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Pico Price Hikes and the Era of HMD Price Increases — VIVE Reevaluation Begins
Hello. How’s everyone doing?
I’m Hiro from Full Body Tracking Lab.
Today I’m talking about full-body tracking and VR hardware pricing.
A trend has been quietly building in the industry: price increases. Pico, and likely Meta Quest, appear headed in that direction too. At the same time, I wanted to explore what this means from a full tracking perspective.
This isn’t all bad news for the full tracking crowd. In fact, it could mean VIVE gets a second look.
Pico Motion Trackers Going Up to Around 20,000 Yen
The Pico Motion Tracker series is expected to see price increases, reaching around 20,000 yen — roughly a 10,000 yen jump.
The primary cause is raw material costs: IMU prices rising, IMU availability tightening, and overall memory price increases. As AI server demand explodes, it’s squeezing even consumer product lines.
HMDs Are Entering a Price Increase Era Too
It’s not just Pico Motion Trackers. HMDs in general are trending upward: raw material costs, semiconductor supply constraints, AI server demand absorbing parts, and yen depreciation for the Japanese market.
Meta’s situation deserves special attention. Quest has been the “standard VR entry device” sold at remarkably low prices. But with Meta’s core SNS business struggling, continuing to sell hardware at a loss becomes unsustainable.
From a Full Tracking Perspective, This Could Be an Opportunity
VIVE’s relative evaluation is about to rise.
VIVE has long held the position of full tracking’s gold standard. Base station tracking offers the highest precision and lowest drift in the full tracking world.
But consumer perception was harsh: “expensive but mediocre lenses,” “expensive but complicated setup.” This was largely because competitors (especially Meta) were strategically underpricing, making VIVE look expensive by comparison.
When Quest and Pico raise prices and the gap with VIVE narrows, “VIVE is too expensive” gradually becomes relative. Some who chose “cheap Quest over expensive VIVE” might think “at similar prices, I’ll choose VIVE for better full tracking.”
This is a quietly significant change for the entire full tracking industry.
VIVE Has the Technology to “Build Affordably for the Long Term”
HTC, which owns VIVE, may not be flashy, but they have solid capabilities in continuous cost reduction. Particularly with base station manufacturing costs.
As the industry trends toward price increases, VIVE gaining relative price competitiveness is a notable factor.
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