If you’ve waited until July 2024 to buy a Meta Quest 2 – nearly four years after its launch under the Oculus Quest 2 name – then you might be about to miss your chance, as the official Meta.com store is out of stock. However, it’s likely yet another sign that the Meta Quest 3S is ready to launch soon.
If you live in the US or Australia (or some of the other countries we checked, including Canada, France, and South Korea) instead of a blue “Add to bag” icon under the wildly popular Quest 2 VR headset, you’ll see a gray “Out of stock” notification instead. At the time of publishing it is still available in the UK, but only the cheapest £199.99 128GB Quest 2 can be bought – the pricier 256GB model is unavailable.
Even at third-party stores such as Amazon and Walmart most of the Quest 2s being sold appear to be from non-official resellers – at inflated, non RRP prices – suggesting stock is running dry everywhere. Again, a few bastions remain in select regions (such as the UK) but soon you won’t be able to buy a new Meta Quest 2 anywhere.
This is hardly the most shocking twist. The Meta Quest 3 is nearly a year old, and with Quest 3-exclusive software set to launch soon such as Batman: Arkham Shadow it’s not a surprise that Meta would want to phase out the older model so people instead buy the new headset.
However, the price gap between the new and older Meta Quest headsets is significant – a fact that makes VR less accessible now that the Quest 2 is going away.
Even ignoring the Meta Quest 2’s recent (phenomenally low) $199.99 / £199.99 / AU$359.99 price, its launch price of $299 / £299 / AU$479 is roughly 40% less than the Meta Quest 3’s official $499 / £479 / AU$799 price. While we think the Quest 3 is great value for money and worth that higher cost – we gave it five-stars in our review – $499 / £479 / AU$799 isn’t as budget-friendly a price as its predecessor.
That’s where a Meta Quest 3S comes in.
This Meta headset – twice leaked by Meta itself – will be more affordable than the Quest 3 with specs and a design that blend the new model with the Quest 2; so expect a Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2, dual 1,832 x 1,920 pixel per eye displays, and a bulky body at a cheaper price of hopefully $399 / £399 / AU$639 or less – though nothing has been officially confirmed.
With Meta Connect 2024 landing on September 25 and 26, we’re hoping we’ll hear something about the Meta Quest 3S there – which all signs point to. So if you’re looking to buy your first VR headset, a Quest gadget is the way to go. But even with cheap Quest 2 stock dwindling, we still think the best course of action is to wait for the Quest 3S to be announced. We shouldn’t be waiting for much longer.
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hamish.hector@futurenet.com (Hamish Hector)
