The HTC Vive finally went up for pre-order last night in a handful of regions (no, we’re not included just yet), with the rather high price in the United States and even higher still in Europe. VR adoption in its first year isn’t cheap, but that didn’t keep the likes of Oculus boasting about their first wave being sold out in minutes, or a similar message from HTC. The Vive has seemingly sold rather well, if the first few moments are anything to go by.
While HTC hasn’t released any detailed figures, Vive’s own Shen Ye did tweet out a figure that makes the overall sales pull look rather fantastic. According to Ye, the HTC Vive managed to sell around 15 000 units within 10 minutes. Where that falls on the timeline from going live to sales simmering down is unclear, but it’s an impressive stat nonetheless.
Woah, more than 15k units in less than 10min 😮
— Shen Ye (@shen) 29 February 2016
For a VR headset that retails for no less than $800 and is exclusive to a very small upper echelon of PC hardware, that’s more than decent. And the inclusion of all the bits and bobs you need to get the best out of the Vive no doubt helps. The Vive ships with its motion controllers and Lighthouse room scanning cameras, so there’s nothing extra down the line that you need to wait (or pay) for just yet. Unlike the Oculus Rift for example.
And they’ll be put to excellent use too, as gameplay demoes for two of the Vive’s most promising games show. I’m especially impressed with Audioshield – a VR imagining of personally my favourite rhythm game of all time, Audiosurf.
Fantastic Contraption is interesting because of the way it uses on of the Vive’s exclusive features – a front-based camera that allows the headset to mix virtual and real reality worlds together. Unlike Audioshield, Fantastic Contraption comes bundled with Vive pre-orders, which is great considering how good a job it does at demoing its best features.
All of this firmly substantiates my stance on the HTC Vive, and how it is the most interesting VR headset coming to market. When the Rift and Vive eventually do land in the hands of consumers it’s going to be interesting to see the reactions, but I’m optimistically excited for their success.
Last Updated: March 1, 2016
Ottokie
March 1, 2016 at 08:33
Bravo to the people fighting this ridiculous price
miaau
March 1, 2016 at 08:44
more power to them. Let me know it is cheap AND provably useful tech.
Commander Admiral Chief
March 1, 2016 at 08:54
Got my Nyx P helmet last night!
Only took 16 tries
Ottokie
March 1, 2016 at 10:50
Nice, I did some Voids after work for the Saryn parts…nothing
Commander Admiral Chief
March 1, 2016 at 11:55
I’ll help tonight
Umar
March 1, 2016 at 08:33
Man…..I’m really poor.
miaau
March 1, 2016 at 08:43
or, perhaps just more discretionary about purchases? If I had the money and the computer for this, I would still not spend the money. But I do not have the money for this.
I hesitate to buy new tech. Seen too many fads and failures over my 20 odd years in IT and reading magazines and the like.
Commander Admiral Chief
March 1, 2016 at 08:52
I wanted to joke about you being in IT for so long…..came to sudden realization that I’m also there
xD
miaau
March 1, 2016 at 09:22
hah, so there. Sort of feels like a pyrrhic victory
miaau
March 1, 2016 at 09:32
In my time in IT I have worked in so many different fields, it feels a bit odd to look back. But all of that has left me with as a jack of many trades, but no one technical skill can I say I am master of.
Commander Admiral Chief
March 1, 2016 at 09:38
Jack of all trades, master of none
(and not a lot of people know that this saying has a part two, which follows as:)
But still better than a master of one
miaau
March 1, 2016 at 09:49
too true
Alien Emperor Trevor
March 1, 2016 at 08:55
To paraphrase BSG: All of this has failed before, and all of this will fail again.
miaau
March 1, 2016 at 09:21
I do not know who BSG is, but I believe him / her
Alien Emperor Trevor
March 1, 2016 at 09:25
Battlestar Galactica :/
miaau
March 1, 2016 at 09:31
indeed, yes a wise show. Except in robotics. And trust.
Pariah
March 1, 2016 at 08:58
Yeah pretty much. Kinda like Apple products. Overpriced fads that are limited to a few who want the status.
But if it becomes the norm and mainstream, the price will come down and I might just buy it then. In like 5 years.
But it won’t.
Commander Admiral Chief
March 1, 2016 at 09:03
Did you sleep better last night?
Pariah
March 1, 2016 at 09:30
I did, thanks for asking. 🙂
Commander Admiral Chief
March 1, 2016 at 09:30
xD
Hammersteyn
March 1, 2016 at 08:50
We’re poor together o/
VampyreSquirrel
March 1, 2016 at 09:29
Poor party! o/
Alien Emperor Trevor
March 1, 2016 at 09:36
Someone else has to bring the snacks. :/
Greylingad[CNFRMD]
March 1, 2016 at 09:40
Or donate them…
VampyreSquirrel
March 1, 2016 at 11:54
Damn… we need a rich friend for snacks… *looks around*
Hammersteyn
March 1, 2016 at 08:51
15K
https://leemoyer.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/whoa.jpg
HvR
March 1, 2016 at 09:02
R13k for the hardware and two tech demo’s. Ain’t nobody got bank for that.
That is quite a gamble for something you still have no guarantee that will ever be used for more than interacting with a few tech demo’s. They probably need to sell at least a couple of 100k units before proper indie games and AAA ports and a million for content made for VR. Then on top of that you have multiple devices hitting the market and you have no idea if you are buying the PS2 equivalent or the Pioneer LaserActive
Jan Prins
March 1, 2016 at 09:03
What they forget to add to the price:
The cost of upgrading security at your home. Burglar bars and the like. You will not see the skelms coming to murder stab you…
HvR
March 1, 2016 at 09:05
South African robbers will probably steal the motion controllers, scanning cameras and your normal screen but leave the headset.
Jan Prins
March 1, 2016 at 09:07
I am more worried about my lifeless corpse they leave behind. I know I am bad. I cannot even play with headphones on at home.
Alien Emperor Trevor
March 1, 2016 at 09:35
If they kill you while using one you get sucked into the machine and live your life as a virtual intelligence. I saw that in a movie.
HvR
March 1, 2016 at 09:39
Until your virtual immortality is cut short by the next load-shedding cycle.
LION
March 1, 2016 at 12:18
That US price politics… Living in country with high income and not possible to imagine loan, where EU must suffer from it, as we can see even with prices, 200-700$ more.
Deceased
March 1, 2016 at 13:14
If it was available for pre-order in SA, that figure would have been 15 001 ( at least with my pre-order )
HairyEwok
March 2, 2016 at 09:26
Oculus is more for the sit down and game person.
Vive is for the person that liked Kinect and Move.