Pico Interactive took to the Sport Builders Convention (GDC) in San Francisco this week with a large sales space, hyping the occasion as a “deal with” that may be a ‘Journey to Infinity’. Effectively, there’s nothing particularly to announce.
Pico, the creator of the Pico 4 standalone, is arguably one of many greatest untapped threats to Meta’s market supremacy within the shopper VR standalone section. At the least for now.
Owned by TikTok guardian firm ByteDance, many speculated that the China-based Pico was lastly able to announce the patron launch of Pico 4 in the US, a step that many (together with us) have been ready for following a US hiring spree final summer time.
On the time, a Protocol report maintained the transfer would usher in “a significant deal with content material licensing in addition to advertising its {hardware} to U.S. customers.”
So, is Pico 4 coming to US customers? We spoke to the corporate at GDC this week, and regardless of a flashy ‘save the date’ countdown to its ‘Journey to Infinity’ and a large sales space on the present ground, there’s merely nothing to report.
In for a deal with at #GDC23? Come say hello at Sales space S627, Moscone Middle and take a dive into the #JourneytoInfinity with #PICO #PICO4 #VirtualReality #VR #GDC23 #JourneytoInfinity pic.twitter.com/Julujtyilc
— PICO XR (@PICOXR) March 22, 2023
Besides, Pico’s Twitter presence isn’t very massive—it has lower than 10,000 followers on the time of this writing—however the initial countdown tweet promising to kick off “a brand new journey” managed to take the document for the corporate’s most-viewed tweet at greater than 67,000 impressions. Folks have been anticipating one thing huge from Pico at GDC, and it merely didn’t manifest.
Pico might be the one firm proper now with each a succesful machine and the market stability to instantly compete with Meta, the undisputed champion of the patron standalone section with Quest 2. Underneath the wing of the Chinese language ByteDance media empire, Pico not solely has the form of money reserves to subsidize {hardware}, but additionally a rising means to draw developer curiosity.
Launched in October 2022 and priced at €420 (~$455), Pico 4 is offered throughout Europe, China and a variety of APAC international locations, together with Japan, Singapore, and South Korea. The lacking puzzle piece is undoubtedly a North American launch.
However, in the event you’re nonetheless ready to listen to about the much-anticipated US rollout, you need to regulate your expectations for this week, as a result of the one factor happening on the Pico sales space are demos for the headset.
We’ve got boots on the bottom at GDC this week, so make certain to examine again on all issues AR/VR as we dive into developer classes and see all the things on the present ground.