At the GDC 2023 event, apart from the interview with Zhang Jiang as the director (runtime), we also had the opportunity to interview Peter Li, who is the Director of Pico Studios and is responsible for any cooperation and development of the Pico game ecosystem.
Under his management, Pico Studios is responsible for bringing content, but Peter also explained that they do not operate like a typical game publishing studio. This is because they will also collaborate with other game publishers in producing games specifically developed for Pico.
Virtual Reality Headsets Need to Provide a More Immersive Experience
To date, there are more than 300 games through the Pico Store and all of them are not games developed by Pico Studio, but by other publishers and developers. Peter Li also shared that the number of available games will increase up to 450 games.
Pico Studio, on the other hand, will only focus on adding functionality and improving the gaming experience by using all the functions and features available on the Pico virtual reality headset. Therefore the game they will produce is likely to be different from the usual game.
Peter Li also added that the experience of playing with a virtual reality headset should be more active, and may make the whole body move. In fact they are developing technology that can track the movement of the whole body, so that it can be used in games.
If seen on Pico controllers that have coils, the hidden detection sensor allows for more precise tracking of hand movements. And this whole new technology will be tried, to allow the interaction of the real world and the virtual world to merge, providing a very immersive gaming experience.
Leg Movement Will Be Present On Pico
Sharing more about the gaming experience, is about the development of a foot tracking system, which may allow the player to walk locally or kick, while performing the same actions in the game. This will definitely put the Pico ahead of other virtual reality set-top devices, and also add to the gameplay the Pico can offer.
But this will be a challenge not only for Pico Studios, but also with other game publishing studios so Pico is committed to bringing this technology, and will work together to allow developers to create unique games that take advantage of whole body movement tracking technology.
Closing the interview, Peter also explained that Pico Studios also invests in several game publishers, as well as collaborates with several indie game developers. However not all game publishers will accept the game development kit (SDK). But as you already know, every Pico virtual reality headset is an SDK