Meta announced that security patches for Quest 1 are officially coming to an end next month, marking the final phase-out of the now five-year-old headset.

Meta sent an email to Quest 1 owners on Friday stating the 2019-era Quest will no longer receive any security updates or bug fixes starting August 31st, 2024.

While users will still be able to download and play supported apps, the company notes that “if any security vulnerabilities are discovered in the future, private data that is directly stored on the device or accessible from it would be at risk of compromise.”

Quest [left] and Quest 2 [right] | Photo by Road to VR
The first indication that Quest 1 was headed for the chopping block came in early 2023 when Meta announced that first-party social apps Parties and Meta Horizon Home would no longer support Quest 1.

Then, in March 2024, the company announced it was removing the ability for developers to target Quest 1 for new apps, essentially halting any new games or experiences.

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It’s unclear whether Quest 2 will meet a similar fate so quickly. While Meta hasn’t released official sales figures, the company’s 2020-gen standalone is widely considered the best-selling VR headset to date. To boot, it still holding the top spot as a the most popular VR headset on Steam, with 38.10% of surveyed users using Quest 2 to play SteamVR games.

Meanwhile, Meta appears to making room for a new headset to supplant Quest 2 in its lineup, as Quest is now out of stock in nearly all regions when purchased direct from Meta.

You can see the full email from Meta to Quest 1 owners below:

Hi [User],

We’d like to let you know that starting August 31, 2024, we will no longer provide bug fixes or security updates for Meta Quest 1 headsets. You will still be able to download new apps and continue using your existing apps as long as they are supported by the developer. However, if any security vulnerabilities are discovered in the future, private data that is directly stored on the device or accessible from it would be at risk of compromise.

This update follows our announcement in January 2023, when we stopped releasing new features and new Meta Quest apps for Quest 1 on the Quest Store.

We’re excited about the future of Meta Quest and look forward to providing you with more groundbreaking MR experiences.

In the meantime, Meta Store Support is available to assist you with general inquiries.

Thanks,

The Meta Store Support Team

Newsletter graphic

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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.
  • Arno van Wingerde

    On the one hand, not supporting a device that came out 5 years ago is rather bad. On the other hand, I hope these Quest1 owners can be pushed towards a 3S, thus joining the basis for modern headsets and games. And although the Q1 had OLED, it capacity for playing modern games is a handicap. It is a fast moving world in VR after all… all and all I agree with Meta on this.

    • Shuozhe Nan

      I can understand this.. but still hate this. Only reason I dont get one of the chinese Waveguide glass is the chinese Software. Also don't trust google to support it for a long time. And Meta kinda abandoned first gen devices & early adaptors pretty quickly if hardware didnt sell well compared to succesor :(

    • There's been F-O-U-R Meta AIOs since Quest.
      It's time.

  • Christian Schildwaechter

    I still occasionally use my Oculus Go, and bought "Smash Hit" (not ported to Quest) just months ago, fearing they'd drop its now barely usable store. A while ago the Go saved the birthday party of a ten year old who asked me to bring my Quest 2 to show VR to his friends. Tracking failed in the (shaded) courtyard, so a dozen kids plus parents got their first VR from colorful "Combat Coaster" rides on the backup Go and base jumping in "Caaaaardboard" on a phone brought as secondary backup. And were thrilled.

    Meta removed Go compatibility from Quest 2 for braindead reason, so killing Quest 1 also means dropping their last hardware running my extensive Go library. They cut all Go support only 2.5 years after launch, no longer allowing devs to even update apps, but still take my money for Go apps three years after they made fixing them impossible.

    Recent numbers show half the PlayStations in use are still PS4, with PS5 seeing a lot more play time. Sony and developers continue to support the 2013 PS4, while Meta stopped devs from supporting 2018 Go in 2020, and 2019 Quest 1 in 2024. Add killing Rift and without warning deleting Oculus Share, holding many early VR experiments not available anywhere else, they are just horrible at preserving experiences.

    Sony fucked up PSVR2, but surely understands that actively sabotaging consoles still in use would be suicidal. To get from an early adopter enthusiasts audience to mainstream, Quest still mostly used for gaming needs more than minimal support from Meta, busy hunting the metaverse.

