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Meta announces price hikes for its VR headsets, and it's doing this worldwide. From 19 April, the Meta Quest 3 and Meta Quest 3S models will be significantly more expensive, which may come as quite a surprise to many gamers, especially as VR is just beginning to gain greater popularity.
VR is getting more expensive and it's the components' fault
The new prices are not symbolic. The Quest 3S in the 128 GB version rises from $300 to $350, the 256 GB model from $400 to $450, and the most powerful Quest 3 (512 GB) jumps all the way to $600. This is a clear signal that the VR market is starting to feel the same issues as the rest of the tech industry. Meta explains the decision with rising production costs, specifically for memory. The increase in component prices, especially for RAM, is hitting hardware manufacturers worldwide. In the case of the Quests, which utilise DDR5 memory and are trying to keep prices affordable, this means a need to raise final costs for users.
Will the competition follow the same path
So far, other players in the VR market, such as Sony and Apple, have not made similar moves. However, if component prices continue to rise, increases may only be a matter of time. Interestingly, Meta continues to emphasise its commitment to VR development, even though its hardware is not among the strongest on the market in terms of specifications. The company clearly focuses on a long-term strategy and regards virtual reality as the future of computing.
Quest price hikes clearly show VR is still evolving, but it’s no longer as cheap as it used to be, and hardware prices will become increasingly dependent on the component market.
source: flatpanelshd.com
