On March 29, 2022, CNN+, CNN’s take on a video streaming service, debuted. On April 28, 2022, it shuttered, making it the fastest shutdown of any launched streaming service. Despite that discouraging superlative, CNN has plans for another subscription-based video streaming platform, Financial Times (FT) reported on Wednesday.
Mark Thompson, who took CNN’s helm in August 2023, over a year after CNN+’s demise, spoke with FT about evolving the company. The publication reported that Thompson is “working on plans for a digital subscription streaming service.” The executive told the publication that a digital subscription, including digital content streaming, is “a serious possibility,” adding, “no decisions had been made, but I think it’s quite likely that we’ll end up there.”
CNN++, or whatever a new CNN streaming package might be named, would not just be another CNN+, per Thompson.
“We’ll know in a few years time if we’re beginning to make progress, even if that still doesn’t look like it because of the aggregation of declining platforms and growing ones,” he said, requesting patience regarding the next chapter in CNN streaming.
Thompson noted that success “won’t happen overnight,” which suggests a slow timeline.
CNN+’s short ride
Thompson told FT that CNN+ was “a big, bold experiment which was abandoned rather briskly.”
Company executives discussed plans for a CNN streaming service as early as December 2020, and in May 2021, employees learned that CNN+ was happening, Deadline reported. By July 2021, CNN confirmed the plans publicly.
But under a year later, CNN+ was no longer available, with the closure largely viewed as a casualty of parent company WarnerMedia merging with Discovery to form Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) 10 days after CNN+’s launch. The merger meant CNN now had a parent company that already owned the Discovery+ streaming service and HBO Max; it also had interest in merging Discovery content with that of HBO. In August 2022, a few months after CNN+ closed, WBD announced Max as its flagship streaming service, merging what was formerly HBO Max with Discovery+.
“In a complex streaming market, consumers want simplicity and an all-in[-one] service which provides a better experience and more value than stand-alone offerings,” Discovery’s streaming boss J.B. Perrette said in statement regarding CNN+’s closure.
CNN+ accrued high-profile news anchors, and in its three weeks of availability, it had an estimated subscriber count of 100,000–150,000, according to Variety, which reported that the early figure put the streaming service on track for year-one quotas. However, CNBC later reported that daily viewership was just around 4,000, citing an anonymous source.
In an internal meeting, Perrette showed “frustration” that CNN moved forward with CNN+’s rollout despite its parent company’s merger plans, according to CNN. Perrette reportedly told employees that “some of this was avoidable.” CNN’s report noted that during the merger process, Discovery executives were not legally allowed to communicate with CNN executives.
CNN+’s 29-day existence makes it the shortest-lived streaming service. It took the record from Quibi, which launched in April 8, 2020, and announced on October 21, 2020, that it was throwing in the towel (Roku eventually bought Quibi for cheap).
But even with all that background, startup Channel 1‘s vision of a near-future where AI-generated avatars read you the news was a bit of a shock to the system. The company’s recent proof-of-concept “showcase” newscast reveals just how far AI-generated videos of humans have come in a short time and how those realistic avatars could shake up a lot more than just the job market for talking heads.
“…the newscasters have been changed to protect the innocent”
See the highest quality AI footage in the world.
🤯 – Our generated anchors deliver stories that are informative, heartfelt and entertaining.
To be clear, Channel 1 isn’t trying to fool people with “deepfakes” of existing news anchors or anything like that. In the first few seconds of its sample newscast, it identifies its talking heads as a “team of AI-generated reporters.” A few seconds later, one of those talking heads explains further: “You can hear us and see our lips moving, but no one was recorded saying what we’re all saying. I’m powered by sophisticated systems behind the scenes.”
Even with those kinds of warnings, I found I had to constantly remind myself that the “people” I was watching deliver the news here were only “based on real people who have been compensated for use of their likeness,” as Deadline reports (how much they were compensated will probably be of great concern to actors who recently went on strike in part over the issue of AI likenesses). Everything from the lip-syncing to the intonations to subtle gestures and body movements of these Channel 1 anchors gives an eerily convincing presentation of a real newscaster talking into the camera.
