Meta Quest 3 VR headset announced for this fall

The old Quest 2 is also getting a price cut

Meta has announced a new version of its Quest headset series. The Meta Quest 3 is a new virtual reality (and mixed reality) headset arriving this fall.

The new Quest was announced this morning, ahead of the Meta Quest Gaming Showcase that’s airing today at 10 a.m. PT. Much like its predecessor, the Meta Quest 3 is a wireless VR headset, with a competitive price tag starting at $499 for the 128 GB version.

For upgrades, the Meta Quest 3 is packing a higher resolution display and “pancake optics,” as well as a new Snapdragon chip. The internals should, according to Meta, deliver “more than twice” the graphical performance compared to the Quest 2.

The headset’s mixed reality, through high-fidelity color Passthrough as well as “machine learning”, looks to emphasize that virtual-in-real feeling. Like playing a board game at your table, using the headset and its generated images. Quest 3’s form factor also looks to be a bit slimmer than the previous Quest.

Another quest awaits

That’s not all for Quest news today, though. Alongside the Meta Quest 3 announcement, Meta also announced that the Quest 2 headset is seeing a price drop. On June 4, the 128 GB version will drop to $299.99, while the 256 GB will head to $349.99.

While Meta positions this as making VR more affordable for all, it’s worth noting that Meta hiked these Quest 2 prices last year. So the Quest 2 128 GB is really just returning to its original price point. The Quest 2 and Quest Pro are also getting a software update in the future, which will see upgrades to GPU and CPU performance.

With all these headsets, Meta certainly is building up a lineup of VR tools. Some reports indicate Apple is getting ready to announce its own headset as well, so this announcement does feel like a pre-emptive response to that.

Either way, between all this and the PlayStation VR 2 recently hitting shelves, virtual reality really seems set to keep rolling on in 2023.

Eric Van Allen

Senior News Reporter – While Eric’s been writing about games since 2014, he’s been playing them for a lot longer. Usually found grinding RPG battles, digging into an indie gem, or hanging out around the Limsa Aethryte.

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