Facebook CEO says Oculus Quest headsets ‘selling as fast as we can make them’

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has expressed his satisfaction with the recent Oculus Quest launch, while acknowledging there’s still work to do if the company’s going to achieve its “dream” of delivering “the future of VR and AR products”.

Oculus launched its latest VR headsets, Oculus Quest and Oculus Rift S, in May 2019.

“This quarter, we shipped Oculus Quest, our first all-in-one headset with no wires and full freedom of movement,” Zuckerberg said during Facebook’s second quarter earnings call. “It has gotten great reviews and we’re selling them as fast as we can make them.

“More importantly, we’ve delivered an experience that people keep using week after week, and buying more content. There’s still a lot of work ahead to develop this ecosystem and deliver the future of VR and AR products that we dream of, but this is an important milestone.”

Zuckerberg went on to discuss the progress the company’s made in the field since acquiring Oculus in 2014.

“In a few years, we’ve improved the state of the art from the original Rift, which cost $600 and needed to be tethered to a $1000 PC, to now Quest, which costs $400 all in, and is a superior experience in many ways.

“There’s going to be even more innovation over the next few years, and we now have the platform we’re going to build on going forward.”

Earlier this month, a report claimed Facebook could be set to invest $1 billion in a new VR gaming push centred on acquiring studios or exclusive content, spearheaded by Naughty Dog co-founder and former THQ president Jason Rubin, with personal involvement from Zuckerberg.

Facebook is rumoured to have agreed deals with Ubisoft to bring the publisher’s blockbuster Assassin’s Creed franchise to Oculus VR, as well as the fan favourite Splinter Cell series, although the French publisher’s CEO was coy on the company’s VR plans when asked about them recently.

Zuckerberg added on Facebook’s earnings call: “The reason augmented and virtual reality will deliver a qualitatively better experience than traditional computing platforms is that they deliver the feeling of presence — that you’re actually there with another person or in another place. The feeling of presence is so important to social interactions and how we’re wired to interact as people.

“So even if it has taken longer than we expected to deliver this at scale, I continue to believe that this will be one of the most important contributions we make to the way we all use technology over the long term.”

Rubin, who runs first-party gaming at Oculus, said during a recent interview that he’d like to trade Oculus VR exclusives with first-party PlayStation VR titles.