Home Gaming Oculus Quest 2 VR headset to cost $299 and launches next month

Oculus Quest 2 VR headset to cost $299 and launches next month

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PlayStation may have been unveiling all that it has to offer for the next generation of gaming, but it wasn’t the only tech company with new gaming hardware reveals this week. Facebook announced its next-generation update to the popular Oculus Quest headset, which is set to replace both the original Quest and the PC-tethered Rift S (which is being discontinued), taking VR gaming into a brighter future.

Visually the headset does not look too different from the original, though it is both slimmer and lighter than the original. The Quest 2 weighs in at only 503g versus the 571 of the original. It also features a soft cloth head strap instead of a stiff rubber one, and it’s primarily white instead of black. Outside of those subtle differences though it’s still the same self-contained unit that features four tracking cameras on the front, plus has two Oculus Touch Motion Controllers.

As any next-gen enthusiast will tell you though it’s not just about the look of the hardware but more importantly what’s inside that counts and if this device is going to offer us a more immersive experience, it’s going to need to have beefier specs. The Quest 2 does offer that with an upgrade from the Snapdragon 835 to Snapdragon XR2, 6GB RAM up from 4GB RAM and 64GB base storage (though a top of the range model offers 256GB of storage).

According to Facebook, these specs should allow for a higher screen resolution of 1832 x 1920 pixels per eye though at a still sub-optimal 72Hzrefresh rate. The company did reveal that a 90GHz upgrade will be made post-launch, so it might be best to wait for that to happen if you want a truly immersive experience that won’t make you feel too ill if you suffer from motion sickness.

Perhaps what people are most interested in though is the price, and the Oculus quest 2 will set you back $299 when it launches next month in the US. Local pricing and release dates have not been confirmed yet. It’s not a bad price if you haven’t gotten into the VR space, but if you already have a Quest, this is likely not worth the pricing of upgrading, at least not yet. As with all pieces of hardware though, it’s the software that you can run on it that will be the big game changer and it will be interesting to see if the new games designed to run on the Quest 2 can lure people into buying it.

And one game which was able to move many people over to a new piece of hardware back in the day was 1993’s Myst. Original developer Cyan Worlds is adapting its classic adventure game to virtual reality, which will include new art, audio, and interactions, plus a randomized puzzle option for an added challenge. If you’re a fan of the original classic game and want to relive that thrill of navigating its immersive world and solving challenging puzzles this could be the game to make you want to get into VR.

Last Updated: September 18, 2020

2 Comments

  1. Krabby Paddy

    September 18, 2020 at 11:08

    The Real realMyst Masterpiece VR edition

    Reply

  2. Seeker

    September 18, 2020 at 11:08

    Haha! No thanks. It’s infected with the Facebook virus.

    Reply

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