Meta has finally revealed its latest headset, Quest 3S. Although it retains some of Quest 2’s flaws, it creates much needed parity in power and features, all at an unbeatable price.

Quest 3S has not only just been formally announced, it’s also right around the corner. Launching on October 15th, this $300 headset is the best place for VR newcomers to start. Check out the Quest 3S announcement details, including a full spec list here.

Quest 3S Visual Experience

As a VR power user who has the fortune of using the best headsets, putting on Quest 3S immediately made me feel like I’d taken a step back to the Quest 2. And for good reason—Quest 3S uses the same display and same lenses as Quest 2.

Fresnel lenses return to Quest 3S, and I can’t say I missed them | Photo by Road to VR

There’s no getting around the fact that the Fresnel lenses in Quest 2 (and now Quest 3S) are worse than the class-leading lenses in Quest 3. It’s not even so much the lower resolution, but mostly the glare and smaller sweet spot—which are almost completely absent on Quest 3—that are so visually reminiscent of Quest 2. These artifacts really impact the clarity of the image coming from the display.

Unfortunately this means that doing basic things in the Horizon OS interface—like navigating through your app library, browsing the web, and playing videos—will look nearly identical on Quest 3S as it does on Quest 2.

Performance

That’s a bummer, but there’s more to the overall visual experience than lenses and resolution—the performance under the hood has a lot to do with how good immersive experiences can look on the headset, and it’s here where Quest 3S has a big advantage over Quest 2.

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Photo by Road to VR

Quest 3S is equal in performance to Quest 3—it uses the same processor, same RAM, and it can play the same games with the same graphical settings. So you might be getting a slightly lower resolution, added glare, and a smaller sweet spot compared to Quest 3, but games will be able to render the same level of detail, number of objects, texture quality, etc, as you’d see on Quest 3.

Moving the Quest Population Forward

And that’s kind of the point of Quest 3S. Meta wants to create parity of both performance and features in the majority of the Quest population, so developers can shift their attention to making content that makes better use of the company’s latest hardware, rather than spending time optimizing for the nearly four year old Quest 2. And bringing down the entry level price is crucial to making that happen.

Photo by Road to VR

A major point of division between Quest 2 and Quest 3 was not just performance but the vast difference in mixed reality capabilities. Quest 2 has a grainy black & white mixed reality view with a resolution of just 4 pixels per-degree. Quest 3S on the other hand has a full-color mixed reality view with 18 pixels per-degree resolution—identical to Quest 3.

At the base level, the improved mixed reality view is a nice convenience, simply because when you put on the headset you have the option to look at the real world around you with reasonably good resolution. This makes a much nicer transition from putting on the headset and sliding into full VR, compared to feeling like you’re wearing a blindfold as soon as you put on the headset.

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Mixed reality content on Quest today is mostly that—a convenience. Even when it comes to mixed reality apps, many are using mixed reality as a simple optional passthrough background or a small add-on mode. But there’s not yet a ‘must play’ mixed reality game.

Photo by Road to VR

But again, that’s in part because the Quest population is still so heavily weighted toward Quest 2. With its inferior mixed reality capabilities—but still significant share of the overall user population—it’s difficult for developers to justify going all-in on made-for-mixed reality apps.

Value Proposition

Starting at $300, Quest 3S has a real chance of changing that. It might be lacking some of Quest 3’s standout improvements, but it’s an incredibly good value for what’s being offered. In fact, even though they both launched with a $300 price point, Quest 3S is technically launching at an even lower price point than Quest 2 considering the inflation that’s happened in the last few years.

Photo by Road to VR

Not only has price come down, value has gone up as well—Horizon OS is still plenty flawed, but it’s much more capable than it was when Quest 2 launched. And the breadth and quality of content in the Horizon OS store has gone up too; those who are new to VR have a lengthy list of worthwhile content to dig into.

And there’s two other improvements over Quest 2. First, the Touch Plus controllers that come with 3S ditch the tracking rings, making them more compact and less likely to bump into each other. And second, Quest 3S has the exact same audio stack as Quest 3, meaning a nice bump in audio quality compared to Quest 2. Quest 3S also supports most of the same accessories as Quest 3.

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– – — – –

At $300, Quest 3S is an unbeatable value as an entry-level headset, and an easy recommendation for brand new VR users or Quest 2 users that don’t want to be left behind.


Disclosure: Meta provided lodging for one Road to VR reporter to attend Meta Connect 2024 where information for this article was gathered.

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Ben is the world's most senior professional analyst solely dedicated to the XR industry, having founded Road to VR in 2011—a year before the Oculus Kickstarter sparked a resurgence that led to the modern XR landscape. He has authored more than 3,000 articles chronicling the evolution of the XR industry over more than a decade. With that unique perspective, Ben has been consistently recognized as one of the most influential voices in XR, giving keynotes and joining panel and podcast discussions at key industry events. He is a self-described "journalist and analyst, not evangelist."
  • ViRGiN

    Valve index vs rift s, quest 1, quest 2, quest pro, quest 3, quest 3s

    yep, keep buying from steam so when you "upgrade" your headset you're not tied to "one" platform.

    • kakek

      Dude, you have to stop. Nobody is talking about Valve here. We're here to talk about VR, and you're just an on anti-valve crusade.