Sure, if you look closely, there are a few telltale anomalies that expose these reporters as computer creations—slight video distortions around the mouth, say, or overly repetitive hand gestures, or a nonsensical word emphasis choice. But those signs are so small that they would be easy to miss at a casual glance or on a small screen like that on a phone.
In other words, human-looking AI avatars now seem well on their way to climbing out of the uncanny valley, at least when it comes to news anchors who sit at a desk or stand still in front of a green screen. Channel 1 investor Adam Mosam told Deadline it “has gotten to a place where it’s comfortable to watch,” and I have to say I agree.
A Channel 1 clip shows how its system can make video sources appear to speak a different language.
The same technology can be applied to on-the-scene news videos as well. About eight minutes into the sample newscast, Channel 1 shows a video of a European tropical storm victim describing the wreckage in French. Then it shows an AI-generated version of the same footage with the source speaking perfect English, using a facsimile of his original voice and artificial lipsync placed over his mouth.
Without the on-screen warning that this was “AI generated Language: Translated from French,” it would be easy to believe that the video was of an American expatriate rather than a native French speaker. And the effect is much more dramatic than the usual TV news practice of having an unseen interpreter speak over the footage.
One of the co-creators of Thumper (2016), an acclaimed rhythm action game that eventually got VR support, has announced a new VR-first game called Thrasher with some totally unique-looking gameplay.
While Thumper was a flatscreen game first with an eventual VR mode, the upcoming Thrasher will be the reverse—Thrasher is being built with motion controls in mind and will launch first as a VR-only game on Quest and PC VR next year, with a flatscreen version coming at some point further down the road.
It’s a bit hard to tell exactly how the gameplay will work from the initial trailer, so here’s some context going in:
THRASHER is a mind-melting cosmic racer and an essential audiovisual experience. Swoop, dash and thrash across the void, taking on wild bosses in a race for survival that begins at the dawn of time.
Immerse yourself in a dazzling adventure across space, where music, visuals and gameplay mesh into one transcendent experience.
Thrasher is being developed by indie studio Puddle, which is comprised of Thumper co-creator Brian Gibson and Mike Mandel (Rock Band VR, Fuser, Fantasia: Music Evolved).
From what we gather, players will guide the ‘eel’ around using their motion controller, almost like waving a ribbon around on the end of a stick. It doesn’t sound exactly like a rhythm game proper, but something of an audio-visual extravaganza.
We love seeing creative VR gameplay and Thrasher certainly looks intriguing!
LEGO Bricktales may not be a VR-native, as it was first released on flatscreen last year, but this Quest-exclusive port makes a pretty solid case that lego brick-building not only works in VR, but is something anyone can do for hours on end—even in the face of a pretty kid-focused story.
LEGO Bricktales Details:
Available On: Quest 2/3/Pro Reviewed On: Quest 3 Release Date: December 7th, 2023 Price: $30 Developer: ClockStone STUDIO Publisher: Thunderful Publishing AB
Gameplay
LEGO Bricktales isn’t just a big box of lego in VR where you can go wild—there is a sandbox mode for each bespoke puzzle, however no ‘free for all’ blank sandbox space to build whatever you want. The emphasis with Bricktales is definitely on building all sorts of functional things with one-off lego sets, such as bridges, furniture, statues and more, and doing it amid some classic RPG worldbuilding that includes a ton of linear quests and puzzles to solve.
The kid-friendly story will have you spending a lot of time engaging with characters via text-based dialogue and figuring out how to help out each of the little inhabitants in the world, all of which (if it matters to you) comes with zero combat.
Image captured by Road to VR
After all, you’re here to help restore the world by fixing things, and making everyone happy so you can… for some reason… fix your grandpa’s theme park with the power of happiness. Ok, that part is a little clunky, but it’s all in the name of honest, squeaky-clean fun that’s hard knock.
So, Bricktales is family-friendly fun, and it’s been largely admired for its light puzzling elements thanks to its clever block-building function. But how does that translate to VR? I would say surprisingly well—and that’s despite the inherent lack of tactility. When you’re prompted to build a model, you’re transported to a building space where you can grab pieces from a pre-set pile that you’ll need to attach to specific starting points. The objective below is to build a bridge from the blue arrow to the flag. Build it too wobbly, and it won’t past the stability test, making you reassess your design before going back to the world map.
