Has there ever been a danger of bankruptcy? And would you risk that for a product development in your company if that product was not essential to your products future. They know eyetracking is essential to the future of the product thats why its development went forward. Kevin mentioned “ancillary” so i think he must agree that it bridge they had to cross.
an·cil·lar·y
/ˈansəˌlerē/adjective*
providing necessary support to the primary activities or operation of an organization, institution, industry, or system.
“the development of ancillary services to support its products”
noun
a person whose work provides necessary support to the primary activities of an organization, institution, or industry.
I mean thats the way I see it. I welcome your take on it what do you think?
I obviously don’t know about how much they planned the eye tracking to cost and the overall amount that is already spent from the Kickstarter money. I just believe that if there was room for another solution within the budget they would have gone for it. For the reasons you mentioned: Reputation is worth quite some money.
Yes there is a lot of unknowns. These are just discussions by all the backers that have limited info on facts. Thats why it bothers me when people believe what they say is fact. We all only have opinions unless they give us facts. Has anyone from pimax ever mentioned “bankruptcy”? I mean the term is often thrown around like a fact but no one “knows”.
I mean I think they may have done more harm then good on a lot of decisions. But they are way more successful then me, so who am i to judge.
I too have enjoyed my 5K+. Is it perfect no but its nice enough for me to be happy i backed it. I did back the 8k but swapped. That was my choice so i have to live with it. Now i have to see what I will apply the $100 towards. Their pricing structure will be a big factor in that and will i spend any more money on pimax? Well, I dont know yet!
It’s rare but your example is not good jojon from the main help of kickstarter
“Stretch goals as a term and a practice emerged from the Kickstarter community as a way for creators to “stretch” beyond the initial, official goal of the Kickstarter project and raise more money”
If we take a side Pimax for a moment, I don’t think from the kickstarter point of view that it’s a good thing that creators get more money and then back out saying “unforeseen cost”!
I would say more a “Gentlemen promise” then a gift, and I find natural that they get a cold hand with such behavior and considering the history of this campaign.
How true. And if it is feasible will it work on non rtx cards? If only on RTX cards than it’s not worthwhile as it targets a limited gpu series. It would need to work on Amd & GTX.
1+ on that, I fully understand the Pimax eye tracking dilemma and certainly don’t ask to give some pricey eyes tracking chip for free. but turn tide around
My thought is that the kickstarter funds were spent long ago. They are now operating on other funding and have now got greater “obligation” to turn profits for those backers. But those backers should also realize they had the “obligation” to the kickstarter campaign. They new it before they contributed as well. It was the risk they took as well as us. Its “business” and they should realize its a “business” expense that was already agreed upon.
That been my thoughts too. I have been surprised it didn’t change hands already. But Robin wants his dream to come true and he wants to steer the ship. He has done well for himself and us too. He is trying his best to make sure in the end he has that dream headset on his head and a successful business along wit it.
The real problem comes with their branching headsets before finishing delivering on KS project. With the exception of the oled 5k; the RE models cannot be easily seperated in where funds were allotted & RnD to finish KS items including stretch goals.
A lot of money has been wasted pretending the Housing & other Quality issues were Rare. Some are still chasing for shippung refunds that were promised.
Now if they had waited on RE release until:
A) Housing issues resolved. It wouldn’t look like Oops you can buy a crack resistant model.
B) Waiting at least a few months after 8kX released. Would give folks a better feel that RnD time & Money hasn’t been utilized to saturate the market without finishing at least 80% of Kickstarter. Ie release most of the KS items save the who really knows when controllers.
I feel like at some point you reach a no win situation. I mean sure they could have waited another YEAR to release the headsets but they need to put the lights on and fulfill other crap. And Backers would still be PISSED if they knew Enterprises were getting an 8KX before them if Pimax waited even longer.
Well with Eye Tracking we know this was always going to cost Pimax their Cost minimally.
So even if we take retail sale values
$299 for non Backers - HTC retail addon at $159. Backer price $140 extra. Pimax estimated cost is $100/tracker for Backers. Folks likely would grumble but it is at least a fair split of the cost.
As the HTC module likely has a cost of $80 to $100 cost before mark up.
We can speculate all we want and we will never know the real costs of these things. Maybe all these companies are operating in the red and not expecting a return on investment for 5 o 10 years when they hope millions of people may be projected to us them.
Sure - like I said, we will each have our own definitions and terms. I am unable to quite nail down my own, but it will inevitably include at least trying to see both sides of the argument. :7
I’m just a bit tired of reading comments from people (not pointed at You) who seem to know everything about how to design and manufacture VR headsets… If that’s the case, they can just go and do it and if they do better than Pimax (at a lot smaller price of course ) I’ll probably buy the gear…
That said, I too agree that it would seem more “fair” (and would be the better move PR-wise) to give a (50-100$?) coupon which could be spent on something else in the Pimax store. They should have seen this coming…
from the main help of kickstarter