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The HTC Vive, Valve and HTC's own entry into the VR world, has officially been priced and it's not cheap. The Consumer Edition will cost a whopping $799, a whole ~$200 more than the Oculus Rift, however when buying the Vive you'll also receive two of their motion controllers.

Pre-orders for the VR headset will start on February 29th, and is expected to ship and sell commercially in April 2016. The Vive comes with the headset, the room sensor, and two controllers, and for a limited time if you purchase the HTC Vive you'll receive two games; Job Simulator and Fantastic Contraption.

Source

 

[Arras]

I still don't see the draw of VR. Visuals of video games have been enhanced for years and years; it's not the visual believability that breaks the illusion of a virtual world in the games of today, it's the lack of physical feedback. I don't see why I would ever want to pay a cent to essentially have the right analogue controls of a game rigged to my neck, much less 800 bloody dollars. All it would get me is a stiff neck and nostalgia for the days of simply tilting a thumb to look around. Even if you did love the idea of neck/head based motion controls, what would this device really afford you by way of gameplay? Nothing new, as far as I can see. Looking around is as old as 3D games.

From what I've heard, it's almost impossible to "convince" someone that VR is very much a different experience without actually trying it themselves. I haven't tried it, but many people who do rave over it, so I'm sure there must be something there.

 

[Hells Malice]

I'll still be waiting for the company that realizes virtually no one will shell out this kind of money for VR. VR will never take off until it's affordable either, which is my main reservation.

 

[Axido]

Nice to know how many poor people not being able to afford anything more expensive than the rest of their paychecks after rent have gathered here.

More Vive for me then.
And whoever needs to spend more than 800 bucks on a PC capable of VR should be ashamed for their ignorance. Not that I need to encourage someone to give VR a go, but some of those lame excuses hurt my eyes when I'm reading them.

Just sayin', for early adoption this is a quite reasonable pricing, you whiny brats. It's essentially high class smartphone hardware for the price of a high class smartphone minus the SoC plus additional hardware. Oh, what a coincidence...

 

[Hells Malice]

Nice to know how many poor people not being able to afford anything more expensive than the rest of their paychecks after rent have gathered here.

Enjoy the 3 VR games you'll get since almost no dev will cater to such a miniscule market.

 

[CathyRina]

Speaking of VR, IBM Japan seems to work on SAO like VRMMORPG.
http://gematsu.com/2016/02/ibm-japan-announces-sword-art-online-virtual-reality-project

I'd rather have the technology being used on a Digimon VRMMORPG. If that was a Thing I'd buy a VR headset day one.

 

[Originality]

With the games that are out right now, I don't see any need to jump the VR bandwagon. But when Star Citizen comes out, I might just change my mind. 4690K + 980 Ti is more than enough for VR.

As for that SAO-style VRMMORPG, I'm intrigued, but I will avoid thinking about it until it's much closer to release. As much as I want VRMMORPGs to happen, I don't want to hype myself for something that won't come out for probably 5 years or so.

 

[Obveron]

Anyone else feel like VR is hitting us atleast a decade too soon? It shouldn't reach the public until affordable rendering hardware that can hit 4k at 120fps, affordable very high DPI screens can display such with zero blur, persistence, and lag, affordable materials are lightweight enough to sit on your head with out discomfort. Affordable tracking hardware that can interpret movement, gestures and reliably feed a reliable output that doesnt require a software engine to be custom designed each time by billion dollar studios to accurately interpret the tracking data. (If there's something we've learned from Wii accelerometers and Xbox kinect sensor, most developers are challenged to interpret the sensor data in a way that hits the mark for gamers)
At present, I don't think a perfect VR experience is achievable for less than $10,000 combined (gaming computer, VR headset, and all peripheral hardware and software included).

The fact that VR headsets are as cheap as $800 tells me that it can't be the top end technology it needs to be. The fact that the minumum requirements are mid-range ($1000) gaming PC's or a extremely low-end console (PS4) tells me the experience will be sub-par.

Unfortunately, a less than perfect VR experience could push VR into a short lived gimmick/fad. People are upset it will cost $800 and an additional $1000 gaming computer. That is very telling, the $10,000 hardware it would require to do this perfectly is way out of the range of gamers.

This needs to wait a decade or two for when all of the required hardware to do this perfect is $300. A less than perfect experience will soil VR and could kill the concept in its tracks.

I'm predicting the VR that is about to be marketed will disappoint many people.

 

[Kioku]

Guess I'm skipping this run of VR..

 

[kaotik2k]

Honestly I don't think $800 is that expensive for such new hardware. I paid £1200 for my GPU so around 4-500 for VR aint so bad. Also with Valve on board you would expect to see many games eventually coming out for this.

Anyone else feel like VR is hitting us atleast a decade too soon? It shouldn't reach the public until affordable rendering hardware that can hit 4k at 120fps, affordable very high DPI screens can display such with zero blur, persistence, and lag, affordable materials are lightweight enough to sit on your head with out discomfort. Affordable tracking hardware that can interpret movement, gestures and reliably feed a reliable output that doesnt require a software engine to be custom designed each time by billion dollar studios to accurately interpret the tracking data. (If there's something we've learned from Wii accelerometers and Xbox kinect sensor, most developers are challenged to interpret the sensor data in a way that hits the mark for gamers)
At present, I don't think a perfect VR experience is achievable for less than $10,000 combined (gaming computer, VR headset, and all peripheral hardware and software included).

