ByteDance-Owned VR Startup Pico Releases Neo 3 Link Headset
Pico, a VR brand owned by TikTok owner ByteDance, announced at the Laval Virtual event in France on April 13 that its Neo 3 Link headset will cost €449 ($539), with limited availability.
Pico’s Neo 3 Link has four cameras, with a display resolution of 3664 × 1920 and a refresh rate of 90Hz. It adopts a Qualcomm XR2 processor, which has 6GB of memory, 256GB of storage, and is equipped with two controllers. The battery capacity is 5300mAh, and the service time is about two and a half to three hours.
In addition to games such as “After the Fall” and “Demeo,” Pico says there are around 200 types of content currently available on its store. Users can connect a Pico Neo 3 Link headset to a PC to use it as a PC VR headset and access SteamVR titles.
It will first ship in Germany, France, Spain and the Netherlands in May. The UK (£399) and Italy will follow in June.
Pico describes this launch as a “beta program” and says owners will provide “feedback on upgrades to the Pico Store, Pico user account, payment, social, and other services.”
The firm has been manufacturing various types of independent VR devices since its establishment more than six years ago. Its first device was the original Neo from 2016. Over the following years, the company released several more devices, including the Oculus Go-like Goblin. In 2018, the company launched its first 6DOF headset in the form of a refreshed Neo device, and in 2020, it released the Neo 2 device with two motion controllers utilizing electromagnetic tracking.
In 2021, Pico was acquired by ByteDance, the Beijing-based owner of TikTok. ByteDance has raised its 2022 sales target for virtual reality products from 1 million units to about 1.8 million units, following better-than-expected marketing effects of Pico. In addition, Song Binghua, head of Douyin Variety, and Wu Zuomin, director of Douyin Entertainment, will soon transfer to Pico, indicating that ByteDance will start to increase its investment in VR content.