Image captured by Road to VR
While picking up and using fiddly little pieces sounds like a nightmare in VR, the digital lego pieces thankfully only go in one specific orientation, so snapping them into place is satisfying, and rarely ends in a miss. Browsing pieces with the tips of your controllers, which are blue orb-like cursors, you can pick up blocks, place them, and highlight to remove pieces from models. To snap them into a different orientation, you can either physically move the piece, or hold it and use the right joystick to change positions.
The only thing missing really is a quick reset button for when you’ve completely screwed up a model, which instead requires you to dismantle and throw lego bricks off the map to reset them into their little hoppers. That’s pretty tedious, especially if you want to build something from the ground up again.
There are a good array of puzzle styles ranging from bridge builder-style affairs, like the one above, to fulfilling one-off tasks, like constructing a perfectly balanced perch for a giant bird or building a racecar. Watch out though, because you can’t just plop down whatever you want. Each building prompt comes with a few prerequisites. Here’s how a typical puzzle might go for a little helicopter you need to build:
Attach the seat
Attach the rotor on top
Reach the finish line
Nothing may break
Image courtesy ClockStone Studio
From there, you can build anything your imagination can handle (within the translucent wire cage), or equally just stick to the bare bones task to get past the hurdle. While none of the tasks are particularly hard (on flatscreen the game is suggested for kids 8+), all of them are gratifying in their own way, as they typically provide enough decorative pieces so you can not only build something functional, but embellish it with plenty of flair.
While fun in spurts, Bricktales also undoubtedly relies a ton on the cute factor of its little lego dioramas, all of which feel true to life. You can’t resize maps, which can either float in your living room thanks to mixed reality, or float in an unobtrusive skybox when played purely in VR. You can however twist and turn maps to get a better view for hidden pathways and so many easter eggs that you’ll be obligated to come back after the story is done, if only to see why that weird tree-man needs 20 chameleons. Seriously? Is what is he going to do with them??
Ok, as far as reasons for searching around the entire game for collectible extras goes, that’s fairly obtuse. Still, the “rated for ‘E’ everyone” age rating definitely means it’s geared towards kids, but snappy enough for adults to play too. Beware though, it’s not going to be the most engaging story, albeit harmless enough to act as sufficient narrative scaffolding that took me around six hours to complete. That’s just the story mode, so you can spend a lot more time rebuilding models and searching out the game’s many (many) collectibles, avatar skins, etc.
Image captured by Road to VR
One of the definite misses with LEGO Bricktales is the lack of a dedicated sandbox. You can unlock a sandbox mode once you complete a bespoke construction spot. This lets you improve your model and also build with a growable selection of bricks from different biomes you explore along the way, but the true ‘sit down and build whatever’ feature would be great when you’re just looking to completely space out and build something of your own design.
Immersion
As you’d imagine, the whole word is made of lego, which is just so damn charming on its own. As a slightly-modified VR port of the flatscreen version, much of the praise you’ll find out there for Bricktales is also true here, but visually the Quest version has a definite leg-up on monitor versions. There’s something about the density of detail in the little dioramas that feels like really playing a game from the future.
Image captured by Road to VR
Both Quest Pro and Quest 3 have color passthrough, which can be more immersive than playing in straight VR, which features a pretty innocuous skybox. On the spectrum of gimmick to absolutely essential though, the mixed reality in Bricktales is much closer to the gimmick side of things, as it’s just a plain passthrough and no real mixed reality implementation that would make it more immersive (i.e. logo dudes knowing where you couch is or busting through your walls). Still, it’s a pretty great gimmick, considering the little lego pieces are all accurately sized to their real-world counterparts. It’s difficult to at least marvel once or twice that you’re remote-controlling a little lego dude on your living room floor.
That said, there are less VR-specific interactions than I would have hoped, as most of the time you’re hunched over at the model controlling your dude like an RC car with your left thumbstick. Here’s the only other ‘immersive’ control scheme in the game: a rotary valve that can turn things like statues, water valves, etc.
Substantively, the only other VR-specific adaptation from the original is your wrist-worn UI which clumsily lets you toggle through specific powers, leave the map to return to the overworld, and go through regular menu stuff.
