Meta announced last year it was sunsetting the original Quest, which was first released in 2019. While many developers of new apps have since stopped including the nearly five year-old headset as a supported device, now the company says it’s taking choice out of the equation, as no new apps will be able to offer support for Quest 1 starting on April 30th.

The company announced the news in an email to developers, seen below:

Notice to Quest 1 Developers

As we announced last year, we are implementing important changes to Quest 1. Beginning on April 30, 2024, we will discontinue support for new Quest 1 apps. This means that new apps created after this date cannot list Quest 1 as supported hardware:

– You will not be able to upload builds for new apps that only support Quest 1
– Builds for new apps that support other Quest devices along with Quest 1 will be able to be uploaded, but Quest 1 support will be blocked
– New apps will not be listed in the catalog of Quest 1 apps in the Meta Store
– Quest 1 users will not be able to search or purchase new apps created after April 30, 2024

As a reminder, we will continue to maintain the system software with critical bug fixes and security patches through August 2024.

We thank you and the entire Quest 1 community for your efforts in growing this ecosystem.

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Meta announced in January 2023 that first-party social apps Parties and Meta Horizon Home would no longer support Quest 1, marking the company’s initial steps in sunsetting its first 6DOF standalone VR headset.

A little over one year after the launch of Quest 1, Meta released its successor, Quest 2, which featured higher resolution displays (1,440 × 1,600 OLED vs 1,920 × 1,832 LCD) and a higher refresh rate (72 Hz vs up to 120 Hz) driven by a Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2—a significant upgrade over the Quest 1’s Snapdragon 835.

Quest (left) comapred to Quest 2 (right) | Photo by Road to VR

Now, already in the third generation with the release of Quest Pro in late 2022 and Quest 3 in late 2023, the company has moved on to include mixed reality passthrough as a headlining feature for its headsets moving forward.

Given the five-year life span of Quest 1, it’s possible we may see a similar path forward for Quest 2, giving developers and consumers just another year with the admittedly still very functional VR headset. Considering however the company is still selling Quest 2 alongside Quest 3 and Quest Pro, it remains to be seen whether its second-gen standalone will give up the ghost so quickly.

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Scott Hayden
Well before the first modern XR products hit the market, Scott recognized the potential of the technology and set out to understand and document its growth. He has been professionally reporting on the space for nearly a decade as Editor at Road to VR, authoring more than 4,000 articles on the topic. Scott brings that seasoned insight to his reporting from major industry events across the globe.
  • ViRGiN

    Noooo, I’m still saving up for Quest 2 from a Good Will that I have my eyes on.

    Has anyone else noticed SteamVR doesn’t do this to keep their titles open for all handsets…?

    • ViRGiN

      This is why i never buy my games on steam. When i inevitably upgrade my headset, it’s always going to be Meta. Valve don’t care, they abandoned vr even before valve index has released. Index is as old as Quest 1, and it’s still getting updates to this day. My doorstopper index haven’t received a single new feature.

      Has anyone else noticed valve cut off windows 7 users, of which there were now of them than all pcvr ab-users combined, all because their pisspoor programmers are incapable of making a software launcher, so instead they built a website disguised as an app? Gayben billions makes Earth a better planet.

    • I notice that.

    • Jistuce

      In fairness, Valve doesn’t have to do much software maintenance to keep a headset working, and the “brains” of the operation on SteamVR is a PC.
      In the Quest 1’s case, the brains are inside the Quest and are objectively a limiting factor, and Meta is on the hook for keeping the OS working. Wanting to cut it loose is understandable.

      Personally, I don’t much mind them closing the store for Quest 1. I actually still USE a Quest 1, but I can understand wanting developers to target a more powerful system.
      Particularly since I believe Meta wants Quest applications to work on all currently-supported versions of the Quest? If I’m wrong about this, feel free to correct me. If I’m not mistaken, this is increasing the amount of power a developer can reach for since they no longer HAVE to run playably on a Quest 1. By comparison, Valve takes a more hands-off approach. Developers can target any system they want as long as it can run Steam, and it is up to the user to know if their computer is up to the task.

      What I DO mind is if Meta disables headsets completely after that August 2024 end of software support. While I don’t think they should have to support the headset indefinitely or keep servers online, I believe strongly that the Quest 1 should remain operational with whatever is currently installed for as long as the hardware remains functional.

      What I’d like is for them to push one final patch that just turns off security checks so any idiot can install an APK through the USB port and open it to a robust post-support lifecycle. I am CERTAIN that won’t happen, but it would be really nice if it did. Failing that, maintaining Quest 1 store access for the foreseeable future would be a nice gesture.

