HTC Vive Pre- Orders Begin on February 29th
HTC Vive pre-orders are coming late next month. Just a week ago the Oculus Rift pre-orders went live for $599 and were sold out for the first shipments which are coming in March. Meanwhile, 2nd shipments will be arriving in May and the rest in June. Now it’s time for the long-awaited HTC Vice, the virtual reality device from HTC and Valve. We still don’t know how much it costs and what kind of software it will be launching with in April. Last, but not least, PSVR is tagging along right behind everyone else and the price is also still a mystery. It’s believed that Sony will be giving more details about PSVR this March at GDC. It will be exciting to see what is going to be in the VR competition space and how will everything turn out.
It will be exciting to see what is going to be happening in VR competition. As of right now, book your calendars for February 29th and get your wallets ready because we believe that HTC Vive will not be costing cheap. Stay tuned on Gaming Instincts for more VR news in the near future.
Check out the full press release down below:
HTC Vive pre-orders to start on February 29
HTC will start taking pre-orders for Vive, its virtual reality headset, from February 29, its chief executive has confirmed.
Cher Wang told the Telegraph the company had chosen to refocus on virtual reality (VR) and away from smartphones, saying the company was now “more realistic”.
“Yes, smartphones are important, but to create a natural extension to other connected devices like wearables and virtual reality is more important,” she said.
Vive has been developed with game maker Valve, designed to fully immerse its wearer in their virtual environment while playing games. It will go on wider commercial sale in April, and will compete with Facebook-owned Oculus Rift and Sony’s PlayStation VR as the technology finally enters the mainstream. Its price remains unknown.
“I think the problem was competition – Apple, Xiaomi, these companies spend tons of money on communications and marketing, they pump a huge amount of investment into the market. There are a lot of Chinese competitors.”
HTC showcased the second generation developer kit, Vive Pre, at CES in Las Vegas, a signifcant aesthetic departure from the first version which was launched with much fanfare at last year’s Mobile World Congress.
The headset has been redesigned to rest more comfortably on the wearer’s face, with a smaller cage and more stable head strap. HTC said the new design can be more easily adjusted to users’ heads, and can still be worn comfortably by those who wear glasses.
It also contains an integrated front-facing camera, enabling you to see your physical surroundings while wearing the headset. This means you could sit down, eat and continue interacting with others without needing to remove it.
