Meta to Stop Supporting Original Quest VR Headset – CNET [CNET]

Users will lose some features in March but will continue to get security updates through next year.

Meta plans to stop supporting its original Quest virtual reality headset after 2024, the company has revealed.

The company will continue providing new features for the standalone Quest 1 headset through 2024, but some features will eventually go away, the company said in an email sent to Quest owners. However, the company said it will continue providing “critical bug fixes and security patches until 2024.”

The email, which was replicated in a Meta blog post, indicates that Quest 1 users will still be able to use their headset and available apps, but they will lose the ability to join or create a party. Quest 1 users will also lose access to the Meta Horizon Home social features on March 5, meaning users won’t be able to visit other users’ Homes or invite them to visit theirs.

When the original Quest was introduced in May 2019, it was widely regarded as the best VR device of the year, providing a way for friends to connect, see theater experiments and feel briefly like you’ve escaped. But the aging headset has taken a backseat to the Quest 2, an improved, less expensive sequel, that was released in October 2020.

And while the Quest 2 is still the best self-contained VR headset right now, and the most affordable for its features, VR users are eagerly awaiting the Quest 3, a mainstream, lower-cost follow-up to the 2-year-old Quest 2 that Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in October was expected to debut sometime this year.