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Comment by valine | Hacker News Reader

Facebook didn't make oculus, they bought it. So far their main contributions have been to require a Facebook account, and halt development on the next generation flagship PC headset in favor of budget android based VR.

IMO racing to the bottom on price when the products still have FOV issues and low frame rates is a huge misstep. It doesn't matter how compelling Facebook's metaverse platform is if the hardware sucks.

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Creating a minimum viable product at a lower price point was the the whole magic behind the first Oculus. There had been better quality virtual reality headsets before that, but bringing the price all the way into the consumer range changed the game. You may prefer higher performing, top-of-the-line-computer-requiring, headsets at a higher price point but consumer VR is a new and fast growing market segment. Any company spending their effort on such a headset is likely to find a vanishing market, as the quality of cheaper wireless devices will improve much faster than high end ones.

Don't forget, the low end always eats the high end.

Go and Quest the standalone headsets that don't require a PC were developed after getting bought by Facebook. Quest 2 is 120hz screen same as Index. And due to slightly smaller FOV a higher resolution than Index.

Quest hardware doesn't suck though. The future of VR/AR is absolutely wireless and absolutely NOT PC based. PC VR is a niche market and always will be. I have a Rift and rarely use because who wants to be tied to a wired device that you can't see? Facebook has made a ton of mistakes and I'm really not fan but working on the Quest that was not one of them.

> in favor of budget android based VR.

But it can still work with a host PC and it has a higher res screen so whats wrong with it?

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