Valve And HTC's Vive VR Headset Will Cost $800

[Steven Bogos]

Valve And HTC's Vive VR Headset Will Cost $800

The Vive will ship in "early April" 2016 for a hefty $799.

Well, it looks like those of us thinking that Valve and HTC would take a look at the Vive [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/165769-Oculus-Founder-Justifies-Rifts-599-Price-Tag] headset accordingly are in for an unpleasant surprise. HTC has announced that the headset will be shipping as soon as April, 2016, but at $200 more than the Rift. It will initially only be available in the U.S., Canada, U.K., Germany, France, Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Italy, Netherland, Norway, Poland, Spain, Switzerland, Ireland, Sweden, Taiwan, China, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand.

The device will be powered by SteamVR, and for the $799 cost of admission, you will also get controller for each hand and a pair of "Lighthouse" laser base stations to track movement in a room-scale environment.

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These details were revealed at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona (via UploadVR [http://uploadvr.com/htc-vive-is-799/], where it was also confirmed that the Vive will ship with an internal microphone and integrated Bluetooth support to communicate with a variety of smartphones. It will also come bundled with the games Job Simulator and Fantastic Contraption.

What do you guys think of this? Obviously $800 is completely ludicrous from an everyday consumer standpoint (considering you need a $1000 PC to run the damn thing), but the Vive does seem quite a bit more feature heavy than the Rift, and feels like it would actually deliver a "complete" VR experience for the kind of tech enthusiasts who would buy into it.

Source: Upload VR [http://uploadvr.com/htc-vive-is-799/]

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[dragongit]

And... the VR market is set to crash long before it ever began.
All we need now is to see the price of the Sony VR being more then the price of a PS4, and we can complete the circle. Seriously this is a market not a whole lot of people are going to be able to invest in. You could just as easily be on your way to building a decent PC rig, and just use your monitor, then buying one of these face huggers.

Not to mention you probably NEED a good rig just to get it to function so... goodbye 3000 dollars if you start from scratch.

 

[flying_whimsy]

My first thought was honestly that this will have killed vr more effectively than the virtual boy.

But honestly, looking at what the Vive comes with it's not a bad deal when compared to the rift; the problem is that it's still not going to be good enough of a deal. It's been a long standing fact of the tech industry that peripherals should never cost more than the main unit, and the combined cost should not be more than a decent used car.

I would laugh so hard if sony's vr headset turned out to be half the price of the rift and easily hacked to work with pc. Overnight sony could find itself relevant again; although knowing them they'd screw it up by requiring some proprietary batteries or something.

With the insanely high dollar investment vr looks to require, I don't see enough companies willing to take the risk of making exclusive software for it that would require us all to get the damn things.

It's too bad, since cheap vr could make for great productivity in the office (virtual workspaces and large desktops without the need for additional monitors, tele-presence, engineering, art, etc.) as well as taking gaming to a level we've been dreaming of for decades.

As it is, we'll probably get a few triple a titles that fail to capitalize on the tech, video card manufacturer support that will let us use vr in some first person games, and probably some compatibility from the japanese side of the pond for some first person porn games. Maybe some close but not quite there productivity software. But on the whole it just looks like it'll go the way of 3d.

What a bummer.

 

[ron1n]

I think people are being very short-sighted in their reactions. I mean, everyone knew these initial devices would be very expensive and niche. It's the same with every new form of tech or gadget. It wasn't that long ago that naysayers were laughing off the early smart phones as useless gimmicks. Technology improves, investments are made, software grows.

Also need to acknowledge that VR has way more potential than just video games.

The Vive looks to be leagues ahead of the Rift's offering. Just seems to be a lot better value/quality for money prospect.

 

[List]

Well, fuck that then. I guess the luxury ship that is VR will be sailing off into the sunset without me.

I was hoping multiple companies competing would lower the price of admittance a bit. Was I in for a surprise.

