Quest 2 Black Friday Sale Brings Discounted Headset & Game Bundles

Not sure if this is Meta screwing with Europeans, but I see very different discounts for the packs. 9% instead of 48% for “Fight to Finish”, 10% instead of 48% for “Stayin’ Alive”, 13% instead of 41% for “Simulators”, 12% instead of 40% for “Thrill of Victory” and 9% instead of 38% for “Quick Reflexes” pack. The discount for “Enchantment Bundle Pack” and “Vader Immortal Pack” are 39% instead of 40%, basically the same as in the US, so I assume that the much lower discounts for the other packs isn’t an error, but intentional.

This isn’t new, I’m almost never tempted to buy any of their Quest bundles as the discount is rarely worth it. The comparison may be unfair, but the “Black Friday VR Voyager’s Pack” on Humble Bundle is still running till 2022-12-10, costs USD 12 and gives you Steam keys for twelve VR games, eleven of which are available for both Quest and PCVR :

(only available for PC)
– Sairento VR

(Quest version not on sale)
– Cook-Out
– The Wizards – Dark Times
– Shooty Fruity
– A Fisherman’s Tale

(Quest version currently on sale, prices from Quest store)
– Acron: Attack of the Squirrels (11.99, regular 19.99)
– Until You Fall (13.99, regular 24.99)
– Superhot VR (16.99, regular 24.99)
– Car Mechanic Simulator VR (12.99, regular 19.99)
– I Expect You to Die (15.99, regular 24.99)
– The Curious Tale of the Stolen Pets (9.99, regular 14.99)

Only the last game is currently available on the Quest store for less than the whole Humble bundle thanks to a 33% reduction to 9.99. Humble gives the value of all titles in the bundle as USD 274, making it a 95.6% reduction. Not exactly apples to apples, but I usually expect high reductions from bundles and packs as these will often include titles I’m not particularly interested in or that I already bought before, e.g. I already own seven of the twelve games in the VR Voyager’s Pack.

Extreme discounts may seem unsustainable if we want developers to earn enough to keep creating VR games, but games usually run through a series of sales phases. Starting at full price, followed by short minor reductions after a few months, often falling to half the regular price or less during sales after about two years, and even later as parts of bundles. These phases address different customer groups, so steep discounts in bundles don’t necessarily take away full price sales. Steam sales generate a lot of extra sales to digital hoarders that are tempted by the low price and end up with hundreds or thousands of games they never even launch, each providing some extra money for the developers with zero support costs. Adding new users thanks to discounts often also generates more activity and interest for older titles and thus more sales at regular prices.

Meta probably avoids steeper discounts as (initially) selling the Quest below production costs required trying to make back the money with software sales. But compared to consoles Quest owners apparently buy very few games, and I think that the prices are part of the problem. Most VR games are rather short and simple, so the cost/value ratio isn’t all that great compared to pancake games. The rather limited total number of available Quest games will get a lot of enthusiasts to still pay for them, but the comparatively high prices might stop many casual users from giving more titles a try.

In theory this is covered by the return policy, allowing games to be refunded after a short test. But from my own experience with Steam sales the effect is quite different: I own hundreds of titles I never installed to even decide whether I should refund them, as this would be too much hassle. The price was low enough that I was willing to take the risk and instead just bought them based on the Steam page and reviews, then never bothered checking. Something I wouldn’t do with Quest games. Consequently I bought ~50 Quest apps, not even half of what I bought for the Oculus Go and just peanuts compared to the amount of VR titles I own on Steam.

Wait so- is he villain or no