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HTC finally gives in! The Vive price cut has arrived

Zenbane
MVP
MVP
This news just came in...

HTC Vive Now $599, Gets A Permanent $200 Price Cut

all that technology came at a premium price that has, until right now,
remained at $799 for the Vive headset, two motion controllers, and two
base stations for tracking. Other than a few flash sales and minor
discounts it’s been stuck at that price.

The updated package, priced at $599 for everything mentioned above, includes download codes for Richie’s Plank Experience, Everest VR, and Tilt Brush on Steam, as well as a one-month subscription to Viveport. The Viveport service has over 200 apps available, but you can only pick five to get access to over the course of a single month. It’s sort of like selectively renting content.


Interesting news considering it wasn't very long ago that HTC executives explained why a Vive price cut was unnecessary. Those reasons seem to still apply today, giving rise to insight that perhaps HTC feels the pressure from the aggressive Oculus pricing in order to remain viable (and alive) in the high-end VR Market.

From E3 2017:

“we haven’t dropped the core price of the Vive because we think it offers the best room-scale [experience], hands down.”

O’Brien elaborated further on HTC’s perspective on the Vive’s price, saying that there are certainly price-sensitive customers who are looking for the lowest cost option, but there are also ‘value-sensitive customers who are willing to pay more if they feel they are getting better value out of their purchase;’ the latter is where a large portion of VR early-adopters fall, he said.


Sources:

https://uploadvr.com/htc-vive-now-599-gets-permanent-200-price-cut/

https://www.roadtovr.com/htc-explains-vive-price-cost-lowered-cut-discount/


*EDIT*
Latest damaging articles/discussions:

https://forums.oculus.com/community/discussion/comment/552854/#Comment_552854

465 REPLIES 465

bigmike20vt
Visionary

Atmos73 said:

I wouldn't move the goalposts because I've always identified the difficulty for Oculus having to compete with Steam which has been established for years. Allowing people to buy a Rift and then all their software from Steam is a major obstacle for Oculus.

When you get over Palmers dream to bring VR to the masses what is Oculus going to become, a VR Store? A game developer? A hardware manufacturer? At the moment it's slashing the price on its hardware and spends millions on external game Devs to flesh out the Oculus Store. If Oculus stop investing in exclusives and Devs go neutral there's no real reason to buy the Rift once Knuckles are here. Rift will allways need to be cheaper than the competition and Oculus will allways be forced to buy exclusives to stop people going to Steam. So far this has been the case and I just don't see this policy stopping any time soon. We've already seen the Rifts Google rankings drop off a cliff since the summer sale ended and the Vive become the top HMD. When the majority of AAA games come to Steam Oculus's reliance on exclusives diminishes and when the Rifts technical advantages like wider optical sweet spot and Touch are superseeded with Knuckles what then for the Rift? All USPS are exhausted and content is king and I'm not betting against Valve, Bethesda and now Rockstar.

personally i think you are looking too far into the future.....  Oculus are not my wife, and i have absolutely zero loyalty to them. IF they make a product which is a better fit for me than the opposition, which in *this* generation they have, then i will (did) buy a rift.  Compromises were made, for me it was the right call, for you clearly the vive was and that is cool.

but knuckles are NOT out yet, and the sweet spot and screen door will still be better on the CV1, and that is even AFTER knuckles are released and if we assume eventually HTC will have to throw in the improved head strap with speakers.

by the time all the above happens, we will be far down the road of this generation, and me, i will have had probably 2 years use from my rift.

When generation 2 comes along, the process starts again..... for me personally oculus will have a slight edge as i feel Valve have not done even close to enough to help seed VR. Gabe himself has said he does not give 2 squits if VR succeeds or fails outside of a passing personal interest.  Facebook OTOH have truly put their money where their mouth is. They have splashed out on core PC games even tho that is not their wheel house and is not imo why they bought oculus.  (I thought facebook buying oculus was a disaster for VR, when infact it is their money which has allowed some of the best (imo) VR titles which can be enjoyed by vive users too.

but even so, if a 2nd gen HMD comes out and it uses light house and it is better for me than the 2nd gen oculus offerings, i will jump ship and not look back.  Blind loyalty to any multibillion $ company is a mugs game

what ever the future offers however, i will never ever regret buying my rift, and I am convinced it is thanks to Oculus that we even have these affordable HMDs to allow us to have these chats.... and I am equally convinced facebook money has helped improve the rift from what it would have been without the cash injection, AND facebook money has meant games exist in VR which would not have before.

unlike pets or children, a VR HMD really can be just for xmas and not for life 😉
Fiat Coupe, gone. 350Z gone. Dirty nappies, no sleep & practical transport incoming. Thank goodness for VR 🙂

Zenbane
MVP
MVP

Atmos73 said:

I still see dead people. 


