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In an official press release from HTC earlier today, it was revealed the Vive virtual reality headset, created in partnership by Valve and HTC, will ship for $799 when it first arrives in early April 2016. When it is made available for pre-purchase in just a few days on February 29th 2016, the Vive will ship to consumers with two free VR-only games, including Job Simulator by Owlchemy Labs and Fantastic Contraption by Northway / Radial Games. As two of the highest quality and fully-fledged experiences available, these two games are definitely great additions to the pre-order bundle.
Although steep, this price point is actually not too unusual or unexpected when compared to the price of the Oculus Rift announced back in January, which retails for $599 but lacks an additional tracker and the still-unfinished Touch Controllers, which will be sold separately later in the year. In comparison, the Vive will be bundled with all of necessary components and peripherals required for full room-scale use, including two base stations, two Wand controllers, and the headset itself. It has also been confirmed the Vive will be able to further "bridge both realities" by allowing users to respond to incoming or missed calls, to reply to text messages, or to check calender notifications, all from within the headset itself. This is possibly achieved through some kind of Android integration, given HTC's considerable marketshare with smartphones.
With pre-orders opening in just a few days, it'll be interesting to see if HTC and Valve's higher price point but more-complete bundle will have similar success to the lower priced Oculus Rift, and even to the still to-be-priced PlayStationVR. Let the games begin!
Although steep, this price point is actually not too unusual or unexpected when compared to the price of the Oculus Rift announced back in January, which retails for $599 but lacks an additional tracker and the still-unfinished Touch Controllers, which will be sold separately later in the year. In comparison, the Vive will be bundled with all of necessary components and peripherals required for full room-scale use, including two base stations, two Wand controllers, and the headset itself. It has also been confirmed the Vive will be able to further "bridge both realities" by allowing users to respond to incoming or missed calls, to reply to text messages, or to check calender notifications, all from within the headset itself. This is possibly achieved through some kind of Android integration, given HTC's considerable marketshare with smartphones.
With pre-orders opening in just a few days, it'll be interesting to see if HTC and Valve's higher price point but more-complete bundle will have similar success to the lower priced Oculus Rift, and even to the still to-be-priced PlayStationVR. Let the games begin!
