And not just that, but one that can be used in standalone mode (with Oculus Store and all), as well as connected to desktop in PCVR mode to play all those steam VR games like Half-Life: Alyx. Not even mentioning that you can do it pretty well wirelessly (otherwise, you gotta use a single compatible USB-C cable), with a rumored dedicated wireless dongle coming soon that should make it work smoothly for everyone and not just the ones with good routers. No facebook account requirement anymore either (got removed shortly after negative feedback from the public). No need for setting up lightboxes around the room either. And that's before we even get to their stupid cheap price point.
I fully share your skepticism about Meta as a company, but I absolutely do not share your skepticism about their future AR product play being dead on arrival, given how extremely well their current VR product is doing. Both in terms of sales and the user experience. Price point wasn't a concern for me here, and I still went with Quest 2 instead of Valve Index. The ergonomics and the frictionless experience of actually using it sold it for me, and I've been happy and using it on regular since the release.
Note: I have zero affiliation with Meta, and neither have I had any in the past. In fact, i am working for a competitor. Saying that their upcoming AR offering is dead in the water (given what is publicly known and their relevant track record) is about as out of touch as one can get.
When I logged into oculus.com on Monday it said they were disconuing Oculus account support Jan 2023. Sounds like they just delayed it.
They addressed that point in one of the interviews on the matter, shortly after announcing removal of FB account requirements in late October of 2021 [0]:
> “As we’ve heard feedback from the VR community more broadly, we’re working on new ways to log into Quest that won’t require a Facebook account, landing sometime next year. This is one of our highest priority areas of work internally.”
Judging by that quote, we are going to hear more details about their replacement solution at some point in 2022.
0. https://www.theverge.com/2021/10/28/22751297/meta-oculus-que...
You might want to double-check your claims before making such definitive statements.
As far as I am aware, the acquisition happened in early 2014, and Oculus Quest was released in 2019, 5 years later. Oculus Quest outsold all earlier headsets, and then Oculus Quest 2 (released a year later) outsold that. And by a giant margin.
What Oculus had at the time of the acquisition (Rift headset) was imo inferior to HTC Vive. It was the first consumer-available legit VR headset that gained some good adoption, but Vive outsold it 2-to-1.
Oculus Rift CV1 was released March 28, 2016.