Ditto, right here:
https://www.facebook.com/HTCVIVE/

B)

Anonymous
Not applicable
Tbh I can't see ANY headset manufacturers beating Oculus next generation as far as quality goes, the same as this generation. They're simply WAAAAAY ahead of everyone else in terms of R&D. 

Zenbane
MVP
MVP

snowdog said:

Tbh I can't see ANY headset manufacturers beating Oculus next generation as far as quality goes, the same as this generation. They're simply WAAAAAY ahead of everyone else in terms of R&D. 


Google is currently predicted to be HTC's new daddy:
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/09/07/google-buying-htc-report-says.html

The Vive is currently dead in the water, and if Google buys HTC then... well, just look what happened when Google tried to launch Google+ to compete with Facebook 😄

Look what happened when Google tried to launch Google Docs to compete with Microsoft Office.

Between Palmer and Google, HTC's new daddy options are essentially: Dumb and Dumber.

bigmike20vt
Visionary
1 last thing from me then am off home 🙂 (and not directly relevant to this thread)

There are 2 things i really give a toss about and bother to chat about online... VR and Elite Dangerous (which is also vr). About these things i am an opinionated stubborn fanboy.  But nothing i write is ever intended to be personal, and if ever i come across as condescending / arrogant or rude it isnt intended and I apologise

and on that i am gone....
Fiat Coupe, gone. 350Z gone. Dirty nappies, no sleep & practical transport incoming. Thank goodness for VR 🙂

Zenbane
MVP
MVP

Atmos73 said:

HTC will be Vive only and won't have anything to do with mobiles anymore.

The Vive is a bigger drain on HTC than their mobile division. This was covered 3 days ago:
https://forums.oculus.com/community/discussion/comment/555402/#Comment_555402

vannagirl
Consultant
well i also enjoy expressing through memes and animated gif

it is better then just calling someone a Hija de puta

or just a plain C**T 😉


1oxy8x1m9hzt.gif
Look, man. I only need to know one thing: where they are. 

Zenbane
MVP
MVP

Atmos73 said:

More AAA Devs onboard and a whole new Steam Home open to Devs. That's what we've seen for Vive while we haven't seen anything on that scale from Oculus.


lol - you are on the Titanic after it hit the Iceberg and trying to brag about new Life Raft designs back on the mainland 😄

The only thing good about the "promise" of AAA games coming to Steam is the fact that non-Rift users will finally get something that makes all the $$$ they threw away on a lesser product finally feel worth it after 15 months. As you've admitted yourself, Revive is the only claim to fame for Vive users... which means the Oculus experience is what Vivarians pray to achieve.

Keep clicking those ruby slippers together and making them wishes!



Morgrum
Expert Trustee

Atmos73 said:




Atmos73 said:

@Zenbane

You're right you don't laugh at my posts the way I laugh at yours but I forgive you, at least you debate unlike others here I could mention.

Waits for a meme from RoschechPheonix

It is called Rorschach. And Phoenix.
Here's a meme.




I see dead people.


Thats funny I saw a Vive HMD..... oh wait.
WAAAGH!

Anonymous
Not applicable

Atmos73 said:


snowdog said:

Tbh I can't see ANY headset manufacturers beating Oculus next generation as far as quality goes, the same as this generation. They're simply WAAAAAY ahead of everyone else in terms of R&D. 


Vive already got the DAS while base station 2.0 are primed along with Knuckles. We've seen tracking pucks tracked gloves, body tracking software and eye tracking modules for foveted rendering. More AAA Devs onboard and a whole new Steam Home open to Devs. That's what we've seen for Vive while we haven't seen anything on that scale from Oculus.

But OC4 is coming and its time they showed something new or a hint of what's coming in 2018.


The Deluxe Strap's entire purpose is to make the Vive more Rift-like. The Knuckles controllers' entire purpose is to make the Vive more Rift-like. The Tracking Pucks aren't intended for home use, they're intended to be used by VR arcades, sports teams and athletes and even if people buy them to use them in their homes they won't get a great deal of developer support.

And talking of developer support, we'll end up seeing the majority of games using finger tracking in the not too distant future only tracking the thumb and index finger anyway because any developer with any sense will want to have their game playable on both the Rift and the Vive using their respective finger-tracked motion controllers.

As for the Lighthouse 2.0 system, it's going to be cheaper to produce than the Lighthouse 1.0 system but it won't be anywhere near as cheap to produce as the 2 or 3 glorified web cams that the Rift uses.

And as far as AAA quality games goes, HTC and the Vive are playing catch up yet again. The Rift has had AAA quality games right from day one and has continued to add one AAA quality title to that ever increasing list every month this year. And all of those titles are original AAA quality titles rather than 3 out of the 4 AAA titles being OLD ports. And if that wasn't enough those games will almost certainly work on the Rift anyway even if it takes a hack like the one used on Google Earth VR early on.