Comfort
My first instinct was to hunch over and play the game like some sort of demigod looking over my little realm. The game is super approachable, and is designed for long playsessions, however it’s easy to lock into bad neck and back positions. Because VR headsets add extra weight that your neck has to overcompensate for, hunching over to play will fatigue your more quickly than doing the same action without the headset.
Granted, you can dynamically reposition the map to your liking at any point, so it’s more of a warning for players than a flaw as such. Otherwise, LEGO Bricktales is a very comfortable VR game since it lacks any sort of artificial locomotion, presenting you with an entirely static space.
‘LEGO Bricktales’ Comfort Settings – December 6th, 2023
IPD stands for interpupillary distance—which simply means the distance between the center of your eyes. It’s important to know your IPD when it comes to VR and AR headsets because headsets can be adjusted to match your IPD for optimal image quality and comfort. Knowing your IPD is important for understanding which headsets are most suitable for your eyes. Luckily you can easily and automatically measure your IPD if you have a recent iPhone or iPad Pro, or use one of several simple measurement methods.
EyeMeasure is a free iOS app which uses the TrueDepth camera on recent iPhone and iPad Pro models to measure your IPD. Developer Dotty Digital claims the measurement is accurate within 0.5mm. Once you use the app the “far” IPD measurement is the one you’ll use when configuring your headset.
You can use the app to measure your IPD with the following iOS devices:
If you don’t have access to one of the above devices for an automatic measurement, here’s other ways you can measure your IPD.
Ask Your Eye Doctor (most accurate)
The most accurate IPD measurement you’ll be able to get is from an eye-doctor. If you’ve been to one since you’ve reached your adult size, your doctor should have an accurate measurement on file; give them a call and ask if they can provide your IPD measurement in millimeters. If you’re younger than 20 and it’s been more than a year since you saw the eye-doctor, you may want to get a check-up to make sure you have an up-to-date measurement.
Online IPD Measure Tool (easiest)
You can measure your IPD with a browser-based tool like this one from Ace & Tate. This will work through your browser on your computer or smartphone. You’ll be asked to upload a photo of yourself holding any standard-sized magnetic strip card (ie: credit card or drivers license) which will be used to establish the correct scale for the measurement.
Use a Mirror (accurate but you need a ruler)
With a ruler and a mirror you can easily measure your IPD. Our friend Oliver Kreylos offers these simple instructions, along with a more detailed breakdown.
Stand in front of a mirror and hold a ruler up to your nose, such that the measuring edge runs directly underneath both your pupils.
Close your right eye and look directly at your left eye. Move the ruler such that the “0” mark appears directly underneath the center of your left pupil. Try to keep the ruler still for the next step.
Close your left eye and look directly at your right eye. The mark directly underneath the center of your right pupil is your inter-pupillary distance.
Ask a Friend (but you need a ruler… and a friend)
Are you a vampire with no need for mirrors in your home? Ask a friend with a steady hand to hold a ruler directly under your eyes. Look straight forward at a distant object and ask your friend to align the “0” mark with the center of one pupil and then read the measurement under the center of your other pupil. That measurement is your IPD.
This is also an ideal way to measure the IPD of a VR novice to which you’re demoing VR.
Eyeball It (when you’re in a pinch)
This option may be the most error prone, but it’s probably better than nothing if you just need a quick and dirty alignment; it only works with headsets that have a physical IPD adjustment.
While inside the headset, close your non-dominant eye. With your dominant eye open, look at a sharp recognizable texture like text or the flat edge of an object. Begin adjusting the IPD setting back and forth to slowly find the position of maximum sharpness. This should get you in the ballpark of your ideal IPD setting. We would not recommend trying this exercise with both eyes open because it’s easier to misalign your IPD when using both eyes.
Thanks to Allan Hambrick who shared this method in the comments!
Why Correctly Setting Your IPD is Important in a VR or AR Headset
Tricking our brains into believing we’re seeing another reality starts by feeding our eyes imagery which closely matches how we perceive the real world. That means making sure the images are correctly aligned with each eye, just like adjusting the width on a pair of binoculars.
Since we always see the real world from the perspective of or own IPD, correct alignment in a headset is important for matching our ingrained sense of 3D depth and scale. If the IPD of your headset is incorrectly set, the scale of the virtual world will appear to be slightly incorrect.
