Apparently the pico 5 has been CANCELED
See uploadVR for more
Yep, it's a shame but this was always going to be the outcome. The pico 4 was a year ahead of the quest 3, but they decided to go head to head with meta....and I do mean a 1:1 head to head (subsidized hardware in favour of sales through the store). Short of being 12 months in front on the hardware, this was not the correct business model.
Meta have spent billions in r&d, patents and ip; and have a working holographic lens prototype which could be put into production today. You can't compete unless you are doing something different.
It makes no sense, they didn't have the customer base. Meta did. What they should have done is stuck the damn displayport in and got a lot more people over from pcvr. Then you can start selling games through the store. So long as you have a USP you stand a chance. I'm not sure what the USP was?
The only thing which makes some sense, is they were trying to replicate meta for the Chinese market. Considering VR isn't doing that well in the grand scheme of things anyway, I can only assume they were preparing the ground for when it does take off.
When you take a step back, you can see how difficult this was. No triple A games developers are really into VR, and whilst the panels and lenses are almost here, the SOC to deliver the experiences everyone wants aren't, unless tethered to a PC. I think once the Apple headset has been out for a few years things will change.
I'm not sure why they didn't sell to the North American market either?
Maybe it's actually a good thing, the strongest survive and all that. It's still a shame though. Despite using pretty much every headset released, the pico 3 link is still my overall favourite considering the £250 I paid for it.
