The year 2023 marks the 10th anniversary of the first version of the Oculus Rift and therefore the 10th anniversary of a real deployment of virtual reality in the eyes of the general public. Since then, major brands have taken over the market: whether Meta, with the takeover of Oculus to begin with, Sony or HTC today offer different models of headsets. Some of them will even release new models for 2023, however will 2023 be the year of the advent of virtual reality?
Headset currently on the market
The PICO 4 is one of the virtual reality headsets available to the general public. This fully autonomous headset retails for €429. Pico offers us a light, stylish and handy headset. To overcome the weight of VR headsets on the head, the weight of the PICO 4 is distributed between the front and the back of the headset, so it does not tip over.
Unlike the PICO 4, the PSVR2 can only be used if it is connected to the PS5 console, this allows it to offer excellent image quality and amaze players during their virtual reality experience. However, the cable may interfere with the parts requiring travel... All that remains is for PSVR2 to convince players with its graphic quality to counter this point.
The Meta Quest 2 (formerly Oculus) sold 15 million copies between October 2020 and June 2022, it is the most popular VR headset model. At the beginning of 2023, an update allowed users to completely get rid of the controllers, the interfaces are completely tactile.
2023: the year of mixed reality
During CES 2023, the HTC brand presented its new headset model, the Vive XR Elite. This headset is not unlike the Meta Quest Pro released in October 2022 since it also offers a mixed reality solution allowing the superimposition of virtual elements on a real image. This top-of-the-range, stand-alone headset retails for €1,400.
After the release of Meta Quest Pro in 2022, Meta is planning the release of Meta Quest 3. No date has been revealed today, but mixed reality could be integrated into this new model. The idea is still to offer an experience accessible to the general public with a price between 300 and 500 dollars.
Another headset is highly anticipated on the market today, it is the one that the Apple brand could offer us. These are just rumors, nothing has been revealed by the brand, but this headset could have a lot to offer: mixed reality, eye tracking thanks to the cameras, hand tracking so you don't have to use gamepads and possibly many other features. The truth is that we won't really know what this new model has to offer us until it's presented.
Virtual reality technology, even if it is not the most deployed on the market, still has a lot to offer and the year 2023 will not fail to surprise us and the next few years either. Indeed, a leak in the American media revealed that Meta would prepare two new headset models for the next few years as well as a pair of augmented reality glasses and a connected watch. We are therefore not finished being surprised.
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