HTC Opens Preorders For Its Vive VR Kit; First Units Ship In Early April

It’s happening!

HTC has just opened up preorders for its highly anticipated Vive VR kit. As revealed last week, Vive will cost $799 USD (+$30 shipping), which is $200 more than Oculus’ Rift. That’s a sizable difference; however, the general consensus from those who’ve used both is that Vive deserves its price premium. Plus, it includes some accessories that the Rift doesn’t.

As we discovered at the start of January, Oculus’ $599 Rift includes an Xbox One controller, a head-tracking camera, and two games: Eve Valkyrie and Lucky’s Tale. The $799 Vive, by contrast, includes two black boxes for room positioning, a motion joystick for each hand, and two games to match the Rift: Fantastic Contraption and Job Simulator (which is not as boring as it sounds). As an added bonus, a copy of Google’s Tilt Brush software is also thrown in. This software lets users exercise their creativity by letting them paint and sculpt 3D objects, creating an image you can admire from every angle. You might recall that NVIDIA made use of this software last fall when it pit six top artists against each other.

Tilt Brush Art; Credit: Tristan Reidford

Despite Vive’s $800 price tag, the amount of hype surrounding it almost ensures that initial units are going to be sold out fast. If you’re wanting to purchase one, we’d recommend wasting no time and heading here to snap one up. The first units are expected to ship in early April.

Since we don’t all live in the United States, here’s some global pricing:

• Australia: $817.27 + $110 Shipping (Ships May)
• Canada: $1,149 + $65 Shipping
• China: ￥6888 (Requires ￥1500 deposit)
• France: €899 + €73.20 Shipping
• Germany: €899 + €60.69 Shipping
• Italy: €899 + €74.42 Shipping
• Japan: $906.48 + $90 Shipping
• Switzerland: €899 + €74 Shipping
• Taiwan: ￥6888 (Requires ￥1500 deposit)
• United Kingdom: £689 (inc. VAT) + £57.60 Shipping

In some cases, the USD conversion makes this even more expensive outside of the US. Canadians in particular are going to feel an extra pinch on their wallets. $1,149 CAD is close to being a $70 premium over what the currency converts to ($799 USD = $1082 CAD, as of the time of writing). Let’s hope Job Simulator adds a maple syrup harvesting DLC to help make up for the gouging!