies for content, GTM, and devices.\u201d<\/p>\n

Notably, the memo also included info on a critical delay of a puck-tethered XR headset<\/a>, and a new Quest headset which is set to be a \u201clarge upgrade\u201d in capabilities from current devices, and will \u201csignificantly improve unit economics.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meta currently sells Quest 3, starting at $500, and Quest 3S, starting at $300\u2014the latter of which is currently on sale for $250<\/a>.<\/p>\n

My Take<\/p>\n

Meta regularly subsidizes Quest in an effort to recoup on software sales, making them technically cheaper than they might otherwise be. It\u2019s a strategy console platform creators have been doing for ages, and it certainly works at getting people through the door.<\/p>\n

But now, it seems we\u2019re headed for another rough patch that Meta needs to navigate if it wants to continue its role as the holder of the most popular VR platform. And above all, I\u2019m curious how Meta will keep serving the entry level user while pushing prices higher. It\u2019s basically stemmed the flow of cash to third-party studios, making platform exclusives few and far between nowadays. And competition is coming from both sides: Google\u2019s Android XR represents a threat to the low end, and Valve\u2019s Steam Frame on the enthusiast end of things.<\/p>\n

While the memo said the next Quest will \u201csignificantly improve unit economics,\u201d I\u2019m afraid that doesn\u2019t really mean much since it didn\u2019t come with a supporting statement. Relative to what? Previous pricing estimations? Current prices?<\/p>\n

Anyway, Meta could hike prices in a number of ways we\u2019ll be watching out for in the coming year: Quest 3 may get a price bump over its regular $500 MSRP, leaving Quest 3S at the low end. This could keep the flow of new users coming at the regular pace, while effectively only \u201ctaxing\u201d users looking for the technically better headset.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Quest 3S (left), Quest 3 (right) | Images courtesy Meta<\/p>\n

Then again, both headsets may see a modest price bump, which is then teased down in successive sales periods, like it did with Quest 2 when that one was hiked from $300 to $400 following supply chain shock stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic. The company could also equally leave pricing the same, and only apply hikes on forthcoming devices.<\/p>\n

Any which way, I\u2019d expect Meta to attempt to soften price shock with included first-party games (even older ones) and possibly longer free memberships to Horizon+, its monthly game service.<\/p>\n

And whatever the case, it\u2019s pretty clear the Quest 3 platform is going to be around for a while, which means developers will need to keep it in mind even as Meta tries to push better hardware, which could include more powerful chipsets, higher pixel density displays, and stuff like built-in eye-tracking.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Meta appears to be planning to raise the price of its VR headsets moving forward, according to a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":551091,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3162],"tags":[53,16,15,3243,3244],"class_list":{"0":"post-626677","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-virtual-reality","8":"tag-technology","9":"tag-uk","10":"tag-united-kingdom","11":"tag-virtual-reality","12":"tag-vr"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115702098520269520","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=626677"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626677\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/551091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=626677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=626677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=626677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}