pico 4

Pico Shutdown Rumors are False, Says Parent Company ByteDance

pico, pico 4, pico 5, pico interactive, pico mr, pico shutdown, pico vr, pico xr, XR Industry News / Ryan Harris / October 25, 2023

A recent rumor, which alleged that TikTok parent company ByteDance is slated to spin down its XR hardware subsidiary Pico Interactive, is false, the company says.

China-based publication EqualOcean reported late last week that ByteDance is set to “gradually abandon the PICO business.”

The report alleged the person in charge of Pico recently went to Singapore to report to ByteDance founder and CEO Zhang Yiming, maintaining Pico’s performance in the past few years has “not met expectations, and there is no hope for the future.”

ByteDance has since disavowed the report, telling China’s Financial Associated Press (Chinese) the news was “untrue,” and that “PICO is operating normally and the company will invest in XR business in the long term.”

Founded in 2015 and later acquired by ByteDance in 2021, Pico Interactive has created a number of standalone VR headsets over the years. Its most recent of which, Pico 4, was released in 2022 as an apparent competitor to Meta’s Quest 2.

While priced competitively and available for purchase in most of Europe and a number of countries in Asia, the €429 (~$450) Pico 4 still hasn’t made its long-awaited debut in the United States where it would more directly compete with Quest 2 or Meta’s latest, Quest 3. Meanwhile, Pico has made a concerted effort in those regions to bring a majority of Quest’s top apps to Pico 4.

Back in February, Pico began a round of layoffs that at the time were reported to be in the hundreds. Responding to that report, the company maintained it would only be a “small number of colleagues.”

Thanks to Cix Liv for pointing us to the news.

Pico Shutdown Rumors are False, Says Parent Company ByteDance Read More »

70% of the 20 Best-rated Quest 2 Apps are Now Available on Pico 4

Data, News, pico 4, pico 4 apps, pico 4 games, pico 4 vr, Quest 2, VR Industry / Ryan Harris / May 24, 2023

The standalone VR market is continuing to grow, and with it, we’re increasingly seeing platform competition for quality content. Pico made its biggest push into consumer VR so far with the launch of the Pico 4 last year, and the company has been gaining ground on getting top VR content onto its store.

Top Quest Apps Showing up on Pico 4

Looking at the 20 best-rated apps on the Quest store (data as of April 2023), to date 70% of the list is available on Pico’s standalone headset:

Title	Pico 4	Quest 2
Moss: Book II	✔	✔
The Room VR: A Dark Matter	✔	✔
Puzzling Places	✔	✔
Walkabout Mini Golf	✔	✔
I Expect You To Die 2	✖	✔
Breachers	✔	✔
COMPOUND	✖	✔
Vermillion	✔	✔
Swarm	✔	✔
DYSCHRONIA: Chronos Alternate	✖	✔
PatchWorld – Make Music Worlds	✖	✔
I Expect You To Die	✖	✔
Moss	✔	✔
Red Matter 2	✔	✔
ARK and ADE	✔	✔
Ragnarock	✔	✔
Cubism	✔	✔
Ancient Dungeon	✔	✔
Into the Radius	✔	✔
The Last Clockwinder	✖	✔

Another way of looking at Pico’s content traction is by the 20 most-rated apps on the Quest store. Breaking it down that way (data as of April 2023), 50% of the list is now available on Pico.

Title	Pico 4	Quest 2
Beat Saber	✖	✔
Blade & Sorcery: Nomad	✔	✔
The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners	✔	✔
SUPERHOT VR	✔	✔
GOLF+	✖	✔
BONELAB	✖	✔
Vader Immortal: Episode I	✖	✔
Onward	✖	✔
Job Simulator	✖	✔
The Room VR: A Dark Matter	✔	✔
Five Nights at Freddy’s: Help Wanted	✖	✔
Resident Evil 4	✖	✔
The Thrill of the Fight	✖	✔
Walkabout Mini Golf	✔	✔
Pistol Whip	✔	✔
Eleven Table Tennis	✔	✔
GORN	✔	✔
Virtual Desktop	✔	✔
Vader Immortal: Episode III	✖	✔
A Township Tale	✔	✔

Building good VR hardware is really just half the battle when it comes to being a serious player in the industry. The other half is getting compelling content onto the headset.

