The most important thing in establishing a core user base is consumer trust. That shouldn’t be a deterrent in this case, though, if Meta is looking to build a sustainable ecosystem for Oculus Quest. The user base for the newer system dwarfs that of the original. It’s unclear if the original version, which took time to build hype and which was impossible to get by the time demand really took off, ever managed to sell even 1 million. Reports indicate the Quest 2 may have sold as many as 10 million units at this point. The original Quest doesn’t offer that incentive.
The larger user base of the PS4 and Xbox One also helps justify the cost of releasing games there.
While most developers do that during the early days of a new platform, as we’re seeing with many PS5 and Xbox Series X|S games still coming to PS4 and Xbox One, they generally don’t do so forever. This means that to release games on both platforms, you essentially need to build two versions of the game. While many fans think the build quality on the original Quest was higher, the newer system is undoubtedly more powerful. There are reasons developers are eager to move on from the original Quest. This would be the equivalent of Sony announcing the PlayStation 6 in just a few months and a year from now starting to phase out titles on the PlayStation 5. The Quest was replaced less than a year and a half after hitting the market. If you buy a platform late in its life, you know it’s on the way out, and you’re doing so mainly for its library of titles that already exists. This pattern of consoles generally lasting 4-8 years gives buyers at least an idea of what to expect. Even a system like the Wii U, which was replaced sooner, lasted over four years. In recent decades that’s actually grown longer with the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4, for example, each lasting seven years. For many years a standard console generation was around five years. This sort of turnover, however, more resembles the mobile phone space than it does gaming devices. We can surely expect to see more of this soon.
While for a long time this seemed to be frowned on, it seems the floodgates have opened. After the Fall will be joining them in just a couple of weeks. Since then, though, it’s been joined by Blade & Sorcery: Nomad, Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond, and Lucky’s Tale. Resident Evil 4 became the first fully exclusive release on the platform only a month ago. While for the longest time, the closest thing to an exclusive the Quest 2 had was the Rec Royale mode in Rec Room, that’s quickly changing. The day after the Quest 2’s reveal Chris Jurney, the head of development strategy at Facebook (now Meta), told Upload VR, “ There’s a lot of folks in those devices, and we and developers are super motivated to support those customers.” Nonetheless, the Oculus Quest II soon hit the market.Īt the time, the team behind the Oculus worked to assure fans who had bought the original Quest that they wouldn’t be left behind.
This isn’t the sort of thing most electronic companies simply move on from.
At the time I bought my Quest, it had been on the market for less than a year. There was no way for me to know that less than five months later, a follow-up headset would be announced, releasing the very next month. There is a wide assortment of excellent titles, and while I might wish Oculus ran sales a bit more often, as I often have to choose between the freedom of the Quest or a lower price for the same game on PlayStation VR, I’ve had a great time. While not a perfect product, I’ve had a lot of fun with the Quest. After watching online for a few weeks, though, I was able to get an order in at Best Buy, and by the end of the month, I brought my new system home. Buying one at the time wasn’t easy many people seem to have had the same idea I did, and they were sold out everywhere. I’d enjoyed my PlayStation VR for over a year, and the idea of a headset not forcing me to connect to anything with a cable sounded awesome. In April of 2020, with the pandemic raging and me desperately in need of something to distract myself, I decided to purchase an Oculus Quest.