HTC Vive Reduces Price By $200

[btarunr]

HTC Vive today announced a $200 price reduction for Vive, making the best VR system more accessible to the mass market, across the globe. Starting today, Vive will be available for $599. All Vive purchases come with a free trial to Viveport Subscription, where consumers can choose up to 5 titles per month to experience, and copies of many of the most popular pieces of VR content today, including Google's Tilt Brush, Everest VR, and Richie's Plank Experience.

"Our goal at Vive has always been to offer the best and most advanced VR system and drive mass market adoption for VR across the globe," said Cher Wang, Chairwoman, HTC. "We're continuing to deliver on that commitment with this new price for Vive, making VR more accessible to a broader audience and driving the entire VR industry forward. Vive's game-changing technology, best-in-class content and unmatched global partners are fulfilling the promise of VR like never before. With highly anticipated titles, and the upcoming launch of Vive Tracker, there has never been a better time to embrace Vive, and enjoy the most immersive VR experience available."



A winner of hundreds of technology and industry awards across the globe, Vive is the only product that offers room-scale VR out of a single box, and this version of Vive will be the unit in market for the foreseeable future. The base Vive package comes with everything you need for a quick room-scale VR set-up: two base stations for accurate tracking, two motion controllers for immersive VR experiences and new and improved connection cables and new materials that offer a lighter weight on the Vive headset.

According to a recent report from UBM, more developers are building experiences for Vive than ever before, and Vive was chosen as developers' top target when creating content. With more than 3,600 titles available across Steam and Viveport and with new AAA content arriving soon, Vive will continue to be the platform of choice for developers and consumers alike. In addition, Viveport Subscription allows consumers to choose from over 250 pieces of content from a highly-curated offering, giving consumers another opportunity to discover the best VR content available.

According to Steam statistics, HTC Vive maintains a 60% share of access to the Steam platform for high-end VR headsets. Over the past year, Vive has maintained its lead by more than 20%.

"We've rapidly diversified the Vive business so that when customers and businesses purchase Vive, they know they'll benefit from a wide base of support for years to come," said Dan O'Brien, GM US, HTC Vive. "From constant improvements to the core Vive hardware to the industry's first VR subscription service, to investments in new technology for developers, Vive is at the forefront of the push to take VR to the mainstream."

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[neko77025]

I almost bought A Rift Last pay day, Thank the Lord of Light !

" The night is dark and full of terrors"

However, going to wait and see whats up with the Knuckle controllers.

 

[PowerPC]

So are they going to just cut the prices until these things are worth nothing, instead of bringing out something new?

 

[xkm1948]

So are they going to just cut the prices until these things are worth nothing, instead of bringing out something new?

As of now the problem is more on the content creator's side. Sure they can copy the monitor industry or the cellphone industry and give us 4K screen, better OLED screen and etc while demanding a Titan Volta to run. But there simply won't be enough software to utilize these high res screens.

Locomotion is and will remain one of the most difficult problem for VR to solve. As someone who has spent over 200hrs in VR I can tell you whoever figures out a smart VR locomotion without breaking immersion will make big fat dollars.

Stuff like wireless VR is still kinda gimmick. Since higher the resolution the more data needs to be pushed through. It is just not practical to push such amount of processed data from GPU to VR HMD wireless.


Overall VR has a lot of potential to grow. I really like it that Valve and HTC/Acer/LG/Samsung are working very hard on bringing down the cost while maintaining or exceeding original quality. I am sure in the future VR HMD will also differentiate into value segments and high end.

 

[Vayra86]

I'll say this again: the only real use/niche I see for VR in the consumer gaming space is as another piece of gear for simulation. When you see VR at work in Elite: Dangerous you know this is the real deal and the rest is just tacky junk you'd preferably avoid for now until the next ten years or so.

Saying the tech is ready today is heavily overestimating the state of our tech. Its not ready. The only thing that is ready is the HMD itself, and even that still requires some significant leaps to become truly seamless. Wireless is among these things, and latency is another, and the two are both individual and combined issues. Add on screendoor effect, motion sickness and the locomotion of the post above me, and the end result is that the only good stuff in VR is the head tracking display.

When the price comes down like this I do feel tempted to go for VR just to get a nice HMD for specifically that simulation stuff. The rest I won't even bother looking at again.

