San Francisco, Jul 27 (IANS): Amid the increased production costs and global chip shortage, tech giant Meta has announced that it is increasing the price of its Quest 2 virtual reality (VR) headsets starting in August.

The company said that from August, Meta Quest 2 will cost $399.99 and $499.99 for the 128GB and 256GB versions, respectively.

"We have been all-in on VR since the early days of PC and mobile, all the way through to today's premium standalone 6DOF headsets -- and we have invested billions of dollars to help nurture a thriving VR ecosystem," the company said in a blogpost.

"Now, we are making a change that will help us continue to invest for the long term and keep driving the VR industry forward with best-in-class hardware, action-packed games, and cutting-edge research on the path to truly next-gen devices," it added.

The company mentioned that the costs to make and ship its products have been on the rise.

"By adjusting the price of Quest 2, we can continue to grow our investment in groundbreaking research and new product development that pushes the VR industry to new heights," the company said.

"We have an ambitious VR hardware roadmap, beginning with the launch of our high-end headset, Project Cambria, later this year. And we plan to ship new generations of Meta Quest after that," it added.

Recently, Meta announced a new setting known as Voice Mode in Horizon Worlds that gives users more control over their experience.

The feature allows the Quest 2 VR headset users to choose how they hear people who are not on the friends' list, including the option not to hear unwanted conversations at all.