Oculus pulls Quest 2 from shelves after skin complaints

So I got an email from Oculus yesterday that took the shape of one of those messages you see from supermarkets when they don’t want to poison you with contaminated meat. Or when your car manufacturer tells you there’s nothing to worry about, but your driver’s seat might actually be an Ejector Seat by mistake and if you could pop by at some point, they will gladly swap it out free of charge.

Anyway, it turns out the foam face surround of the company’s popular VR headset, the Quest 2, has been affecting a “small proportion” (less than 0.01% apparently) of user’s skin as it degrades (the foam, not the skin – at least I think that’s what they meant!).

Anyway, without a great deal of detail as to how much dermal damage the Quest 2 is actually causing to those unlucky enough to suffer a reaction, it seems Oculus / Facebook has now removed the Quest 2 from sale for the next few weeks at least before it is released again with a new and improved silicone cover which will hopefully solve the issue.

In the meantime, however, if you have bought a Quest 2 already you should be receiving an email with an attached order form. Complete that and Oculus will ship you, free of charge, one of the silicon covers.

Even if you haven’t experienced an issue yet, we would suggest getting your order in as there is obviously enough of an issue for the VR giant to do this and you don’t want to get caught out further down the line with any medical issues having turned down the opportunity to avoid in the first place. You can also set the process in motion at the Oculus website.

The Quest 2 is expected to return to sale on August 24, and if you are looking to get one the other good news is that the base model will now come with an improved 128GB of storage as its base, as opposed to the 64GB it previous shipped with. And the price will remain the same at $299.