A similar thing will happen with WMR headsets in November of 2026, by the way (they’ll work beyond that, but you can’t download the software anymore after that date):
Since these depend on Windows itself, I don’t think there will be an easy (or even possible) workaround.
Sad news, because these are cheap, high-res, fast to set up, easy to use and generally very decent headsets. Controllers are not top of the class, but good enough for almost anything. Ideal for people interested in tipping their toes into proper PCVR.
There are already third party/open source drivers being developed for WMR hardware, though. Like Monado.
It’s unlikely WMR headsets will be completely unusable after M$ drops support, but A) they will still work with existing systems, B) third party software will hopefully be okayish by then and C) it will almost certainly be possible to “pirate” the Microsoft WMR application(s) the same way it is already possible to manually re-add modules back into Windows that have been officially discontinued.
Thanks for informing me about Monado, but it seems like it’s exclusive to Linux. That’s hardly ideal. Then again, it’s more than two years until November of 2026, so a lot might happen until then.
For Monado on Windows iirc the current state is that it works but not with real hardware (which is usually well supported officially anyway) due to lack of drivers. Now if it becomes the only platform to keep supporting WMR the developer incentive is definitely there.
It currently does, I still use mine both standalone, and linked with my desktop on the oculus platform and SteamVR, since i disliked how cheaply made the oculus 2 was.
Right now I’m waiting for a competitor to the quest to even appear on the market, since there doesn’t seem to be any other standalone option right now.
Thank you for that info! I have a really hard time spending a lot of money on myself so I’ve been putting off buying a vr set for years and years now, but if I was to get one it would be valve or pico because screws Facebook. Now I guess it’s just valve though…
Better to have invested in a Valve Index I feel than get an Oculus. Might be more expensive, but I trust Valve to not completely fuck over their consumers.
I mean not really. Again the index is a great headset but look at how long people actually use their headsets for. Is it better to throw your money into a pit that is $400 or $1000. VR is a weird since you either love it or hate it. Most people are going to hate it and many people aren’t really into the idea of reselling their stuff. This isn’t to say facebook good or some nonsense like that but from a prospective customer’s standpoint why spend so much money on something you might not even like. You don’t have to drill any holes in your walls to put up base stations while inside out tracking isn’t great it gets the job done and again its far more convenient. I like the option to have base stations but again realistically putting in so much work for something you might only spend a week or month on is not a great investment of your money or time. If you like VR, I would highly suggest getting a better headset than a quest or oculus headset but a newcomer I will 100% suggest a quest over anything else especially a used model to save them extra cash.
Not even planned obsolescence… It’s just “hey, you guys aren’t buying our slightly better new version. We were talking today about how to make a little bit more money, and we decided, hey, we don’t want to maintain this anymore. We also don’t want to unlock it and let someone else take over, and while we’re at it let’s just start shutting off features until you buy a new one. Because fuck you”
Tech company, they love E-Waste. Your thing can still play fine? Fuck you, buy our new shit that have all those advanced privacy invasive tracker loaded into it, and let us snoop around so we can share your info with other tech company.
I still can’t fathom people are somehow okay with buying a device that is, by design and function, festooned with cameras and microphones from goddamn Facebook and waving it around inside their homes. Like, what?
I bought Oculus Quest 1. OCULUS! Facebook promised to leave them alone, for them to remain oculus, But after a year or so, merging started, firstly with oculus accounts vanishing into fb, then renaming to Meta Quest and now the only thing that remain is logo.
What exactly is a promise from Facebook worth? You saw what happened to Palmer Luckey (although he is wiping those tears with crisp hundred dollar bills).
Nothing, since they’ve already lied about the ongoing account integration requirements for their various VR products, like, three (?) major times so far. I don’t trust a damn thing they say about anything.
If Meta told me the sky was blue I’d be searching for independent verification.
