I appreciate the 8KX has been around longer and cost much more than the HP Reverb 2, but it seems Pimax has a very real image problem it should try to address. There’s just no hype with the 8KX, and as one person gets the device, there are already negatives being discussed Owhich get shared online - brightness, chromatic aberration, etc.) even if these aren’t entirely factual or merely anecdotal. I see Pimax are now reluctant to send out review units to press until they are properly ready (which is fair), but the competition doesn’t seem to have that problem.
On the other side, one person is given a HP Reverb 2 to show-off, alongside some images and people are queuing up to purchase and gushing over it. It has Valve’s name attached and that counts for a lot it seems even though they [Valve] are new to the game. I will wager, by the time Pimax 8KXs are readily available, so will the HP Reverb 2 (possibly Index too) and when push-comes-to-shove, more people will be interested in a lower FOV headset at half the price than one that offers more and might appear better on paper only at this juncture and despite numerous planned features.
How can Pimax tackle this scenario? They are in the business of making VR headsets and money. As of now they cater to a very small minority of backers and “enthusiasts” with money to burn. I am wondering what Pimax management’s longer-term strategy is considering its past is shrouded in well-publicised disappointment and negativity across-the-board. How do they recover from that? [last year I suggested they fully re-brand the 8K+ and 8KX but obviously that’s not an option it seems]
Is Pimax ever going to attempt a proper marketing campaign to gather more visibility or remain confined to the outer edges of VR as other headsets take the limelight? I think the days of merely relying on backers/the loyal to “spread the word” should be addressed.
HP/Valve are getting a big push right now, but what about Pimax? The launch of a new headset should be a time of excitement and publicity, but I don’t really get that vibe. I am feeling a more muted launch.
Thoughts anyone?
TL:DR - What are Pimax’s long term goals with their current products in terms of market penetration?
That is a very core problem with Pimax products, they concentrate entirely on the “specs”, while completely ignoring the realities of using a VR headset. Things like resolution and FOV get hyped up, but then actually trying to use the the thing is a completely different matter for many people.
I mean, i hope my 8KX is better than the 5k+ they loaned me, but I’m assuming I will be looking to sell it to get e.g. the G2 or an index. On the odd occaision I got my 5k+ to work for more than 5 minutes, it just gave me absolutely no sense of presence, even my OG Vive was better in that respect. The headstrap was probably a large part of that but I fear it was also down to the lack of binocular overlap.
I think its a core issue with the FOV and the lens design they’ve gone for, which is a constraint of the pricing they aimed for, which i totally get, but at the same time I wish they’d actually given up on this 200 degree FOV idea if it had meant better optics, better overlap and a better experience.
Just look at reddit, especially Pimaxs own subreddit, its a cesspool of hate where even pimax employees were banned from posting. But that doesnt just stop at the Pimax subreddit. Go into ANY vr subreddit and look at whenever pimax is mentioned. All you will see is people warning against them. Calling them a scam, calling them trash. This mentality is rampant through the vr community. So for such a hated company, why would anyone care at all about their products? Youtubers have no interest, game developers have no interest and apparently Pimax has no interest since they most likely are already hitting whatever sales targets they put forth.
The only ones that seem to be hurt by this train of thought is us, the end users, who have to rely on Pimaxs popularity in order for our products to be utilized by developers and such.
I think your assessment is unfair in some respects. Pimax chose to make this an open forum where VR headsets and accessories of all kinds can be discussed. The enthusiasm for the G2 is due to Sebastian posting proper 4k through the lens video of the headset recently. But if someone posts proper 4k through the lens of the 8K-X sometime soon, I’m sure people would be excited about that too. Secondly, Pimax has only been delivering to backers so far. So not everyone is enthusiastic yet, like myself. Once they get to fullfilling pre-order customers we’ll see lots of new 8K-X owners posting videos of their reviews. It is just too early right now to make a full assessment.
I think we can go back further then sebastions g2 review. Look at when the 8kx was first shown to us, I dont recall any news outlets picking it up. But when the g2 was announced that’s all you saw anywhere. Everyone was talking about it. Fast forward to ces by all means pimax had a very positive showing but again very few people actually cared to talk about it. Whereas I saw a ton of articles about the xtal and others.
In fact the only thing I remember from ces is sweviver threatening to sue uoloadvr because they were being meanies. Also I guarantee that’s all alot of people got out of ces…
I have ZERO doubt Pimax will knock it out of the park with the 8kx…believe me…even if I rag on Pimax all the time I am still extremely excited about what they have in store for us. What I am trying to say here is specs alone arent enough. Its going to take ALOT more than a nice headset to fix Pimax’s image. A good place to start is for Pimax’s reps to stop getting into sh|t-fits with everyone that you take issue with.
If it was hated the positive topics would not be the first topics listed. It looks to me like maybe over reactions on some level on both sides.
Pimax should be focused on getting the support forum working properly with collating guides that are viewable without a logon.
They had a worst issue earlier with topics being visible that would put pimax in a bad light as they had user made topics not resolved for months. It was pointed out and they fixed the visibility of user created topics there.
Pimax said they didn’t want the first headsets to go to reviewers, they first want to send to backers and preorders, so that’s why we now have this very muted launch. We can only guess about the true reason but here’s mine: I think they know that serious reviewers like RoadToVR will almost with 100% certainty mention things like distortion. While effects like that are there, only a subset of users experience them, maybe it’s only an issue for 3 out of 10 users, maybe even lower (if you believe Pimax, it’s near 0% anyway). So in that case I guess it kind of makes sense to do it like they did, let the users make positive comments instead of ‘professional’ magazines that will make points that maybe aren’t even an issue to average Joe.
Well if I understand @RobCram correctly he’s wondering why there’s not more marketing, why didn’t they send out the headset to all big magazines and websites? I mean if you’d really believe you just produced the best headset ever, wouldn’t you want to send it out to all big magazines? I’d surely would want that. In fact I know a guy who made a product which was just stunningly good and he just did that. He never paid a dime for marketing, he just sent out his product to the most famous magazines and websites who all rated his product 9/10 or 10/10 and he made a crazy amount of money with it.
Pimax said they want all of their 8KXs to go to backers. I think they made the right choice. I would be pissed if undeserving reporters get a free headset that a lot of people have been waiting several months for.
HP has a well established reputation. So does Valve. Pimax’s history makes them not taken seriously enough in the media. But once people have the 8KX and word of mouth spreads, I think Pimax’s image will turn around. They are also the only company offering eye tracking with DFR.
Because the headset has been delayed long enough, if ANY headset was delivered to ANYONE besides the backers who have been waiting for 3 years to get it then Pimax would be utterly destroyed by everyone.
Any potential positive review would be instantly drowned out by the shouts from everyone
Nah, how many AAA websites regarding VR are there, maybe 5-10? Who cares if they send out a few headsets. Nobody would feel the difference. Supposedly they’re making 30 a day now.
