While the Quest 2 continues to outsell the Xbox in terms of lifetime sales, Meta’s business-minded Quest Pro hasn’t performed nearly as well in the six months since it has been available. As such, Meta is canceling the 2024 follow-up and moving that release to another project down the road.
Meta’s CTO, Andrew Bosworth, confirmed as much in The Verge’s Command Line newsletter (opens in new tab). The Meta Quest Pro 2 was codenamed “Cardiff” and originally set to be the follow-up to the Meta Quest Pro (opens in new tab), the $1,500 headset Meta released last Fall to middling reviews mainly because of the high price tag and lack of convincing software.
Meta is now laser-focused on the Quest 3’s release which is set for this Fall and will launch with over 41 new apps and games (opens in new tab) and be twice as thin as the Quest 2 is. All of this is bringing Meta’s roadmap more into focus which was originally cram-packed with releases. Here’s a full list of all the projects Meta’s Reality Labs have been working on that were scheduled for release in the next two years.
- Stinson – The Quest 3, set to be released Fall 2023
- Cardiff – Canceled, believed to be a Quest 3 Plus
- Funston – Canceled, Quest Pro 2 model that was supposed to release in 2024
- Hermosa – Canceled, unknown model
- Ventura – A “Quest Lite” with a 2024 release date
- La Jolla – The new Quest Pro 2 in 2025 (or later)
As you can see, the Quest Pro 2 name has likely been transferred to La Jolla, a headset Meta says will feature photorealistic avatars when it’s released.
Given that the Quest Pro still doesn’t have much software to convince most people to pay more for its hardware, it makes sense for Meta to wait for something big before releasing the follow-up. Meta showed off this technology last Fall at its annual Connect event, which you can see in the video below.
Meta still plans to release a “more affordable” version of the Quest 3 sometime in 2024, code-named Ventura. This headset will likely be closer to the original $299 price tag of the Quest 2, while the main Quest 3 is expected to retail for around $450.
Meta’s Andrew Bosworth and CEO Mark Zuckerberg had a fireside chat later that detailed how the company was working on making itself more efficient. Focusing on headsets that will make retail debuts instead of untold numbers of prototype models (opens in new tab) is certainly a more efficient route.
