PICO, a developer of cutting-edge virtual reality (VR) and mixed reality (MR) headsets, is working with Glitch Studios to drive its LBVR series, Viking Adventures.
When selecting hardware for the project, the studio knew it needed VR hardware with enough performance headroom to bring its free-roam ambitions to life. It chose the PICO 4 Ultra Enterprise.
The result is Myth of Yggdrasil, a 30-minute free-roam family adventure offering operators, family entertainment centres, theme parks and immersive spaces a premium shared adventure designed for high throughput and easy operation, with a continuous pipeline of content updates.
Sami Hamid, XR producer at Glitch Studios, says: "We wanted operators to be able to offer something that feels like a major adventure, with the practical setup needed to run it every day.
"PICO has given us the freedom to create the world we imagined while helping us make it accessible to guests and manageable for venue teams. That combination is essential when you’re creating entertainment for a commercial space."
Betting on the world’s fascination with Vikings, the studio aims to reach a global audience.
The experience is already operating in Tromsø, Norway, with venues in Oslo and Bergen opening soon.
A Viking adventure, made by real Vikings from Norway
For a Norwegian studio with a passion for storytelling, the world of the Vikings offered a place to begin: a history close to home and a mythology filled with characters and stories known around the world.
Glitch Studios worked with historians on the visual representation of the Viking Age, drawing on historical knowledge to shape details such as clothing and architecture. Norse mythology opened the door to a more fantastical journey, taking guests beyond the Viking world and into the realms of myth.
In Myth of Yggdrasil, guests become the protagonists. Together, they escape a Viking town under siege, set sail under the northern lights and venture deep into Niflheim, the land of fog and ice.
Along the way, they meet mythical creatures and discover the power of the magical runestones they carry. Their destination is Yggdrasil, the World Tree, where they must unite the runes and calm the serpent gnawing at its roots to save the tree, and the world with it.
Future instalments of the Viking Adventures series will use the same footprint and audience flow Image courtesy of PICO
30 minutes of shared entertainment
Designed for a continuous flow of guests, the adventure brings people together in groups of up to four, where families and friends, young and old, share the journey, working together to overcome challenges as the story unfolds.
With approximately 250 square metres of playable space, the experience has a maximum traffic flow of up to 80 guests per hour.
PICO’s standalone headsets let guests move freely through the virtual world without cables or PC backpacks, giving them the freedom to travel together through the adventure and use their own hands to interact naturally with the world and each other.
For Glitch, choosing PICO was about more than giving its creatives the headroom to build unforgettable characters and environments.
It was also about looking ahead. During the international launch event in London, the team experienced Myth of Yggdrasil running on the new PICO Space Pro, giving them a glimpse of what’s next for LBVR.
The PICO 4 Ultra Enterprise lets guests move freely, without cables or PC backpacks
Image courtesy of PICO
"This new industry depends on hardware suppliers like PICO to keep innovating and moving the hardware forward in order to grow and succeed," says Hamid.
"The experiences that Glitch aims to produce within the next couple of years will not fit inside today’s hardware. We see PICO as a big part of that future."
Venue teams also benefit from PICO’s tools, which make it easier to prepare the shared play space and set up headsets. For VR Vikings in Tromsø, PICO was already the trusted hardware of choice.
Jo Adrian Haavind, owner of VR Vikings in Tromsø, says: "We had a good experience with PICO from previous audience-facing projects, so the choice was easy. As an operator, we need a reliable attraction that our team can manage and run confidently throughout the day."
One footprint, multiple adventures
Myth of Yggdrasil is the beginning of a planned series. Future Viking Adventures productions are intended to use the same footprint and audience flow, with different episodes running simultaneously on the same floor.
That could allow one group to travel towards Yggdrasil while another sets out on a different adventure within the same venue. For operators, the series offers a way to introduce fresh stories and give guests a reason to return while continuing to use their existing setup.
Viking Adventures is already rolling out across Scandinavia, with the first venue in Tromsø set to be joined by locations in Oslo in January 2027 and Bergen in summer 2027. Venues in Stockholm and Copenhagen are slated for 2028.
A new chapter for Glitch Studios
Viking Adventures marks a new direction for Glitch Studios. After years of creating immersive experiences for clients and cultural partners, the studio is developing its own entertainment IP for the international LBVR market.
Its earlier work includes Briar & Rose, an augmented-reality theatre production created with Nordland Teater, Teater Vestland and Teatret Vårt. The production won XR Location-Based Entertainment of the Year at the 2024 International XR Awards.
Now, Myth of Yggdrasil has been nominated for the 2026 European XR Awards, as Glitch Studios introduces the series to operators, distributors and licensing partners around the world.
Earlier this year, PICO was selected by iDISCOVR, the studio behind IMMERSIA, to support the move of Echo of the Universe, its multiplayer free-roaming LBVR experience, from PCVR to a fully standalone architecture.
