Oculus Quest 2 officially revealed at $299, preorders are live now

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The Oculus Quest 2 was officially unveiled at the Facebook Connect VR event today, confirming much of what was leaked earlier this week. The base model will come in a little lower than the leak indicated, however—the 64 GB Quest 2 is available for preorder for $299 (£299 / AU$479).

The Quest 2 is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 CPU and 6GB RAM, with a 50 percent increase in pixels—1832 x 1920 per eye—and features redesigned controllers and a longer battery life than its predecessor. It's also backwards-compatible with the Oculus Quest, and can run Rift Platform games through the Oculus link.

Less fortunately, as announced in April, the Quest 2 will be "powered by Facebook," which is another way of saying that you'll be required to have a Facebook account if you want to use one. "Quest 2 requires your Facebook account to login, making it easy to meet up with friends in VR and discover communities around the world," the Quest 2 product page says. "You can explore as yourself or pick a new name by creating a unique VR profile."

The 256GB version of the Oculus Quest 2 is $399 (£399 / AU$639), the price that was indicated in the leak, and if you want to throw in a few more bucks you can add on a Quest 2 Elite Strap for "enhanced comfort" for $49, or the Elite Strap with a battery pack and carrying case for $129. Details and preorder links are up at oculus.com.

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.