Even if a given headset doesn’t have a physical IPD adjustment, most headsets have a software IPD adjustment which can correct the sense of scale. In both cases you’ll need to know your own IPD measurement to set this properly.
Setting the correct IPD is also very important for maximizing image quality in VR and AR headsets.
Most headsets have lenses and displays which are designed to achieve maximum clarity and field of view when seen through the ‘optical center’ of the lens (this is also called the ‘sweet spot’). If the center of your eyes don’t align with the optical center of the lenses, you won’t get that maximum clarity and field of view; depending upon the lens, such misalignment can lead to a surprising reduction in visual quality.
Luckily, many headsets have physical IPD adjustments which allow you to change the distance between the lenses to align your eyes with the optical center of the lenses. All major headsets with physical IPD adjustments have digital readouts in millimeters that display inside the headset which you can use to match to your own IPD.
In summary, knowing your IPD and setting it correctly is important for achieving the best visual experience and comfort in any headset. And if your measured IPD is an outlier, you should make sure your headset of choice can accommodate your IPD; a headset with a physical IPD adjustment will support a much wider range of IPD measurements.
Steam VR Fest is in full swing, offering deep discounts on PC VR titles that may just give you another pretty valid reason to stay indoors this winter.
While you won’t be able to nab Half-Life: Alyx (2020) on the cheap this time around, there are a host of top games on sale to buy or gift to a friend for the holiday season.
That’s great news if you have a PC VR headset, but even greater news if you have a VR-ready PC and Meta Quest thanks to the new dedicated Steam Link App which makes playing Steam games on Quest even easier.
Valve highlighted some immersive games in the latest VR Fest hype video, although there are a ton more on sale to check out. Here’s some of the standout titles on sale from now until December 11th.
Valve today released its first-ever application on one of Meta’s VR platforms. Steam Link allows users to quickly and easily connect their Quest headset wirelessly to SteamVR to play PC VR or flatscreen PC content.
Oculus Link / Air Link has for years allowed any Quest headset to connect to a PC to play PC VR content, but it requires users to install and use the long-outdated Oculus PC software. In many cases, that ends up just being a bothersome extra step to finally ending up at SteamVR which has a much more active library of VR apps and users.
To streamline this process, Valve today released the Steam Link app on the main Quest store (which means it has been given Meta’s official blessing). Using Steam Link, the app makes it dead simple to connect Quest directly to SteamVR without the Oculus PC software as a middle layer.
All you need to do is have a capable PC running Steam on the same network as your headset. Then launch the Steam Link app in your Quest and you’ll be greeted with a pairing code. Enter the code on your PC and… voila, you’re looking at your SteamVR library.
And it isn’t just PC VR games—you can also play any game from your Steam library on a big screen in front of you. Again, this has all been possible before, but Steam Link makes the process easier than ever.
To use Steam Link, Valve says the minimum requirements are:
Wi-Fi: 5 GHz minimum, wired connection to PC
GPUs: NVIDIA (GTX970 or better)
OS: Windows 10 or newer
Headset: Meta Quest 2, 3, or Pro
There’s indications that Steam Link on Quest may also support eye-tracking and face-tracking for those using Oculus Pro, but we haven’t had a chancre to test it just yet.
Varjo just announced its latest headset, the XR-4, and while the company is primarily continuing to target high-end enterprise use-cases, this is the first headset in their ‘XR’ series that they will sell directly to consumers and without a hefty annual fee that was once required to use the headset.
The new Varjo XR-4 is the latest headset from the company that has focused on creating the highest-fidelity tethered headset on the market. While the headset’s $4,000 price tag is surely targeting high-end enterprise use-cases, for the handful of prosumers out there who have cash to burn, XR-4 is actually the cheapest of the company’s enterprise-positioned headsets yet. It’s also the first of Varjo’s XR-series headsets that the company will sell directly to consumers and without a required annual fee.
While XR-4 has its own inside-out tracking system, the company is also making a variant of the headset which ties it into the SteamVR Tracking ecosystem (as its prior headsets once relied upon).
