Quest 2 and Quest Pro are finally officially sold in Germany.
While Meta was never officially banned from selling hardware in Germany, it voluntarily suspended VR headset sales just before the release of Quest 2, which required a Facebook account to use at launch. Heise Online reported this move had caused the German Federal Cartel Office (FCO) to initiate abuse proceedings, the likely trigger for Meta’s decision.
In August, almost two years later, Meta removed the Facebook account requirement for its VR headsets worldwide by introducing the new Meta account system. “Meta has responded to our concerns and offered a solution by creating a separate Meta account for using the Quest”, the President of the German FCO said.
However, the FCO isn’t finished with its investigation. It says it’s also looking into “the question of the connection of the data processed within the framework of the various Meta services” in relation to wider concerns about Meta’s data handling. “Until this has been clarified, Meta will, in principle, keep the data generated when using the Meta Quest separately from data from other Meta services for users who use a separate Meta account”, the FCO said.
Returning to the German market means Quest 2 is taking on ByteDane’s Pico 4, which offers superior hardware at a lower price – though with a much less fleshed-out content library and inferior tracking.
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