- Meta is raising prices for its Quest 3 and Quest 3S virtual reality headsets
- The company blamed “significantly” higher costs for the price rises
- Users are disappointed but say the products are still good value for money
The Meta Quest 3 and Meta Quest 3S are phenomenally good virtual reality (VR) headsets — in fact, they’re some of the best VR headsets money can buy. Part of that lies in the strong value for money they represent, but that’s just hit something of a road bump, as Meta has announced it’ll be raising the price of both devices as soon as April 19 — just two days from now.
According to a post on the Meta website, the price increases will affect both the Meta Quest 3 and the Meta Quest 3S in many markets around the world. Meta said the changes have been made because “the cost of building high-performance VR hardware has risen significantly,” with the sky-high cost of memory modules almost certainly the main culprit.
The 128GB model of the Meta Quest 3S will now cost $349.99 / £319.99 / AU$569, while the price of the 256GB edition is rising to $449.99 / £409.99 / AU$729. The 512GB Meta Quest 3, meanwhile, will soon set you back $599.99 / £549.99 / AU$969.
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That’s a significant price escalation across the board. For comparison, buy one of the above headsets today and you’ll pay the following:
- Meta Quest 3S 128GB: $299.99 / £289.99 / AU$499.99
- Meta Quest 3S 256GB: $399.99 / £379.99 / AU$669.99
- Meta Quest 3 512GB: $499.99 / £469.99 / AU$799.99
The Meta Quest 3 is more negatively affected than its more budget Quest 3S sibling, with the former’s price rising by as much as 20% in US dollars.
That’ll be an unwelcome change for VR fans, and with Meta barely giving any notice, there’s not long to pull the trigger if you want to avoid the price hike.
Still a good deal?
Unsurprisingly, many people aren’t happy with the news. Over on Reddit, for example, one user lamented: “That’s too bad, price increases make VR harder to get started in. Hopefully things get better but I wouldn’t hold my breath on Quest 4 coming out soon and/or being as good of a deal as the Quest 3 was.”
Meanwhile, another sarcastically added that the move “Will definitely drive VR adoption along with axing their first party studios.” Other readers expressed little surprise over the change, with user Alarikun saying: “this was inevitable. They were heavily subsidizing the costs of the hardware to try to get more people into VR.”
That said, several users argued that even with the price rises, the Meta Quest series still represents a good deal. One Redditor contended that “while the price increase isn’t fun, it’s still the best value headset out.” That was mirrored by another post, which argued that although the Quest 3 series is “still the best value in VR,” its price change could lead Valve to “release the Frame with a higher cost than expected.”
If you’ve been on the fence about buying a Meta Quest VR headset, now might be the time to make a move. With the RAM crisis still causing misery, today’s prices might be the cheapest you’ll pay for quite some time.
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alexblake.techradar@gmail.com (Alex Blake)
