Users of Pimax’s wide field-of-view (FOV) PC VR headsets have always relied upon third-party stores like Steam for VR content. Now the company is looking to incentivize VR developers to publish their games on the new Pimax Store.
Pimax quietly launched its PC VR content store in September 2022, ostensibly in preparation for the yet-to-release “Reality 12K QLED” headset, and standalones Pimax Cystal and Pimax Portal hybrid.
At the time, the company kicked off its store by advertising a program that would award its top 50 indie developers with cash incentives, along with a “choose your own” approach to revenue split for those top 50, which would let those developers “determine how much you would like to contribute to the store’s success and what proportion you need for your own success.”
Following a $30 million Series C1 funding round announced earlier this month, the Beijing-based VR headset company has upped the ante by announcing a 100% developer revenue split of Pimax Store content.
For contrast, Valve takes a 30% revenue cut from Steam, while Meta takes 30% from the Quest Store, and 47.5% from content published through its online Horizon Worlds platform.
The company also announced it’s earmarked a $100K fund for the stimulation of VR games, and is giving away 1,000 Pimax Portal dev kits, a standalone hybrid headset which can convert between a Nintendo Switch-style handheld and a 6DOF VR headset.
“We’re a hardware manufacturer in the first place, which you could argue Steam and Meta aren’t, so this makes it easier for us to accept a lower margin, but we also want to promote the whole VR market, as technology is advancing fast,” said Pimax’s Carol Yuan. “There should also be more high-quality VR content available. Not only do we think that, but also many users online think this is holding back VR.”
Pimax says its app store caters exclusively to the company’s fleet of headsets, making sure that games support higher FOV and displays resolutions. The Pimax Store also bakes in customization settings for hardware, effectively replacing the company’s Pi Tool.
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We’ve reached out to Pimax to find out the duration of the revenue split and, provided it has a definite end point, what its default percentage is. We’ll update this article when/if the company responds.