      • ViRGiN

        If you were pro VR, you would be anti-valve.
        Don’t you want more investments into VR?
        Then call out the fat billionaire doing nothing.

        • rabs

          The only result is polluting comments and making the VR community look bad. Great job !

          • ViRGiN

            The other option is to let Gaybens narrate that Meta is ruining VR with it’s mobile headsets. Awesome alternative!

          • Viviana Kastenbauer

            he is the reason why i rarely visit this site anymore…

          • ViRGiN

            Yeah, I hate when people have the freedom to post things I don't like.

  • eadVrim

    If you are new in VR get Q3S, if you had Q2 get the Q3, if you have the Q3 wait for an Oled one.

    • CyberVR

      Totally agree!

    • MentalParadox

      What if I'm a Rift CV1 owner and I want quality above all? I reckon the quality is going to take a nosedive for me no matter what, with losing the tether to the PC (and access to its power)

      • eadVrim

        I had CV1, Quest 3 is better in everything except for comfort and Oled.
        About connexion with PC, Virtual Desktop do a really good job and even wireless.

  • VRDeveloper

    I am very excited for the opportunity to work with this new device. I will focus on launching my game with the best possible graphics exclusively for the Quest 3/S, and I imagine other developers are thinking the same. It’s a big step forward for standalone VR.

    • ViRGiN

      Healthy choice to skip PCVR!

      • VRDeveloper

        Yes! the PCVR is a bit neglected by Valve now days, thats why i dont touch this. Gabe is by far my favorite developer, and knowing his work, I believe that if they release a new VR Headset, it will focus on brain input.

        That’s probably why it’s taking so long, especially since he mentioned this topic three years ago in an interview. We never should underestimate Valve.

        • ViRGiN

          Gayben is resting on his billion dollar yacht collection, like Biden is resting all day long on the beach.
          People always overestimated Valve, and nothing ever came out of it.
          They are file hosting company, not innovators. They aren’t touching VR ever again.

          They said they solved wireless VR in 2017, and we haven’t seen anything out of it.

          • VRdeveloper

            Sorry, but your comment is insane—literally insane. To say that Valve isn’t innovative is to deny the history of video games. They have revolutionized the gaming industry multiple times, and this shows a lack of understanding among players. Valve is not just a gaming company; they’ve always been something beyond that. They only do something if it’s going to be revolutionary and bring something new—that’s their purpose. The same goes for VR; they’ve already shown what can be done with the technology. If we don’t have many games like Half-Life: Alyx, it’s solely our fault, the developers. We are incompetent. It’s not about Valve or anyone else; the issue is the lack of talent interested in VR. Most of the most talented people focus only on already established platforms.

          • ViRGiN

            Not sorry, but your comment is insane—literally insane.

            They made a handful of games early on that are iconic, and started a file hosting service/Steam. It might be influencial, but certainly not innovative. We’ve had dozens, if not hundreds of games bigger than theirs; software digital distribution existed before – they created their walled garden as the only way to play their games; they did pioneer online gambling and casinos with CSGO, which Valve actively supports to addict children and make them spend even more money on colorful camos; handheld PCs were a thing before as well. What does Valve actually innovates on? It’s a boring company that has nothing to do for the past decade with what it was in the 90s/early 2000s. They struck gold with steam and that’s what they’ve been doing ever since.

            Alyx is overhyped game, and it shown that good graphics aren’t everything – the level of interactivity with the world there is hilariously bad. You can’t kill a headcrab with a chair! But you can pick up a bottle and see it’s liquid being affected by gravity. Cool tech demo, nothing more.

          • VRDeveloper

            You're a troll, I can't believe i fall into your bait.. Everything in life has a first time.

          • ViRGiN

            You forgot to mention that infamous valve employee handbook, that would really help to paint Valve in awesome light.

          • Alex Soler

            Yeah, never feed the troll.

          • JakeDunnegan

            I feel joy when I see "content unavailable" (as I do right above your post).

            To think – every time he posts, he makes so many people happy because they DO NOT see his posts? I bet it gives him new meaning in life.

            Anyway, the trick I'm trying to describe, is just go up to his post, find the ellipses (…) and click "block user" and you too can feel that same sweet, sweet sense of joy.

          • Arno van Wingerde

            Well, this has to be the most fanboy like comment I read in years!

            "If we don’t have many games like Half-Life: Alyx, it’s solely our fault, the developers. We are incompetent."
            Well, partly true, acknowledging that Valve really is not doing anything apart from Alyx. What has Valve done but bundle games into a UI? You honestly think this is more than 0.00001% of what Meta has contributed?

          • VRDeveloper

            And at some point did I say anything bad about Meta? Then you call me a fanboy.

            It's funny you talk so much about investment, I know other guys who, like me, are working alone on ambitious projects, and were refused by Meta's investment, just for her to invest more in fitness apps for middle-aged ladies, and "Amazing cartoon simulate work" games, man, don't tell me that this is not revolting either.

            You don't understand Meta's vision, their wet dream is to replace cell phones with glasses, one time or another, they will admit that they feel ashamed of the games division, just look at the pathetic attention that our division received in Meta connect, and they keep talking more about that Horizon World crap than about the platform's own games, which are infinitely better.

