HTC have announced details of the HTC Vive’s release at the Mobile World Conference in Barcelona, pricing it at $799 with shipping of pre-orders to start in early April – no firm date has been announced. Pre-orders will go live at 10AM EST on Febraury 29th, as previously announced.
The price is high, but makes sense when considering how the Oculus Rift has been positioned, with the Facebook-backed headset costing $599. However, the HTC Vive is a system that aims for a broader experience than the Rift does at launch. The headset features a slightly taller display as well as a forward facing camera, alongside which you also get the Lighthouse base stations required for the ‘room scale VR’ that has become Vive’s signature, and the two controllers that allow for positional tracking of your hands in the virtual world.
This is all key to the room scale experience and the two games which are bundled with the Vive, Owlchemy Labs’ Job Simulator and Northway Games’ Fantastic Contraption.
All that’s left to see for this first generation of VR hardware is how much the PlayStation VR will cost…
Avenger
Makes sense given it’s a step up from the Oculus Rift. It seemed to me that this was the headset that made the most sense in terms of making VR work and maximising the technology.
Hopefully it won’t be too long before we know how much PS VR will cost.
Severn2j
Arg, tempting.. As much as I was put off the price of the Rift, I still ended up preordering it. I may preorder this too and then cancel whichever doesn’t arrive first..
I’m figuring that if it all goes pear shaped and makes me violently sick, there’ll be enough demand to get my money back by sticking them on eBay.
Stefan L
Rift is out at the end of March, on the 29th, Vive at the start of April. So theoretically, Rift will arrive first, but by then money for the Vive will be out of your account and the headset will be on its way…
Severn2j
I wasn’t quick enough to get into the first batch of rifts, so I’m looking at June for the rift.. Hopefully I’ll be more on the ball with the vive..
DividSmythe
Wow that’s quite expensive. Considering Rift was out of my price range this is totally out of my price range. I just hope PS VR is going to be considerably cheaper. I just hope I don’t have to stick it out with Google Cardboard.
TSBonyman
Less than i expected but still expensive.
camdaz
All hope for the less well off is with Sony. The PSVR should be less than the competition, but by how much?
gazzagb
Unless Sony are happy to make a loss on it, I think it could be around the same or even more expensive. Especially when you consider PS VR will come with its own additional processing unit.
MrYd
It’ll either be a similar price, ensuring this whole VR nonsense dies a quick death, or it’ll be a bit cheaper and suffers a long, drawn out Death by Sony.
Forrest_01
“ensuring this whole VR nonsense dies a quick death”
We can but hope. ;)
Tuffcub
Hahaha. No.