 

[Saulkar]

This thing will have to be pretty damn decent in order to get me to save up for it. If it can create a virtual desktop and work with Maya, 3DS Max, and Zbrush then I will put some serious consideration into it.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

Just a moment, I need to channel my inner J Jonah Jameson...

HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAH!

Oh wait, you're serious?

HAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA!

But really, even the richest friends I have wouldn't drop 800 bucks on this, and I have some pretty rich friends.

 

[Albino Boo]

So another high price VR product. It increasingly looks companies are doing their market research and finding there isn't the demand to make VR a mass market product.

 

[ZeroAxis]

If Sony comes in at $399 this fall (same price as the system and thus taking a huge loss in the short trem) and with games+software ( more than just Ace Combat 7, though that alone almost sells me on it) then the VR market will be Sony's to lose for a while to come. However, it's augmented reality and Microsoft's HoloLens that's going to have way more widespread appeal. It's applications for home and office are nearly endless and mostly without the nausea, vertigo, or N.A.S. I wore an early version of the Vive at PAX last year and though I was impressed I certainly wasn't $800+ impressed. Occulus and Vive may end up being the 3D0/Saturn/Dreamcast of the VR market.

 

[-Dragmire-]

So, ignoring price, will this also require multiple usb3 connections and a minimum of a GTX970(I think?) like the Oculus Rift?

 

[NLS]

If Sony comes in at $399 this fall (same price as the system and thus taking a huge loss in the short trem) and with games+software ( more than just Ace Combat 7, though that alone almost sells me on it) then the VR market will be Sony's to lose for a while to come. However, it's augmented reality and Microsoft's HoloLens that's going to have way more widespread appeal. It's applications for home and office are nearly endless and mostly without the nausea, vertigo, or N.A.S. I wore an early version of the Vive at PAX last year and though I was impressed I certainly wasn't $800+ impressed. Occulus and Vive may end up being the 3D0/Saturn/Dreamcast of the VR market.

Last time I checked, the HoloLens dev kit cost $3000. Both dev kits from Oculus and HTC/Valve have started off cheaper than the price of their final products.
The main problem I see with pricing VR hardware at the moment, is that there's little revenue past the initial unit sale. Sony may be able to subsidize some of it through licensing fees on their games, meaning that the headset could be cheaper as long as you're likely to buy games for an extra price.
With the Rift and Vive though, there's not much exclusivity in providing a market where they can enforce licensing fees, so they have to sell the hardware with profit on initial purchase and not rely on winning it back later through licensing.

 

[Callate]

Well, I'm amused, I'll admit it.

I think people may just have to come to terms with the fact that- much like this generation's consoles- we're running into a wall of how little you can charge for hardware when the costs of production haven't dipped that much. A couple of custom high resolution smart-phone screens tied to gyroscopes, accelerometers, a custom processor etc. etc., all curved to minimize distortion and shrunk to a size you can wear on your head without getting aches in your head and neck...

It may well be that the price can come down, but just not all that much. Either the artificial $500 barrier in consumers' minds has to fade, or VR may simply fail to launch.

And, y'know, it may be that it will just fail. As someone else pointed out, the costs are in addition to however much one has to pour into one's PC to make the thing work. And in the case of the Vive, you also really need something like an 8'x10' room that you can clear of obstructions to get the most of the thing.

Maybe Sony's offering will be cheaper. They've certainly got a manufacturing capacity to beat, even facing off against all that Facebook money. But... I wouldn't entirely count on them breaking the $500 barrier, either, especially with their competition priced so much higher. It's not like they're somehow obligated to be the Gideons of VR, distributing the gospel to the masses at a loss.

As for me, I have to upgrade my computer before I'd even think about a VR headset. And giving it serious thought is probably going to require a tech generation, even if the price was halved.

 

[Kajin]

So another high price VR product. It increasingly looks companies are doing their market research and finding there isn't the demand to make VR a mass market product.

I'm not quite sure how you came to this conclusion. The tech that's had to go into this stuff is the highest of the highest end. I wouldn't be surprised if they said they were selling at a loss. The demand for VR is there. The mass manufacture capacity isn't.

