Hey @Atmos how do u feel about your favourite and much vouched for Pico nowadays now that it appears Pico are backing out of VR with all the staff layoffs and the Pico 5 specsheet being a hoax. Atleast Pimax aren’t winding down (yet) 
That’s because Pimax never wound up lol They sell expensive headsets to a minority of Sim racers on extreme PCs.
Pimax are only still in business because they sell part of their business every few years when the money runs out. From Kickstarter to Series A,Band C funding rounds.
On the technical side Crystal gets trounced by the Pico 4 when it comes to AIO. Not only does Pico4 have the majority of AAA games to Crystals zero.
Pico4 has had wireless streaming from day one. Crystal is still waiting and the fact Pimax never mention it must mean Crystal will never get it.
Heading into 2024 Byte Dance will launch the Pico5 I have no doubt but that will come 6 months after Quest3 exclusivity contract runs out with Qualcomm. Then we’ll see another XR2 gen2 headset hit the market while Crystal will be stuck on Gen1 with all Devs making the switch. So Crystals AIO capability was DOA.
When it comes to PCVR Crystal has the edge when it comes to clarity but at a huge cost when it comes to size, weight and price. For the FPSers Crystal has nothing that would make me buy one while Pico4 has many compelling attributes - size, weight, price, store, streaming, pass through, hand tracking, third party add-ons, etc.
When it comes to PCVR I expect HTC to announce a new headset at CES2024 and I expect it will be a better headset than the Crystal.
Then later next year Varjo and then Valve. I guess there’s no rush as PCVR sales have stagnated.
Oh I nearly forgot Somniums VR-1 which is a smaller and lighter Crystal.
Am I tied to the Pico4? Nope. I’ve gone from Oculus to HTC to Pimax to Valve to Byte Dance. Who knows what headset will get my money next time. My mind is telling me Index2 but Pimax could knock it out of the park with the 12k. I would certainly give Pimax my money if that was the case.
I sincerely hope there’s a Pico 5 as the 4 going by what i’ve read is good, but if u believe the various news articles floating around about Pico laying off staff etc, it reminds me of hp’s demise in vr.
Personally I don’t hold out much hope of an Index 2 next year, hope i’m proved wrong.
I think it’s more streamlining due to poor sales than anything else. Meta have just gone through a massive cull as well as they’re burning through billions of FB money.
The reality is game sales don’t make up the short fall in HMD subsidies.
Personally I don’t care about AIO games I’m a pure PCVR gamer who takes advantage of what’s on offer.
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I was a pure pcvr gamer but now with my Quest 3 with the XR2 Gen 2 + useable MR mode i’m finding i’m playing quite alot of standalone.
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The best information is that the recent “leak” of Pico 5 headsets was created by VR enthusiasts on Chinese forums and not something internally created by Pico.
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I got the same merchandising mail, responded I will wait for the 12KX, when it´s ready.
Why should I downsize from an 8KX? Never heard back till now.
I am patient, will wait for beginning of 2025. Then their time is up, either they can deliver or others may be able to step in. Together with new NVIDIA 5000 series with DP2 I expect it to run.
I am curious, how they will survive next year.
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