We finally have an official announcement on the price of the HTC Vive ‘Consumer Edition’ VR system.
Announcing from Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, HTC says its Steam VR-powered headset will cost $799 when it arrives in April.
Although this price is a full $200 more than the $599 Oculus Rift headset that begins shipping as early as March 28, the Oculus Rift only includes the headset without hand-tracking controllers. You will still need a high-end computer to do the majority of the heavy lifting if you order either the HTC Vive or the Oculus Rift VR system. Rift-recommended PCs are priced in the $1,000 range, without the headset, and it’s a safe bet the HTC Vive consumer edition is going to arrive asking for at least as much computer processing power.
So what does the $799 HTC Vive system get you? The headset has an improved “brighter” display, an updated head-strap, two wireless controllers with haptic feedback, a front facing camera, and launch titles Job Simulator and Fantastic Contraption.
For a limited time, the HTC Vive will be bundled with both titles. Job Simulator is a fun title we have demoed where you play an office worker stuck in a cubicle taking on mundane tasks with your robot co-workers. Fantastic Contraption is one of our favorite HTC Vive titles allowing you to build moving contraptions from a variety of parts to see how they move in a virtual space.
Beyond headset pricing, HTC is announcing something else it’s calling Vive Phone Service. It sounds like HTC’s way of bringing voice and messaging integration to VR, so you won’t have to yank the headset off to take a call, send a quick text replies or check upcoming calendar invites.
HTC Vive preorders begin at 10AM ET on February 29th in 24 countries, with deliveries expected in early April. Those countries are the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain, Switzerland, Ireland, Sweden, Taiwan, China, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand.
