(Bloomberg) — Facebook parent company Meta Platforms Inc. is increasing the price of the company’s Quest 2 virtual reality headsets in the face of higher production costs, making a ticket to the metaverse a bit more expensive.
The Meta Quest 2 headset will cost $400 starting in August, about $100 more than the current 128-gigabyte model. The 256GB model will also increase in price by roughly $100 and will now cost $500. Meta is also raising the prices for accessories and refurbished units, according to a blog post.
“The costs to make and ship our products have been on the rise,” the company said. “By adjusting the price of Quest 2, we can continue to grow our investment in groundbreaking research and new product development that pushes the VR industry to new heights.”
Meta’s Reality Labs, its augmented and virtual reality division, has become a key priority as the company shifts its business toward the metaverse — a group of connected virtual worlds. It’s been a costly undertaking. That division reported an operating loss of $10.2 billion in 2021, and Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg has said that investments in virtual and augmented reality will lead to “significant” losses early on.
Those losses have become more notable given the broader economic slowdown. Meta has been forced to scale back costs, including hiring, as it copes with record inflation in the U.S., supply chain snags caused by the global pandemic and a war in Europe. The challenges have hurt online advertising spending, Meta’s biggest source of revenue.
Earlier this year, Reality Labs pulled back on some projects — including a smartwatch prototype it hoped would compete with Apple Inc.’s Apple Watch — in part because of cost-cutting measures.
Meta is still looking to expand in some areas, though. The company is in talks to potentially acquire AdHawk Microsystems, a startup focused on eye-tracking technology for smart glasses, Bloomberg reported.
In Meta’s blog post announcing the price hike, the company touted its success thus far in virtual reality and said that the increased prices would help the company continue to innovate. Meta also said it will include the VR game Beat Saber along with every new headset purchase.
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