          • Arno van Wingerde

            I did not say you are negative about Meta, but I feel you are unduly positive about Valve, together with Christian. Yes, they did great things early on, but lately have been rather inactive – just cashing in the money. Sure, that makes financial sense, it just does not deserve praise.

          • VRDeveloper

            I understand, in fact I may be being very positivist about Valve, because their work is a great reference for me, I will accept your criticism, it is worth rethinking sometimes what we think about companies.

          • Christian Schildwaechter

            I'm all for changing our market economies driven by monetary gains to something more fair, where a single person doesn't end up earning or owning more than whole countries with millions of inhabitants, just because other people speculate on the stock market to turn their money into even more money.

            But I'm not going to money-shame single figure billionaire Gabe Newell and act as if the contributions Valve made to gaming with Steam, and to VR with their early involvement, Index and HL:A, are any less valuable because Newell over 20 years got 1/20th as rich as Zuckerberg by giving gamers something they actually want.

            And with Index controllers to my left, a Steam Deck sitting on the right side of my desk, and Valve attracting over 170K players with early Deadlock builds they release just last month, I don't think "lately has been rather inactive – just cashing in the money" is a fair evaluation. Just like Apple, but unlike Meta, Valve doesn't talk about unfinished projects, but occasionally then releases something great seemingly out of the blue.

          • Hussain X

            "If we don’t have many games like Half-Life: Alyx, it’s solely our fault, the developers. We are incompetent. It’s not about Valve or anyone else; the issue is the lack of talent interested in VR."

            You sound like you're apologising in prayer to infallible Lord Gaben on behalf of mortal players and developers about their sins and weaknesses when it comes to VR.

            I ask why didn't Lord Gaben give just a little of his vast mercy (money) to the developers to solve the VR chicken and egg situation all these years and establish a PCVR platform so talented people can have some hope to earn some bread? It's been 10 years since Oculus was bought by Zuck, and he has been pumping billions to grow VR.

            Or maybe the excuse is because of Valve time, a dimension of time where Lord Gabe resides, where 2 days in the higher dimensions are equivalent 2 years on Earth. So maybe only 10 days have passed in Valve time. So we cannot blame Lord Gaben for the perceived lack of mercy, and not underestimate Gabe and Valve, they're something beyond that. But it is our fault, we remained incompetent after the revelation of Alyx. A miracle will happen again in future, some new revelation, like some brain input that will revolutionise gaming once again like the second coming of The Messiah (which by then many civilisations will have passed… waiting).

          • ViRGiN

            Amen

          • VRDeveloper

            First of all, I loved your comment, and your jokes about what I said are very fair!

            But that doesn’t change the fact that players are dissatisfied with what we’ve been delivering. Overall, players still expect a great game like Half-Life. So my comment reflects reality, whether it’s hard to hear or not. That’s why I study a lot and try to deliver the best possible, and you should do the same. As long as we can’t knock Alyx off the top of the VR best games list, we’ll still be behind, period.

            And I love the work that Meta is doing; if I didn’t, I wouldn’t be making my game for the Meta Quest. But it’s obvious that you assume I’m a fanboy—online, it’s all about the “tribe we support.”

          • Christian Schildwaechter

            As long as we can’t knock Alyx off the top of the VR best games list, we’ll still be behind, period.

            Almost 400 game designers, developers, graphics and voice artists etc. worked on HL:A, 80 of them permanent Valve employees spending ~280 (wo)man years. If the other 320 invested only 10% as much, it adds to 392 years. In VR, only hybrid games like RE8 with 1500 credited had larger teams. AAA development is expensive.

            Unless immortal, a single dev would die long before finishing even a small fraction of HL:A. Without huge budgets, only massive tool improvements will allow creating something similar in scope and quality. Maybe soon all that's needed is "Hey Siri/ChatGPT, make a VR game that's better than Half-Life: Alyx."

            To ever knock Alyx off the top of the VR best games list requires finishing one first. For the sake of sanity I'd set the bar a bit lower, maybe "doesn't crash, fun to play, 4+ ratings on Quest, sells enough to survive", otherwise reality might adjust your expectations much more painfully. Undertale or Stardew Valley by single developers are probably more suitable role models than HL:A, and experiences gained will later help fixing whatever an AI hallucinated.

          • VRDeveloper

            Yes, I'm already an experienced Dev, that is; When I said that "We should overcome Alyx" it is in the sense, of us as industry, large companies

            I'm a mere Indie, I didn't say that sense that you understand. But anyway, never underestimate the power of an Indie made with a lot of effort.

            Boneworks is a great example.

          • ViRGiN

            There is no "vr best games list". There is list of games actually played, and that spot has been taken by $20 gorilla tag on pcvr, and before that, it was all about slashing cubes in rtx4090 through beat saber.

          • VRDeveloper

            There really isn’t a definitive list; my comment is more about public perception. I mean, every time you ask a gamer what the best VR game of all time is, 99% will say it’s Alyx.

            But anyway, I think the important thing is that the topic sparked a large discussion, and we can learn a lot from the diverse opinions here. I really believe we can be more creative and focus on genres other than shooter games. Perhaps that’s an interesting point for reflection that we can take away from this entire discussion. VR needs to appeal more to other genres and explore new approaches.