 

[bug]

Excellent. It now costs only 3x the amount I'd spend on these gadgets.

 

[Vya Domus]

They can slash the prices as much as they want , hardly anyone wants VR. I find it hilarious how companies/manufacturers have been struggling for past few years to make VR happen. If something doesn't catch on in a big way in the span of a year , chances are it'll never will.

3D TVs are sad because they are alone , let VR join them for Christ sake.

I am not saying VR will never be a thing , but for the foreseeable future that looks to be the case.

 

[infrared]

Project cars on the vive is pretty epic, also fallout 4 vr and doom vr are coming out very soon! Can't wait!

 

[bug]

Project cars on the vive is pretty epic, also fallout 4 vr and doom vr are coming out very soon! Can't wait!

With your GPUs maybe, but who can afford those?

 

[PowerPC]

I really like it that Valve and HTC/Acer/LG/Samsung are working very hard on bringing down the cost while maintaining or exceeding original quality. I am sure in the future VR HMD will also differentiate into value segments and high end.

Where do you see them exceeding original quality? All of these companies are stuck in 1st gen, which should have only been a short phase until something better came along. It seems like they're just sitting on what they first came up with and lowering the price for it. Ultimately a product like that will run into the ground because without innovation it will not generate enough hype to excite people, even with the current price cutting strategy.

The goal for next generation VR should at least be to make them (much) smaller and have less input issues, until we have PCs that can run 4K@90Hz VR. But we're not even getting that.

 

[Prince Valiant]

I'll say this again: the only real use/niche I see for VR in the consumer gaming space is as another piece of gear for simulation. When you see VR at work in Elite: Dangerous you know this is the real deal and the rest is just tacky junk you'd preferably avoid for now until the next ten years or so.

Saying the tech is ready today is heavily overestimating the state of our tech. Its not ready. The only thing that is ready is the HMD itself, and even that still requires some significant leaps to become truly seamless. Wireless is among these things, and latency is another, and the two are both individual and combined issues. Add on screendoor effect, motion sickness and the locomotion of the post above me, and the end result is that the only good stuff in VR is the head tracking display.

When the price comes down like this I do feel tempted to go for VR just to get a nice HMD for specifically that simulation stuff. The rest I won't even bother looking at again.

With as high as bandwidth requirements are I think they'd be better off spending time on fixing and improving everything else instead of sinking resources into getting it wireless.

 

[Mindweaver]

Project cars on the vive is pretty epic, also fallout 4 vr and doom vr are coming out very soon! Can't wait!

You have a Vive? Come and join the Virtual Reality Clubhouse.

@Everybody - If you have a Vive or any VR HMD or AR HMD come and join our Virtual Reality Clubhouse. Also, TPU has a new section - Virtual Reality & Augmented Reality.

 

[Vayra86]

With your GPUs maybe, but who can afford those?

Precisely The VIVE and RIFT are now cheaper, but GPU prices and requirements remain inflated as hell. These price cuts do little to unlock the good content... as far as one considers replaying old games 'good content' that is - I remember many a frown about 'porting' the same games and remastering them in HD to resell for full price during the end of the PS3 era...

That being said I'll not deny that 599 is closing in on affordable for me, and I'll probably just use it for Elite Dangerous in the end, to gaze at space vistas all night long.

 

[bug]

Precisely The VIVE and RIFT are now cheaper, but GPU prices and requirements remain inflated as hell. These price cuts do little to unlock the good content... as far as one considers replaying old games 'good content' that is - I remember many a frown about 'porting' the same games and remastering them in HD to resell for full price during the end of the PS3 era...

That being said I'll not deny that 599 is closing in on affordable for me, and I'll probably just use it for Elite Dangerous in the end, to gaze at space vistas all night long.

Is your 1080 enough to push the required 90fps in that title? Cause if it isn't, you'll not be gazing all night long

 

[Franzen4Real]

Sorry, don't mean to get away from the topic of the Vive, but my opinion is that the Rift w/ 3rd sensor for $459 is the better deal. I think it is the more comfortable HMD and has better controllers (though you can buy the $100 add-on headstrap for the Vive to help out a lot with comfort). The tracking with a 3rd sensor is perfect. As of last update, it now natively launches all Steam content directly from your Oculus Home library (it also fully supports Steam VR when launched outside of the headset). As for the debate on the room scale size between the two, I have my sensors about 10ft apart, so the play area is quite large. But regardless, there really isn't much room scale content that requires a play space larger than that. And if it did, the wires tether you anyways.

