Facebook’s standalone headset the Oculus Quest is coming up on its first birthday next month and it’s likely to be a big event. That’s because the device has done so well, with the company’s latest earning call detailing its impact on revenue whilst acknowledging the shortage in stock.
During the investor call Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was asked about the performance of the social platform’s gaming sector including its investment in Oculus.
Zuckerberg responded by saying: “And on the virtual reality side, this has always been a longterm vision. Quest has surpassed our expectations. I wish we could make more of them faster during this period.
“I do think that it’s one of those areas whereas people can’t go out into the world as much, the ability to have technology that allows us to be physically present or feel present even when we can’t be physically together, whether that’s Quest or Portal, or any of the software that we’re building around video presence, that stuff has certainly seen especially large spikes in usage.”
When it comes to Oculus Quest that usage would likely be much higher if there were sufficient stock. There has been the odd occasion Oculus’ website has shown availability, but most of the time there is none.
“And it’s possible that this brings — accelerate some of the trends around adoption of things like virtual or augmented reality, but I’m not sure what will happen there long term,” Zuckerberg adds. “But in the near term, I’m quite pleased with how Quest is doing, and I wish we could make more of them.”
Facebook makes most of its money through advertising revenue, however, elsewhere on the call CFO David Wehner revealed that ‘other revenue’ has increased by 80 percent to $297 million USD: ‘driven primarily by sales of Oculus products,’ he noted. Unfortunately, there was no mention of how many headsets Facebook has actually sold.
This continues the positive outlook for Oculus Quest as last month saw Facebook announce that over 20 titles generated revenue of $1 million. VRFocus will continue its coverage of Oculus Quest, reporting back with the latest platform updates.
via Mint VR