You want to get into VR but can’t decide if you should buy a quest 2 right now, well I have 10 reasons why you should and if you stick around I will tell you more importantly how to get your first quest game for free.
Number 1. It’s easy to jump right in. No PC, driver downloads, or base station setup is necessary. Just pull the headset out of the box, put the controllers in your hands and you can enter another world in 5 minutes. The onboarding process is dead simple and in my opinion pretty intuitive. Of course you will learn how to adjust the headstrap and the eye pieces to fit your features but that is all spelled out cleary in the setup. Heck we’eve seen the boomers embrace the quest. Speaking of booming…
Number 2. The quest 2 community is exploding, looking here at the stats of the subreddit oculus quest you see in 2020 the sub started with around of 60,000 subscribers and now its over 330 thousand. There’s an even bigger growth curve in the oculus subreddit. The quest 2 has been estimated to have sold over 10 million headsets, which means there is a thriving and growing user base. Over christmas the oculus app was the most downloaded ios app and the quest 2 was the best seller in the video games category on amazon over the holidays and even at the time of recording this it is still top 5 and the number 1 selling “console” on there. All of this data is just to show that there is a legit market and community for stand alone VR which of course is more enticing for game and app developers to find a place in that market to grow their business and build great experiences for us questers. Which leads me to
Number 3. Quest developers and VR devs in general are making more money now than ever. Which mean they have more money to pour back into the platform with new games and deeper experiences. Beat saber alone has made over 100 million dollars in revenue on the quest platform, and from a recent survey done in 2021 at the Game Developer conference of the Devs that are working on VR content the majority are working releasing their games and updates on the quest platform more than for any other headset. Oh yeah since I brought up updates,
Number 4. The Quest 2 gets constant updates and new features. Since its release we have had 15 updates from the version 22 it launched with to version 37 just last month. We have seen the addition of 120hz support, airlink, bluetooth keyboard support, pass through updates and so much more. We know with all these updates it means there is a lot of support and firmware development going on at meta to further the longevity and usefulness of the quest 2. Firmware rhymes with hardware so lets take that segway to
Number 5. The quest 2 is the nintendo switch of VR. Yes maybe the graphics don’t blow your freaking mind like other tethered PCVR experiences but the quest 2 lets you move freely and without fear of yanking your 2,000 dollar pc into the abyss. You have the option switch *snap* to either a tethered or free roam experience and choice is always good for the consumer. Not to mention the Q2 is taking over as the top headset used on steamvr. If you have the pc power or the internet bandwidth to run something like shadow pc or the newly released plutosphere you can still play tall the top billed VR games that people are raving about like half life alyx, bone works, skyrim and more. Plus a good chunk of those popular games often get ported to the quest for you to share wirelessly with you friends which leads me to…
Number 6. Sharing your gameplay experience with others is easy. The ability to either cast your gameplay to a supported chromecast device, the oculus web page or the oculus app makes it really easy to involve others in the room into what you are doing in your virtual reality. You don’t have to lug your pride and joy pc into the living room to show off your super hot skills. And with apps like acrons or keep talking and nobody explodes you can get them in on the action just by using their phones. No expensive extra controllers needed. Oh since we are over half way here if you find this informative tickle that like button down there and I’ll get to…
Number 7. The quest is now in the mainstream. For one, VR is no longer some weird step child of flat screen gaming and the quest isn’t the little kid on the block anymore, I mean there is a superbowl ad for the dang thing, you seriously can’t get any bigger than that in america. Not mention the meta quest brand can even be found on nba courts as a sponsor and they are hosting virtual events with giant musical artists like the foo fighters and david guetta. Hey spotify can’t say that right now.
Number 8. Its moddable. Spoiler alert but the quest’s snapdragon XR2 chipset is pretty much a glorified android device which means with tools like sidquest you can get into the brains of it all and tinker your little heart out.. You have the ability to sideload apps that haven’t hit the oculus game store, install mod apks like adding custom songs to beat saber all the way to changing the quality of the video capture files to upgrading the graphics inside the headset. A walled garden the quest 2 is not.
Number 9 you get free stuff. Okay maybe its not free free because you need to buy a quest but they have an active referral code system to allow any new quest owner to receive 30 dollars in free credits if they use a referral codes uh like this one: https://www.oculus.com/referrals/link/SlurpeePinata So your first game if its under $30 will be free. Another bonus to this is that the quest has a game refund policy. So for any game you have played less than 2 hours in the last 14 days if it turns out in those first 90 minutes or so you realized its not for you, you can get a refund. Hey Xbox and Playstation you need to make it this easy…
Lastly I want to say you are not too late, this is the perfect time to jump in. You aren’t buying an xbox one in 2020 you are getting in at the right time. I know with all these project cambria murmers and leaks, you may be thinking well maybe I should just wait around for that. I’m here to say don’t unless you are mr. Money Bags Billy. From the zucks own lips he said this isn’t the next quest it will be compatible with the quest, but cambria will be a completely new advanced and high end product and it will be at the higher end of the price spectrum too. So if you don’t want to shell out top dollar to dip your toe into the virtual oasis then the quest 2 at 299 or if you get lucky and find the 64 gig refurb for $199 is your cheapest and most supported option out there.
Welp thats my list and I’m stickin to it. do you agree or disagree? Have some different reasons? Let’s discuss in the comments below and if you are looking for whats happening in the quest metaverse check out this video here. Woodie Out.