The latest software update for Meta Quest, version v54, is now rolling out, bringing with it a few new quality-of-life features, such as new customization options for Home environments, in-headset app notifications, and better tracking for Quest Pro’s controller.
Customizable skyboxes let you change the sky above your head in your Home space, so you can choose from a number of presets, or even upload your own skybox to get the perfect atmosphere. Meta says its goal is to make Home Environments more personalized and customizable in the future.
The update also introduces in-headset notifications for 2D apps, such as Messenger, letting users interact with these apps without leaving their current game or app.
Meta says you’ll also be able to consolidate messages from the same source to streamline your notification feed, toggle a ‘Do Not Disturb’ mode, or disable notifications entirely for specific 2D apps. App notification are an opt-in feature that should prompt the first time you open a compatible app, so you won’t just start randomly receiving stuff, which is reassuring.
Additionally, Meta says v54 has improved Quest Touch Pro controller to enhance positional accuracy. Meta says these updates are gradually rolling out to all headsets.
Virtual Desktop has collaborated with Qualcomm to integrate the company’s Snapdragon Game Super Resolution, a software enhancement squarely targeted at increasing the wireless streaming quality and latency of PC visuals to Quest 2 and Pico devices.
Virtual Desktop is a great tool not only because it provides standalone headset users wireless access to their computers, but because its developer, Guy Godin, is constantly adding in new features to tempt users away from using built-in solutions, e.g. Air Link.
That’s a tall order since built-in stuff like Air Link are typically free and usually pretty great, letting Quest and Pico users connect to their VR-ready PCs to play games like Half-Life: Alyx, but Virtual Desktop goes a few steps further. With its PC native application developed for high quality wireless streaming, you can do things like cycle through multiple physical monitors and even connect to up to four separate computers—a feature set you probably won’t see on the Air Link change log.
Now Godin has worked with Qualcomm to integrate the company’s Snapdragon Game Super Resolution for built-in upscaling, essentially creating higher resolution images from lower resolution inputs so it can be served up to standalone headsets in higher fidelity. Check out the results below:
Because producing clearer visuals with fewer resources is the name of the game, Qualcomm says in a blog post that its techniques can also reduce wireless bandwidth, system pressure, memory, and provide power requirements.
Godin says in a Reddit post that the new upscaling works with “Potato, Low, Medium quality (up to 120fps) and High (up to 90fps), and it upscales to Ultra resolution under the hood. It can work with SSW enabled as well and doesn’t introduce any additional latency.”
You can get Virtual Desktop on Quest over at the Quest Store, priced at $20. It’s also available on Pico Neo 3 and Pico 4, and will also soon arrive on Vive Focus 3 and XR Elite too, Godin says.
Update (10: 30 ET): Guy Godin reached out to Road to VR to correct that the new Snapdragon Game Super Resolution is available on Quest, Pico, and will soon come to Vive Focus 3 and XR Elite. We’ve included that in the body of the article.
Meta today announced it’s lowering the price of the 256GB version of Quest 2 as well as its more recent enthusiast-grade standalone, Meta Quest Pro.
Meta initially launched a 64GB and 256GB variants of Quest 2 in late 2020 for $300 and $400 respectively. A 128GB version was introduced in 2021, which replaced the 64GB version. To stave off rising costs, the company announced in July 2022 that it was raising the price of Quest 2 128GB and 256GB variants to $400 and $500 respectively.
Starting March 5th, Meta is now again restructuring its Quest 2 pricing by bringing the 256GB Meta Quest 2 from its current price of $500 to $430. Notably, the 128GB version of Quest 2 is staying at the same $400 price point.
Quest 2 (left), Quest Pro (right) | Photo by Road to VR
Meta Quest Pro is also seeing a price reduction on March 5th, bringing it from its $1,500 launch price to $1,000.
Meta says in a blogpost that pricing changes to Meta Quest 2 (256GB) will also update across Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, and the UK.
