Oculus Rift became available for pre-order last week. Its initial wave of 1,000 units sold out within mere minutes while thousands scoffed its wallet-obliterating $599 MSRP. This has quickly turned the attention of gamers toward Sony's PlayStation VR and HTC Vive, both of which currently have no price set in stone. But there's hope that they'll be more affordable, or at least provide a better value proposition.
On February 29th HTC Vive will become available for pre-order. It is confirmed by HTC that its price and release date will be revealed at or shortly before the time of pre-order. For now, the only rough estimate for when it'll release has been provided by an HTC representative who is confident that it will be in the hands of consumers "in April" of this year.
When talking about the headset, HTC's CEO Cher Wang had the following to say:
It's taken generations for technology to reach a point where headsets like the HTC Vive have been possible. Nobody would have imagined in the 80's that resolutions surpassing 1920 x 1080 with 90+ frames per second on two high quality displays would be fundamentally required for a proper virtual reality experience. It's inherently expensive, but potentially revolutionary.
The HTC Vive has a few noteworthy advantages over the competition, one of which is its headset-integrated camera which allows users to re-attach themselves to the outside world, in addition to providing the means for augmented reality. Perhaps more noteworthy is its sensor system which allows it to be used for full-3D motion gaming, something that could become a system-selling advantage since both the PlayStation VR and Oculus Rift have been built more traditionally with "sit-down" experiences in mind.
As a result of both of these advantages it will be a premium item that will likely cost more than the competition, a serious concern among those who have already been blown away by Oculus Rift's $599 price tag.