          • Christian Schildwaechter

            TL;DR: Occasionally the VR community acts like a spoiled child buried by a huge pile of presents, asking "is that everything?"

            I ask why didn't Lord Gaben give just a little of his vast mercy (money) to the developers to solve the VR chicken and egg situation all these years and establish a PCVR platform so talented people can have some hope to earn some bread?

            Because it's not his job to finance you private hobby? Valve did lots of the basic development all consumer HMDs are based on. Valve's Michael Abrash, who came up with the infamous Valve room covered in optical markers, the room scale VR demo that convinced Zuckerberg to even buy Oculus, has now been the chief scientist at Oculus/MRL for the last decade. No Valve, no Meta Quest.

            Palmer Luckey deserves credit for lots of tinkering and finding a way to create a very cheap PCVR HMD from standard parts that triggered a lot of what we have today, but Valve lay many of the foundations and most likely never made their money back. And even if Valve had dropped VR in 2014 after feeling betrayed by Oculus for taking the results of their cooperation, running towards Facebook for the money, using it to hire away their chief scientist and then opening a competing software store, we'd still owe them.

            It's been 10 years since Oculus was bought by Zuck, and he has been pumping billions to grow VR.

            I'm regularly astonished by the level of entitlement in VR. Instead of recognizing that we are extremely lucky that the power interests of a couple of tech giants cause so much market distortion that VR got pushed with billions it didn't earn and won't make back, people just assume that this is normal and demand more. News flash: it is not at all normal that every VR user has access to very expensive to develop hardware for a small fraction of the price that it would cost if this was a healthy market with companies relying on at least small profits instead of a trillion dollar company gamble.

            – All the AAA studios should release VR games, despite AAA budgets so high that they would never make any money. Because they are somehow obliged to jumpstart the VR market.

            – All the VR HMD manufacturers should release HMDs that are competitive to Quest, but offer extra features for not much more money. Despite Meta reports of losing billions at MRL. Because losing money -> ??? -> Profit!!!

            – All the mobile HMDs should use Horizon OS, so current users can run the games they already paid for. Despite app sales being the remaining option to make money in a market flooded with Meta HMDs sold at production price, and Meta forcing all Horizon OS users onto their app store, funneling all the money towards them. Because this is a revolution, only traitors do it for the money.

            – All VR developers should support the Quest 3 with updated graphics for the benefit of those who upgraded their hardware. Despite games usually sell the most in the first few weeks after launch, making it very hard to recoup later additions through new sales. Because "I already paid for it".

            – All VR games should come with PC level graphics and extended campaigns, because if Red Matter 2 can do that for a very specific game design or Asgard's Wrath with tons of Meta money can do it, it can't be that hard. Despite most VR teams being very small as low game sales still make VR development a high risk with mostly financial failures. Because "get good".

            VR Community: I want …
            VR Companies: Okay, but are you willing to pay for it?
            VR Community: That's not my problem, and you should be grateful for this opportunity, because future VR users will make you rich. It's not my job to figure this out, or my fault that you are too incompetent to grow the market to where you wouldn't lose money. Just give me my stuff.

          • VRDeveloper

            I Agree with everything, that's how a conversation between adults should be.

            People can't stand hearing authentic opinions nowadays.

          • ViRGiN

            Wow, you're a troll. You're a troll because you said something i dont agree with. Stop trolling.

          • Hussain X

            You are coming from the "spoilt child" and "level of entitlement in VR" angle.

            The thing is I agree with everything you said about it. Meta pumping billions does worry me too about what will happen in future as monopoly is no good for anyone. Competition is needed for a healthy market. I am not saying because Meta has done it so should other companies come out with similar hardware or software offerings. Whether it's HTC and Viveport, Epic store, even Pico as well as game developers. I do not demand of them to be like MetaMeta's offerings

            UntilUntil, until we are talking about Valve. Then I use Meta as an example against Valve but not coming from a spoilt child, high entitlement angle.

            The issue with Valve is the vast amounts of money it takes out of the gaming industry from its 30% cut of other developer efforts just for hosting some files. If it reinvested some of it back into gaming, I'd be ok. But it doesn't. It's just taken out. Like a government taxing you but doesn't spend it to benefit tax payers but just pays itself a huge salary.
            Then on top Valve gets praised unnecessarily. Even worse when VR gamers praise, prioritise and spend on Steam, who then not does not appreciate them by giving VR a chance to grow by spending some of the profits to fund VR software and hardware. It makes lots of 'money off others' games but doesn't want to return some to help VR. Then gets praised as if it's special.

            Note: I had to cut reply short as it's becoming a pain as buggy software keeps messing up words and I have to keep re-editing. Was going to comment about the initial work Valve did etc as well as clarify further it's not about entitlement/spoilt and that I just wanted PCVR to grow and how Steam PC gaming monopoly almost killed PCVR.

          • Christian Schildwaechter

            TL;DR: more competition would be better; Steam's dominance causes people to massively overestimate how large Valve is, while their actual size makes their accomplishments even more impressive; Meta has one to two magnitudes larger income, staff, value, revenue, they can do a lot more

            I agree that Valve's dominant role is far from ideal, and Valve introduced the 30% tax that Apple, Google and Meta simply copied because it was already "established". This might have been a reasonable amount in the beginning, because they had to build a lot of infrastructure, acquire new users and provide service from limited revenue. But over time these platforms get more automized and cheaper to run, with the operation costs spread over more users, so 30% to cover the cost after a few years turn into mostly direct profit these platforms make due to their almost monopolistic position.