Unfortunately it’ll bring the price of the base variant of the headset up by another $1,000. Varjo has confirmed that this variant of XR-4 can switch back and forth between SteamVR Tracking and the headset’s own inside-out tracking.
It’s potentially also possible to eschew the $1,000 addition and instead add SteamVR Tracking to the base variant of XR-4 by attaching something like the Tundra Tracker and configuring it to represent the position of the headset. Though this will take a few extra steps compared to having SteamVR Tracking built right in.
Meta paused shipments of its Elite Strap with Battery for Quest 3 amid widespread user reports of a charging fault that renders the battery useless. Meta says it’s now manufacturing new battery straps that fixes the defect, and that replacements are being handled on a case-by-case basis.
We reported earlier this month that the Elite Strap with Battery was facing serious reliability issues among its users. For some, the $130 accessory, which provides around two hours of extra playtime and better ergonomics than the stock strap, simply refused to charge Quest 3 after a certain point, rendering it largely an expensive counterweight.
At the time, Meta Support told Road to VR that replacing faulty units with a fresh one “may not necessarily resolve the problem,” which ostensibly pointed either to a hardware fault or an issue with the Elite Battery Strap’s firmware.
Quest 3 Elite Strap with Battery | Image courtesy Meta
A Meta spokesperson has now confirmed with Road to VR that it has temporarily paused sales of the device while it manufactures new ones without the fault, which the company says was indeed related to the device’s firmware.
Meta says it’s not recalling the device as such, but rather replacing affected units on a case-by-case basis, and that it’s working with retailer partners to stock new units “as soon as possible.”
In the meantime, official Meta retail partners Target and Best Buy have completely removed listings for the device. Listings are still available on a few retailers, including Amazon and directly through Meta, albeit marked as ‘out of stock’ with no indication when new stock will ship. We’ve reached out to several major retailers for a quote on availability, and will update this article when/if we hear back.
For now, you may still find the odd Elite Strap with Battery for Quest 3 still on the store shelves at places such as Best Buy, although some Reddit users have reported being unable to actually buy units in-person as late as last week, as stores weren’t allowed to sell them. Until new stock arrives, users should be aware they potentially have a faulty unit.
That said, many users haven’t experienced the fault at all, so it’s still not clear what behavior can set it off. Whatever the case, US consumers have a one-year warranty to replace Meta devices, while EU consumers have two years to do so. If you have issues with your Elite Strap with Battery for Quest 3, the company suggests reaching out to Meta Support for troubleshooting and/or replacement.
This isn’t the first time Meta faced manufacturing issues with the Elite Strap line. Released for Quest 2 in 2020, both the Elite Strap and Elite Strap with Battery suffered premature breakage due to design issues that caused the device’s plastic struts to spontaneously crack. Meta extended the warranty of both Elite Strap variants once it unpaused sales in late 2020, or around two months after the company initially halted shipments of faulty units.
Black Friday is almost always when we see the best deals of the year on VR headsets and 2023 is no exception when it comes to HTC. The company is offering a big Black Friday sale on Vive headsets and accessories.
Updated – November 24th, 2023
The Best HTC Vive Headset Black Friday & Cyber Monday 2023 Sales
Vive XR Elite | Image courtesy HTC
Vive XR Elite
The best Vive XR Elite Black Friday & Cyber Monday 2023 sale so far is $870 from Amazon.
That’s a $100 (9%) discount over what you’d normally pay.
Image courtesy HTC
Vive Pro 2 (Full Kit)
The best Vive Pro 2 (Full Kit) Black Friday & Cyber Monday 2023 sale so far is $1,000 from Amazon.
That’s a $400 (29%) discount over what you’d normally pay.
Image courtesy HTC
Vive Pro 2 (headset only)
The best Vive Pro 2 (headset only) Black Friday & Cyber Monday 2023 sale so far is $540 from Amazon.
That’s a $260 (36%) discount over what you’d normally pay.
HTC Vive Black Friday & Cyber Monday 2023 Game Sales
This year HTC is offering a 15% discount on monthly subscriptions or 20% discount on annual subscriptions to its Viveport Infinity game platform which offers unlimited access to a large library of PC VR and standalone games. The deal also includes permanent ownership of The Break-In, RUINSMAGUS, and The Last Clockwinder for those signing up for the annual subscription.
