Facebook last month temporarily slashed $200 off the cost of its Oculus Rift virtual reality headset and Touch controller bundle. Shortly after, the company introduced a permanent price cut that brought the cost of the combo down to $499 (it’ s…
Facebook last month temporarily slashed $200 off the cost of its Oculus Rift virtual reality headset and Touch controller bundle. Shortly after, the company introduced a permanent price cut that brought the cost of the combo down to $499 (it’s still $399 via the temporary cut, FYI) .
Now, it’s HTC’s turn.
The Oculus rival on Monday said it is reducing the cost of its Vive headset by $200, dropping the price of the high-end VR solution down to $599.
HTC notes that all Vive purchases include a free trial to Viveport Subscription, granting access to up to five titles per month to experience, as well as copies of popular VR software such as Google’s Tilt Brush, EverestVR and Richie’s Plank Experience.
The company also points out that they’ ll have more information to share regarding the consumer launch of new Tracker software and hardware in the near future.
Virtual reality as we know it today burst onto the scene in 2012 with a Kickstarter campaign for the Oculus Rift. It would be several more years before consumer-grade solutions arrived to help usher in the age of modern virtual reality.
Costly gear, requisite high-end PC hardware and technological limitations, however, have kept VR from going full-on mainstream. Price cuts like these certainly help advance the initiative but don’ t guarantee the platform’s long-term success. For that, we’ ll need further price cuts, advancements and adoption beyond gaming (Facebook) .
