Despite the debacle of the plans for the Metaverse, It seems that Meta continues to bet on virtual reality and, therefore, on Quest, its VR headset division, something that wasn’t so obvious late last year. Let us remember that in October of last year, the company’s results presentation was a huge blow, and also confirmation that the excessive commitment to its virtual world, in the current context, was an error of epic dimensions. We already said it at the time, in the medium and long term it could have a long run, but in the short term, it was going downhill without brakes.
As a result of the economic collapse, Meta was forced to undertake a harsh process of cuts, which affected employees, departments and projects. Thus, for example, we learned that the company was giving up its smartwatch project, something that they had been working on for a long time, and that with the right dedication could have become an interesting option for consumers. Perhaps at some point they will resume it but, at least for the moment, we will not know.
To this situation, we must add the setback, in reference to the image, which meant the departure of john carmack of the company. Recall that the co-creator of Doom and father of Quake became Oculus VT’s CTO in August 2013, a year before this company was acquired by Meta (then Facebook). From then until December of last year, he was one of the main managers of the company’s VR area. Thus, his departure seemed to be another worrisome sign for the Quest family.
However, a few weeks ago the company presented Quest 3, a mixed reality viewer with which Meta intends to compete with the Apple Vision Pro. Perhaps knowing that those from Cupertino are committed to that market, even if it is with a proposal that is quite different from what has been seen so far, has made them consider that it has more travel than one might think a few months ago.
And today we know of another novelty, also very interesting. As we can read on his official blog, Meta has announced Meta Quest+, a VR video game subscription service for its viewers. With a monthly fee of 7.99 euros, or an annual fee of 59.99 euros, subscribers will have access to two new titles each month, which will be added to their library permanently, as long as they maintain their subscription to the service.
This proposal is quite far from that of Xbox Game Pass, and It looks much more inspired by the PlayStation Plus model before Sony’s service evolved., precisely, to look more like Microsoft’s. Meta Quest+ could, in other conditions, become an extra element for those people who are considering the acquisition of a VR headset. However, the fact that at least in this first phase it is so limited in terms of what it offers makes it less attractive, at least in my opinion. And it’s a shame, because a slightly more ambitious proposal and with the same price could make a big difference and accelerate the adoption of virtual reality.
