It's an exciting - yet, simultaneously, frustrating - time to be an avid gaming fan. With a wave of new technology rolling in, gamers of all kinds have had new devices to look forward to, but like many of them, the Oculus Quest 2 likely won't be hiding under the tree this holiday season.
The Oculus Quest 2 launched back in October, but immediately began to fly off shelves. As with recent PS5 scalpers, many Quest 2 virtual reality headsets were scooped up via bots in order to be resold at a higher price, leaving fans hoping to acquire the affordable headsets at a loss.
Now, the stock of available Oculus Quest 2 headsets at the standard list price of $299 for the 64 GB variant or $399 for the 256 GB version are sold out through the end of 2020. Whether gamers look at retailers or directly to Oculus' website, the headsets are out of stock and not expected to be back in until the end of the year, with delivery dates coming in at January at the very earliest. For those who were waiting until the last minute to place an order, resellers are now the only option, and buyers will likely end up spending a considerable amount more on the headset versus waiting for stock to be back in at the normal prices.
Unfortunately, this seems to be the reality of the situation across the board for gamers shopping for new hardware this holiday season. The PS5 and Xbox Series X/S consoles have been out of stock due to extraordinary demand, and there's not enough of a supply of Nvidia 30 graphics cards available to satisfy everyone, especially with resellers seizing as many as they can. Many gamers will likely have to hold on until 2021 before they can upgrade to the newest and latest gaming gadgets.
While the wait is unfortunate, it's a good indication that the Oculus Quest 2 is increasing interest in VR as a whole. While the Quest 2 is unique in that it provides for a wireless virtual reality experience, it can also be plugged into gaming computers, allowing players to enjoy more technologically taxing games, like the recent Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond, or the Game Awards' Best VR Game, Half-Life: Alyx. This follows suit with more expensive recent virtual reality headsets, like the Valve Index, which also sold out upon launch.
Source: UploadVR