Meta Quest Pro, Quest 2 Get Price Cut in Select Regions as Company Faces Revenue Drop as Reality Labs Unit

Meta Platforms has slashed prices for its virtual reality headsets in hopes of boosting demand for its VR hardware as its bold bets on the Metaverse have struggled to catch on.

Its flagship Meta Quest Pro will retail for $999 (nearly Rs. 81,700), down from its launch price of $1,499 (nearly Rs. 1.22,500 crore), and the Quest 2,256GB version for $429 (nearly Rs. 35,000) from $499 (nearly Rs. 41,000), chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said in a broadcast in a blog post on Friday.

The company cited lower Quest 2 sales as the reason for the 17% drop in fourth-quarter revenue for its Reality Labs unit, which includes VR-related offerings.

The division lost $13.7 billion (nearly 1.12,000 rupees) last year and over $10 billion (nearly 81,700 rupees) in 2021.

The price drop on the Meta Quest 2 256 GB version will be effective from March 5 in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, South Korea. South, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, UK and USA where Meta Quest Pro will begin price drop from March 5 in US and Canada and March 15 in all other countries where Meta Quest Pro is supported.

Meta is facing heat from investors for putting money into the metaverse that hasn’t reaped the expected benefits.

Late last year, the company launched Quest Pro, positioning it as its most advanced VR headset with capabilities to push use cases further.

Quest Pro, with its outward-facing cameras that capture the 3D live feed of the physical environment and enable new features like the ability to hang virtual paintings on a real-world wall, was aimed at designers, architects and other creative professionals.

Meta has recently softened its stance on the metaverse and is focusing on cost reduction. The company has called 2023 the “year of efficiency” and has planned billions in spending cuts this year.

While VR headsets have recently added more advanced features, adoption outside of the gaming community has been slow.

Last month, Tencent, the world’s largest video game publisher, scrapped plans to get into VR hardware, amid talks to distribute the Meta Quest line of products in China.

© Thomson Reuters 2022