VR: Oculus Quest 2 Preorders Reported as Being Five Times the Original

[Raevenlord]

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg confirmed in the company's latest earnings call that their bet on the Oculus purchase and its latest iteration, the Oculus Quest 2, has been developing nicely. The CEO reported that sales of the Oculus Quest 2 hardware have increased fivefold in relation to the original Quest. This is great news for the democratization of VR as whole, and can become the empowerment of a virtuous cycle: more VR users means a higher install base for companies to develop experiences for, and a higher number of high-quality experiences will definitely call more users to the ecosystem. On that note, some VR developers announced that since the Oculus Quest 2 release, they've seen between 800% and 1000% increase in sales.

The Oculus Quest 2 is available for a very palatable $299 - at least considering the historic pricing on VR headsets with the specs and quality this headset affords. Of course, the mandatory Facebook integration may be a hurdle for some users; until Facebook changes their mind on this (which, rest assured, they won't), users who are particularly suspicious of the company's intentions will have to wait for a comparable headset that features no such integration. Another alternative is to resort to other ways - arguably under the "Right to Repair" act - to free themselves from it.



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[Mindweaver]

Another great write-up @Raevenlord ! Any chance you might do one on SideQuest? I can't say enough about it giving users the ability to sideload apk files. It's an unofficial store.

 

[Kohl Baas]

Panem et circenses... And no one cares about privacy and other such nuances...

 

[Chane]

I don't recommend ordering from Oculus direct. My unit came with a dead-pixel and it took two weeks to just get an RMA request going, after I sent the unit back they closed my incident record immediately. In the closing email they said a new unit would be shipped out within the next 12 days, but now i'm just gonna have to wait and see since the record was closed. It's been the worst shop experience ever, should have just bought at a local chain or Amazon.

 

[Mindweaver]

I don't recommend ordering from Oculus direct. My unit came with a dead-pixel and it took two weeks to just get an RMA request going, after I sent the unit back they closed my incident record immediately. In the closing email they said a new unit would be shipped out within the next 12 days, but now i'm just gonna have to wait and see since the record was closed. It's been the worst shop experience ever, should have just bought at a local chain or Amazon.

I have to agree you should have bought it from Amazon, Best Buy, Target, or Walmart. I bought mine from Best Buy and bought the 2 year warranty.

 

[BArms]

I wonder how sales are among VR early adopters, betting they're way down.

 

[Mindweaver]

I wonder how sales are among VR early adopters, betting they're way down.

Why? I'm an early adopter and I bought a Quest 2 on day one, but most hardcore early adopters have bought an Index which is 3x as much price-wise. There still a lot of options if you don't want to buy a Quest 2. You can buy an Index, Pimax, HTC Cosmos all of which can use index controllers, and to add to that you can get an HP Reverb G2. I still enjoy my Rift S,

 

[spnidel]

I wonder how sales are among VR early adopters, betting they're way down.

I sold my oculus rift cv1 and do not intend to get another headset for at least 5 years

 

[Bones]

Not going to say which one it was but the guys at a Gamestop I was at today told me they hadn't sold a single one and customer reaction was "Nah" over FB forcing FB accounts being associated with it.
They said they originally had two and sent both off to other stores and when others customers had asked in detail what the deal was with it and FB, they declined to go further about it.

I believe Zuckerberg is playing it up in the face of reality to make it look good.

 

[Mindweaver]

Not going to say which one it was but the guys at a Gamestop I was at today told me they hadn't sold a single one and customer reaction was "Nah" over FB forcing FB accounts being associated with it.
They said they originally had two and sent both off to other stores and when others customers had asked in detail what the deal was with it and FB, they declined to go further about it.

I believe Zuckerberg is playing it up in the face of reality to make it look good.

Who still buys anything from Gamestop? Go to a bigger store like Best Buy, Walmart, or Target. They seem to be selling pretty well at those stores. I mean I don't doubt what you are saying, but I wouldn't base it totally on the sales of one Gamestop. I mean it's just using their login system. You don't see a FB feed or anything. You don't see any ads to look at in the Quest 2 to report back to FB. It's auto selected to not let any of your friends see which game you are playing (Steam has been showing your friends which games you play for years.). Plus, they have to have a FB HMD to see that information in the Home environment if you choose to let them.

 

[Vayra86]

Who still buys anything from Gamestop? Go to a bigger store like Best Buy, Walmart, or Target. They seem to be selling pretty well at those stores. I mean I don't doubt what you are saying, but I wouldn't base it totally on the sales of one Gamestop. I mean it's just using their login system. You don't see a FB feed or anything. You don't see any ads to look at in the Quest 2 to report back to FB. It's auto selected to not let any of your friends see which game you are playing (Steam has been showing your friends which games you play for years.). Plus, they have to have a FB HMD to see that information in the Home environment if you choose to let them.

You don't see ads. You're the product. They data mine YOU. Not your posts. You. One step closer to Cyberpunk dystopia, it is. One step at a time, so you can cognitive dissonance your way through it.

 

[Mindweaver]

Yeah

You don't see ads. You're the product. They data mine YOU. Not your posts. You. One step closer to Cyberpunk dystopia, it is. One step at a time, so you can cognitive dissonance your way through it.

Yeah no I get it. I'm just saying for anyone that doesn't know that you don't see ads in the Home environment. I really don't want to keep beating this dead horse. I get it you don't like it. I'm just saying this step (the Quest 2) is very early and will probably never do any of the things you are saying. Do you really think we are anywhere close to Cyberpunk in the terms you are speaking of? I'm not asking for an answer to that, it's a rhetorical question. If you don't think your not the product of any other big company product then you are just on a witch hunt for FB.

 

[Vayra86]

Yeah

Yeah no I get it. I'm just saying for anyone that doesn't know that you don't see ads in the Home environment. I really don't want to keep beating this dead horse. I get it you don't like it. I'm just saying this step (the Quest 2) is very early and will probably never do any of the things you are saying. Do you really think we are anywhere close to Cyberpunk in the terms you are speaking of? I'm not asking for an answer to that, it's a rhetorical question. If you don't think your not the product of any other big company product then you are just on a witch hunt for FB.

The question doesn't seem all that rhetorical, because only half a sentence earlier you are denying the very fact... And no, other companies - most of them (!) - don't work like FB does. The only other companies that do, run a similar service: Twitter, for example. You can disagree on that, or deny its existence, but that doesn't change the facts. Note that all of those facts are well documented, reported in the news... and yet, somehow the penny still hasn't dropped.

Yes you get data mined and yes they are that far. That is why they want your login. You obviously still don't get it, despite saying you do. You're plugged in and it seems you prefer staying there so you can play with a fancy HMD. That's fine. But it is what it is. Sorry to rain on that parade... but this is a red/blue pill choice right here, however minor.