We’re on the lookout for the best Meta Quest 3 Black Friday 2023 sales, and Cyber Monday too. Because the headset just launched last month, we don’t expect to see any major deals, however, there are a few offers worth looking at.
Updated – November 20th, 2023
The Best Meta Quest 3 Black Friday & Cyber Monday 2023 Sales
That’s a $15 (3%) discount over what you’d normally pay ($15 worth of game credit that you’ll need to spend anyway). All Quest 3 purchases also include the upcoming game Asgard’s Wrath 2 (normally $60) until January 27th, 2024.
That’s a $25 (4%) discount over what you’d normally pay ($25 worth of game cred that you’ll need to spend anyway).
Meta Quest 3 Price Baseline
It’s important to keep in mind the base price of the headset so you can make an informed decision when purchasing. Without an special discount, the Quest 3 headsets cost the following:
Without being plugged into a computer, Quest 3 can only play games from the Meta Quest library. If you plug the headset into a computer, you’ll have access to everything in the Oculus PC and SteamVR libraries as well. That means that Quest 3 is compatible with the vast majority of top VR content out there, as long as you’ve got a powerful gaming PC to plug the headset into.
Quest 3 Black Friday & Cyber Monday 2023 Game Sales
Meta hasn’t published any Black Friday Quest game bundles or sales just yet, but they do almost every year so we expect to see them soon. Be sure to check back.
We’re keeping an eye on the best Meta Quest 2 Black Friday & Cyber Monday 2023 deals, don’t blink or you might miss the best Quest 2 sale of the year! While we can’t recommend Quest 2 at its full price in 2023, a $100 discount is certainly worth considering if you’re looking for your first taste of VR.
Updated – November 19th, 2023
The Best Meta Quest 2 Black Friday & Cyber Monday 2023 Sales
That’s a $100 (33%) discount over what you’d normally pay ($50 off the headset and $50 worth of games).
If you’d rather get that $50 of store credit elsewhere, you can find the same deal with a $50 gift card to the respective retailer at Target and Newegg.
That’s a $100 (29%) discount over what you’d normally pay ($50 off the headset and $50 worth of games).
If you’d rather get that $50 of store credit elsewhere, you can find the same deal with a $50 gift card to the respective retailer at Target and Newegg.
It’s important to keep in mind the base price of the headset so you can make an informed decision when purchasing. Without an special discount, the Quest 2 headsets cost the following:
Meta Quest 2 (128GB) – $250
Meta Quest 2 (256GB) – $300
Meta Quest 2 (64GB) – discontinued (we don’t recommend this because the storage is so small)
Meta Quest 2 Specs
Resolution
1,832 × 1,920 (3.5MP) per-eye, LCD (1x)
Refresh Rate
60Hz, 72Hz, 80Hz, 90Hz, 120Hz
Optics
Single element Fresnel
Field-of-view (claimed)
96ºH × 96ºV
Optical Adjustments
Stepped IPD, stepped eye-relief (via included spacer)
IPD Adjustment Range
58mm, 63mm, 68mm
Processor
Snapdragon XR2
RAM
6GB
Storage
64GB / 128GB / 256GB
Connectors
USB-C
Weight
503g
Battery Life
2–3 hours
Headset Tracking
Inside-out (no external beacons)
Controller Tracking
Headset-tracked (headset line-of-sight needed)
Expression Tracking
None
On-board cameras
4x external
Input
Touch v3 (AA battery 1x), hand-tracking, voice
Audio
In-headstrap speakers, 3.5mm aux output
Microphone
Yes
Pass-through view
Yes (B&W)
Meta Quest 2 Content Compatibility
Without being plugged into a computer, Quest 2 can only play games from the Meta Quest library. If you plug the headset into a computer, you’ll have access to everything in the Oculus PC and SteamVR libraries as well. That means that Quest 2 is compatible with the vast majority of top VR content out there, as long as you’ve got a powerful gaming PC to plug the headset into.
Quest 2 Black Friday & Cyber Monday 2023 Game Sales
Meta hasn’t published any Black Friday Quest game bundles or sales just yet, but they do almost every year so we expect to see them soon. Be sure to check back.
