Free Roaming with PICO
Week 1 – What Free Roam Actually Means (And Why It Breaks So Often) The 10-Year Journey: Why This Series Exists In 2016, we opened VR Territory in Los Angeles to solve a problem: making high-end VR accessible. What we didn’t realize then was that we were building a laboratory for the next decade of Location-Based Entertainment (LBE). That experience became the foundation of SynthesisVR, and following our acquisition of SpringboardVR in early 2025, we now support over 700 locations globally. We aren’t writing this series to reminisce about the early days of cables, base stations and tracking issues. We are writing it because we are seeing a specific trend now moving into the 2026 market. Too many platform providers are pushing “short-term profit” models, bundling a few games with consumer-grade headsets like the Meta Quest and selling them as “turnkey free roam.” They focus on the low entry cost but fail to educate operators on the operational traps that follow: account restrictions, tracking drift, inconsistent resets and the hidden labor costs of keeping everything running smoothly. We have managed millions of minutes of gameplay, we’ve seen what makes money and, more importantly, what causes a business to struggle within its first year. This 12-part series is our effort to pull back the curtain. Our goal is to help you skip the “experimental” phase and move straight to a high-throughput, reliable arena by choosing the right hardware: such as the PICO 4 Ultra Enterprise, and the right operational systems from day one. A Quick Introduction to Free Roam (Arena) and How It´s Different From Room scale (POD) VR Free roam VR allows multiple players to move freely within a shared physical space while interacting with each other in real time. This has become one of the most attractive formats in LBE VR because it enables experiences that are typically only accessible in commercial environments, requires physical space most consumers do not have at home, and creates a strong social dynamic that cannot be replicated in private settings. Room scale VR places each player in a separate, defined play area with limited movement. Players may participate in single-player or multiplayer experiences, but each station operates independently. Operators typically sell time based sessions, and if a technical issue occurs, it usually affects only one player or station. This model powered the first wave of VR arcades starting around 2016, when venues rapidly expanded worldwide. How The Industry Is Shifting to Free Roam And The Role Of Inside-out Tracking The industry´s shift toward free roam has been accelerated by improvements in inside-out tracking, lighter headsets, and untethered hardware. What once required external trackers and complex installations can now be set up more flexibly in a much wider range of venues. We see this shift every day in our conversations with operators. When venue owners contact SynthesisVR, whether they are just starting out or looking to upgrade an existing business, most inquiries are now about standalone VR. That is not a coincidence. In our experience, this preference is closely tied to cost. New businesses are attracted by lower startup investment, while existing venues see clearer, more affordable paths to scaling and expansion. Standalone systems make adding more players, arenas, or locations feel far less intimidating than it used to. This evolution has made it much easier for operators to offer free roam, and it has made it accessible at a lower overall cost. More venues are also seeing higher demand for free roam compared to traditional room-scale stations. For many operators, free roam has become a way to stand out, attract groups, and increase engagement. At the same time, easier hardware does not automatically mean easier operations. For sessions to run smoothly, venues still need to get the setup right from the very beginning. Once multiple players start moving freely together, small inconsistencies become very visible, very fast. We have seen this play out repeatedly. Tracking alignment drift, boundary mismatches, delayed session starts, and inconsistent reset times all create a weaker experience for players and more stress for staff. That is why success in free roam ultimately depends on three things. Consistent setup. Reliable mapping. And repeatable workflows that work the same way every session, even during peak hours. Two Main Free Roam Experiences and their Differences Traditional PCVR free roam often relies on backpack PCs or tethered systems, external networking infrastructure, and extensive cabling. While this approach can deliver strong graphical performance, it introduces significant operational overhead. There is more hardware to maintain, longer reset times, more potential points of failure, and higher staff complexity as player counts increase. Thankfully, with the recent advancements in inside-out tracking and headsets like the PICO 4 Ultra Enterprise, PCVR free roam has become significantly easier. The primary distinction lies in the fact that each headset is wirelessly connected to a PC, and the game rendering is processed on the PC before being streamed wirelessly to the headset. In essence, the headset functions as a monitor for the user. Standalone VR integrated processing, tracking, and rendering directly into the headset, eliminating the need for high-end PCs and external tracking systems. This streamlined installation and daily operations. Inside-out tracking provided reliable six-degree-of-freedom movement without external sensors, making true free-roaming layouts more accessible to diverse venues. Essentially, with a single PC, operators can manage multiple headsets. In a typical setup, operators would run one PC with eight headsets in a single free-roaming arena. Wireless operation also removed physical constraints on movement, improved player comfort, and reduced safety risks related to cables and wear. Faster setup times and simplified device handling lowered staff training requirements and allowed venues to turn sessions more efficiently. Portability further enabled temporary activations, mobile events, and flexible floor layouts without major infrastructure investment. As standalone hardware matured, enterprise-focused manufacturers such as PICO began optimizing devices specifically for commercial environments. Beyond hardware improvements, PICO has also signaled its intent to engage more directly with the location-based entertainment sector, including joining an industry LBE association as