    • another juan

      consoles have existed since 50 years ago: of course any marginal improvements now are overshadowed as diminishing returns, and their generations MUST be much longer.
      you can't compare that with a barely nascent technology in good faith

      • Christian Schildwaechter

        I absolutely can compare them. PS5 now has 4K raytraced graphics with Lumen and Nanite, but each PlayStation since 1999 had Gran Turismo games, and it's not like only "marginal improvements" make them exchangeable. The latest one even got PSVR2 support. And while consoles like Atari VCS started at zero, with tech significantly improving in the first decades, Vive/Rift (2016) relied on already 20 years of 3D hardware acceleration for gaming. All Meta mobile HMDs use Qualcomm's Adreno (2008) GPUs, an anagram of Radeon (2000), as Adreno was developed with ATI (now AMD), with direct tech links going back to Nintendo 64 (1996) as the first 3D console.

        The Go using SD821 (2016) benefited from almost 10 years of smartphones advances. Mobile VR performance still improves with phones, gaining ~30% GPU speed each year. Quest still is 90% smartphone tech, now adding VR optimized versions of (decades old) pancake optics. AVP got microdisplays 25 years after Kopin and eMagin introduced them for cameras and military HMDs. What's new with consumer VR was combining mostly existing tech into affordable and user friendly HMDs without the glaring issues of 90s HMDs, and developers learning to use them to create great VR games with Unity (2005) or Unreal Engine (1998).

        The real revolution is the way we interact in VR, with AVP pointing to an urgent need for Meta to focus on the software, with the Quest UI barely changed since Rift. This month Job Simulator (2015), was still one of the best selling Quest games, still running fine on Quest 1 like many of the casual titles dominating the Top 20 for years. So "barely nascent technology" somehow justifying short support cycles is utter nonsense. That's mostly bad project management and a lack of focus on user needs. Which will break their neck if they don't improve.

  • GO started the AIO revolution,
    then Quest picked-up the baton and ran like the Dickens with it.
    But 2018 is six years ago:
    a geological epoch in tech, especially VR.
    We must go foward now.
    []^ )

  • ViRGiN

    In other news, Valve Index turned out 5 years old few days ago, and literally nobody cares that it has been abandoned and unsupported by Valve for 5 years.

    • Guest

      The double standards when it comes to that company really is astounding, isn't it?

  • sfmike

    People need to get over having to upgrade electronics periodically as advances in technology proceed. Why would we all want to be stuck with Quest 1 graphics and processing power for years holding back app and hardware development because everyone can't afford an upgrade.

    • Christian Schildwaechter

      Developers target the largest user base out of economic necessity, and for more Quest 3 only games, Meta first has to sell more. Only Quest 1 users are stuck with Quest 1 graphics, and Quest 1/2 no longer getting some new games isn't the problem. Meta artificially removing options for users and developers is, as people just wanting to continue to use what they already have, or dev wanting to also target old HMDs/OS versions, can't. And bricking old hardware will more likely get regular users to tell Meta to fuck off than giving them USD 500+ for a new Quest 3.

      Nobody expects Meta to support old hardware forever, but support for their VR gaming console is shorter than what Samsung or Google offer for their Android phones, both covering multiple generations with new models released every year. Phone enthusiasts buying one every (second) year are as unaffected by short support as VR enthusiasts always wanting/buying the latest model. But most only upgrade their phone every 4+ years, with consoles often used for a decade.

      And those won't like not only being left behind, but having their hardware still working just fine being intentionally cut off. Google still supports play services/PlayStore on Android 5 from 2014, for both people using and developers targeting ancient phones long out of OS support, without this causing problems for Android 14 users.

    • Jistuce

      I am fine with the Quest not seeing infinite patches and bug fixes. I don't expect that of any software I own, though it is nice when it happens.
      I am sad that Meta won't let people publish new software for the Quest 1, but I also understand why. It is mostly a benefit to Meta, but it has been a standard behavior for years and years. Can't fairly complain about Meta doing what Nintendo, Sega, Sony, and Microsoft all did… and Sega's position in the list makes it clearer how long this has been accepted.

      As long as they aren't actually killing existing devices, I'm okay with this.

  • As I've written in an article on my blog, I believe the transition from Quest 2 to Quest 3 family will take much more time. There are more than 20M Quest 2s out there, and many of these people that have just bought the headset do not want to immediately transition to a Quest 3S, also because there are not so many cool MR games out there and Quest 2 is still a good device to do VR. I think it will take a couple of years at least.