Vr is very price prohibitive and Oculus/Facebook sell headsets at a loss to make their marketshare. Its not great but if you want to “try vr” especially something you hear will make you physically sick to use and you might not even like. Its just logical to spend the least amount of money on it for a “proper headset”. Like if you value your privacy that is fine and completely understandable but lets be honest here, most people don’t. Especially with the popularization of social media and smart phones like we can even apply the same logic with your argument with phones like why would you buy a device that has so many cameras and microphones and wave it around your home and toilet. Hell I think the phone is actually worse since most people bring them everywhere while a headset is a bit more constrained on where you can take it.
Are we going to ignore that VR adoption is basically held up by Oculus/facebook. I hate facebook and their support for their titles on the VR space are dreadful for instance it is unacceptable what they did with Echo Arena but you can literally look at the steam hardware survey and see that Oculus/facebook makeup nearly 70% (67.4% to be more accurate) of VR headsets in the market today for PCVR. Who the fuck is funding many VR game devs right now? I can tell you it ain’t many publishers and the biggest one right now is Facebook as much as I hate to say it. Facebook absolutely is a crutch VR needs to survive in this market but we gamers should make use of them for as long as possible then ditch them whenever its convenient for us.
Hell the PSVR2 looking very juicy if that has great PCVR support and it doesn’t require any ps5 nonsense to work but PSVR2 is a perfect example of how VR is not in a great place and a big part of it is price related. Like VR nuts (like I) would gladly pay higher tier prices for a good headset but to some average joe, they see a headset that costs as much as a fucking console that only works with a limited number of games. Hell the thing can even make you sick trying to use it. Most people aren’t going to pay 1000+ dollars to try VR to see if they “like it”, hell they aren’t even paying $550.
Again I’m not here to advocate for Facebook but I will sure as hell make use of their investments in VR because they are sort of throwing that money in a fire pit with how the market is. Facebook plans on trying to fill that fire pit with so much money it becomes a bridge that is profitable and it might be in the future but right now if you want someone to try VR, a oculus headset is probably the best bang for your buck headset especially if you buy it used since realistically most people are going to play with it for a month then be done with it and try to hock the thing.
I remember the dev of Frog Fractions was doing a kickstarter back then. After the announcement of Facebook buying Occulus, they put up a new bonus goal of 2 billion: “Buy occulus back”
My BIL’s friend was an engineer at Oculus and he was so sad when they got bought out. He works at Meta now (golden handcuffs) and says it’s ok but not all that fun anymore.
The only silver lining is that this will encourage the homebrew scene to take off. The same thing happened with the PS Vita as soon as support started to wane.
Oh yeah there are loads of great examples. Point being, official development stopping means nothing for the homebrew scene. If anything, it might actually be a good thing because there won’t be any updates to break homebrew apps
I mean, the Wii, WiiU and DS consoles have reasonably busy homebrew scenes. You’re right, they’re pretty small compared to the other consoles mentioned but they definitely exist, and I’m sure the Switch will get the same when they move on to the next console
I was referring to Nintendo still pushing software updates to try and break 3ds homebrew even though after next month they won’t support the console in any way
Made me wonder how long Apple would support their Vision Pro devices as both devices are similarly locked down by their manufacturers. The Quest 1 was released on 2019, so it got about 5 years of support. Apple might support Vision Pro for longer (maybe 7 years?), but at $3499 (vs Quest 1’s $399), it’ll going to be hurt for the owners when it’s no longer supported.
My daughter does too. She stopped touching it about two years minus one day after we got it for her for Christmas. And she really wanted it for Christmas too.
Since the Steam Link app came out on it, it’s been waaay easier to play PCVR titles. I’ve had more fun with it playing modded games that weren’t meant for VR than actual new VR games. Valheim was nuts. Skyrim VR modded to hell is super nuts. It’s a great way to re-experience some of those old games.
