Yesterday’s Meta Connect 2023 event revealed that the Meta Quest 3 will be available in stores starting October 10. As mentioned before, the base version with 128GB of storage is priced at $499.99, while the 512GB edition costs $649.99.
Both versions of the Meta Quest 3 will be bundled with Asgard’s Wrath 2, the upcoming AAA action RPG sequel in development at Sanzaru and scheduled to launch on December 15th. Moreover, the 512GB edition will include a six-month trial of the Meta Quest + subscription service.
The Meta Quest 3 is being touted as the ‘first mass-market mixed reality headset’, allowing users to seamlessly switch between virtual reality and actual reality with the benefit of a full-color passthrough view of the surrounding space.
The graphics performance is said to be twice that of the predecessor, thanks to Qualcomm’s Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2. Load times will be much shorter, too, as demonstrated in a direct comparison.
The Meta Quest 3 display offers nearly 30% higher resolution compared to the Meta Quest 2, or 25 pixels per degree and 1,218 pixels per inch, and sharpness is said to be increased by around 25% with the added benefit of reduced artifacts. While watching TV shows or films, users will be able to enjoy a nearly 15% wider Field of View.
The sound system has been enhanced, offering improved clarity and bass performance and a 40% louder audio range. A big focus was placed on improving comfort and ergonomics over the Meta Quest 2, both for the headset and the controllers.
Lastly, it was confirmed that Xbox Cloud Gaming is finally coming to Meta Quest in December, around a year after the original news. This will allow Meta Quest users to experience Xbox’s triple-A games as if they were playing them on a massive 2D screen, though they’ll have to subscribe to Game Pass Ultimate and own a supported controller, both of which need to be purchased separately.
