HTC Vive Is $799, Ships From April 1st (arstechnica.com)

Posted by BeauHD on Sunday February 21, 2016 @07:48AM from the intimately-starring-at-a-screen-pressed-up-against-your-face dept.

New submitter mobby_6kl writes: The HTC Vive VR headset, developed in partnership with Valve, has been announced ahead of schedule today to cost $799, with pre-orders opening on February 29th and shipping from April 1st. The Vive will ship with two games that take advantage of the system's two motion controllers and "room scale" capabilities, Job Simulator and Fantastic Contraption. The HTC Vive is $200 more expensive than its main competitor, Oculus Rift, but does include the two motion controllers as well as Bluetooth for smartphone connectivity. However, detailed specifications for either system are not yet known. When it's available for pre-order, it will launch in no less than 24 different markets on that day including the U.S., Canada, U.K., Germany, France, Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain, Switzerland, Ireland, Sweden, Taiwan, China, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand.

1 of 83 comments (clear)

Min score:

Reason:

Sort:

Expensive, but at least its complete... by Parafilmus · 2016-02-21 10:33 · Score: 3, Insightful

I appreciate that HTC is selling a complete VR product, including hand controls.
They're making the right decision. If they deliver a solid experience for $800, they'll succeed as a high-end toy, and the price will eventually drop.
By contrast, Oculus reached a lower price by leaving out hand controls. That was a mistake. A complete VR kit for $800 is a better proposition than an incomplete kit for $600.