With the current pace of VR, the Quest 1 already feels extremely outdated. I’m not surprised that they are dropping support for it, especially when the Quest 2 and 3 have all but replaced it
The headline still is complete ragebait. The product still functions. They are just not adding any new releases. It happens to every console, and the Quest 1 was a shortlived, but necessary stepping stone to get to where we are today.
It’s not even a beta tester thing. They just bought it from Oculus, made a few minor changes (most notably requiring you to have a Facebook account to use it) and that was it. This is a “force consumers to upgrade” thing. And it should be illegal.
Yeee anybody who bought these as an actual standalone headset is in for a rude awakening of how console gaming works and how app store monopolies and vertical integration are able to offer you prices that massively undercut the competition like this.
As always - PC games are forever, piracy is forever. My quest 2 exists to have VD on it and nothing else, and when support is discontinued if the dev keeps updating it - I’ll sideload the .APKs myself.
My worry and the main reason I’ve not jumped for one, is that with the requirement of a Meta account and stuff, Meta could decide to just have all their headsets of a certain generation stop working after some date even if you only use desktop streaming.
Are there any known workarounds/safeguards against Meta remote control of the device?
Thanks for the research. It seems like their discontinuation of Oculus accounts made some of the steps harder or less effective, and I’d worry about messing something up.
I took a second look after you replied and holy shit you’re right it is very involved. I’m just going to take my chances with meta still and if they burn me I got my several hundred hours of Skyrim VR in. Enough to justify an Index.
Hold up. I can’t make an app for you because that asshole over there says no? Refund that shit. The hardware clearly isn’t yours, so your money should make it’s way back to your wallet.
Where does it say that you can’t make an app? From my understanding, you can’t distribute in their store. Nobody is taking away your hardware or blocks you from using it.
Meta/Facebook has the quest locked down so you can’t easily install run apps without using their store. By preventing developers from releasing new games/updates on the store for quest 1, they’ve effectively killed the product.
Its the same as if Apple stopped supporting an iPhone in the app store. That phone is no longer able to install any apps on it.
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What a lame early April fools joke.
A similar thing will happen with WMR headsets in November of 2026, by the way (they’ll work beyond that, but you can’t download the software anymore after that date):
https://www.uploadvr.com/windows-mixed-reality-headset-support-end-date/
Since these depend on Windows itself, I don’t think there will be an easy (or even possible) workaround.
Sad news, because these are cheap, high-res, fast to set up, easy to use and generally very decent headsets. Controllers are not top of the class, but good enough for almost anything. Ideal for people interested in tipping their toes into proper PCVR.
There are already third party/open source drivers being developed for WMR hardware, though. Like Monado.
It’s unlikely WMR headsets will be completely unusable after M$ drops support, but A) they will still work with existing systems, B) third party software will hopefully be okayish by then and C) it will almost certainly be possible to “pirate” the Microsoft WMR application(s) the same way it is already possible to manually re-add modules back into Windows that have been officially discontinued.
Thanks for informing me about Monado, but it seems like it’s exclusive to Linux. That’s hardly ideal. Then again, it’s more than two years until November of 2026, so a lot might happen until then.
For Monado on Windows iirc the current state is that it works but not with real hardware (which is usually well supported officially anyway) due to lack of drivers. Now if it becomes the only platform to keep supporting WMR the developer incentive is definitely there.
It should still work fine with SteamVR right? I’m not too pressed.
Will it? I would love to try out VR gaming but I really don’t want to be locked into meta’s ecosystem.
It currently does, I still use mine both standalone, and linked with my desktop on the oculus platform and SteamVR, since i disliked how cheaply made the oculus 2 was.
Right now I’m waiting for a competitor to the quest to even appear on the market, since there doesn’t seem to be any other standalone option right now.
There’s the Pico 4 - but the company behind it is ByteDance. You might know ByteDance from their other product: TikTok…
So in the end it would be out of the frying pan and into the fire, I think.
Yeah I’m not eager to go from sending my floorplan to zuck to sending it to the CCP, lol.
