The Starting Price For Meta Quest 2 Is Now $400

Prices usually fall as gadgets age, but this is not the case with the Meta Quest 2. On August 1st, (Today) Meta will hike the price of the Quest 2 from $299 to $399 for the base 128GB model, and from $399 to $499 for the 256GB model. 

The rise was attributed to rising production and transportation expenses, according to the corporation. According to a blog post, the Quest 2 price increase would allow Meta to "grow [its] investment" in research and development for VR devices. Meta used the high-end Project Cambria headgear as an example, stating that "new generations" of Quest were in the works.

Resident Evil 4 VR Releases On Oculus Later This Month

Resident Evil 4 is arguably one of the best games of all time and has been ported to more consoles than almost any other game. But Capcom’s not done rereleasing the title, on October 21 the  survival horror game makes its way to VR. 

Capcom partnered with Oculus Studios and Armature Studio to bring Leon’s journey to VR for the first time. 

In a blog post Oculus said, “Standing or seated, players will enjoy plenty of comfort options. Support for both teleportation and room-scale movement means you can explore the game’s world your way. You’ll still move by using the analog stick, but Armature has added a full upper-body rig on top of Leon’s character to combine his movement with the dual-handed interactivity achieved with Touch controllers. Weapons and items have been re-engineered as physical objects, so you can pick them up and interact with them. Lastly, rather than navigating a menu to swap out weapons, you can grab them off your body.”

Resident Evil 4 VR launches exclusively on Oculus Quest 2 on October 21. 

Oculus Quest 2 Now Comes In 128GB Option

Facebook’s new Oculus Quest 2 (128GB model) is now available to buy. You can purchase the VR headset from the company’s website for the same $299 price as the previous 64GB base model. “Long story short? We’ve created this 128GB model so that players can easily store and access more games and apps on a single device,” Facebook says on the new storage option. 

Deleting Your Facebook Will Also Delete Your Oculus Games

If you've purchased an Oculus Quest 2, along with some tiltes. Be warned that if you delete your Facebook you will lose all of your games permanently. If you make a new account, you'll have to buy your favorite VR games all over again.

In 2023, all Oculus headsets must be linked to active Facebook accounts if you want to play in VR. So keep that in mind when picking a headset to buy. 

Microsoft Shutting Down Mixer, Partnering With Facebook Gaming For Streaming

Microsoft has announced that it is shutting down its video game streaming platform, Mixer on July 22. Microsoft will be partnering with Facebook Gaming as a new locale for viewers and streamers. In a statement, head of Xbox Phil Spencer said:

“Ultimately, the success of Partners and streamers on Mixer is dependent on our ability to scale the service for them as quickly and broadly as possible. It became clear that the time needed to grow our own livestreaming community to scale was out of measure with the vision and experiences we want to deliver to gamers now, so we’ve decided to close the operations side of Mixer and help the community transition to a new platform.”

Facebook Buys Beat Saber Developer Beat Games

Facebook has purchased Beat Saber developer Beat Games. It'll continue operating as an independently operated studio in Prague only it'll be under the umbrella of Oculus Studios.

Beat Games will "continue to ship content and updates for Beat Saber at the same time across all currently supported platforms," Oculus director of content Mike Verdu wrote in a blog post. As for Beat Saber's modding scene, Verdu noted Facebook and Oculus still plan to support mods, but those including pirated content might not be allowed:

"We understand and appreciate the value that modding brings to Beat Saber when done so legally and within our policies. We're going to do our best to preserve the value that mods bring to the Beat Saber player base. As a reminder, our most recent policy updates give more clarity to how developer mode is intended to be used, such as helping developers build their apps or for enthusiasts to explore new concepts. It is not intended for engaging in piracy or illicit modding, including mods that infringe on third-party IP rights or contain malicious code."

Oculus Link Will Turn Your Quest Into A Rift This November

During Oculus Connect 6 event, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Oculus Link, a new feature that'll let Oculus Quest owners connect their headsets to gaming PCs via a USB-C cable. This will basically turn the standalone headset into a fully functional Oculus Rift.

Zuckerberg said the feature will work with most USB-C cables, and it'll be available this November. The idea of being able to use the Quest anyway you want it and being a gateway to VR is a game changer for sure. 

Finger Tracking Coming To Oculus Quest In 2020

During Oculus Connect 6 event, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that the Oculus' Touch controllers could soon become a thing of the past. Users will be able to interact with their virtual environment using only their hands. The experimental feature will be available on the Quest starting in 2020 as part of the SDK. From there, developers will be able to integrate the tracking system into their software.

Facebook Messenger Gets A Dark Mode

Facebook Messenger is the latest app to fully feature a dark mode. You can darken your screen while using the iOS and Android app from your settings. Dark mode could help extend the battery life of phones, particularly those with OLED screens. 

Oculus Quest Is An All-In-One VR Gaming Headset

Oculus has announced a new VR headset called Oculus Quest, a gaming-focused standalone headset. With Oculus Quest there's no need for a  computer or wires, everything you need is in the headset, except for the controllers you use to interact with it.

Oculus has only named a few of the 50 launch titles they expect to release, but they include Robo Recall, The Climb, Moss and Beat Saber.

The Oculus Quest is scheduled to release in Spring 2019 for $399.