While Quest 2 still has a considerably larger library of apps and several big standalone exclusives (like Beat Saber) Pico looks to be doing a pretty good job so far in its push to legitimize its platform by making sure that some of the top VR content is available for its customers.

And there’s likely more to come. The company has yet to launch its latest Pico 4 headset in the US, which is a major VR market of both customers and developers. Without the US market in play, there’s less incentive for VR developers to bring their apps to Pico. But if Pico finally launches its headset in the US, it could be the nudge needed for more top VR content to make the leap to the store.

Special thanks to @CkYLee for helping to title availability on the Pico store

70% of the 20 Best-rated Quest 2 Apps are Now Available on Pico 4 Read More »

Report: TikTok Parent Lays Off Hundreds at VR Subsidiary Pico Interactive, Tencent Scraps VR Plans

bytedance, News, pico, pico 4, pico interactive, pico layoffs, pico vr, pico xr, tiktok / Blake Jones / February 18, 2023

TikTok parent company ByteDance is reportedly laying off what South China Morning Post maintains will be “hundreds of employees” working at its VR headset manufacturing subsidiary, Pico Interactive. A separate report from Reuters also maintains Chinese tech giant Tencent is scrapping its plans to release a VR headset.

According to two people with knowledge of the Pico layoffs, a substantial portion of the VR headset maker is expected to be affected. The report maintains that some teams will see as much as a 30 percent reduction, while some higher-level positions are also expected to be affected.

After being acquired by ByteDance in August 2021, Pico job postings revealed the company was making a sizable expansion into the US to presumably better compete with Meta on its home turf.

Shortly afterwards, the China-based company then released its latest standalone headset, Pico 4, in Europe and Asia to consumers. Seen a direct competitor to Meta Quest 2, Pico 4 still isn’t officially sold in the US; the headset is currently only available across Japan, Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, and most countries in Europe.

It was also reported by Chinese tech outlet 36Kr that Tencent, the massive Chinese multinational, was disbanding it 300-person strong XR unit. The company has since refuted this claim with Reuters, stating instead it will be making adjustments to some business teams as development plans for XR hardware had changed.

Citing sources familiar with the restructuring, Reuters reports that Tencent is abandoning plans to release a VR headset due to a sobering economic outlook.

This follows a widening trend of layoffs which have affected nearly every big name in tech, including Google, Meta, Amazon, and Microsoft. Microsoft recently announced it was shuttering its social VR platform AltspaceVR in addition to its XR interface framework, Mixed Reality Toolkit. Meanwhile, Microsoft has also had trouble fulfilling its end of a US defense contract which uses its HoloLens AR headset as the basis of a tactical AR headset.

It was also revealed late last year that Meta was planning to cut discretionary spending and extend its hiring freeze through the first quarter, alongside a layoff which affected nearly 11,000 employees, or around 13 percent of its overall workforce.

Report: TikTok Parent Lays Off Hundreds at VR Subsidiary Pico Interactive, Tencent Scraps VR Plans Read More »

Virtual Event Platform ‘Wave’ Returns to VR with Pico Partnership, Calvin Harris Concert to Debut Jan 13th

calvin harris, News, pico, pico 4, pico neo 3, pico vr, pico xr, the wave, virtual concert, vr concert, VR Event, wave, wavexr / Ryan Harris / January 5, 2023

Wave, the virtual entertainment company known for putting on a ton of VR concerts a few years back, actually deprecated VR support for its app back in early 2021 to focus on streaming its brand of digital concerts to traditional platforms. Now, through a new partnership with VR headset creator Pico, Wave is set to jump back into VR with more concerts, available exclusively on Pico devices.

