Pico Interactive primarily targets enterprise users outside of China, however now the company has taken a significant step into European consumer market, as it’s officially launched its new Neo 3 variant there, Pico Neo 3 Link, which features both standalone and PC-tethered capability.

Update (May 25th, 2022): Pico announced the news in a tweet yesterday, seen below:

The headset is selling in Europe for €450, however the Neo 3 Link order page also indicates the device can be pre-ordered for shipment to the US, priced at $415, as well as other countries outside of Europe. We’ve reached out to Pico to see whether this pricing and availability is official, and will update here soon.

The original article follows below:

Original Article (April 13th, 2022): Called Neo 3 Link, the headset is aiming to straddle the PC VR and standalone headset segments by offering built-in PC streaming over either Wi-Fi 6, or tethered DisplayPort connection. It’s ostensibly the same hardware as the Pico Neo 3 Pro, albeit targeted at consumers.

For now, the company is pitching the headset as a kind of consumer beta, asking early adopters in Europe to help them improve the Pico Store, payment system, social… everything a company needs to compete with Meta in the realm of consumer standalone VR.

Image courtesy Pico Interactive

Pico says it’s launching pre-orders for Neo 3 Link starting April 15th in a number of European countries—coming first to Germany, France, Spain and the Netherlands, priced at €450. Pre-orders end May 23rd.

Neo 3 Link is also coming to the UK starting in June at £400, with other European markets added at monthly intervals. That’s exact price parity with an equally equipped Meta Quest 2—not counting the ‘Elite’ style strap that Quest users have to buy extra.

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“In Asia, Pico is already the leading provider of consumer VR headsets in China and will bring the beta program to new markets such as Japan and Korea. Pico will target VR fans and gamers with its new Link headset; users will participate in a unique beta program where feedback informs future product development,” Pico says in a press statement.

In addition to being able to play SteamVR titles over Wi-Fi 6 or tethered DisplayPort, the company says its native standalone Pico Store features over 200 VR apps such as SUPERHOT VR, Puzzling Places, After the Fall, Walkabout Mini Golf, Elven Table Tennis, and Demeo.

Pico Neo 3 Link Specs

  • Display: 5.5-inch SFR TFT at 3,664 x 1,920 (773 PPI), refresh rate of up to 90Hz
  • Chipset: Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2
  • Memory: 6GB RAM
  • Storage: 256GB
  • Connection: Wi-Fi 6, DisplayPort (DP Link cable included)
  • Sensors: 4 room-scale 6DOF sensors
  • Controllers: standard ‘Touch’ button layout, optically tracked
  • Hygiene: replaceable PU face pad with antifouling coating
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Scott Hayden
Well before the first modern XR products hit the market, Scott recognized the potential of the technology and set out to understand and document its growth. He has been professionally reporting on the space for nearly a decade as Editor at Road to VR, authoring more than 4,000 articles on the topic. Scott brings that seasoned insight to his reporting from major industry events across the globe.
  • kontis

    Pico has the same problem Apple will have: no native Beat Saber, but higher price.

    • johnny

      gaming-wise this is true.. the lack of killer-apps and exclusives is a huge disadvantage

      • Rudl Za Vedno

        Why? You have all steam library at your disposal.

        • johnny

          only while connected to a PC..

    • Ad

      Someone needs to make an open source clone that plays native maps.

      • kontis

        Even if one is created most people want that cool popular thing, not a “substitute”.

        The only exception is a huge difference in price – then most will compromise. But that won’t be a thing here…

        • Ben Jacobs

          “Even if one is created most people want that cool popular thing, not a “substitute””

          Given the success of Fortnite/Warzone/FFIV/DOTA2 and so on I’m not so sure you’ve thought much about your statement.

    • KD’s Burner ✔️

      Its inevitable that they would have a Beat Saber clone in the works for standalone.

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    • TMobile is trash

      Why get the link when the Pico neo 3 256 gb is $40 cheaper than the 256gb quest? Also many company’s will bring apps over to standalone android vr headsets. you act like developers don’t like to sell games to as many people as possible

      • d0x360

        Oh I dunno…. Security? Giving a Chinese device network access is a really bad idea.