Thank you for that info! I have a really hard time spending a lot of money on myself so I’ve been putting off buying a vr set for years and years now, but if I was to get one it would be valve or pico because screws Facebook. Now I guess it’s just valve though…
There’s also SideQuestVR
I hate this so much. Why should they be able to do this?
One thing is stopping customer support and internal software/OS development. But why should they BLOCK compatibility for third party developers?
I guess because fuck you, they got their money 🤷 It really should be illegal.
Better to have invested in a Valve Index I feel than get an Oculus. Might be more expensive, but I trust Valve to not completely fuck over their consumers.
I mean not really. Again the index is a great headset but look at how long people actually use their headsets for. Is it better to throw your money into a pit that is $400 or $1000. VR is a weird since you either love it or hate it. Most people are going to hate it and many people aren’t really into the idea of reselling their stuff. This isn’t to say facebook good or some nonsense like that but from a prospective customer’s standpoint why spend so much money on something you might not even like. You don’t have to drill any holes in your walls to put up base stations while inside out tracking isn’t great it gets the job done and again its far more convenient. I like the option to have base stations but again realistically putting in so much work for something you might only spend a week or month on is not a great investment of your money or time. If you like VR, I would highly suggest getting a better headset than a quest or oculus headset but a newcomer I will 100% suggest a quest over anything else especially a used model to save them extra cash.
Minor exception is Australia.
Valve hates Australia (valve lost in court over refunds here).
So we don’t get access to their hardware directly. It’s lame.
I don’t get why you’re being downvoted, sounds like a localization/price/law thing, like Brazil and the price of consoles and games over there.
It’s lemmy.
I’m used to it. If you post something that’s not with the hive mind, you get down voted, regardless of you are correct.
By killing the product completely they’re forcing their users to upgrade. It’s always profits man, that’s always the reason
I know. I was saying that is so unreasonable that they shouldn’t be allowed to do it.
That said. I hope people are not so stupid to trust Meta with an upgrade after something like that.
It’s called “planned obsolescence”.
Not even planned obsolescence… It’s just “hey, you guys aren’t buying our slightly better new version. We were talking today about how to make a little bit more money, and we decided, hey, we don’t want to maintain this anymore. We also don’t want to unlock it and let someone else take over, and while we’re at it let’s just start shutting off features until you buy a new one. Because fuck you”
Tech company, they love E-Waste. Your thing can still play fine? Fuck you, buy our new shit that have all those advanced privacy invasive tracker loaded into it, and let us snoop around so we can share your info with other tech company.
I still can’t fathom people are somehow okay with buying a device that is, by design and function, festooned with cameras and microphones from goddamn Facebook and waving it around inside their homes. Like, what?
I bought Oculus Quest 1. OCULUS! Facebook promised to leave them alone, for them to remain oculus, But after a year or so, merging started, firstly with oculus accounts vanishing into fb, then renaming to Meta Quest and now the only thing that remain is logo.
What exactly is a promise from Facebook worth? You saw what happened to Palmer Luckey (although he is wiping those tears with crisp hundred dollar bills).
Nothing, since they’ve already lied about the ongoing account integration requirements for their various VR products, like, three (?) major times so far. I don’t trust a damn thing they say about anything.
If Meta told me the sky was blue I’d be searching for independent verification.
Vr is very price prohibitive and Oculus/Facebook sell headsets at a loss to make their marketshare. Its not great but if you want to “try vr” especially something you hear will make you physically sick to use and you might not even like. Its just logical to spend the least amount of money on it for a “proper headset”. Like if you value your privacy that is fine and completely understandable but lets be honest here, most people don’t. Especially with the popularization of social media and smart phones like we can even apply the same logic with your argument with phones like why would you buy a device that has so many cameras and microphones and wave it around your home and toilet. Hell I think the phone is actually worse since most people bring them everywhere while a headset is a bit more constrained on where you can take it.