            I still give Valve a lot more credit, because their position is "earned" by service and user choice, while others enforce their monopoly through binding licenses. Epic used Fortnite money to open their own store and give out expensive presents, but people still stick to Steam, and not due to prices, but for the reviews, Steam workshop, achievements, friend lists and many small comfort features. There are still a ton of complaints about Steam, but of all the PC game stores, it is the least horrible one.

            And regarding what Valve should give back to VR: Valve has 336 employees (2021), Meta 67K (2023), down from 86K (2022), so Meta is currently 200 times the size of Valve.
            Meta generated USD134bn in revenue (2023), compared to est. USD 13bn total/USD 10bn from Steam from Valve (2022), so about ten times more. Fortnite alone generates about USD 5bn in revenue for Epic each year, Game pass is expected to do the same for Microsoft by 2025, up from USD 2bn a few years ago.

            Revenue isn't earnings, so if Valve had absolutely no operational or other costs, Steam would generated USD 3bn from the 30% as profit. In reality they actually have to pay the 336 people, lots of contractors, offices, larger games pay less than 30%, and hosting and distribution tens of thousands of games also requires money. So Valve might have USD 1-2bn max per year they can actually spend for whatever, probably much less. Meta's net income for 2023 was USD 39.1bn, so at least 20-40 times more. And right now, Meta's market capitalization is USD 1,437bn, compared to est. USD 7.7bn value for Valve, making Meta 187 times more valuable.

            No doubt Steam makes a lot of money for Valve and Gabe Newell, but Steam's dominance in PC gaming causes people to vastly overestimate how big or powerful the company is. Of those 336 employees, 35 are administration, 41 hardware developers, 79 work on Steam and 181 are developing and maintaining Valve's games. That is not a lot, and they rely heavily on contractors for many things. MRL alone had 10,000 people (30x Valve), all working on XR related subjects.

            If you compare Valve and Meta by number of people and available resources, it is quite amazing that they had this level of impact on VR, released their own VR HMD, considered the best for a long time, a ground breaking VR game that is still considered state of the art and blueprint for VR interaction, with 393 people in the credits, so more people than Valve's whole staff. And more recently they shipped the Steam Deck to great reviews with excellent price performance ratio, also pushing gaming on Linux and most likely the base for an expected Deckard HMD that will arrive "soon in Valve time".

            So while I share your concerns about missing competition, I think that the praise Valve gets is both earned, given the resources they have compared to much larger companies, and also necessary to point out to others how to do it right.

          • Arno van Wingerde

            Christian, I think your comments are typically worthwhile – if somewhat long! – but I disagree with your line of thinking here: Steam generates about 3 bn, versus Meta's 40 bn. Most of Steam's income is netto, because salaries for 336 people and hardware would not cost much compared to the income. Contractors maybe more expensive but even so, I would guess nett income for Steam to be >2 bn, say about 5% of Meta so I would go with 1:20 versus 1:200 based on the nett income versus number of people as you do above.
            Per $ nett profit valve has 1/10 of the number of people that meta has, exactly because they prefer to pile their cash, rather than help develop stuff. I think you give them too much credit based on past performance and not enough criticism based on their greedy business model.

  • ApocalypseShadow

    Depends on how you look at it. If you never had a stand alone headset, it's a good deal with mixed reality capabilities. You can play the latest games and have similar mixed reality experiences.

    Looking at it from another way, I have the Quest 3. This is going the other way. It's offering an inferior product instead of lowering the price of entry over time of the main product like most electronic products have for decades. Product releases, multiple units are made and sold, manufacturing gets better and cost comes down for that product. Meaning Quest 3 should be dropping to $449 after a year leading eventually to $399 and so on.

    It's still going to sell. But products should be improving and reducing in price. Not degrading the experience after offering a better version. Then dropping a newer one like it's a great deal. This is more like Quest 2.5 than a Quest 3.5. Quest 2 development should have stopped like a year or two ago. With developers pushed to make Quest 3 only games to get a development kit. It's the Quest 2 effect lingering around even longer than it should have.

    The Quest 2 effect has affected graphics for VR and now it has affected tech. Awesome right?…

    • eadVrim

      I think Meta cannot lower the price of the Quest 3 to $300, and the $400 price still seems high. Maybe it couldn't find any solution other than this middle one to attract new people to VR.

      • ApocalypseShadow

        Not to $300 right away. A gradual lowing of the price just like any console on the market has done for decades. At least, it used to be this way. I see they are lowering the price of the 128g model. But it's only temporary to sell out of that model and discontinue it.

        But we'll see if this one can sell and bring in the big games. 20 million Quest 2 headset sales seemed to not have moved the major developers to make VR games. How many will this have to sell to bring in the big games and consistently?

        • Arno van Wingerde

          It is not just market base: technical limitations also play a role: some games are coming to PSVR2, but not to Quest -there is a reason for that… This is where Q3+Q3S can help somewhat.

