In early January we were told that pre-orders for HTC Vive would start in February. However, we still didn't know the most important thing, the price. Now we do.
During tonight's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, HTC announced that the launch edition will cost $799, and launches in early April (Mashable are reporting that it'll be £689 in the UK, way above the figure you'd expect if you were taking into account the current exchange rate).
The package will include the headset, two controllers, two laser sensors that registers your movements, and two games: Job Simulator and Fantastic Contraption.
HTC also announced a new feature called Vive Phone Services. It connects to your smartphone and lets you receive calls, texts, and other basic alerts while using the headset.
The pre-orders will open on February 29. and the first wave of distribution will be to the following countries: U.S., Canada, U.K., Germany, France, Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain, Switzerland, Ireland, Sweden, Taiwan, China, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand.
This means that it'll launch around the same time as the Oculus Rift, but cost $200 more (details on the Oculus Rift's pricing can be found here). It's also worth mentioning the recommended PC specs:
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 / AMD Radeon R9 290 equivalent or greater
CPU: Intel i5-4590 / AMD FX 8350 equivalent or greater
RAM: 4GB+
Video Output: HDMI 1.4 or DisplayPort 1.2 or newer
USB Port: 1x USB 2.0 or greater port
Operating System: Windows 7 SP1 or newer