Oculus Go VR Headset Is Now Available For Purchase

Oculus G, the all-in-one VR headset that isn't powered by a PC or phone was announced last fall, but now, for $199, you can get an Oculus Go VR Headset that contains 32 GB of storage (the 64 GB model is $249). While this headset doesn't need to connect to a phone or PC for power, you will need to connect to a free iOS or Android mobile app during setup. The Oculus Go headset is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 chip paired with Oculus’ automatic Dynamic Throttling feature that theoretically offers a smoother frame rate. Meanwhile, the Go’s new display panel features 538 pixels-per-inch for a resolution of 2560 x 1440. Obviously, battery life will vary based on use, but a built-in lithium ion battery should provide about two hours of playtime for games or up to 2.5 hours for streaming media and video. Go users will have access to a variety of content, which includes (text from Oculus):

• Over 1,000 Games and Experiences to explore including titles such as Anshar Online, They Suspect Nothing and Space Explorers (NASA), amongst others.
• An update to Oculus Rooms with a fully redesigned and customizable environment, more life-like avatars and the ability to watch full-length movies from among the hundreds of top titles in the Oculus Store. We're also bringing Hasbro games to Rooms: Boggle joins the platform this month, with Monopoly + Trivial Pursuit brand experiences coming later.
• Oculus TV is a brand-new way to experience your favorite serialized content. A custom-built 3D environment with a massive screen and virtual seating area, Oculus TV also serves as a convenient hub to launch your favorite individual VR entertainment apps, like Netflix, Hulu, and SHOWTIME.
• Oculus Venues, where you can watch live concerts, sports, comedy shows, and other events with your closest friends and an audience of thousands of people around the world (available beginning May 30).

Adobe Will Stop Distributing Flash In 2020

Adobe has announced that it will stop developing and and distributing Flash Player at the end of 2020 because “open standards like HTML5, WebGL and WebAssembly have matured over the past several years, most now provide many of the capabilities and functionalities that plugins pioneered and have become a viable alternative for content on the web.” Adobe says the impending end of Flash is also due to collaboration with its “technology partners,” including Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Mozilla. 

Facebook Launches eBay And Craigslist Competitor, Market Place

Facebook has launched Market Place, a new way for users to discover, buy and sell items with other people in their area. In the coming days users in the US, UK, Australia and New Zealand who are over 18 years old will see a new shop icon in the bottom menu of the Facebook app. This will load a selection of photos of items that people in your general location are looking to sell. It also includes a search function, if you're looking for something in particular. Results can be filtered by location, category or price as well. If you see something that you like, Facebook will list the name and details of that product, a profile photo of the person selling it and a loose overview of where they live. Seems interesting that Facebook of all company wants to compete with the likes of eBay and Craigslist. We'll just have to see how this pans out for the company. Thoughts ?

Instagram Allowing Users To Filter Words Out Of Comments

Instagram has announced that anyone can now filter their comments to keep unwanted words or people out. It's just a matter of choosing the right keywords and you’ll be good to go. Check out the full article on the Instagram blog. Thoughts ?

Bot-Based Purchases Are Coming To Facebook Messenger

Facebook has announced that chat based purchases will be coming soon to Messenger. Developers can now apply to participate in a closed beta. Once businesses have bots enabled, they should be able to sell goods and services through Messenger, as long as shoppers already have credit card information saved with Facebook. 

You Can Now Stream Blizzard Games On Facebook

Blizzard has released an update to Battle.net that allows users to sign in with Facebook and stream game footage directly to the social-network. What do you think of Blizzard brining this feature to Facebook and not Twitch ?

Facebook Is Launching A Gaming Platform

According to a post on the Facebook developers blog, the social media giant will be teaming up with Unity to create a PC based gaming platform. The platform is mostly compatibility with the Unity engine and allows seamless integration with the Facebook homepage. It will be interesting to see how indie developers use this. Having more exposure for you games can only mean good things for developers. What do you think ?

There Are 1 Billion Facebook Messenger Users A Month

Facebook has announced that there are more than 1 billion people now use its Messenger service every month. Messenger is also the second most popular iOS app of all time behind Facebook itself. As for Android, the company says the Messenger app has been downloaded over a billion times. "As part of this journey to 1 billion, we focused on creating the best possible experiences in modern day communications. We remain focused on helping connect people to the people and businesses who matter most," said David Marcus, VP of Messenger, in a statement. Facebook released a few more stats too: it now has over 18,000 bots on its Messenger platform, 10 percent of all VoIP calls are apparently made through Messenger and more than 22 million GIFs are sent via Messenger everyday.

Facebook Testing Encrypted Secret Messenger Conversations

Facebook has started rolling out an experimental Messenger feature for those who want to have a private conversation. You'll be able to start sending end-to-end encrypted "secret conversations" through the app. Any text you wrap with this extra layer of protection can only be accessed on one of the recipient's devices. According to Facebook's announcement post, not even the company can access your secret messages. Also, you can set a timer to indicate how much time your friend has to read what you wrote. Once time's up, it will disappear, similar to how Snapchat works. Secret messaging doesn't support content like GIFs or videos, only text based content will be supported. What do you think of Secret Conversations in Messenger ?

YouTube Is Joining The Live Streaming Party

YouTube will soon be rolling out live video streaming from its mobile app. A handful of content creatures have gained access to the feature and support will open up further in the near future, according to YouTube. You cam launch a stream by hitting the Capture button. Broadcasters must then snap or select a thumbnail photo, and toggle various options like target audience, push notifications, and the chat will be enabled. The stream looks very similar to Twitter's Periscope, with overlaid viewer comments and options like flipping the camera. Real time statistics show the number of likes and active viewers. Can Youtube compete with other companies like Facebook and Twitter in the live streaming market ? Or should YouTube just stick to online video ?