        • eadVrim

          VR is still new, I remember the Atari or even NES Ira, when video games are not a mass industry like now. Creating a new desire i
          to people takes a lot of effort and time.

          • Christian Schildwaechter

            If you remember NES, you also saw Nintendo's Gameboy go through the roof in 1989 as mobile game console, with worse display and simpler games. Mobile, cheaper, simpler graphics and games compared to existing devices, just like Quest, only way more successful.

            The reasoning about this still being the early days, or a new device finally being good and cheap enough to bring in new users and more advanced games, no longer tracks. VR isn't new anymore. DK1 released 2013, CV1 2016, Quest 1 2019. HTC used Job Simulator to demonstrate 6DoF controllers in 2015, it was a Quest launch title and is still #9 in the current Quest Store Top 50. Beat Saber is #3, Blade & Sorcery: Nomad #4, Golf+ #20, Thrill of the Fight #25, all in the top 25 for years.

            We got more users and high profile games. AC Nexus is #49. AW2 disappeared after bundling ended, RE4 fell off the Top 20 within a year. Games with staying power also sell well on PC, emphasize doing things with your hands, something VR specific, combined with simple mechanics, casual setting and short length. Maybe the issue isn't VR being too new or too small, but that the market already showed that Gorilla Tag, Rhythm games and Mini Golf are what people want, while enthusiasts still hope for the missing puzzle piece that turns VR into an epic gaming platform with huge, highly immersive games and long campaigns challenging the player.

          • ApocalypseShadow

            Gamers want more from developers than gorilla tag. They are just settling for lower fruit. Not that it isn't fun that I gather from the decent user base. It just doesn't bring any high quality to VR. RE4 did well but the problem is that many gamers don't want to be scared in games. Gamers didn't want Assassin's Creed. They wanted Splinter Cell which Ubisoft canceled. I have not bought one AC game for flat gaming ever because it's drawn out and milked to death. Nothing extraordinary about the series. Gamers want to be the hero in games. And there's many examples in the past that can be updated for VR or copied in some fashion. If we are in the beginning of a new paradigm, then we need developers to drive the industry forward with IP gamers would buy.

            We want Golden Eye and Syphon Filter like games. We want Ace Combat 2,3,4,5 and 7 like games with full campaigns. We want Red Dead like games. Not that VR game where you're riding around on a horsey stick. We want Time Crisis, Virtua Cop and House of the Dead shooter type games. Dead Second is a great example. It just needs more content which I'm aware that the developer plans on doing that with updates.

            Indie developers are just making cheap games they can profit from easily without taking the risk. If it's a risky business, then risk is needed to make VR successful. Some of these cheaply made games do become successful. But let that be for casuals who barely play games at all or for first time buyers. Advanced players want advanced games. They don't need to be 200 million dollar investments. If they can't make something like those, they should come up with a very compelling tech demo, get permission and license a game from the past that could work in VR that's already a franchise gamers are aware of. There's thousands of PS2, PS3, Xbox 360, GameCube, Dreamcast, PS Move, Kinect, PSVR games that can be updated and brought forward. Every developer doesn't need to come up with a new, new, new IP. There's even dead games from the past, abandon are games that can be acquired and updated. Even copied in some form without infringement.

            Developers need to also push Epic to update their Unreal Engine to be more accessible for VR. Haven't heard a peep out of them for its use for VR. Developers could licence a current engine for whatever type of game they are making from big developers and share the spoils with that developer if the game is a hit. I'd just rather not keep seeing the same old games released for VR years ago still sitting at the top of the sales charts like Beat Saber which is just a service now than moving forward. Where's the sequel? Nah! We'll just keep riding this cheaply made game until the horse is minced meat from the beating.

          • ApocalypseShadow

            I remember the red led electronic games, pong and pinball. I'm running out of time waiting for them. Lol

    • Dragon Marble

      You are completely misunderstanding what this device is. For developers, Quest 3S is the same as Quest 3. It is intended to achieve the opposite of what you describe as a "lingering drag".

      For you, a Quest 3 owner, it means the quality of games is going to improve significantly, soon.

      • ApocalypseShadow

        That is what was said about Quest 3 when it released. That it would bring better development. Instead, it only got higher res versions of Quest 2 games. Now we're told it's when the Quest 3S is released. Developers could already use Quest 3 and develop on it. $500 isn't that far from $300. If a developer can't afford a $500 headset, then they are in the wrong line of work.

        High quality games aren't going to drop overnight. 20 million supposedly sold Quest 2 headsets should have already brought in the big boys. It didn't. And companies like IO are failing with Hitman. And companies like Ubisoft are reeling from the low sales of Assassin's Creed while cancelling games like Splinter Cell. Even Facebook has pretty much cancelled GTA SA.

        I hope you're right on sales increasing with this cheaper model as VR could use bigger named games to sell to the masses. But if 20 million plus Quest 2 sales and whatever Quest 3 sold wasn't enough to sway major developers and core gamers, I don't know what will.

        • Arno van Wingerde

          I think your expectations are somewhat unrealistic and you seem to have missed out on a growing number of "AA games", like AW2, RM2, AS2, AC nexus, the 7th Guest and quite a few others. Look at a good game and compare with 5 years ago: the games have improved a lot!
          Up to 2D PC standards? Of course not! It is not like we can expect 4090 2D games to run on the Quest3, but over the last decade, we can see A LOT of progress.

