HTC prices Vive VR headset at $799 ($200 more than the Rift), will ship in early April

Shawn Knight

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Updated: The photo above is showing the finalized consumer version of the Vive on display at MWC 2016. Scroll down below for a few more shots.

HTC's Vive VR headset, considered by many to be the only serious competitor to the Oculus Rift, now has a price and release date. If you were put off by the "high" price of the Oculus Rift, HTC won't provide any solace.

The Taiwanese technology company revealed at Mobile World Congress that its Vive VR headset, built in collaboration with Valve, will retail for $799 – a full $200 more than the Facebook-owned competition is commanding. For that price, buyers will receive the headset itself, two wireless controllers with haptic feedback (one for each hand) and a pair of "Lighthouse" laser base stations for tracking purposes.

It's worth mentioning that the Oculus Rift doesn't include any motion-based controllers, instead shipping with a standard Xbox One controller (and two games: Eve: Valkyrie and Lucky's Tale). Motion controllers for the Rift are slated to arrive later this year although pricing remains a mystery at this hour.

As UploadVR notes, the consumer version of the Vive is virtually (no pun intended) identical to what was shown at CES back in January. The only notable difference to the actual hardware is a more ergonomic head strap.

There's also a new feature called Vive Phone Services that lets you place and receive calls and text messages without removing the headset and a front-facing camera to connect users to the "real world." Other notables include an internal microphone and Bluetooth connectivity (presumably to use the aforementioned smartphone features).

Like the Rift, the Vive VR comes with a pair of games: Job Simulator: The 2050 Archives from Owlchemy Labs and Northway Games' Contraption.

HTC recommends an Intel Core i5-4590 / AMD FX 8350 equivalent processor or better, an Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 / AMD Radeon R9 290 or greater, at least 4GB of RAM, an HDMI 1.4 / DisplayPort 1.2 video output or newer, at least one USB 2.0 port and Windows SP1 or newer to get the best experience out of the Vive VR.

HTC will begin accepting pre-orders on February 29 with plans to ship in early April.

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Well considering the Rift doesn't come with its controllers and the Vive has had better reviews, it just may justify the price. Either way, early tech is almost always expensive so this shouldn't bother anyone. An alternative would be the Gear VR at $99 or free with pre-order.
 
Are they selling it at a loss or with little to no profit? $800 is still within range of what I was expecting it to cost, but I honestly thought it would go as high as $1000.
 
For me there is most definitely far better things to waste $799 on.
For me too. Anyway, I am not interested in VR even if they gave it to me as a gift. Simply I dislike the headgear.
Yep. Even 3D was killed by the need to wear something and that just used lightweight glasses.
I am looking forward to HDR displays for better video experience without a need for special clothes.
 
I will buy it if it's good and they make real games for it. Even with no head tracking the 3D you get from two displays makes it so much more immersive I would buy it for that reason only. The 3D you get on your tv just looks like sprites in different layers and in most cases made movies worse. Some games had it better but there's no support for 3D in games after current gen consoles came, would have used it if something supported it.

I just hope it gets some real games, everything I have seen seems to be more about showing family friendly VR experience.

And for oculus, I wont even consider it. Mark bought it only to make facebook go VR and I get enough facebook ads on my phone, not paying to get them in VR. http://www.wired.com/2016/02/mark-zuckerberg-plays-zero-gravity-ping-pong-president-indonesia/
 
If you think this is a fad and you haven't AT LEAST tried a cheaper VR like google cardboard, you should do that. The level of immersion I felt with a cheap google cardboard and my Note5 was amazing. Yes there was a screen door effect, and it lagged pretty hard on the highest visual detail settings, and my phone got so hot it almost burned my hand, but I almost felt like I could reach out and touch stuff. My coworkers were trying to walk around the office to look at stuff when I showed it to them.

Having said that I don't have a preorder in for RIft or Vive. I will wait and see how everything works out, who has the best motion controls and support/drivers. Who has the most games and which system can be backwards compatible to older games the easiest.
 
Vive I'm interested in as the reviews I've seen about it have perked my interest, I look forward to having the opportunity to try it in the near future. As for Rift, I have no interest.
 
Maybe this VR stuff will take off, and everyone will "have" to have one and just use their current cell phones, and cellphone sales drop and they will FINALLY start to drop the prices on these over priced phones that aren't really needed. 700-900 bucks for a d*mn phone?
 
Seems you either love it or hate it... I'm feeling a lot more hate here. I personally love it and hope to try one or both of these headsets out soon. Price seems quite steep though and I simply can't afford it right now.
 
Maybe this VR stuff will take off, and everyone will "have" to have one and just use their current cell phones, and cellphone sales drop and they will FINALLY start to drop the prices on these over priced phones that aren't really needed. 700-900 bucks for a d*mn phone?
It is expensive depending on the use. I use it for many many things, some of them very important, e.g. for buying and paying. So, in the short term I recover the investment. I cannot imagine myself turning on the laptop for doing each of those things, let alone the huge desktop.
 
For me there is most definitely far better things to waste $799 on.
For me too. Anyway, I am not interested in VR even if they gave it to me as a gift. Simply I dislike the headgear.
Yep. Even 3D was killed by the need to wear something and that just used lightweight glasses.
I am looking forward to HDR displays for better video experience without a need for special clothes.

you will need brain implant for that.
 
I´ll wait for the first reviews but I am pretty pumped about it and will almost surely get the HTC Vive. Of course I would prefer if it cost 300 bucks but I think it´s worth it.
Did the SteamVR performance test yesterday and it sayd my Intel i5 2500K OCed to 4.3Ghz is pretty capable of VR, this little 5 yeard old CPU does not cease to amaze me...
 
I can't agree any more. If they get rid of the foolish headgear and lower the price, I could be interested. With that gear on your head, one looks like a blind monkey. So silly.
Google cardboard costs 20$, cheapest tablet 30$. So you can get your crappier VR for 50$ already. Don't complain about headaches when you skimp.
I got headaches from Rift DK.
The best VR will always be R without the V
I can't agree any more. If they get rid of the foolish headgear and lower the price, I could be interested. With that gear on your head, one looks like a blind monkey. So silly.
 
I was just asked by my employer to make sure I order one (on their dime) in the first batch... so I'm sure I'll be raving about it soon. I've used the current Vive development model and it was an incredibly immersive experience - one of those "Don't knock it till you've tried it" sort of things.

I notice a lot of people give their opinions on the devices who have never touched this generation's VR devices - not really sure how that works but you guys should at least try it on a proper setup before writing it off. Sure, this won't be for everyone but it's hard for me to understand why there are so many bashers of the technology when every time I get someone to just try the device (DK2) at my office they are immediately sold on it. I've only had one or two people actually say they didn't like it after using it though I do work in the technology field so there might be some bias there.
 
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