Quest Pro’s price will take effect US and Canada on March 5th, and March 15th in all of the other countries mentioned above.
The news of the Quest 2 and Quest Pro price change comes days after a report dropped from The Verge citing an internal memo on the company’s future roadmap.
A Quest Pro successor is also planned, but may come “way out in the future” after Ventura is released in 2024, the report maintained. Meanwhile, the company has sold 20 million Quest 2 headsets, however user retention has been a battle.
Provided the report is true, it seems the company is shaking up its pricing tiers to better entice Quest 2-owning enthusiasts into Quest Pro before it drops the more powerful Quest 3 later this year. Making the Quest 2 more accessible now will also make the “slightly more expensive” Quest 3 appear more attractive to users looking to upgrade then, and not now to the Quest Pro.
What are your thoughts on the new pricing strategy? Let us know in the comments below!
Not ready to plonk down your first $100 on Quest 2 games? Thankfully there’s an impressive number of free games, experiences, apps, and social VR platforms to keep you playing before you’re paying.
We have however included App Lab games. If you want to see more, SideQuest’s search function is a great resource for finding free stuff and demos. Below you’ll find some of the top App Lab games in addition to those hosted on the official store.
Free Games
Blaston
This shooting game just went free-to-play, letting you take on friends, family and foes head-to-head in 1v1 dueling action. Refine your loadout and jump into the action as you scramble for weapons and send a volley of hellfire as your enemies, all the while Matrix dodging through this innovative bullet hell meets futuristic dueling title. Spend money on cosmetics, or don’t: it’s a massive slice of fun any which way.
There aren’t a ton of free-to-play shooters out there that promise multiplayer action, however Gun Raiders fits the bill with its multiple game modes that let you jetpack through the air, climbing from wall to wall, and shoot down the competition. There’s the same sort of microtransactions you see in bigger games, but it they’re all avatar skin stuff, so no pay-to-win here.
Ultimechs should look pretty familiar: it’s basically Rocket League, but instead of driving around in cars, you’re given rocket-powered fists to punch balls into the goal. Online multiplayer includes both 1v1 and 2v2 matches, offering up tons of opportunities to earn cosmetic gear that will let you outfit your battle mech into something unique. There are also now two paid battle passes too, offering up a ton of cosmetics to set you apart from the competition.
Battle Talent is one of those fighting sims that let you go ham on ragdoll baddies, which in this case are wily goblins and loads of skelingtons. This physics-based roguelite action game lets you climb, run and slide your way through levels as you slash, shoot, and wield magic against your foes.
From the studio that brought you the award-winning puzzle game, I Expect You to Die, comes the room-scale mixed reality experience Home Sweet Home, which offers up a new way to defuse potentially lethal situations, and all in the comforting backdrop of your own living room thanks to Quest 2’s passthrough mixed reality function.
Ever wanted to play Counter-Strike on Quest? Pavlov Shack offers up a pretty comparable experience, as you play in either deathmatch or co-op mode. It’s got all of the realistic gunplay and much of the fun of the paid PC VR title, but it’s still going strong with a free open beta on Quest.
Zero-g sports aren’t possible unless you’re stationed on the ISS, and even then you probably shouldn’t muck about. In this fast-paced game of ultimate frisbee-meets-hockey-meets-whatever you’ll launch at speed to the goal, evade the opposing team and chuck your Tron-style frisbee-thing for the win. Remember: you can smash your opponent in the face, but please follow the same suggestions mentioned in Gorilla Tag above.
Freshly launched into open beta, this 4v4 arena-scale shooter requires space and Quest 2 (or Quest Pro) owning buddies—both of which you may not have. Still, it makes for an incredible time that is basically the best version of laser tag you’ve ever played. You’ll need SideQuest to download this one since it disables Quest’s guardian system, but it’s well worth jumping through the hoops to get working if you have everything else.
