HTC To Partner With HP And Launch Vive-Branded PCs

[Megalith]

In an effort to provide VR at more accessible price levels, HTC is reportedly acquiring PCs from HP and rebranding/bundling them with Vive systems. If you haven’t jumped into VR yet, is price the primary reason?

Despite HTC's efforts, some market watchers expect HTC Vive's sales to reach only 500,000-700,000 units in 2016, far lower than Sony PlayStation VR's forecasts of up to six million units and also weaker than Facebook Oculus Rift's one million units. The PlayStation VR will support the PlayStation 4 and will benefit from the game console's strong user base, while the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift both require high-specification PCs in order to work, relatively limiting their user base. By selling HTC Vive-branded PCs through its existing channels, HTC will be able to provide Vive-ready products directly to consumers.

 

[MavericK]

Rumor is that HTC is getting ready to announce a revision of the Vive. I am waiting for that and Oculus Touch reviews before jumping in.

 

[heatlesssun]

Rumor is that HTC is getting ready to announce a revision of the Vive. I am waiting for that and Oculus Touch reviews before jumping in.

Thanks for the info, I'd not heard that. Planning on picking up a Vive this year so if there is a new one launching something this year I'll definitely wait.

 

[MavericK]

Well, it is definitely a rumor, but here's the origin:

New HTC Vive Version May Be Coming This Year, Report Suggests - Road to VR

Probably it will be ergnomic fixes and whatnot, but might as well wait and see.

In any case, by the end of the year we should have a better idea of what to get. Someone on Reddit mentioned speaking with Vive support and they were told (unofficially I guess) that the game bundle for the Vive would be going through the end of the year, so there's no rush to buy.

 

[Ragenrok]

keeping my eye on all 3, my biggest stopping point right now is games not being cross platform. The segregation right now is hurting the platforms, all of these games should be cross compatible with either VR with altleast 3d and head tracking and just a 360 controller if they don't want to support the vive's controllers. Also waiting to see what sony is going to release and how well it work/if its pc compatible as well (owning a ps4 it would be awesome if it worked on both systems)

 

[MavericK]

Problem is, some games require room scale - they are designed specifically around that functionality. Until the Oculus Touch comes out it's going to be segregated just because room scale is another level and Oculus isn't capable yet.