With all the talk of VR lately, it’s depressing that Meta has announced it will be dropping support for its original Quest headset.
According to Upload VR, an email from Meta was sent that details the upcoming changes for the Quest 1 headset. While it doesn’t state it, I’d imagine that this email was only sent to Meta Quest 1 owners. These changes include the following:
- No more new features will be extended to the Quest 1, but the company will continue to release security and updates up until 2024.
- Quest 1 users will no longer be able to create or join parties.
- Quest 1 owners will also no longer be able to create or join parties – this one is a huge bummer. Quest 1 users will lose access to Meta Horizon Home social features. You won’t be able to invite others to your Home or visit someone else’s Home.
With the rumors of the Quest 3 circulating on the internet, it’s only a matter of time before Meta officially reveals the new headset. Not to mention that Mark Zuckerberg mentioned in a 2022 interview that there would be a Quest 3, and that it would cost between $300 – $500. It wouldn’t be revealed in 2022, but we’re now in 2023. Honestly, I expected to see it during CES 2023, but that didn’t happen.
With this news, Quest 1 users will find themselves alongside the Oculus Rift, Oculus Rift S, and Oculus Go owners.
The Quest 1 was released on May 21, 2019, and at the time, it was an impressive headset. While it wasn’t as powerful as the Quest Rift S, the ability to play games and do other things without being tethered easily made it the VR headset to own.
In our review of the Quest headset, we stated that ” The Oculus Quest offers a VR experience that sacrifices graphical fidelity, sound, and other technical aspects in exchange for a fully wireless VR solution. The tradeoffs are completely worth it in the end, as the Quest provides an experience almost on par with the Rift for most titles, and any drawbacks are completely overshadowed by the freedom of wireless VR. This is VR for the masses and the future of VR.”
