Quest 2’s Price Is Staying At $250 – Is This A Clearance Sale?
Meta is making Quest 2’s $250 holiday offer the official new price.
In mid-November Meta announced that for the rest of the year the 128GB Quest 2 model would be priced at $250 (down from $300) and the 256GB model at $300 (down from $350). But instead of the deal ending today, Meta announced these will now be the official new prices.
Refurbished units are available for even lower, $230 for the 128GB model or $270 for the 256GB model.
Additionally, Meta is cutting the price of five key Quest 2 official accessories:
- Elite Strap: $50 (down from $60)
- Elite Strap with Battery: $90 (down from $120)
- Carrying Case: $45 (down from $60)
- Active Pack: $60 (down from $70)
- Fit Pack: $40 (down from $50)
Quest 2 launched over three years ago at $300 for 64GB or $400 for 256GB. The base model saw a storage bump to 128GB in 2021, but the price of each model was raised to $400 and $500 in 2022, which tanked sales. Last year Meta cut the 256GB model price to $430, and when announcing Quest 3 it cut the 128GB model back to $300 and the 256GB model to $350, lower than it originally launched at.
David Heaney
Quest 2’s new lower pricing may essentially be a clearance sale, however.
A leaked Meta roadmap last year revealed Meta planned to release a new headset after Quest 3 in 2024 “at the most attractive price point in the VR consumer market”. Reports from The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, and a Chinese analyst who has been reliable in the past suggest this headset will replace Quest 2 in Meta’s lineup and feature the new Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 chipset from Quest 3.
XR2 Gen 2 has a more than twice as powerful GPU, which some developers are already using to achieve dramatically better “console quality” graphics. As Quest 3 and the cheaper headset gradually transition the active user base of the standalone VR market to the XR2 Gen 2, developers may put less focus on making their games look good and run well on Quest 2.
So while $230 refurbished or $250 new are very appealing prices for a wireless standalone headset with tracked controllers, we still recommend holding off to see what Meta might announce this year.
