Facebook Dumps Oculus Go in Favor of Pricier Quest

Getting into VR just got more expensive

by
Rob LeFebvre
Senior News Editor
Rob LeFebvre has been a freelance technology writer for 10 years and an educator for 20. His articles have appeared in 148Apps, Cult of Mac, Engadget, and many others.
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Rob LeFebvre
Published June 24, 2020 02:25PM EDT

Getting into virtual reality just got a little more costly with the loss of the Oculus Go, a less expensive (and lower quality) VR headset from Facebook.

Oculus Go headset on a desktop
Getty Images

Two-year old virtual reality (VR) headset Oculus Go is no longer, as the Facebook-owned company announced in a blog post on Wednesday. The move is due to increased interest in the Go’s higher-quality younger sibling, the Oculus Quest, which has the added benefit of more cameras for a better VR experience, said the company.

Degrees of freedom: The Quest has the advantage of a six degrees of freedom tracking system (6DoF), while the Go had only three (3DoF). 6DoF devices can track more than just your head movements, they can keep track of your position in a room as well. This just makes for a better, more immersive VR experience.

Person using Oculus Quest in their kitchen
Lifewire / Lance Ulanoff

Behind the scenes: The Oculus Go was the first VR headset that you didn't need to connect to a powerful PC (like the Oculus Rift) or a mobile phone (like the Gear VR). We're basically seeing a shift to more capable standalone headsets like this. As The Verge notes, phone-based VR is all but dead.

The future: If you have a Go already, Oculus says it will maintain the system software with bug fixes and security updates through 2022. No new Go apps are being accepted, and the Go app store will stop getting currently developed apps as of December 2020.

Bottom line: Now if you want to get into Oculus VR, you'll need to spend more on the Quest, which is admittedly a better device overall. That is, if you can find one.

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