          • ApocalypseShadow

            I'm not talking about PC quality because Quest can't handle it. See some of my examples in my above comments. It's not being unrealistic. It's expecting games that gamers would buy. Even if it's just updated games from the past with better textures and higher resolution. Facebook is spending billions. But not on getting 3rd parties to develop for Quest 3. Most of what you mentioned was their games and funding. Where's everybody else in the development community?

            Would it cost Sony millions to update Blood and Truth and the first Astrobot for PS VR 2? Nope. Would it cost a developer a lot of money to update Kinect games or old PSVR games or PS Move games to VR? Nope.

            I'm not talking high graphics cards or billions spent. There are old games that would work in VR. Mods on PC and Flat to VR developers know that there's games that would work well given the attention.

            Some of these developers are trying to give us games we didn't want in the first place. We wanted Splinter Cell. Not Assassin's, milked to death Greed. I mean Creed. Lol. We didn't want FF Fishing. We wanted an RPG in that universe. Doesn't have to be 40 hours. It could be 8 to 10 hours using FF 3D assets. We don't want to swing around like gorillas. We want to swing like Spiderman which the VR experience showed was possible. And it was more an ad for the movie and made by Sony music than SIE Sony. Insomniac has VR experience and for Facebook. They can't make a short Spiderman VR game using assets from Spiderman PS4 and release it across VR headsets?

            it's not unrealistic to want Time Crisis or Virtua Cop or House of the Dead in VR. How come Facebook isn't asking Sega or paying Sega to do that? It's not going to cost billions to make.

            Maybe you should expect more and better than settling for Beat Saber and Job Simulator and Gorilla Tag always being at the top of the sales charts. Maybe expect developers to make what would sell instead of phoned in efforts. Yeah there's Batman coming. But it's Facebook money. Where's Capcom, Namco, Konami, Rockstar, etc? Are you saying we have to wait until Quest 3 sells more than 20 million, having to sell 40 million, before they come on board? That's a long wait buddy.

  • Lucidfeuer

    Meta still being greedy with specs and evolution thus impacting the growth I see…there's a reason why the VR market shrunk…

    The Quest 3 was release a full year ago, you'd hope that with an "S" version (is it even lighter or thinner?), you would hope they'd match last year specs at a reduced costs and price…

    Anyway, still waiting for mobile VR headset the Quest line is getting close.

  • Lucidfeuer

    So it actually is just an updated Quest 2 (which was released 4 years ago…) with a few of the Q3 specs (but not the pancake, form factor, resolution, FOV etc…)?

    Yeah sure Meta, keep being greedy, it's not like the VR market has shrunk and your growth is stalling…bunch of buffoons.

    • ViRGiN

      Just get valve index already, getting close to 6 years old and still no successor!

      • JB1968

        No need to update hardware so often when the games are still of same shitty quality. Especially Quest mobile games.

        • ViRGiN

          Quest isn’t owned by Valve, so I’m not sure why you even put it in the same sentence in this topic.
          Actually i do know. You got burned out on alyx and there hasn’t been anything since you played it nearly 5 years ago.

          • JB1968

            Unfortunately I haven’t played Alyx yet. Seems to me overhyped. I like more experimental stuff, not the mainstream fps crap. I was reffering to overall vr games quality which have definitely not much progressed since Oculus became Meta Mobile VR company. The low performace hardware, although with relatively succesfull sales(for subsidized prices) is sadly dragging it down.

          • ViRGiN

            Valve is dragging down VR.

          • JB1968

            I hink Valve just don’t care about VR much anymore. They made one high production game for their vr headset and that’s all. You may say that about Sony and PSVR2 but Sony is at least pushing on the 3rd party sw front at fractional costs than Meat does. Also the PSVR2 is not bound to mobile hw performance (from PS5 up to high end PCVR rigs) opposite of Meta’s hard hw limits which in the end makes average vr game look like mobile phone game.

          • ViRGiN

            Even if they don’t care about VR, they are still dragging it down. Just the existence of SteamVR is detrimental to any potential growth, since everyone forever want to keep all their games on the same 20 year old account rather than make a new account in any new store.
            And they are the gaming company with infinite money glitch. Sony never stood the chance, developing for Playstation isn’t as simple as just building off PC version with some tweaks.

            Have you seen average vr game? Literally look no different than above average PCVR game made before mobile VR.

    • Dragon Marble

      If you expect them to just drop Quest 3 price to $300, you are the greedy one.

    • Hussain X

      Quest 3S launch price is actually significantly cheaper than Quest 2 launch given the crazy inflation since 2020. Just think about the inflation we've had since, especially the even crazier inflation in Europe. Plus it is using a more expensive SOC whose price increased more than inflation. Plus you're getting Batman for free, an expensive game plus 3 months+ subscription. Meta has become even less greedy than Quest 2, and with Quest 2 we all thought wow, how much must Meta must be losing per headset sale given smartphone prices using similar SOCs.

  • Christian Schildwaechter

    One Quest 3 feature missing in Quest 3S is the depth sensor, helping with tracking and perspective correction in passthrough, so it would be interesting to hear about passthrough quality compared between both. We saw significant improvements from Quest Pro to Quest 3, but these could be both due to the depth sensor and/or the faster SoC.

