The Oculus Quest is a unique, standalone Virtual Reality headset, meaning that it does not have to be connected to a high powered PC to run VR games. Since its release in May 2019, it has quickly become popular worldwide, and was even sold out on Amazon for a short time. However, new reports seem to point to a massive decline in production of this next level headset.
Although the Quest is a new stepping stone into the future of VR, it is far from perfect. Because all of the technology has been crammed into the headset, as opposed to being mostly on the PC, the Quest is very front heavy, and will sometimes struggle to run more intense VR games.
Despite this, the headset is very popular, especially among players who are interested in experiencing the world of VR but without a powerful PC, and at an affordable price. But as COVID-19 came into the world, the production of the Quest quickly declined.
According to retailers in the US and UK, the Oculus Quest has been marked 'end of life' or discontinued, with no further shipments expected from Oculus. Even if the Quest is being discontinued, this is not neccessarily bad news for those looking to hop into VR without dropping thousands on a new PC.
Due to a recent decision by Facebook, Oculus' parent company, Oculus will become part of Facebook Reality Labs, and continue makinig their VR technology under a new name. This not only points to a continuation of the standalone VR project, but many rumors have also wandered around the internet, touting a next generation Oculus Quest.
Oculus has officially revealed their new concept designs for a future headset, modeled more after sunglasses than the bulky Rift and Quest. These leaks about the Quest 2 claim that the headset will have more storage and more power for the same price, if not less. This would explain the discontinuation of the Quest, despite its surge in popularity.
Based on the huge success of the Oculus Quest over the past year, a new Oculus headset will likely be the next big thing. Even if reports are true, that the Quest has been discontinued, it was clearly a stepping stone into a larger VR world, for consumers and Oculus alike.
Kieran Mouritsen
Editor, NoobFeed