TikTok’s Parent Company Isn’t Done Yet With Those Pico VR Headsets

Rumors of the metaverse’s dying abroad could have been a bit untimely, whilst headset-maker Pico appears to be within the doldrums of a fairly anticlimactic 12 months in VR. Word on the road was that ByteDance, the China-based firm finest often known as the proprietor of TikTok, was seeking to get out of the digital actuality sport.

ByteDance deliberate to ultimately “abandon” Pico VR, in line with research firm EqualOcean on Saturday. The agency claimed primarily based on unnamed sources that “the person in charge” of Pico—maybe referring to CEO and founder Jarrod Yuster—visited ByteDance’s headquarters the place founder Zhang Yiming instructed him the corporate deliberate to ultimately abandon its VR initiatives.

As famous first by Reuters, one other report from Chinese outlet The Paper claimed Pico had gone by way of turnover on almost half the unit’s workers, and that execs have been additionally being moved away from ByteDance’s VR arm. The firm already laid off someplace round 200 employees from Pico again in February.

ByteDance instructed Reuters that OpenOcean’s report “is not true.” The TikTok proprietor nonetheless plans to “invest in the extended reality (XR) business over the long term.” Additionally, the corporate mentioned it will “maintain the normal operation of the product and continue to enhance the investment in product technology,” seeming to discuss with Pico and VR.

Gizmodo reached out to ByteDance for remark and extra clarification, however we didn’t instantly hear again.

ByteDance purchased Pico, which on the time was the world’s largest VR headset maker, again in 2021. A 12 months later, the corporate revealed its Pico 4 headset that was meant to compete immediately with Meta within the cheap-to-midrange VR area. It additionally revealed final 12 months its Pico 4 Enterprise, a suped-up model of the Pico 4 designed for all these companies which can be contemplating what the world would seem like if staff labored with VR headsets strapped to their heads for hours on finish.

Pico has but to disclose any new {hardware} since these bulletins. The firm shared just a few bundle costs and OpenXR interoperability for extra devs to construct VR apps for Pico, however 2023 has been a 12 months with only a few surprises from what was as soon as thought-about considered one of Meta’s largest rivals within the VR area.

Meta confirmed off its latest $500 Quest 3 headset supporting each digital actuality and augmented actuality by way of full-color passthrough final month. Apple additionally jumped into the fray with its Vision Pro headset set to launch subsequent 12 months. That new “spatial computer,” because the Tim Cook-led firm retains attempting to name it, is gearing as much as be the corporate’s most intricate product launch in its historical past. Buyers will have to arrange appointments to get fitted for one, and Apple retailer staff are reportedly getting further coaching for methods to promote the $3,500 headset.