It seems Meta is finally taking the original 2019 Quest behind the shed this year, as the company announced it’s set to deprecate first-party social features on the device, which includes access to Parties and Meta Horizon Home. Meta also announced it won’t be delivering new features beyond critical bug fixes and security patches until 2024.

The company sent out an email to users of the original Quest detailing the upcoming changes. Here’s that email in full:

We launched Quest 1 over four years ago and we are grateful to the Quest 1 community for pushing VR forwards. As we look to the future, we remain committed to supporting the community of Quest 1 users and will continue to support the headset with a few changes:

  • You will still be able to use your Quest 1 headset and available apps.
  • We won’t be delivering new features to Quest 1.
  • We plan to continue maintaining the system software with critical bug fixes and security patches until 2024.
  • Quest 1 users will no longer be able to create or join a party.
  • Quest 1 users who currently have access to Meta Horizon Home social features will lose access to these features on 5 March 2023. You won’t be able to invite others to your Home or visit someone else’s Home.

If you have any questions about these changes or about your Quest 1 headset, we encourage you to contact Meta Store support here: https://store.facebook.com/help/support/

Thank you to the entire Quest 1 community for helping us get to where we are today.

Launched in May 2019, the original Quest wasn’t just the company’s first 6DOF standalone headset—it was a valuable new platform that sparked an explosion in content revenue, making it the target platform du jour for VR game developers. Many of the hits of today owe their success to having gained foothold on the original Quest.

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

A little over one year later, Meta (ex-Facebook) released its successor, Quest 2, which substantively included 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), both of which were driven by a Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2—a significant upgrade over the Quest 1’s Snapdragon 835.

Undoubtedly, Quest 2 has since cemented itself as the go-to home for VR developers looking to maximize profit; two years after its launch, Quest 2 content has managed to generate $1.5 billion in revenue.

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Although you’d think social function deprecation and a clear end date to security patches  for Quest 1 should come as no real surprise; it’s old and you’d be hard-pressed to find it new in the box anywhere. Still, seven of the top 10 best-rated games on the Quest Store support the original Quest in addition to Quest 2. A majority of them were released after the launch of Quest 2.

Granted, Quest 1 users should only really focus on the security patch death date; even then, the headset will still be able to access all store content in addition to being used as a PC VR headset with Steam.

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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.
  • Anonymous

    Right move but absolutely stupid timing beyond comprehension. Why not make this announcement during or right after Quest 3 reveal?

    Many who owned Q1 refused to buy Q2 because it was good enough and the two released too closely. Releasing this announcement before Quest 3 release is asking for more backlash as they will see this as another betrayal and a forced obsolescence. If some less informed customers indeed moved to Q2 later this year seeing this, and then Q3 gets released right after they will be pissed, again.

    I do not understand why some companies seem to deliberately want to anger customers.

    • sfmike

      I agree, these companies have a real problem with timing and communication considering their bloated staffs. If they spent as much time looking at customer care and satisfaction as they do about internal sexual harassment classes, ect. maybe they would solve more problems rather than create them.

    • MeowMix

      Why not make this announcement during or right after Quest 3 reveal?

      I’m guessing because that would only give a 2-3 month heads up to the changes (updates only through 2023). Ppl are getting a year heads up and they’re already mad; imagine how mad they would be with only a 2-3 month heads up.

      And I would guess they plan to release a revamp to the Quest Party system prior to the release of Quest3.

    • mirak

      You had any sort of faith in facebook or what ?

  • Ariel

    I haven’t received this email yet, and how do they figure it was launched over 4 years ago, when it was first sold in May of 2019? Are they just counting from when it was announced?
    This is disappointing as I was hoping the device would be supported till I could get a Quest 3.

    • MeowMix

      This is disappointing as I was hoping the device would be supported till I could get a Quest 3.

      it will be supported through 2023 (until 2024). Even after support ends it will still continue to function (for instance, the PSVR1 still works although mainstream support is done).

      For now, you’re losing out on Quest Party, which is a very specific social feature.

      • Ariel

        Party support is what I was talking about. I use the Party function every week as I play with my parents. They should at least still support joining a party with audio only on a Q1 through the end of the year. That would allow us time to get a Q3.

