Release Date: October 10th, 2023
Price:
128GB: $500, £480, €550, ¥74800
512GB: $650, £620, €700, ¥96800
It seems we can buy expensive glasses with cameras from Meta. IT GLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWS
Man I miss the good old days with E3 and they would blow everyone’s mind with new tech and a bunch of game trailers that demonstrated the power of whatever the new thing was. This was like watching blindfolded executives wondering around on stage with no clue what they’re doing.
All they had to do was show GTA as a launch title and they would have made millions.
Seems like a Pico 4 only a year later and more expensive. I’m sure the hardware is marginally better but not enough for me to go back to Meta’s closed ecosystem.
The depth sensor and passthrough seem like a big improvement, the lenses seem to be on par with the QuestPro (Pico4 is much worse) and the processor seems quite a bit faster. But the $200 price increase is rather problematic, VR in the $500-650 range gives me CV1 flashbacks, that’s just more than the masses want to pay for the current state of VR. Meta also failed to announce any new exciting games to sweeten the deal, it’s basically just more Quest2-stuff-but-a-little-better.
I am not seeing this get new people into VR, just an upgrade for those who already have a Quest2. Leaked Pico5 specs look more interesting, at least for PC users, better resolution and multiple headsets versions including a Pico5Max with 4k per eye.
Yeah if you’re into AR there’s some really good hardware for it on display here. I’m not seeing any exciting games that use it though. Maybe they’ll announce something later. I’m sure Pico 5’s optics will be on par. I’m content to wait.
