Meta’s carried out making new options for the Quest 1 — all updates will finish subsequent 12 months

Meta is planning to cease supporting the unique Quest VR headset with new software program updates, and shortly anybody utilizing the older {hardware} might be locked out of some social options.

Several customers on Reddit and Twitter, together with journalist Janko Roettgers, have posted screenshots of an e mail saying the corporate will cease transport new options to the Quest 1 and that some options are going away. The headset will, nonetheless, be getting “critical bug fixes and security patches until 2024.”

The e mail says that unique Quests will maintain working, however customers gained’t be capable to “create or join a party” and that customers “who currently have access to Meta Horizon Home social features will lose access to these features on March 5, 2023.” Those options seem to incorporate the flexibility to go to another person’s house or have somebody go to your private home.

The Quest, which was launched below the Oculus model in 2019, is a predecessor to the favored Quest 2 headset, which got here out in late 2020. For years, the 2 headsets have largely gotten the identical new options, regardless of having considerably totally different {hardware}.

The Quest 2 is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2, a chip launched in 2020 particularly for AR and VR headsets. Meanwhile, the unique Quest is powered by the Snapdragon 835 / Kryo 280 platform — a chipset from 2017. It’s attainable that Meta is having bother creating new options that work with the platform’s capabilities, doesn’t need to maintain spending cash on previous {hardware} because it tightens its price range and lays folks off, or that Qualcomm is ending improvement help on its facet.

Notably, earlier than John Carmack’s current departure from Meta, he had some sharp phrases about how the corporate is underutilizing its {hardware}.

While the transfer might be a disappointment to Quest 1 homeowners, there have been indicators. Last 12 months, Meta made it so the battle royal recreation Population: One would not run on the headset.