But they make their new products with 10% of recycled plastics and a cardboard box! SO ECO-FRIENDLY!
Because we own nothing now.
lol it’s not even 5 years old?!? I appreciate Zuc giving me another reason to not buy their hardware
It’ll be five years old this may. It’s four, going in five.
“WE ARE GREEN”
“BuT MeTa aNd TheIr MoNeY ArE GOOD FoR VR!!!”
I warned everyone. I warned everyone back in, like, 2016.
Are we going to ignore that VR adoption is basically held up by Oculus/facebook. I hate facebook and their support for their titles on the VR space are dreadful for instance it is unacceptable what they did with Echo Arena but you can literally look at the steam hardware survey and see that Oculus/facebook makeup nearly 70% (67.4% to be more accurate) of VR headsets in the market today for PCVR. Who the fuck is funding many VR game devs right now? I can tell you it ain’t many publishers and the biggest one right now is Facebook as much as I hate to say it. Facebook absolutely is a crutch VR needs to survive in this market but we gamers should make use of them for as long as possible then ditch them whenever its convenient for us.
Hell the PSVR2 looking very juicy if that has great PCVR support and it doesn’t require any ps5 nonsense to work but PSVR2 is a perfect example of how VR is not in a great place and a big part of it is price related. Like VR nuts (like I) would gladly pay higher tier prices for a good headset but to some average joe, they see a headset that costs as much as a fucking console that only works with a limited number of games. Hell the thing can even make you sick trying to use it. Most people aren’t going to pay 1000+ dollars to try VR to see if they “like it”, hell they aren’t even paying $550.
Again I’m not here to advocate for Facebook but I will sure as hell make use of their investments in VR because they are sort of throwing that money in a fire pit with how the market is. Facebook plans on trying to fill that fire pit with so much money it becomes a bridge that is profitable and it might be in the future but right now if you want someone to try VR, a oculus headset is probably the best bang for your buck headset especially if you buy it used since realistically most people are going to play with it for a month then be done with it and try to hock the thing.
Not trying to negate what you said, but I honestly don’t remember people saying that. I remember people complaining about Oculus being bought.
I remember the dev of Frog Fractions was doing a kickstarter back then. After the announcement of Facebook buying Occulus, they put up a new bonus goal of 2 billion: “Buy occulus back”
The second I heard Facebook bought Oculus, I knew it’d be ewaste. Fuck zuck and any piece of shit greedy pig like him.
My BIL’s friend was an engineer at Oculus and he was so sad when they got bought out. He works at Meta now (golden handcuffs) and says it’s ok but not all that fun anymore.
I was so excited about Oculus up until the acquisition.
They’re still doing interesting things I just can’t approach anything Meta does with enthusiasm.
Same. Was planning to buy one and luckily I did not. When Facebook bought the company I lost all interest.
You definitely shouldn’t be excited for anything Facebook.
The only silver lining is that this will encourage the homebrew scene to take off. The same thing happened with the PS Vita as soon as support started to wane.
And 3ds And OG Xbox And PS3 (though it took some exploting) And Wii U Those are the ones I can think of off the top of my head, anyways
Oh yeah there are loads of great examples. Point being, official development stopping means nothing for the homebrew scene. If anything, it might actually be a good thing because there won’t be any updates to break homebrew apps
Unless your Nintendo, that is
I mean, the Wii, WiiU and DS consoles have reasonably busy homebrew scenes. You’re right, they’re pretty small compared to the other consoles mentioned but they definitely exist, and I’m sure the Switch will get the same when they move on to the next console
I was referring to Nintendo still pushing software updates to try and break 3ds homebrew even though after next month they won’t support the console in any way
deleted by creator
Made me wonder how long Apple would support their Vision Pro devices as both devices are similarly locked down by their manufacturers. The Quest 1 was released on 2019, so it got about 5 years of support. Apple might support Vision Pro for longer (maybe 7 years?), but at $3499 (vs Quest 1’s $399), it’ll going to be hurt for the owners when it’s no longer supported.