Through the partnership, Wave says it’s developing “a series of immersive 3D concert experiences with massively world-renowned artists” for Pico’s line of consumer headsets. Those include Pico Neo 3 and the new Pico 4 headset.

Its debut concert is set to feature The Calvin Harris Experience, taking place on January 13th at 8: 00PM GMT (local time here). The experience is said to last approximately 1 hour, which includes a five-minute preshow and 25 min exclusive extended set.

Only fans in Europe and Asia will have access, the company says, the only markets where Pico’s consumer headsets are currently available. The VR-accessible concert is said to be an “extended version,” of which only a portion will be broadcasted on TikTok LIVE.

The concert is slated to take fans on what Wave calls “a musical journey through Calvin’s virtual universe, a metaverse party filled with audio reactive visuals in a nature inspired luminous world.”

Calvin Harris is set to perform live as a virtual avatar in an immersive environment that Pico users can join and explore for themselves. Users will also have the opportunity to influence the live experience by “interacting with others, creating dazzling effects throughout the show by clapping, writing personalized messages in the air, and even join Calvin on stage.”

To take part in the concert, users must download the Pico Video app from the Pico App Store, then select The Calvin Harris Experience in your Pico Video feed on the day of the show.

You can RSVP to Wave’s premier Calvin Harris concert here. Rebroadcasts for Pico users will re-air daily on weekends starting Jan 14-26 at 8pm GMT.

Virtual Event Platform ‘Wave’ Returns to VR with Pico Partnership, Calvin Harris Concert to Debut Jan 13th Read More »

‘Turok’ Inspired Dino Hunting Game ‘Primal Hunt’ Coming to Quest 2 & Pico in January

htc vive focus, News, pico 4, primal hunt, primal hunt vr, Quest 2, roblox, VR Game / Ryan Harris / December 22, 2022

Phaser Lock Interactive, the VR studio behind Final Assault (2019) and Twisted Arrow (2017), announced the release date for Primal Hunt, its upcoming co-op dinosaur hunting game which pits you against a Jurassic Park’s worth of the mighty beasts.

Update (December 22nd, 2022): Primal Hunt is slated to arrive on Quest 2 and Pico headsets starting January 19th, 2023. The game is also targeting Vive Focus, however the studio hasn’t mentioned whether it’s launching concurrently on that headset.

Additionally, Phaser Lock threw out a new trailer which shows off some of its archery-based gameplay. The studio says that as you progress, dinosaurs become even more deadly with the inclusion of cybernetic implants, armor, and weapons such as machine guns, rocket launchers, and the lethal ion cannon—something that ought to up the ante as you encounter all of its different dinosaur species.

Original Article (September 7th, 2022): Called Primal Hunt, the cross-platform co-op game gives you a variety of armor and weapons as you track down and fight the deadliest creatures to have ever walked the Earth.

The game, which is inspired by the Turok series and TV show Westworld, is slated to land on Meta Quest 2, HTC Vive Focus, and Pico headsets sometime in early 2023.

The studio also released a short teaser video (below the article) and a few images, showing off what looks to be a bow-heavy hunting experience that features plenty of pushback from the native fauna.

There’s still much to learn about Primal Hunt. Here’s how Phaser Lock describes it on the game’s website:

Face the ferocity of a pack of Raptors, the strength and power of a Triceratops, and the terror of coming face to face with a 30-ft Tyrannosaurus Rex, all in VR!

With a variety of armor and weapons at your disposal, you are poised to become the ultimate hunter…if you can survive. As you master each challenge, your prey will also become more dangerous as they are outfitted with advanced cybernetic enhancements and weapons, including carbine machine guns, rocket launchers, and more!

The studio promises that more information is coming, and that’s there’s also the possibility of a closed beta coming at some point this year.

We’ll be keeping our eyes out for all things Primal Hunt as Phaser Lock promotes its first game in the past three years since it launched Final Assault out of Early Access of PC VR headsets in 2019.

‘Turok’ Inspired Dino Hunting Game ‘Primal Hunt’ Coming to Quest 2 & Pico in January Read More »