        • TMobile is trash

          ya but giving Facebook power to just brick your headset cuz they just want to. they just suspended my oculus account a few months back and they couldn’t even tell me what i even did. what are you a trump guy worried about bytedance when Facebook is 100000000000000000000 times worse. especially with our data

    • Christian Schildwaechter

      As I wasn’t sure if this still has such a big impact with lots of alternatives already being released, many of them with reviews claiming they are “better than Beat Saber”, I did a quick check on the number of reviews for a few popular rhythm/fitness apps/games:

      Beat Saber: 43.4K
      Supernatural: 9.2K (subscription)
      Synth Riders: 2.4K
      Audio Trip: 1.2K
      Les Mills Bodycombat: 1.1K
      OhShape: 0.7K

      So while there are a number of viable options to Beat Saber if you are looking to move a lot in VR, the pure “brand value” of Beat Saber will be a problem for any other platforms. I don’t know how much Meta payed for Beat Games, but this alone was probably worth the price, even ignoring it channeling a significant percentage of all Oculus store sales directly to Meta in the form of Beat Saber DLC.

  • Engorged

    Never buy a headset from a Chinese company, which is controlled by the Chinese government. Non-democratic countries should not play any role in the future of VR.

    • Rudl Za Vedno

      I’d choose Pico over datamining A**hole billionaire everyday. At least Pico doesn’t sell your data to the highest bidder like the Evil One.

      • Engorged

        Then you prefer to support a government that commits genocide on Uyghurs. Good to know what kind of person you are. I think your data is now worthless.

        • Ted Majdosz

          Well our government supports the genocide against the people of Yemen along with the geocide against the Palestinian people. And don’t forget what we did to the people of Iraq and about another half dozen countries or more in the Middle East and Africa or what what we did and still doing to multiple countries in Latin America. America’s foreign policy is straight from Hell.
          btw we are not a democracy, do you think the elite that signed off on the birth of our nation were going to share power with the common people?
          Not to mention only a third of the country were in favor of going to war with the British.

          • NL_VR

            Always someone useless person come and brag about their politic agenda, go to bed

        • TMobile is trash

          Biden supports genocide of our own soldiers by leaving them behind and showing weakness to Russia showing them we won’t help protect Ukraine. But you really think bytedance is worse than Facebook that sells our data to everyone and then randomly bans accounts just cuz. Look up reddit oculus suspension

          • NL_VR

            Always Someone useless person come in and brag about their politic agenda. Go to bed

    • Andrew Jakobs

      So the US should not play a role…

    • Holdup

      China will banned vr soon

      • Andrew Jakobs

        Uhh, the pico neo 3 has been available to consumers in China for a year, as other headsets like the original HTC focus 1 and 2.

    • Corellianrogue

      Switzerland is the only democratic country in the world. So you better give up VR until there are Swiss HMDs available.

      • xyzs

        Yeah… they are so neutral because they are super rich thanks to all the crime money from all over the world they help laundering…

        • Corellianrogue

          No, they’ve been neutral as it’s been an important policy of the country for hundreds of years and they’ve had direct democracy for about 175 years. Although many people say them imposing sanctions on Russia like many other countries has breached their neutrality and also if it wasn’t voted on by the Swiss people then it’s breached their direct democracy too, which would make it illegal. If that is the case then I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s the EU interfering as they’ve been interfering with Switzerland’s democracy for a few years now. Like threatening sanctions on Switzerland if the people don’t vote the “right” way in certain referendums. The EU hates democracy and is totally anti-democratic itself as it’s ruled by unelected oligarchs. When a country is very democratic (although still not fully democratic, or at least not as fully democratic as logistically possible) and doesn’t spend loads of money on wars the people can become very prosperous. All the “secret Swiss bank accounts” used by non-Swiss people are matters for the Swiss banks, I doubt the general population are more wealthy because of them. Do the Swiss bank accounts somehow reduce crime in Switzerland too? Last I heard it had quite a low crime-rate.

