ByteDance, the company that owns TikTok, is taking it seriously by stepping into virtual reality (VR), according to a report from Protocol. A source close to the situation told the store that the company plans to invest “tons of money” to improve VR-related content.
It looks like a large part of the ByteDance investment will be leased. As noted by the Protocol, it has been listed for more than 40 jobs at Pico; a Chinese VR headset manufacturer ByteDance acquired last year. Lots of openings at Pico Studios branches based on the west coast of California and Washington, from the head of the VR game strategy to the game operations manager. Some open positions suggest further focus on Pico’s VR hardware, including a visual engineer and an electrical engineer to design systems.
The Protocol also identifies Pico’s head of the consumer sales list as a possible indication that Pico wants to establish a presence in the US. The job description notes that the candidates “will be responsible for selling and selling the entire Pico product in the US consumer market.”
Pico still has a lot of work to do, and ByteDance can give it the momentum it needs to compete with a handful of standard headsets offered by Meta, HTC, Valve, and PlayStation in the US. The headset of the leading all-in-one company, the Pico Neo 3 Link, launched in Europe in May and was priced at € 449 (~ USD 472).
Its specs are very similar to those of the 256GB Meta Quest 2, which costs $ 399 (with differences of $ 299 and 128GB). Both headsets have the same storage, 1832 x 1920 adjustment per eye, and Snapdragon XR2 chip. The Neo 3 Link, however, comes with an additional headset belt ($ 49 for sale on Quest 2 separately) and a DisplayPort connection instead of USB-C, allowing improved image quality when connecting the headset to your PC. Neo 3 Link is the best option for people who don’t want to spend $ 999 on the Valve Index or the $ 799 HTC Vive Pro 2 but also want something that offers something other than the inbox compared to Meta Quest 2.
