The Meta Quest Pro is the latest VR addition to the line of Quest VR units by Meta, formally Facebook. The announcement however was met with fierce backlash over its high price.

VR is pretty cool. The tech behind it is pretty smart, but visually, I think it could be better. The games do look great, but the optics always seem a bit blurry. But that is beside the point. The point here is that the new Meta Quest Pro was announced and it’s pretty fucking expensive.

The new device starts at a whopping $1,499 USD which includes the headset, Quest touch pro controllers, stylus tips, partial light blockers, and a charging dock. The Meta Quest Pro is marketed as the “First entry in our new high-end line of devices” according to Meta. They state that the new device is packed with innovative features like high-resolution sensors to give you a more robust mixed reality experience, a crisp LCD display for a more sharp visual picture, a new design, eye tracking, and a natural facial expression system to help your avatar reflect YOU more naturally in a VR environment.

Check out the 34-second trailer showing off the new Meta Quest Pro

Meta Quest Pro Optics

The new Meta Quest Pro apparently sports next generation optics which replaces the older fresnel lenses from the Meta Quest 2 with thin “pancake” optics that fold light several times over. This sounds interesting as I always thought the optics in the previous models were lacking. There are a lot of improvements according to the official announcement.

Price Backlash of the Meta Quest Pro

This is where things take a turn. The Meta Quest is a popular device for gaming. So obviously, people were excited to see the next Quest device. However, that quickly changed once the price was revealed. Going from a top $400 for the Quest 2 to the now $1,499 for the Meta Quest Pro. This is a massive increase and most likely prices out all the loyal VR customers Meta has.

Here’s the thing though, it doesn’t appear the Quest Pro was made and marketed for VR gamers. The new device appears to have been made more for the enterprise markets, which engage in different activities that a product like this could be useful for, such as mixed reality and virtual meetings…

The public didn’t hold back on this, however;

You want to say the Metaverse is for everyone and then have the balls out audacity to price the Meta Quest Pro at $1500?

Zuckerberg is high on the best shit known to man. There’s no other way of reading this. You cannot be a logical thinking person and see it any other way.

— C A N D I 🎃 C O R N (@CandiceLikesYou) October 11, 2022

for the price of Meta Quest Pro, you can strap a PlayStation 5 onto one eye and an Xbox Series X onto the other and still have $500+tax leftover to buy the answer to whatever the heck Meta is doing here https://t.co/2MhdZf2kml

— Sam Machkovech ☂️ (@samred) October 11, 2022

What do you think? Do you feel this is an overpriced cash grab? Does the Meta Quest Pro meet the needs of serious VR gamers or is it more of a business tool that might not even take off? Time will tell.