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Meta is raising the price of its entire Quest VR headset lineup, a hike caused by the ongoing AI squeeze on the components required to make the headset. Specifically, it will increase the price of both the Quest 3 and 3S from April 19.
The 128 GB variant of the Quest 3S will now cost $350, up from $300, while the 512 GB model is going from $400 to $450. The upgraded Quest 3 only has a 512 GB SKU, and it's getting a $100 prike hike, now costing $600 instead of $500. Meta says "the cost of building high-performance VR hardware has risen significantly," so it's forced to raise prices. In particular, the company blames surging component prices for RAM.
The AI boom has snatched production lines for specialized data center memory that would otherwise be manufacturing consumer RAM. Meta is uniquely positioned here because it's one of the biggest players in the AI race, but it championed the "metaverse" for years before, going so far as to rebrand to Meta. Now that its Reality Labs division is racking up billions in losses, the company seems to be shifting focus.
You may like Raspberry Pi 5 price increases drastically as AI shortage bites, 16GB version now $205 Corsair's Strix Halo AI Workstation 300 gets even more expensive amid the RAMpocalypse Nvidia DGX Spark gets 18% price increase as memory shortages bite Recently, Meta dialed back its VR ambitions, shuttering the "Horizon Worlds" app after no one really visited it despite Mark Zuckerberg pitching it as the future. Some people were worried the decision signaled the end of Meta's VR efforts as a whole, but the blog says it "remains committed to investing in VR" and that it even has "a long-term roadmap full of new hardware and experiences," so Meta Quest isn't going anywhere.
The Meta Quest 3 (512 GB) actually launched at $650 back in 2023, but was discounted to $500 last year. Going back to $600 now, therefore, won't feel like a big deal to early investors, but is sure to put consumers off a device going on for three years of age. The Quest 3 is far from the only popular gadget affected by the RAMpocalypse as of late. Sony raised the prices of its PS5 consoles by up to $150 last month, while the Steam Frame couldn't even hit its planned release window of early 2026 because of the component shortages.
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Reference reading
- https://www.tomshardware.com/virtual-reality/SPONSORED_LINK_URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/virtual-reality/meta-raising-quest-headset-prices-due-to-ai-driven-ram-shortage-quest-3-to-cost-usd600-quest-3s-usd350-from-april-19#main
- https://www.tomshardware.com
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