Vive is celebrating its first birthday on Wednesday, April 5, and HTC has some presents at the ready for both old and new customers alike. Also being introduced is Viveport, a subscription service known in some circles as the Netflix of Virtual Reality.
To celebrate a year out in the wild, the HTC Vive headset will be £100 cheaper for new customers, but it's worth noting that the special offer lasts for just one day, so if you've been thinking about getting one, Wednesday is the day. On top of that users can also redeem a free copy of Vive Studio's fast-paced VR action game, Arcade Saga.
"It has been an incredible year for VR and for VIVE in Europe as well as globally and it is great to see the huge steps forward that have been taken already," said Peter Frolund, VP of Sales and Marketing at HTC Vive (Europe). "VR is changing every industry imaginable, from gaming and entertainment, to art, design, engineering and education. The fact that we can offer a subscription model just shows the sheer amount of developers that have already engaged with VIVE. This celebration and these offers are a chance for us to thank the people that have been on this journey with us from the start, as well as invite new people to the party as we look ahead to even more exciting developments going forward."
This also marks the launch of the subscription service, Viveport. For £6.99/€7.99 per month, users can download five games from the digital marketplace. They can swap out apps, but never storing more than five at the same time. There will be more than 50 games available from launch, with titles such as TheBlu, Richie's Plank Experience, Everest VR, Fantastic Contraption, and Mars Odyssey all included.
"The marketplace for Vive apps has grown at a tremendous pace with more than 1,600 titles now available across different app stores and over 30 new apps launching daily," said Rikard Steiber, President of Viveport at HTC Vive. "The rapid growth of the app market is a win for VR overall yet it can present discoverability challenges that affect both customers and content creators. Introducing a subscription model to VR is a natural evolution of where this market is going, and as film, music and TV have proven it's becoming the preferred way customers want to explore and experience entertainment content."
Viveport debuts with a one month free trial. Would you pay a subscription fee for VR games?