Virtual reality has hardly shone this year. According to figures from CCS Insight, global shipments of VR headsets this year have plunged 12% compared to 2021 (the firm counted 9.6 million devices shipped). These sluggish results are a serious problem for companies that have bet part of their future on virtual and mixed reality: to make the most of these universes, you must indeed have a headset.
Meta, the main proponent of consumer VR, hasn’t really helped turn around headset sales. Not only is the Quest 2 now a few years old (it was released in October 2020), but the company also made a solid price increase last summer.
Meta raises the price of its Quest 2 headset by €100
The only consolation for Meta: on Christmas Day, the Meta Quest app bondi in first place in the ranking of the American App Store, a sign that despite its rising price, the Quest 2 found itself under quite a few trees in the United States (but not elsewhere, the application not even appearing in the top 10 in many countries).
However, that did not prevent sales from plunging 2% in the United States, according to NPD Group. In value, this represents $1.1 billion. And since the Quest 2 is unquestionably the world market leader, this decline in sales must have had an impact on Meta. However, the comparison must be put into perspective: VR had a very good year in 2021, with good sales at Christmas.
2023 is unlikely to show more momentum for VR in general as budgets are tight and prices high. It’s not the Quest Pro at €1,799 which will change a lot. There is the PSVR 2 at Sony expected in Februarybut its market is much more limited than that of the Quest: you need a PlayStation 5 to be able to use it.
The salvation of the market could go through the future mixed reality headset from Apple, but there too it is difficult to speak of a consumer product. The device could indeed cost between $2,000 and $3,000, perhaps even more… These prospects do not bode well for Meta’s investments in the development of its metaverse: it is very expensive for mediocre results, whether at the technical level or even for the few users.
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