HTC Vive Pre-Order Date Announced

The much-anticipated HTC VIVE, the first consumer virtual reality headset featuring budding SteamVR technology, has been given an official pre-order date, though pricing still remains a question. Fresh off of seeing many consumers who are interested in virtual reality put off by the announced $599 price-tag of the Oculus Rift, HTC CEO Cher Wang has told British website The Telegraph that the HTC VIVE will be available for pre-order on February 29, 2016, just a month ahead of its anticipated April release. The VIVE is design to compete with upcoming VR headsets from Oculus and Sony, though the majority of VR-hype has certainly seemed to be held by Oculus’ product, with the Rift even being featured on the hit show South Park. The VIVE has several tricks up its sleeve to rival the Facebook-owned Oculus, though, including support from PC gaming mega-company Valve via SteamVR, which HTC and Valve are working very closely on in order to deliver the best possible virtual reality gaming experience. The HTC Vive is also rumored to be coming in at a lower price point than the Rift, though this is an unsubstantiated rumor and final specifications, package contents and pricing have yet to be released. We would expect that final specifications and retail packaging/bundle information to be released when the VIVE is available for pre-order on February 29, if not shortly before.

With final pricing and specs of the HTC VIVE looming, anticipation is extremely high. It is interesting to note that NVidia recently came out and said that less than one percent of the worlds PC’s are going to be capable of running virtual reality headsets, yet the requirements are that of a mid-range enthusiast system. PC gamers who have already invested in a decent PC and graphics card will be able to run Virtual Reality, as the specs really aren’t that out of reach, calling for an Intel I5-4590 (Previous generation Ivy Bridge and Sandy Bridge I7’s will be fine), 8GB of RAM and an GTX 970 or R9 290. Facebook, Sony and HTC are all huge companies that have invested a lot into their upcoming VR headsets. With such large industry giants all competing for a piece of the pie, it’s going to be a very interesting future for virtual reality and one we are excited to be a part of. If HTC announces the VIVE at the $349 price point that Oculus originally put out into the atmosphere, it could certainly see HTC getting the nod from consumers who are on the fence.