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

From roadtovr

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

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

From roadtovr

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.

Samsung & Google Partner To Develop New XR Tech

From vrscout

Qualcomm is also involved in the partnership.

Last week Samsung held its half-annual Galaxy Unpacked event, during which the company revealed several updates regarding its lineup of Galaxy S23 hardware. That said, the most exciting news came towards the end of the presentation when Qualcomm CEO, Cristiano Amon, and Google SVP of Android, Hiroshi Lockheimer, joined Samsung’s TM Roh on stage to announce that all three companies are partnering to develop new XR experiences.

“An exciting space where Google has been investing in for a long time across both experiences and technology is AR and VR,” said Hiroshi in an official release. “These technologies are integral to the new phase of computing as it can change the way we interact with people and information to get things done in the real world.”



Speaking to The Washington Post, Samsung confirmed its interest in the development of “extended reality” devices. Recently, we’ve seen various hardware manufacturers use passthrough technology to provide immersive mixed reality experiences on headsets such as Meta Quest Pro and Pico 4. It’s unclear whether or not Samsung’s upcoming XR devices will make use of such technology.

Samsung was careful not to reveal any information regarding specific products or launch windows during the event; all we know at the moment is that a partnership between Samsung, Google, and Qualcomm exists. That said, we can speculate as to what the companies are up to.

Credit: Samsung

Qualcomm has been a leading provider of mobile processors among VR hardware manufacturers for years, therefore it makes sense that Samsung would seek the company’s help in developing its own line of standalone XR devices. On top of that, Samsung already has a considerable amount of experience developing VR hardware. Back in 2015, the company launched the Samsung Gear VR, a head-mounted VR display powered by a compatible Android smartphone, followed by the Odyssey+, a PC VR headset, in 2018.

For more information check out Samsung’s official Unpacked recap here.

Feature Image Credit: Samsung

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

From roadtovr

Wave, the virtual event production 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.

Pico 4 Enterprise All-In-One VR Headset Announced

From vrscout

The business-focused device features eye and face tracking as well as color passthrough technology.

Less than a month after the reveal of the Pico 4, Bytedance has unveiled yet another addition to its lineup of VR headsets, the Pico 4 Enterprise. The 6DoF all-in-one device features a number of similarities compared to its predecessor along with a few key upgrades catering specifically to businesses.

The Pico 4 Enterprise is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon XR2 chipset and features pancake optics, 4K+ level resolution, and a refresh rate of 72/90Hz. Similar to the recently-announced Meta Quest Pro, a curved cell battery is located on the back of the device, promising better weight distribution and an overall more comfortable fit.



Like the Pico 4, the Pico 4 Enterprise features motorized interpupillary distance (IPD) adjustment with the added bonus of automatically adjustable IPD powered by the headsets eye tracking technology (more on that shortly).

The Pico 4 Enterprise differentiates itself from the Pico 4 with its business-centric approach to VR. The headset features its own dedicated app store and enterprise OS, allowing developers to customize and manage content for employee use.

The Pico 4 Enterprise features eight onboard cameras for inside-out tracking. That’s three more than the Pico 4. Why the additional cameras you ask? Those are for the aforementioned eye and face tracking. There’s also support for hand and gesture tracking as well as color pass-through. The DDR 4 RAM featured in the consumer model has also been replaced with DDR 5 RAM.

Here’s a more detailed list of specs (as provided by VR-Compare):

  • Chipset: Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2
  • Resolution: 4.3K
  • Refresh Rate: 72/90Hz
  • IPD Range: 62-72 mm hardware adjustable (automatic)
  • Weight: 586 g (1.29lbs)
  • Field-of-view: 105-degrees
  • Tracking: 6DoF inside-out, eye-tracking, hand-tracking, face-tracking
  • Controllers: x2 Pico 4 controllers
  • Audio: Integrated 3D spatial audio
  • Memory: 8GB DDR 5
  • Storage: 256GB
  • Ports: USB-C
  • Battery: 2-3 hours
  • WiFi: WiFi 6 802.11

According to reports, the Pico 4 Enterprise will be availabe for pre-order on November 1st for €899 ($900 USD) with plans to begin shipping in December. The headset will be available to select businesses in Europe, Australia, and New Zealand.

For more infromation visit picoxr.com.

Image Credit: Pico

Pico 4 Shipments Delayed in Europe Due to High Global Demand

From roadtovr

Pico released its standalone VR headset Neo 3 Link this summer, marking its first real push to launch a consumer device outside of Asia. Now it’s getting ready to ship the follow-up standalone Pico 4, and the company seems to be struggling to keep up with demand in some regions.

Pico opened up pre-orders of Pico 4 in late September with the aim of initially releasing the headset today across several regions, including 13 European countries, Japan, and Korea.

Note: there’s still no word on whether Pico 4 is coming to the US, although Pico Interactive, owned by TikTok parent ByteDance, is expanding to the US to compete with Meta.

Pico says in a recent tweet however some European customers may see delays in shipment due to high demand:

“Due to unprecedented global demand, there will unfortunately be delays in fulfilling some customer pre-orders in the EU region. We are working tirelessly to ensure that demand is satisfied by the end of October,” Pico says.

Continuing: “We strongly recommend that you keep your back order in place at your preferred retailer as we will be prioritising existing back orders first. If you are affected, please accept our sincerest apologies. We are doing everything we can to resolve it as quickly as possible. In the meantime, if you can’t wait any longer to get your hands on a PICO headset, Neo 3 Link is available and in stock right now.”

In Europe, Pico 4 is strongly positioned to compete with Meta Quest 2. At €430 for the 128GB model and €500 for the 256GB model, Pico 4 not only beats Quest 2 on pricing, but also goes toe-to-toe in the specs department while providing a slimmer profile thanks to the addition of pancake lenses.

Last month the company also announced Pico 4 Pro, an enterprise-focused variant due out later this year which adds three internal cameras for eye and face-tracking. Pricing and launch of that device is still unclear, although it may be looking to take market share away from the recently announced Meta Quest Pro, which is priced at an eye-watering $1,500.