Standalone VR headset maker Pico is teasing a ‘Special Announcement’ for later this week.
The company is due to reveal the news on April 13 during the Laval Virtual Europe conference. It will host a stream of the announcement, which is set to go live at 3:05pm CET, or 2:05pm in the UK and 9:05am/6:05am in ET/PT respectively.
No word yet on exactly what the company will announce but there has been plenty of speculation that Pico might look to release a consumer version of its Neo 3 headset in western markets. Currently, the company sells the device — which is powered by the same Qualcomm XR2 platform used in Quest 2 — to consumers in Asia, and it already features popular games like Superhot VR, Eleven Table Tennis and OhShape. But Pico also sells an enterprise-focused version of the device, the Neo 3 Pro and Neo 3 Pro Eye, in Europe and the US.
Along with using the XR2 platform, the Neo 3 also features four camera-based inside-out tracking and comes with two motion controllers. On paper at least, the headset is very similar to the Quest 2.
Last year, TikTok owner ByteDance acquired Pico, only fueling rumors that a consumer expansion may be on the way and, last month, ByteDance announced a partnership with Qualcomm to work on XR headsets. A potential consumer release of the Neo 3 in the west could offer up some of the first real competition for the Quest 2 though, without knowing what the price of the product is nor when it might release, it’s best to keep expectations in check right now.
