according to InformationMeta had already begun development of the La Jolla headset in November, but asked employees to stop working on the device last week. The decision was partly due to the fact that the La Jolla headset would have used expensive MicroOLED displays.
The move suggests that Meta as a whole may be loath to make premium VR. The goal was reportedly to keep the headset under $1,000, which was looking increasingly difficult given how expensive it is to produce MicroOLED. Complicating matters further is the $3,500 Vision Pro I struggled to make an impact. With customers and developers, that raised questions about whether there was any appetite for a high-end competitor. It also didn’t help that the Quest Pro, which launched at $1,499, didn’t get good reviews and quickly disappeared from the spotlight.
But officially, Mita appears to be downplaying the decision to cancel the La Jolla tournament.
“We have several prototypes in development at all times. But we don’t move them all to production,” Meta’s CTO Andrew Bosworth posted on ThreadsReferring to the news, he said: “We move forward with some decisions, and ignore others. Decisions like this happen all the time, and stories based on gossip about an individual decision will never give the real picture.”
However, Meta still has plans to launch more headsets and mixed reality technology in the near future. The Edge Quest has previously said that a more affordable Quest headset, codenamed Ventura, could launch later this year. Similarly, Meta is reportedly set to show off some new augmented reality glasses next month at its Meta Connect event. Similarly, the Quest 4 is rumored to have a standard and premium version that will arrive sometime in 2026.
Update August 23: Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth has commented on the decision.
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