Meta has launched a Virtual Reality (VR) subscription service as it tries to make a part of its profitable business. Meta says that users will have to pay to get access to two new games a month.
In the first three months of this year, Instagram’s parent company has lost $4 billion in its VR unit. Meta is also facing competition from other companies including tech giant Apple, which will launch its highly anticipated mixed reality headset later this month.
On Monday, the company said that their Meta Quest service costs USD 7.99 per month or USD 59.99 for an annual subscription.
In 2021, Mark Zuckerberg unveiled plans to build a “metaverse,” an online world where everyone can work, play games, and communicate in virtual environments, often using VR headsets. He hopes his company can be seen as a metaverse company and wants to anchor his work and identity to what he is building.
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In February last year, Meta launched several artificial intelligence projects, and Zuckerberg described AI as “the key to unlocking the metaverse”. The company reported a USD 5.7 billion profit for the first three months of this year that exceeded market expectations.
However, the Reality Labs division, which manufactures VR headsets and other products, reported a net loss of USD 4 billion in the period.
Earlier this month, Apple will launch its Vision Pro mixed reality headset, in its first major hardware launch in nearly a decade. The Apple headset will cost USD 3,499, and will be released early next year in the US. That’s a lot more than any other headset on the market. Meanwhile, the Meta VR headset is priced between USD 299.99 and USD 999.99.
Source: BBC