        • ViRGiN

          And the next dude will say until end of next year. And another one will say the year after that.

  • Max-Dmg

    How many years are left for the quest 2 and how many years will the quest 3 have?

    • MeowMix

      Quest 1 is getting ~ 5 yrs of support. So Quest2 will also get around 5 years ? Seems good to me.

  • ViRGiN

    LMAO people crying like the device becomes a brick overnight.

    Be happy they at least announced it. Companies like valve abandoned their headset the same day it launched, they just didn’t tell you about it.

    The only feature that is taken away is party – and most of you are definetly not using it lol. 4 years support for 400, headset still serviceable for another 4 years. Cry me a river assholes.

  • sfmike

    I guess the people complaining would be happy to still be using a dial telephone connected to a land line so as not to have to inconvenienced by an upgrade.

    • Jistuce

      I mean, you CAN still use a rotary telephone connected to a landline if you want to. We’ve had one hooked up here for ages just because the ringer is so satisfying.

      More relevantly… my video game library spans most of the life of the medium, from the Studio II to the latest and greatest. I can still pick up almost any game I want from any point in gaming’s history and play it on the hardware it was originally designed for.

      The exceptions are download-only software that’s been discontinued, and software that requires a host server the company no longer operates. Sometimes, that loss is hidden. The modern World of Warcraft is not even remotely the same game that World of Warcraft was at start. It won’t even run on the same hardware.

      Time will tell how well the Quest behaves once the servers quit talking to it. But you’ll forgive me for having a dim outlook, being one of the people who INSTANTLY lost access to his Rift when Oculus, a division of Facebook, forgot to update security certificates that one time. They seem pretty committed to “server connection required for use”. I do know a Quest that has already been activated will work without an internet connection, but do not know for how long.

      I think the best hope long-term is that since the manufacturer has pledged to stop patching security vulnerabilities, someone’s gonna find a foothold to take it over completely and make a more open version of the Android fork.

  • To those angered by this: it’s inevitable.
    How long do you expect Meta to continue to expend vital resources
    to support a GEN01 device, especially in this super-rapid era of MD development …??
    Quest 2/QuestPRO [???]/Quest 3 are all Meta’s focus right now.
    And that’s already a VERY full plate.

    • Anonymous

      Inevitable agreed, but the announcement timing couldn’t be worse. Consumers are stupid in the sense they only read things however they want to read it, but are also smart and cunning in spreading word of mouth and painting bad image onto companies.

      VR life cycle is similar to consoles so we can use that as an reference. Before any consoles are released, there is typically a reveal first, followed by half to one year of development before release. But the problem with Meta is that they always start selling almost right after the Meta Connect event. We know Quest 3 is coming because we follow VR news, but most Quest users don’t. Remember, officially, there has not been a reveal yet. All we have are either “leaks” or “hints”.

      The way I see it is that this announcement shows Meta’s inexperience in hardware PR planning. VR is not a commodity yet like smartphones where customers can ditch one and move on to another easily. It is bad PR to cut support on old hardware before the successor, one that is truly a big change that could justify switching, becomes widely known information.

      Meta is gradually building up a better image from the ashes of FB, then all of a sudden they destroy it.

  • Ariel

    I am proposing Meta support Q1 basic parties or audio only through the end of 2023. Q3 will likely be released in October of 2023, so that gives everyone 2-3 months to upgrade.

  • Jistuce

    They sold every Quest 1 they could make. And we now know exactly how much time that’s worth.

    But meh. As long as they don’t cut it off from the network and push a firmware update to brick it, I’m fine. I don’t really want or need “social networking” and feature updates.

  • Christopher

    Is 4-5 years going to be the new shelf life for expensive tech? For $600 for a headset unsupported in 5 years. Im not expecting 10 years or anything but I guess im comparing them to old video game units that people still search for on eBay. Headsets will end up being the new phone with a 2-3 year shelf life, going to be so much eWaste come the future. Though hopefully VR will replace computers and phones one day, then the cost would be justified and reduce eWaste.