  • I think Quest 2 will take more time to sunset, probably 2 years. It has sold a lot and it is still selling a lot, so they need to keep it in the loop for a while

    • Heathcliff

      I agree, the Quest 2 still feels like a good budget option for people trying out VR.
      But also some arguments make me think that maybe Meta is trying to initiate a long term sunset of the Quest 2 sometime soon. First, the huge limited time discount they are offering for the Quest 2 could indicate that they are trying to sell off remaining stock before other budget options like a Quest3 lite / Quest3S or a Pico4S become more attractive and they are left with too many leftover Quest2s that nobody wants to buy anymore. Also ever since the Quest3 release I had a feeling that Meta isn’t too happy about the Quest2 being “too popular” compared to the Quest3, similar to how other major consoles always had the problem that consumers are still buying the old generation even if a newer one is out already, essentially slowing down the advancements of content development because developers are split between developing for new and better features, or for a larger user base.

    • another juan

      quest 1 was discontinued in september 2020 and new apps are still allowed 40+ months later, so one could expect new quest 2 apps until october 2027 if it is discontinued today and doesn’t receive any special treatment considering it sold 20x more than quest 1

  • ViRGiN

    > Meta software doesn’t support Windows 7 either…
    They never did and therefore don’t have to.
    Steam supported Windows 7 and then dropped it. Your perfectly working gaming PC from that era is no longer able the games you purchased on Steam, because Steam itself isn’t supported by Valve anymore.

  • ViRGiN

    Why would Windows 7 or Nvidia GPU need any update to run games literally made for that system to play in 2024?
    The very same games can still run perfectly fine if they were purchased from GOG.

    It is Steam that is the issue here, not lack of OS updates or any drivers. It’s literally Steam gatekeeping authenthication of your purchased games.
    As always, pirates get a better, and free product.

    It’s not the only thing valve has done – they sold CSGO, then later replaced it witha different game. you don’t own anything you purchased at steam, ever. they can simply replace the product.

    Oculus Quest 1 isn’t a paperweight; your 2011 gaming laptop that you bought to play that one game on steam suddenly becomes one.

  • ViRGiN

    That’s like saying you can always sideload games onto Quest 1.
    It’s not the same thing.

    There is literally zero reasons for 15 year old games that haven’t had any updates for 13 years to to suddenly stop working on 2011 hardware, all because steam dropped support for authentication on Windows 7. There was literally zero reason to do so – and Windows 7 had higher adoption rate than all PCVR combined.

    Try getting your parents to go through huge steps to install obsolete Linux, just so they can get their gaming fix of playing a classic game of Age of Empires, or even games that never had any online components at all.

    But I guess monopolists who has cult following through “funny” gayben memes can get away with anything. Why preserve games and hardware, just go get a new one!

    Nobody got ripped off by purchasing Quest 1. It served it’s purpose, and _is_ infinietly far more supported by Meta than Valve ever supported Index (almost 5 year old headset at this point).

  • ViRGiN

    > 4 years of development and support on a deprecated platform!
    Please! Development and support! The steam launcher is literally unchanged for years, and any changes you might want to point out are miniscule and irrelevant. It’s still the very same clunky WEB-app.

    > Valve provides huge contribution to the gaming community by promoting Gaming on Linux through Proton engine.
    Not really, they are doing it once again to avoid having to partner with Microsoft and pay for Windows license.
    For years noone is really gaming on Linux. That niche is even lower than Windows 7 users.

    Please explain why Windows 7 should not be able to connect to Steam to verify owernship of a title and let users play it.
    I could understand limited featureset, like single-player, offline games only. Instead, they cut off everything.

    Even Google still provides legacy support for very old devices in Gmail or Maps.

    Meta froze Quest 1 support, not cancelled or denied further usage.

    Valve took even years to update their own Android app, it was stuck in Gingerbread era for like ever.

  • ViRGiN

    You can still install old Oculus software and run it under windows 7 with cv1. No hard coded updates request, unlike steam, where you can not disable app updates. You can’t download old steam version and connect to it online.
    So how is this the same?

  • ViRGiN

    Not getting stuff from official website is completly expected. They don’t host it, because they don’t actively support it.
    But anyone getting intro retro PC + VR should know what he is going against. It’s exactly the same as older hardware, you won’t find official drivers on the manufacturer website for a lot of things.

    But my Windows 7 + CV1 still works, and I can still download games from the Rift section.

  • ViRGiN

    > the main reason Steam stops future updates for Windows 7 is because depended software like chromium isn’t released anymore for Windows 7

    Literally because valve is incapable of making a proper independent app to serve its hundreds of millions of customers.

    Valve does not deserve any of the worship it’s been getting for close to two decades.

    And again, my CV1 on my retro WIndows 7 PC works just fine. I did not get forced into any updates.

  • ViRGiN

    That is a random reddit post with some random answer that isn’t even a screenshot of the email.
    What do you think Steam will reply to their Windows 7 users?

  • ViRGiN

    Meta has a billion times more things to consider, than a simple authentication of steam during login screen.

    And again, CV1 still works, if you really desire to run it under Windows 7.
    Brand new _technology_, not a 20 years old authentication process. No USBs, no displayports, no HDMIs, none of that. login + password.

    Steam never _supported_ Windows 7. It just happened to run on it, like majority of software from the past 15 years is by default future-compatibible.

    Steam is ass, and thanks to their monopoly and overselling cheap games, they get near-zero slack from anyone ever.

  • DragonHearth

    Can i still play my Buyed Games?