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

When it crashes, it'll only be another 30 years before they try it again. And again. And again. Maybe they'll have Holodecks by then.

 

[Xyebane]

It's the same with every new form of tech or gadget. It wasn't that long ago that naysayers were laughing off the early smart phones as useless gimmicks.

Um, That never happened? Early smartphones were PDAs that incorporated your cell phone into them, and then added encryption on top of it and where marketed at businesses. Everyone saw how useful a Blackberry was for business. There was already a smartphone market before Apple and Samsung repurposed them from business to a status symbol.

Both Facebook (Oculus) and Microsoft Hololens are pushing business for the initial purchasing power here as well, but they aren't doing a very good job and I don't think beyond some niche design application it will get wide spread adoption. If virtual teleconferencing was going to take off in a big way you would think that video teleconferencing would already be a big market, but it's not.

That leaves the second market they have been pushing, gaming. And they have effectively priced it out at this point. I can't really see us going back to an arcade style system.

 

[Albino Boo]

If Sony comes in at $399 this fall (same price as the system and thus taking a huge loss in the short trem) and with games+software ( more than just Ace Combat 7, though that alone almost sells me on it) then the VR market will be Sony's to lose for a while to come. However, it's augmented reality and Microsoft's HoloLens that's going to have way more widespread appeal. It's applications for home and office are nearly endless and mostly without the nausea, vertigo, or N.A.S. I wore an early version of the Vive at PAX last year and though I was impressed I certainly wasn't $800+ impressed. Occulus and Vive may end up being the 3D0/Saturn/Dreamcast of the VR market.

You are assuming that there are large numbers of people out there willing to buy a VR headset at $300. Both the VR offerings that have prices have come from companies that will have commissioned market research to determine the size of the market. If there aren't the potential sales out there to justify a large production run to cut costs then a mass market product won't be launched.

So another high price VR product. It increasingly looks companies are doing their market research and finding there isn't the demand to make VR a mass market product.

I'm not quite sure how you came to this conclusion. The tech that's had to go into this stuff is the highest of the highest end. I wouldn't be surprised if they said they were selling at a loss. The demand for VR is there. The mass manufacture capacity isn't.

The more you contract to manufacture the more production cost per unit drops. The development costs and price of setting up a production line becomes a smaller percentage when spread over 1 million units rather than 100,000 units. You also get a better price on components when you buy 1 million rather than 100k.

 

[OverEZ]

Crossing my fingers for it to be part of a Steam sale.

 

[Strazdas]

Not to mention you probably NEED a good rig just to get it to function so... goodbye 3000 dollars if you start from scratch.

or, you know, just use your gaming PC?

Even if you build from scaratch, i seriuosly doubt you exceed 2000 dollars. 3000 leaves 2200 for the rig, and that would probably get you some sli monster that is more of a fashion statement than a computer. that is unless you buy from some shit overpriced companies like alienware where hardware is less than half the price.

 

[Kajin]

The more you contract to manufacture the more production cost per unit drops. The development costs and price of setting up a production line becomes a smaller percentage when spread over 1 million units rather than 100,000 units. You also get a better price on components when you buy 1 million rather than 100k.

We're still talking about some of the highest tech stuff on the market, though. You can only drive the price down so far when the methods for producing what you're asking for are still being refined.

 

[Fensfield]

I.. really do not see how people were expecting lower prices. For the performance promised it's the same price as an equivalent quality monitor. Heck from that perspective, the HTC Vive is a freaking steal given what it comes with. .. Though a part of me asks whether all that stuff isn't actually bumping the price up.

Those that can't afford it should look to the cheaper alternatives, surely. Of course they won't outperform these expensive ones, but nor does a cheap monitor, and these cheaper alternatives do exist. Heck, it looks to me like cheaper VR alternatives and ways to get the most out of them and ensure their compatibility (which might at present be an issue I admit) are areas with a lot of business potential.