In a move that seems calculated to counter Oculus VR's price reduction at the end of its summer sale, HTC has announced a permanent price drop for its Vive virtual reality headset to just $600. That's a full $200 less than its launch price just over a year ago.
One of the biggest hurdles for first-time virtual reality buyers is the price of the hardware. Although the Rift has always been cheaper, when you factor in its additional motion controller purchase though, it just about evened out with the HTC Vive. Now though, both are offering big savings.
Oculus announced its cost cutting first, but HTC has now followed suit, keeping its hardware more than competitive:
"We feel like we've delivered on the best VR system, and we're really starting to build out our ecosystem and the partners that are coming to work with us," said Dan O'Brien, general manager of Vive in the US. "We've been in market for about a year and a half at our full price, and now as we go into our second holiday season, we really want to think about the right ways to boost our VR adoption across the globe and bring in more consumers. This will make things healthier for our content creators and our accessory partners. We're setting the price of the consumer version of the HTC Vive to $599."
With the HTC Vive bundle you get the headset itself, a pair of Lighthouse laser tracking sensors, a pair of motion controllers and a one month subscription to the Viveport game library. That lets you 'borrow' five games a month from a wide selection.
As PCGamer highlights, however, the Vive bundle does not include its Deluxe Audio Strap, which many consider a big upgrade over the canvas strap that shipped with the Vive and its ear-bud audio solution.
