They seem to be more focused on what is ready. Look at the packages do not include other accessories that are said still in developement.
Thatâs good signs.
But I hope that pimax change the vr controller adapter.
Current rendered design looks impractical.
So many features are wasted in that configuration.
PortalXLâs controller cover + tracking ring could be better in functions
Whoa! That photo sequence!
You just pull the controllers apart from each other, and the main unit materializes between them!
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For the controller mode, the 2 controllers put together as 1 normal controller, I really hope they consider adding un a plastic spacer to make it more ergonomically like a normal controller.
That said, 3D printing a solution will be pretty easy to do so Iâll likely just do that.
Hiya! I saw someone post on YouTube a video of them playing genshin on the Pimax Portal.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BUGczmb8_M&ab_channel=DaveChu
Sorry if it was already posted here, Iâm very new here! 
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So far Portal has about 300 backers. Thatâs about the same number of workers Pimax has.
Still a long way to go though.
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Yeah I wonder at what point they think of it as a success. I really have no idea how expensive it is to build this thing. I guess the hardware is really straightforward, just a panel, streaming/wifi part, battery and the buttons. The software side is going to be more work and costly. If they reserve $50 for software development for each unit and sell 4000 units in the kickstarter, thatâs still only $200.000 for the software, although in China that will probably be enough. Iâd say with 4000 units, which they will probably hit, theyâll call it a success. Maybe even less because obviously theyâll keep on selling after the kickstarter.
Still, I think itâs a bad decision and will make it more difficult to run the company, impossible to create a marketing position that makes sense and it will be an ongoing drain of resources.
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impossible, they only copy the number from the general game.
Software Side maybe not as it will likely share base with the Reality Hmds and we know the base OS is Android. So mainly on one side is the custom UI and pimax store portal at a guess.
However only time will tell. The Portal as I have said will be a good device minimally as a cheap DeV kit for the Reality series of devices that will help generate Standalone content for flat(Portal) and standalone VR/AR mode(For all Reality VR capable hmds)
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Oh in Pimax eyes this IS a success already. They already built 1000 dev kits. There was no way no matter who said what, Pimax were not going ahead with Portal. For a company thatâs only sold 100,000 VR headsets in 7 years with an average 300 units sold per week the bar is low.
The difference with the the 5k/8k/8kx is you donât need to rely on software - PC is your friend. But I donât see how Portal will survive after the kickstarter. If you want native Steam you buy Steamdeck, if you want Nintendo you buy Switch. If you want Native standalone VR you buy Quest2 or Pico4. I donât see a reason to buy the Portal.
To attract developers youâd have to have about a million units in hands because your game will probably only sell 10% of that so 100,000 software sales. Is less than that worth Developers time to port it over?
If Pico 4 struggles then you can bet Portal will be nowhere to be seen. If Portal is some major success then Nintendo will sue Pimax and then launch their own Portal if theyâre not already working on it lol, but with a ton of Nintendos best known titles to make the venture worth the investment.
Pimax are in a no win situaltion with Portal because theyâre reliant on third party hardware and even more so on software which they have zero of their own. Devs wonât port titles because the userbase is too small and no one trusts Pimax with a reputation of moving onto the next project to keep a USP.
Pimax are going to make slim profits off the hardware and zero in software. Just not a viable buisness.
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Yeah maybe so ⌠Itâs hard to know exactly. I do think they can make some money on it if they can reuse base parts from their current offerings and they most likely indeed can. The streaming part for example can probably be mostly reused. So maybe costs are not too high. But the price is not high neither, so seems hard to make good money here. And then they need ongoing staff for support and ongoing development. Like I said before, high end users paying premium price for a Pimax 12k will demand good support. But how will they do that with the portal users? One priority above the other? Thatâs what I meant above, theyâre just complicating things for themselves with these dumb strategical choices
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Agreed, no way Pimax will gain enough traction for broad developer support. I honestly believe that one day theyâll look back at this as a stupid decision.
Theyâre just way too small to make this an ongoing success. And thatâs bad for everybody, also for us, the people interested in their high end products.
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Hahaha oh yeah forgot about that. Thatâs just SO typical Pimax. They really think if they build 1000 devkits and send them out that that will actually result in those devs starting to develop for their system.
If I were a dev (well I kind of am LOL, just not gaming) I would NEVER even consider doing that. It just makes 0 sense to put time and energy in such a project thatâs unlikely to even succeed.