As for GPU requirements some have commented on, I have a 1080 in my desktop and a 980 in my living room PC. The 980 plays everything perfectly fine (Project Cars was mentioned, I do own that one). So a GTX 1060, though a minimum, will still play everything fine.

I do have to disagree on the stagnation of the tech. As an owner, I do not want incremental updates to the HMD's just so companies can release a new product year over year like a cell phone. The next one I buy, I want a significant upgrade from what is available today, and not just in resolution. Eye tracking, wireless, FOV, resolution, and refresh rate are all important to me. It's not that Vive/Oculus are sitting on their hands, but they need to have the tech available from others to implement in the first place. The tech is definitely good enough as is, to be a first gen product to get into the hands of early adopters, creators, etc. and get the VR ball rolling. I believe it was actually required. If you look at the amount of content and development from the first day of DK1 all the way through CV1 (several years) compared to just the first year CV1 has been on the market, it has grown exponentially. Also, Valve/Oculus said from the get go that next gen HMD's would not arrive until 2019.

It is still a niche product and will remain so for quite a while. Anyone that thinks this will be a mass market product ever, or that it will have significant market within even the first 7 years/3-4 generations needs to check their expectations (this also includes those that prefer to just declare the tech dead already). But creators still have to jump in the water at some point and start swimming. Even if they waited until all these new features/tech I just mentioned was available to implement in Gen1, it would still cost as much or more as it did with the current launch, and content development would be 2+ years behind. After all, how long was an HDTV niche? A decade? At least? There is more meaningful VR content in the first 18 months than what HDTV had in the first several years. If anyone else here bought into HD early on, they should remember that all we had was Mark Cuban's HDNet on DirecTV for the longest time, and it sucked. And that was just over the air stuff... Actually having HD content to buy (bluray, HD-DVD) was a ridiculous wait.

I'm willing to wait it out and support the tech. I find it to be enjoyable for far more than just content consumption. The creation apps already available I think are just as fun/interesting.

 

[Octavean]

~$599 isnt bad for a Vive but I'd like to see it go lower then that. At the ~$399 that the Oculus is at now it would be a bargain IMO. I bought the Oculus Rift with Touch bundle at ~$399 and I'd say its worth it for the money. Currently my favorite VR games are Robo Recall and Echo Arena although I would like to buy Gunheart and Lone Echo.

The tech does need improvement but there can still be some very entertaining immersion with current tech. Also note that if current VR hardware / software can be used to educate, for example teach someone to fly a cessna, teach a Doctor a new surgical technique, allow a paraplegic to feel as though he or she is climbing Mount Everest then the little niggles with the current state are negligible.

So some god rays, screen door effect, being tethered ect suddenly don't matter all that much,....IMO.

 

[Totally]

Where do you see them exceeding original quality? All of these companies are stuck in 1st gen, which should have only been a short phase until something better came along. It seems like they're just sitting on what they first came up with and lowering the price for it. Ultimately a product like that will run into the ground because without innovation it will not generate enough hype to excite people, even with the current price cutting strategy.

The goal for next generation VR should at least be to make them (much) smaller and have less input issues, until we have PCs that can run 4K@90Hz VR. But we're not even getting that.

Hype? It's precisely because the hype died down they are cutting the price. VR didn't gain any traction and this is move they are making whether they want to or not as time is clearly running out.

 

[Mindweaver]

Hype? It's precisely because the hype died down they are cutting the price. VR didn't gain any traction and this is move they are making whether they want to or not as time is clearly running out.

I have to disagree, Oculus was losing the race in sales which forced them to lower their price. The hype train really hasn't even started yet. Oculus and HTC will have standalone hmd's out by the end of the year. Also, LG will be releasing their Steam VR HMD at the end of this year as well.

Oculus will raise the price to $499 soon. Microsoft will have 2 of their mix reality HMD's out soon as well using inside out tracking. The first 2 Microsoft HMD's will be Acer and HP, then later Lenovo and Asus. Intel has a standalone VR HMD in the works as well. Now, I'm a Vive owner, but if I was going to buying a VR HMD right now, I'd buy the Oculus for $399 even with the Vive's 599 price.