This humble game of tag has taken both SideQuest and App Lab by storm with its infectious gameplay, and it’s now made its way to the official store. You’ll be lumbering around a tree-lined arena using its unique grab-the-world locomotion style that lets you amble around like a great ape. Chase the other apes and infect them or climb for your life as the infected chase you. Pure and simple. Make sure you’re far from TVs, furniture, babies, and pets because you will punch something in the mad dash for sweet, low-poly freedom.
No real cash gambling here, but PokerStars VR not only let you go all-in on games of Texas Hold’em, but now a full casino’s worth of table games a machines that are sure to light up the dopamine starved pleasure centers of your brain. It’s all free play, so you won’t be risking real cash unless you buy in-game chips, which cannot be turned back into real money: it’s only to keep your bankroll flush for free play.
Gym Class – Basketball is the solution if you’re looking to shoot some hoops and dunk like you probably can’t on a physical court. Online multiplayer lets you go head-to-head for a pretty convincing game of b-ball thanks to the game’s physics-based and full-body kinematics.
This plucky roguelite dungeon crawler is still in beta (still!), but there’s a reason it’s become an App Lab favorite. Explore a vast dungeon to explore, housing plenty of baddies just asking for the steel of your sword, knives, and arrows. You’ll climb over deep pits, dodge lethal traps, and search for hidden treasures. Smash all the pots and crates you can before it officially launches on Quest sometime in the near future.
Would-be wizards, this is your time to shine. Explore a magical laboratory and take on the job of apprentice wizard. The lab is full of gadgets and magical stuff to mess around with; as one of the games that natively supports Quest’s hand tracking, you can put your controllers down and get experimenting with this little slice of the dark arts.
Since the recent Fishin’ Buddies update, this classic VR title has gotten a whole new lease on life as a multiplayer VR fishing game that lets you sit back and crack a cold one with the boys as you reel in the big’uns. The additional social areas also let you sit back between your fishing adventures to take part in casual mini-games.
Without a doubt one of the most fun, and most expansive VR titles out there… and it’s free. Sure, you can pay real cash for in-game tokens to buy spiffy clothes for your avatar, but that’s really up to you. Gads of mini-games await you in both first-party creations such as the ever so popular co-op Quests—that could be games in their own right—to user-created stuff that will keep your pocket book gathering dust. It’s social VR, so meet people and have a ball for zero dollarydoos. Fair warning: there’s a ton of kids.
If you’ve been anywhere near the Internet in the last few years, it’s likely you’ve already heard about VRChat, the user-generated social VR space filled with… well… everything you can imagine, re-pro games included like Among Us, Mario Kart, and even a version of Beat Saber. Fashion your own avatar or download the millions of user-generated avatars out there so you can embody SpongeBob, Kirito from Sword Art Online, or any one of the million anime girl avatars that you’re bound to see there.
Horizon Worlds is still taking baby steps, although recent efforts have brought more tools and user-generated content to the platform which has rounded out things to make it more competitive with Rec Room and VRChat. You may want to check in just to see the state of Meta’s first-party VR social platform—and then check right out again—but at the price of ‘free’, you may just find an environment or community you really gel with, which is the whole reason behind social VR in the first place.
We’re keeping an eye on the best Oculus Quest 2 Black Friday & Cyber Monday 2022 deals, don’t blink or you might miss the best Quest 2 sale of the year!
Updated – November 25th, 2022
The Best Oculus Quest 2 Black Friday & Cyber Monday 2022 Sales
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:
Oculus Quest 2 (128GB) – $400
Oculus Quest 2 (256GB) – $500
Oculus Quest 2 (64GB) – discontinued (don’t pay $300 for this model!)
Oculus 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)
Oculus Quest 2 Content Compatibility
Without being plugged into a computer, Quest 2 can only play games from the Oculus 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 2022 Game Sales
Meta is kicking off the Black Friday & Cyber Monday shopping season with seven Quest game bundles and a big sale on more than 80 individual games. If you already own any of the games in a given bundle, the price will be reduced accordingly.