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I reckon Pimaxes running costs are 5 million a year with 300 employees at an average of $15k a year plus overheads. Kickstarter wants their 7%.
My guess is the 12k will be a Kickstarter soon lol
I have a strong feeling this is a bit of toxic forum now, without any need.
If I would have PIMAX stock shares, I would have questions, probably. Unfortunately I don´t have.
So, we need to be patient. We know announcements are not always reliable (Sword, etc.). So? Why quarreling? You canĂt change management decisions, You do not run that business. Or soâŚ
Just wait and see. If you can´t wait, switch to another product with wide FoV.
Oh waitâŚ
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Yeah, itâs unfortunate as this forum has been such a great place in the past. Iâm sure the usual people will blame Pimax for it though lol.
I think this place will improve drastically once people start getting the new headsets into their hands and we start to get proper hands on etc.For now itâs a bit of an awkward period of time. I think also the conversation lately has been 100% Pimax when usually thereâs other discussion going on too. Probably a good idea for some of us to make some effort to maybe start some more casual general discussion threads etc.
This weekend will be VERY exciting though, and a lot will be unveiled then. (As in finally getting real hands on opinions with some of the new products).
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Looks like maybe Qualcomm is more partnered with Pimax; Especially with the Portsl.
Since as far as I can tell it did not release under itâs own moniker. I suspect they partnered with Pimax on the Portal.
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Thatâs a really good question, and I donât think the answer is as simple as has been contemplated on this thread so far. There are some key factors that need to be considered:
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Making Portal is relatively easy and inexpensive for Pimax because itâs almost entirely made out of technology they have already developed for their VR headsets. R&D costs are probably low. This is the guts of a Crystal/12K in a different housing.
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The effort and cost for 3rd party developers to port VR games to Portal is probably very low. If theyâve developed a game for the Quest 2, porting it to the Portal should be quite easy. Pimax has already been able to demonstrate some level of interest from 3rd party studios on this.
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For handheld mode, no porting of games to the Portal platform is even needed.
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Pimaxâs overall strategy needs a low cost device that will sell a lot of units in order to drive 3rd party developers to port VR games to their standalone store. This makes the success of the Portal intertwined with the Crystal, 12K, and any other Reality series VR headset in the future. Building the Pimax store library rather than directly profiting from Portal hardware sales seems like the primary goal. Indeed, the pricing of the Portal suggests a low profit margin for Pimax at best. Could they even be selling it at a loss? How is Pimax able to compete with pricing near the Quest 2 and Pico 4 which are both headsets coming from much larger companies that we know are heavily subsidized? Especially when a Crystal which is largely made out of the same components is so much more expensive.
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Portal actually supports rather than hinders the Crystal and 12K. Without it, the standalone side of those headsets is DOA since such expensive high end headsets would struggle to produce the unit quantity to drive 3rd party game studio interest even if the barriers are otherwise low. Having hardly any standalone software library would blunt the value of the headsets to customers.
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Since the Portal is largely made out of the same internal parts as the Crystal and 12K, it will greatly increase the quantity of these parts being ordered by Pimax which will in turn reduce the cost of those parts. I believe this is already reflected in the surprise lowering of price of the Crystal just before launch. We may see a reduction in the 12Kâs price before launch as well.
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Pimax must be planning to make their money from the Crystal and 12K primarily. They canât be making any significant profit from the Portal itself. And if they can build up their standalone store, that will generate a non-hardware revenue stream for them. The more successful that is, the more they can afford to reduce their profit margins on their high end VR headsets which will in turn make those headsets more successful.
I believe thereâs a whole integrated strategy here which is not simplistic, and I donât think itâs easy to predict the outcome. The question may not be so much how many units does Portal sell, but rather how many development studios does it bring on board Pimaxâs store.
Could it be that Pimax chose to sell the Portal through a kickstarter because of the visibility this would produce for 3rd party developers to witness? If Pimax took preorders on their own site as they did for the Crystal, then 3rd parties would have to trust that Pimaxâs privately reported sales numbers were accurate.
Pimax mentioned during the Frontier presentation that âweâ asked for the kickstarter. Iâve thought that was a really strange thing for them to say. Certainly we here on these forums didnât ask for that. I donât see the larger population of current Pimaxians asking for that. Maybe the âweâ theyâre referring to were the developers they sent those 1000 dev kits to.
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At the current rate theyâll end up with 2000 backers. Thatâs only double the 1000 they gave to developers.
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