The fact that VR headsets are as cheap as $800 tells me that it can't be the top end technology it needs to be. The fact that the minumum requirements are mid-range ($1000) gaming PC's or a extremely low-end console (PS4) tells me the experience will be sub-par.

Unfortunately, a less than perfect VR experience could push VR into a short lived gimmick/fad. People are upset it will cost $800 and an additional $1000 gaming computer. That is very telling, the $10,000 hardware it would require to do this perfectly is way out of the range of gamers.

This needs to wait a decade or two for when all of the required hardware to do this perfect is $300. A less than perfect experience will soil VR and could kill the concept in its tracks.

I'm predicting the VR that is about to be marketed will disappoint many people.

This I kinda agree with about it being way to early. Reminds me a little of the 3D gimmick/fad with TV's.

 

[sup3rgh0st]

I could see 800 dollars being worth it in 2 years when there is a larger market of compatible software... They give you two games for 'free', but how many other games fully support the Vive?

 

[Attacker3]

I could see 800 dollars being worth it in 2 years when there is a larger market of compatible software... They give you two games for 'free', but how many other games fully support the Vive?

These guys have access to most games being developed at Valve. Note that these are not Valve games but they are using Valve's offices.

Most of them are really cool.

 

[Meteor7]

Have you actually used any of the modern VR or even VR in general? I haven't, but I'm sure it is more than "neck motion controls."

Well, based on what? What do you think VR does other than that? I don't mean to offend, but it seems like you're assuming this off the hype alone. Have we been given any sort of official information that it does anything other than put a 3D image very close to your eyes and the aforementioned motion controls?

I think it's also pertinent to mention that the whole 1-to-1 looking controls would bring in problems such as, if you wanted to make a 180-degree turn, you'd need to either be standing up (while making sure you turn in the same spot) or be seated in a swivel chair. Without turning the entirety of your body, the range of comfortable looking is about 90 degrees to either side, which is pretty limiting compared to today's controls. You can map a quick-turn to a controller button, but you'd just be invalidating the integration of the motion controls at that point.

Look, I don't want to be the downer, here. If there's really a market for this kind of thing, then more power to you, but I'm concerned that everyone had lost sight in the hype. I'm almost convinced that, once everyone had the products (as they currently exist) they'll realize they over-hyped the things, expected something there never was to begin with, and the VR market will crash. You could say "well, lesson learned", but the big VR failure might make the whole concept a paraia. Big companies won't invest the money to develop the VR experience everyone dreams of, and the idea might die away.

Or, maybe I'm getting way too ahead of myself. Either way, I think people are expecting an experience beyond what was promised.

 

[DKB]

These guys have access to most games being developed at Valve. Note that these are not Valve games but they are using Valve's offices.

Most of them are really cool.

I'll wait until they do a thing where it comes with a collection of HD porn, like, 800$ worth of HD porn.

I want a lot of porn.

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

Well, based on what? What do you think VR does other than that? I don't mean to offend, but it seems like you're assuming this off the hype alone. Have we been given any sort of official information that it does anything other than put a 3D image very close to your eyes and the aforementioned motion controls?

Erm...you are aware that "modern" VR has been a thing since 2012, right? Y'know, when the first Oculus Rift dev kit released? And then the second, updated Dev Kit 2 in 2014? You can look up various gameplay videos and demonstrations for the hundreds of games that already (officially and unofficially) support VR now. This isn't some "unknown territory never before seen!" stuff.

 

[FAST6191]

I am still looking at VR for a few projects, I will have add this to the pile of possibilities.

Edit: On another note, I'm pretty trypophobic so those pods on the Vive are creepy to me. Stay away from me, technology of Satan!

Guess we know what I am wearing to the next staff meetup

 

[HaloEffect17]

Who needs VR when you have AR?

 

[FAST6191]

Who needs VR when you have AR?

Someone that does not want to get dressed to play a game?

 

[zanfire]

comparing this to the Rift, the price on this is good. It includes the motion controls and better room tracking via the lighthouse design. It also has the front facing camera /chapperone system and the call/text system which the Rift does not. Once the motion controls/second camera are out for the Rift, they will likely be very close in price and depending how much you care for room scale, it would seem the Vive is the better product over all. If you care little for room scale and plan to do mostly just sit down stuff, than having that stuff separated will be what drives you to the rift (along with the exclusives...and yes some of those games will not be built to work for its competitors cause dat Oculus $$$).

Is this shit way more than i wanted, hell yes, i was banking on around 400$~ for the rift and it ended up far more than that "ballpark". Will i likely still end up getting one within the next year or so...for sure, but now i can just wait a bit to see which has more of what i like for games and find out how they compare.i have only used the GearVR and even with that lower end VR it really is something great. It wont be for everyone and it sure as shit wont replace regular TV stuff, but i really do believe it will have a market.

 

[tbb043]

I think most people going to have to stick with Phone VR until the prices come down.

I think most people won't bother at all other than maybe trying it at a demo stand or something, even after prices come down, if they ever do.

Only way VR ever goes mainstream is with much less obtrusive hardware (get it down to the size of a big pair of sunglasses and maybe you'll have a shot) and much more impressive software (seriously, nothing even remotely comes off as a "killer app" you need to sell the gen pop on this stuff).

 

[Ericzander]

Guess we know what I am wearing to the next staff meetup

*SNIP NSFW CONTENT*

You're a monster!