    With Quest 3S now featuring the same SoC at the same speed and apparently also the same passthrough camera resolution, the depth sensor is the remaining factor for passthrough quality differences. In theory Quest 3S could try to compensate for the lacking depth sensor by throwing more compute power at the problem, as it should have a slight performance advantage due to having to render 30% less pixels.

    • Nobody

      Probably because having graphics partially behind everyone's furniture is too difficult, and since they helped get PICO banned from the U.S. their new device is not a threat.

      • ViRGiN

        Assuming what you're saying is true, how selling to PCVR users would help Pico? As standalone, it's obsolete headset.

        • Nobody

          Uh, PICO 4 Ultra has a depth sensor. What does that have to do with PCVR? I was replying to comments about depth sensors and SoC's both which have little to do with PCVR. If you really think mobile VR is the future then do you think depth sensing of any value, and should the extra CPU power be given to developers to improve their apps or be wasted by the system trying to anticipate the depth of junk in everybody's room?

          • ViRGiN

            Depth sensor is to aid mixed reality with stuff like occlusion, room mapping etc. I still don’t see how Pico would gain any foothold in US. Europe didn’t care, China didn’t care. Pico are obsolete headsets that are used exclusively by niche within niche of pcvr audience.
            Just face the facts, there is only one VR company in the world, and that company is Meta.

          • Nobody

            A matter of fact PICO has a market share in East Asia comparable to Meta in America. They have an app store with many of the same apps as Meta. You may see them gain a foothold in the U.S. if their company is forced incorporate in the U.S. next year. They also could dump hardware at a greater loss than Meta.

  • JB1968

    I wonder how much money is Meta burning on each Q3s sale? I think such questions will be soon very hot on the next Meta's shareholders meeting.

    • Christian Schildwaechter

      Money burned: Depends on how you count. Meta separates research/development/operation etc. from pure production cost. They sell Quest at production cost, so thanks to clever accounting, officially burn nothing. Quest 2 outsold all their previous headsets within months, est. 25mn in four years, and one could argue that most of their VR research resulted in Quest 2/3, with other projects for future products. MRL alone spent USD 50bn over five years, or USD 2000 per HMD sold not priced in, more for Meta's total XR investments or per active user.

      Quest 3/3S will similarly be sold "at cost", burning nothing as long as you accept that it just popped into existence, with no prior research, development, marketing or tooling needed before production. Or hundreds to thousands burned on each sale, depending on the included part of MRL's costs, of which hardware production is in fact only a small fraction. The exact number would be hard to tell even for Meta.

      Angry Shareholders: There are regular class A Meta shares, and class B shares with ten times the voting power, mostly given to founders. Mark Zuckerberg controls 60% of the vote through his B shares, and close allies another 10%. So while question pop up on shareholder meetings, they are of no consequence, and Meta still makes ten times what MRL loses from ads each year.

      • JB1968

        Fair enough. I think we should also count in all the software costs. Meta have bought quite few dev teams and they have to fund their work. Many of the projects were not much succesfull financially and those rare ‘killer apps’ are usually bundled ‘for free’ with the hw now.
        But in the shadow of the MRL’s loses these burned money are probably just a drop in the sea.

        Also there is a question of sustainability of Zuck’s visions. He cannot push in this direction for many years to no hurt the company. (Even though they have 10 times more from the ads at the moment)

  • JakeDunnegan

    Great article and assessment. Nothing I can disagree with! I love my graphics on the Q3, but I could see this coming in as a nice Christmas present for the kids.

    And I imagine a pre-Christmas release date was all part of the plan. ;)

  • Michael Speth

    Fresnel lenses – where are all my PSVR2 hates. Not a single complaint in the comments about Fresnel but when PSVR2 released, people had gone mad at Sony.

    Just shows you how much Meta has either brainwashed people or people are simply sheep following what the media tells them to 'think' about Sony' PSVR2 vs this clearly inferior Quest 3S with LCD + Fresnel.

    • Michael Speth

      I remember the comments, Sony PSVR2 DOA b/c of last gen Fresnel. What a joke the VR industry is in.

    • eadVrim

      No complaint about Frensel in the comments because the price of Q3S is $300

      • Michael Speth

        People complained that PSVR2 was last gen. So much hate. Yet PSVR2 has superior OLEDs. Quest 3 and Quest 3S have the inferior LCD and Quest 3S has the low resolution LCD to boot.

        The reason people aren't complaining about Quest3S is bc they are all meta brainwashed fanbois. They jumped on the Sony PSVR2 hate train and give Meta a pass.

        • Nevets

          It's about £££££££, Mike – that's the point.

          • Michael Speth

            Wrong. The hate for the PSVR2 was the claims that Fresnel were 'last gen'. This particular hate had ZERO to do with cost.

            But the real reason for Sony + PSVR2 hate was due to Meta Quest fanboi's.

            Right now, those fanboi's are not making a peep about the crap LCD screens in Quest 3S nor the same arguments they used about the Fresnel lenses. These people were jumping up and down about how bad and last gen PSVR2 was.

            But I see all the Meta Quest fanboi's just massively coping because Meta is able to lose billions of dollers per month by reducing the price on their truely last gen tech.