Most people can likely relate to the blitz that surrounded one of the following holiday product crazes of yesteryear: Cabbage Patch dolls, Tomagatchis, Beanie Babies, Furbies, and of course, the abominable Tickle Me Elmo.
There was literally arrests of dueling mothers, robbings at gunpoint, and trampled toy store employees attributed to the craze over Elmo, and in all these holiday crazes the products were being resold at many times there retail value. An Elmo went for 240X its $28.99 retail price. Abominable.
In an unexpected turn for consumer VR enthusiasm, this Christmas season the Oculus Quest is similarly being sold for many times it’s retail price on sites like eBay and other online resellers. The Quest retails at $399 and is being posted for resale as high as $2999. Will we see mothers fighting in the aisle of suburban Best Buy’s? Doubtful, yet the very fact that there is even a mutter of this being a craze over consumer demand for VR is something that many in the industry would not have predicted for this holiday season.
Free shipping though
The Quest is however the perfect consumer entry VR product, and so maybe the surprise shouldn’t really be as dramatic as some of the are making it out to be. Of course everyone is happy to see this consumer interest; as soon as Quest was released lots of industry peeps started proclaiming that Quest would be the consumer VR platform that the masses would adopt, albeit skeptics came out of the woodwork quick to object. At MXTreality, we definitely saw the potential as soon as we got our first Quest in the office; comparing Beat Saber scores and wondering if the next chapter of Vader would have us joining the dark lord or dueling him directly. Although our focus was a bit more into how we would utilize the Quest for our own solutions, our excitement at the possibility for VR turning a corner in the mainstream eye was certainly there.
Every grandma loves wireless, high performance VR
Naturally it’s just great to watch the mad dash toward scooping up Quests. You may have kids as young as elementary school asking mom and dad for one, while grandma or grandpa may be asking for one as well! Whether everyone asking Santa for VR is going to wake up on Christmas morning with a Quest waiting for them under the tree is another story.
One could be inclined to wonder if Oculus engineered a shortage to raise attention. If they did, it was a bold move that looks to be paying off. The commercials with Eric (of Tim and Eric international fame) are pretty cool, but if you hadn’t heard of Quest before seeing one, you might not bite. Having a frenzy over demand for them is enough to get mainstream folks to read an article explaining the perceived shortage and those types of articles are likely to include what sets the Quest apart. Its a safe bet to assume many who go as far as reading such an article will hit the order link. If you’d like to see the type of solutions we create that will more and more likely utilize the Quest, visit our Experiences page. There’s some pretty cool stuff on there and it’s been great to start sharing our solutions on such an easy to navigate device. We’ve definitely noticed a difference at events where we encounter lots of people who may have never used VR. They’ve always had a blast with the wired headsets, and yet the nature of an untethered experience lends itself to what everyone agrees allows for a stronger sense of freedom in VR. There’s no doubt that the future is self contained headsets; for the masses that future has arrived this holiday season.
If you have any questions on whether the Quest is the right holiday gift for you or your loved one, you can tweet us @MXTreality or stop by MXTreality CEO Jeff Rayner's Quora and ask him any question you might have!