ByteDance, the company that owns TikTok, is getting serious about entering the virtual reality (VR) space, according to a report from Protocol. A source close to the situation told the outlet that the company plans to invest “tons of money” to develop VR-related content. It seems that a large part of ByteDance’s investment goes into recruitment. As Protocol noted, more than 40 job postings have surfaced for Pico, the Chinese VR headset maker that ByteDance acquired last year. Most of the openings are for Pico Studios’ West Coast branches in California and Washington, ranging from a head of VR game strategy to a game operations manager. Other open positions suggest an increased focus on Pico’s virtual reality hardware, including an optical engineer and an electrical systems design engineer. Pico still has a long way to go The protocol also points to Pico’s head of consumer sales listing as a potential indicator that Pico is looking to establish a presence in the U.S. The job description notes that the candidates will be “responsible of Pico’s overall product sales and marketing in the US consumer market.” Pico still has a lot of growing to do, and ByteDance certainly has the bandwidth to give it the boost it needs to compete with the handful of mainstream headsets offered by Meta, HTC, Valve, and PlayStation in the US. The flagship all-in-one headset from the company, the Pico Neo 3 Link, launched in Europe in May and costs €449 (~$472 USD). Its specs are pretty similar to the $399 256GB Meta Quest 2 (as opposed to the $299 128GB variant). Both earphones have the same storage, 1832 x 1920 resolution per eye, and Snapdragon XR2 chip. However, the Neo 3 Link comes with an additional headphone strap ($49 accessory sold separately for the Quest 2) and a DisplayPort connection instead of USB-C, allowing for better picture quality when connecting. the headset to your PC. It sounds like the Neo 3 Link is aiming to become that middle-of-the-road option for people who don’t want to spend $999 on Valve Index or $799 on the HTC Vive Pro 2, but are also looking for something that offers a little more. out of the box compared to Meta Quest 2.
