The Meta Quest 3 and Apple Vision Pro for Game Developers

Comparison From a Game Development Standpoint

These headsets are aimed at different markets with different goals in mind. Still, if you’re a game developer and not sure what device to target, I’ll give an overview from my point of view as a humble hobbyist game developer.

Price

I’m not sure if you noticed, but in the last year, everything has gotten more expensive, making the “fun budget” smaller for a lot of people. With this in mind, it’s time to take a look at how these headsets stack up price-wise.

The Meta Quest 3 is relatively affordable compared to its peers, while the price of the Apple Vision Pro is absolutely eye-watering.

For that amount of money, you can build a high-end desktop PC with an Nvidia RTX 4090, buy a Meta Quest 2 and still have money to spare for snacks. If you prefer Apple, you can get a decked out Mac Studio or a 16-inch MacBook Pro with an M2 Max chip. Unfortunately, you won’t have any money left over for snacks if you go the second route. :]

To me, the Meta Quest 3 is also pricey for a consumer device, considering you need a Meta account to use it. People will still have to think hard before spending $500.00, but it’s still in the ballpark for most gamers.

Ease of Development

I love experimenting — it’s what keeps the creative juices flowing, and every now and then, something fun pops out as a result. Tinkering on a game and seeing it run on a device for the first time is a magical moment. The Steam Deck, for example, is a blast to develop for, as you can create games and apps for it from just about any system. What about the Vision Pro and the Quest 3, though?

If you want to develop anything for the Vision Pro and don’t have a macOS device yet, make sure to keep another $1,100.00 stashed somewhere for a MacBook and a developer license, as Windows and Linux devices aren’t supported. This isn’t unique to the Vision Pro either, as you can’t build apps and games for macOS and iOS from a non-macOS machine. This closed ecosystem is loved by Apple fans and hated by outsiders.

In contrast, the Meta Quest 3 runs Android, a platform that allows you to target it from any desktop OS, be it Windows, macOS or Linux. The software across the whole Quest line is also the same, meaning you can target the Quest, Quest 2 and Quest 3 at the same time. This is important, as not everyone will jump on the Quest 3 — meaning you should keep the Quest 2 in mind as well, as recommended by Meta.

Market Share

When putting your game out there, you want people to play it. It makes sense that the more people who own a device, the more will be able to play. This is where the market share comes in!

If you go with the Meta Quest route, I have great news: the Meta Quest family made up more than 80% of the total XR headset market in 2022. This means your games and experiences are sure to have an audience. You can release your project on the Oculus Store or simply put it on itch.io, for example, nice and easy.

For the Apple Vision Pro, the numbers are unclear, as it doesn’t have any history yet. The closest match is the Microsoft HoloLens 2, which sold about 200,000 units in 2021, with half of those going to the US military. If businesses are willing to go the Apple route, you can take your chances and develop something for them, but the chance will be slim your fun rhythm-based VR game will find much traction there. Personally, I don’t know many people that fit the criteria needed to buy an Apple Vision Pro:

• Interested in XR.
• Making enough money to spend $3,500.00 on a device that’s not essential.
• Invested deeply in the Apple ecosystem.

In other words, don’t bet on the consumer market here, as hardly anyone will have one in their household.

Conclusion

There’s a clear winner here for game developers: the Meta Quest 3. With a huge market share, an affordable price and dev tools that are accessible to anyone, the Quest is the way to go. I’ll be sure to get one when it’s here, and I’ll share with you how you can develop games for it for free as I did in the past for the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift (S).

Who knows, if I suddenly strike it rich, I might invest $5,000.00+ in everything that’s needed to develop for the Apple Vision Pro. In the meantime, I’ll keep dreaming and developing small games, as usual. :]

Where to Go From Here?

Thanks for reading! Let me know if you’re excited for more XR content soon. If you have any questions or comments, join the forum discussion below!