Its amazing to think of how much the industry of VR has grown in such a small time. If you told someone prior to the launch of the Quest line of virtual reality headsets that you thought they would hit 20mil units sold, you would have been laughed at for being hopelessly optimistic. Yet, according to Alex Heath on The Verge, Meta has accomplished exactly that.
This piece of information was just one tidbit of the reportedly leaked internal presentation from Meta. Also of note is that the Quest 3, which has been previously referenced by Mark Zuckerberg on podcasts and earnings calls and slated to release this year, will cost "slightly more than $400", it will be 2x thinner, and 2x as powerful. As if we weren't already sold on it.
According to Meta's VP of VR Mark Rabkin, mixed reality will be a big selling point of the device including a "Smart Guardian" to apparently help users navigate the real world in mixed reality. As part of an effort to "get enthusiasts fired up about it" the Quest 3 will launch with 41 new games and apps (Crossing our fingers here for Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas).
Also included in the presentation was a roadmap for upcoming hardware including smart glasses with a neural interface band accessory to go with it to launch in 2025 and apparently a slightly more cost affordable Quest line headset to launch in 2024 codenamed "Ventura".
Like all things not officially confirmed, all of this is subject to change. However, as excited as we already have been for the Quest 3, this has us even more excited for the launch later this year. With 20 million headsets in the wild, the Quest store ecosystem passing $1.5 billion in sales, and new headsets coming, the future looks bright for us fans of VR!
Stay tuned for more discussion of this on Monday's upcoming podcast episode!