Apple does not stop you from installing apps when they EOL their hardware though.
I have a Quest 2 that i haven’t touched in almost 2 years. I should sell it.
My daughter does too. She stopped touching it about two years minus one day after we got it for her for Christmas. And she really wanted it for Christmas too.
Stupid kids.
Since the Steam Link app came out on it, it’s been waaay easier to play PCVR titles. I’ve had more fun with it playing modded games that weren’t meant for VR than actual new VR games. Valheim was nuts. Skyrim VR modded to hell is super nuts. It’s a great way to re-experience some of those old games.
So, they’re basically forcing it into the junk pile, even if developers want to support it. What a terrible company.
Well it is meta. I am surprised they didn’t make them all just catch fire and burn down the owners houses.
There’s no money in that for them. Now if they owned a real estate company…
Upon being handed a busted Quest 2 that indeed caught fire, I’ve found a lot of folks online that have had that very issue lol.
Unrelated, I fixed it and noe need VR game suggestions as this realm is the shit.
With the current pace of VR, the Quest 1 already feels extremely outdated. I’m not surprised that they are dropping support for it, especially when the Quest 2 and 3 have all but replaced it
The problem is specifically NOT availability of VR options without the Quest 1.
The headline still is complete ragebait. The product still functions. They are just not adding any new releases. It happens to every console, and the Quest 1 was a shortlived, but necessary stepping stone to get to where we are today.
We thank you for being our beta testers, now fuck right off
It’s not even a beta tester thing. They just bought it from Oculus, made a few minor changes (most notably requiring you to have a Facebook account to use it) and that was it. This is a “force consumers to upgrade” thing. And it should be illegal.
I thought the on device camera based positioning was developed after Facebook bought them and hired John Carmack
Yeee anybody who bought these as an actual standalone headset is in for a rude awakening of how console gaming works and how app store monopolies and vertical integration are able to offer you prices that massively undercut the competition like this.
As always - PC games are forever, piracy is forever. My quest 2 exists to have VD on it and nothing else, and when support is discontinued if the dev keeps updating it - I’ll sideload the .APKs myself.
Sounds a lot like a girl I knew back in college. Do you also share it with all your friends and people you barely met?
God bless Jessica
My worry and the main reason I’ve not jumped for one, is that with the requirement of a Meta account and stuff, Meta could decide to just have all their headsets of a certain generation stop working after some date even if you only use desktop streaming.
Are there any known workarounds/safeguards against Meta remote control of the device?
I found THIS, but there are some caveats.
Thanks for the research. It seems like their discontinuation of Oculus accounts made some of the steps harder or less effective, and I’d worry about messing something up.
I took a second look after you replied and holy shit you’re right it is very involved. I’m just going to take my chances with meta still and if they burn me I got my several hundred hours of Skyrim VR in. Enough to justify an Index.
I have used my pi-hole to blacklist all the oculus, meta and facebook domains, so I don’t get firmware update pushes on my Q1.
BUT, I did have a weird out-of-sync issue with Virtual Desktop a few months ago when I thought I had properly version locked.
All I ever wanted my Quest to be was a monitor. The fact that they could brick a monitor because they feel like it’s obsolete, is asinine.
Hold up. I can’t make an app for you because that asshole over there says no? Refund that shit. The hardware clearly isn’t yours, so your money should make it’s way back to your wallet.
Where does it say that you can’t make an app? From my understanding, you can’t distribute in their store. Nobody is taking away your hardware or blocks you from using it.
Meta/Facebook has the quest locked down so you can’t easily install run apps without using their store. By preventing developers from releasing new games/updates on the store for quest 1, they’ve effectively killed the product.
Its the same as if Apple stopped supporting an iPhone in the app store. That phone is no longer able to install any apps on it.