          • NL_VR

            Another useless person with their political agenda, get a life.

    • Ad

      You can say no to Bytedance, although “chinese company” is laughable considering who makes the components of any device, but only a rube thinks the tinpot tyrants in other countries are bad but not the ones in his own.

    • KD’s Burner ✔️

      I think non-democratic is a bit too far, but I think of ByteDance as an extension of the Chinese government to grow into the the social/gaming markets like Tencent. Meta censorship like in RE4 is give or take, but in China you must appease the political establishment.

    • kontis

      American corporations are also undemocratic, even brag about NOT respecting free free speech they have written in the constitution of their own country, because “they are a company, not a country, haha!”.

      American corporations are very authoritarian considering how powerful they are globally and how much they ignore or attack local laws.

      Silicon Valley is pretty much a different form of communist government. Semantics are just semantics. The reality is how things actually work and affect peoples’ lives.

    • Ben Jacobs

      Most VR headsets are made in china…

  • Rudl Za Vedno

    “Pico Neo 3 Link Supports Uncompressed PC VR Via DisplayPort”.
    Finally a PC users friendly VR standalone product. Evil Zuck watch and learn.

  • 144Hz

    FINALLY

  • Andrew Jakobs

    The DP link is what the Quest 2 also should have had, it’s much better than usb streaming.

    But how does this headset really compare to the Q2, in regard to comfort etc.

    • Tommy

      Would also see a direct comparison video.

    • NL_VR

      Its said to be better than Quest 2 on comfort as its pretty much the same headset but with a elite battery strap included.

      But the DP link mode has a bug with scale (or its fixed by now) that caused everything to be larger.
      It is normal with wireless PCVR. But it can also be fixed by now, it should be.

  • Ad

    OpenXR compatible?

    • Andrew Jakobs

      Yes, it says so on the pico website.

  • KD’s Burner ✔️

    With my eyes set on Project Cambria and potentially PSVR2 if I’m able to find a PS5, this announcement comes a little bit late. ByteDance needs to step up their content for their standalone store front, as some of the best content on standalone is quest exclusive RE4, POP:ONE, Beat Saber, and Onward.

    I also wonder how the relationship with Qualcomm and Meta will continue to go. As we learned Facebook/Meta likes to dip their toes in other peoples business, but doesn’t want anyone dipping in theirs with what we learned in the Cambridge Analytica fiasco. Hopefully, this pushes Meta to create their own chip geared towards XR. Though I heard reports of Meta working on a chip to process data more efficiently to give people more targeted ads in their upcoming fully AR device, then privacy eventually gets iffy to consumers.

    With regards to world politics buy whatever makes you sleep better at night. Whether your Pro-CCP/Anti-CCP or Pro-US/Anti-US buy what benefits you like more. I go to a semi-liberal University in the states and although I criticize the US government on Latin American diplomacy and affairs. I still would buy products that adhered to US regulation because at least it offers the most to its citizens. With Taiwan and China tensions risings just remember what side of the fence you want to be on.

  • GordonFreeman

    Any new competition has got to be good, the way I look at things, as long as there are new different VR start-ups then VR is just going to be improved.

  • Cragheart

    How about a shared market, like Google Play? Specs should be compatible.

  • Ευτέρπης

    This is the new headset of choice for PCVR, sweet displayport

  • Shuozhe Nan

    Would most likely bought it if it released prior to last black friday.. now all my games are on Quest store, even stopped getting PCVR games on Steam outside of bundles :(

    If Meta sells Quest2 at lost or with very small margin, and makes most of their money via software.. wouldn’t it be a smart move to allow Quest store on other XR2 headsets?

  • d0x360

    It would be pretty stupid to allow this thing anywhere near your or any other network…

    Of course people will do whatever stupid thing they want.

  • Paul Isabenkov

    Great that this spam is allowed, but my article about Pico neo 3 link cant be linked