If you have waited this long then I would suggest to wait on LG's HMD coming out soon, before I would buy The Vive.

 

[mac007]

i wonder if they are still making profit from it(which they must be).... and they were trying to make insane profit before

 

[Totally]

I have to disagree, Oculus was losing the race in sales which forced them to lower their price. The hype train really hasn't even started yet. Oculus and HTC will have standalone hmd's out by the end of the year. Also, LG will be releasing their Steam VR HMD at the end of this year as well.

Oculus will raise the price to $499 soon. Microsoft will have 2 of their mix reality HMD's out soon as well using inside out tracking. The first 2 Microsoft HMD's will be Acer and HP, then later Lenovo and Asus. Intel has a standalone VR HMD in the works as well. Now, I'm a Vive owner, but if I was going to buying a VR HMD right now, I'd buy the Oculus for $399 even with the Vive's 599 price.

If you have waited this long then I would suggest to wait on LG's HMD coming out soon, before I would buy The Vive.

A difference in perspective than disagreement all parties involved are still selling poorly how they sell relative to another is a moot point and dumping more money and devices is not going to knock VR out of the niche space it currently occupies. Microsoft's project is AR based and not a VR device so I'm not quite following you there

 

[Mindweaver]

A difference in perspective than disagreement all parties involved are still selling poorly how they sell relative to another is a moot point and dumping more money and devices is not going to knock VR out of the niche space it currently occupies. Microsoft's project is AR based and not a VR device so I'm not quite following you there

We will just have to disagree then. Also, Microsoft's AR device is Hololens, but they have what they are calling Mix Reality Headset's coming soon. Here is the Acer Mixed reality headset.

 

[Slizzo]

A difference in perspective than disagreement all parties involved are still selling poorly how they sell relative to another is a moot point and dumping more money and devices is not going to knock VR out of the niche space it currently occupies. Microsoft's project is AR based and not a VR device so I'm not quite following you there

During the sale, Oculus has had problems with keeping stock of everything they sell, from HMDs, to sensors, to touch controllers. They even spun up their new bundle early (the new touch + Rift that was going to be the $500 bundle going forward). In addition, because of response to the sale they extended it by another 2-3 weeks.

Like it or not, there has been a huge boost in adoption due to the $400 price. And now with Vive coming down $200, that should boost their sales a little too. Unsure if they still offer 0% financing on it through Paypal Credit though.

 

[Prince Valiant]

We will just have to disagree then. Also, Microsoft's AR device is Hololens, but they have what they are calling Mix Reality Headset's coming soon. Here is the Acer Mixed reality headset.

Hololens also makes the Vive/OR look like a bargain. Do you know if there's a page explaining the MRH a bit more?

 

[Mindweaver]

Hololens also makes the Vive/OR look like a bargain. Do you know if there's a page explaining the MRH a bit more?

Not really, the acer link I posted above should answer most of your questions. I expect to start hearing a lot more info closer to launch.

 

[Octavean]

I have to disagree, Oculus was losing the race in sales which forced them to lower their price. The hype train really hasn't even started yet. Oculus and HTC will have standalone hmd's out by the end of the year. Also, LG will be releasing their Steam VR HMD at the end of this year as well.

Oculus will raise the price to $499 soon. Microsoft will have 2 of their mix reality HMD's out soon as well using inside out tracking. The first 2 Microsoft HMD's will be Acer and HP, then later Lenovo and Asus. Intel has a standalone VR HMD in the works as well. Now, I'm a Vive owner, but if I was going to buying a VR HMD right now, I'd buy the Oculus for $399 even with the Vive's 599 price.

If you have waited this long then I would suggest to wait on LG's HMD coming out soon, before I would buy The Vive.

Funny you should say that, I'm an Oculus Rift owner (due to the ~$399 sale) and while I like it I think I would prefer the HTC Vive.

One can hope that the LG Steam VR HMD (which uses the same Vive Lighthouse tracking) is introduced at a reasonable and typically lower price. The Steam Knuckles controllers will be be every bit as intuitive and fun to use as the look. The Oculus Touch controllers are great but I think that Vive took it a step further with Knuckles.


I seem to recall hearing that the Acer / Microsoft mixed reality HMD was already available via the Microsoft store but only developers could buy it.