Pico Really Announced A New VR Headset Without Positional Tracking

Pico announced G3, a new €400 standalone VR headset for businesses.

Pico G3 has a 3664×2160 LCD panel for roughly 2K per eye resolution and features the same Snapdragon XR2 Gen 1 chipset as Pico 4, Meta Quest 2, and Vive XR Elite. But unlike those devices and almost every other current VR headset, Pico G3 lacks any form of positional tracking.

Your head's rotation is tracked so you can look left, right, up, down, or tilt your head. But if you actually move your head positionally, the entire virtual world will appear to move with your head, rather than your head moving through it.

G3 is the successor to 2019's G2 4K, which also lacked positional tracking. It was powered by the three year older Snapdragon 835 processor the original Oculus Quest used.

Facebook retired its rotation-only headset Oculus Go in 2020 after just two years on the market, and vowed to never ship another headset without positional tracking again.

You may be wondering why any company would buy Pico G3, given that Pico 4 retails for €430. But that's only the price of the consumer version. Pico 4 Enterprise, which includes eye tracking, face tracking, and business-focused system software, sells for €900. Meta hasn't yet announced the business price for Quest 2 under its new Quest for Business program.

Further, rotation-only headsets like G2 4K and Go are often used in seated bulk VR demo experiences such as at museums or trade shows, where they operate in "kiosk mode", usually looping a 360 degree video or passive VR experience with no interaction needed. For these use cases, saving the €470 could be worth the loss of positional tracking.

Pico said G3 will start shipping in May. Like Pico 4 Enterprise, it's only available to registered business, not individuals, and includes Pico's business-focused system software rather than the consumer storefront.