HTC’s Vive VR headset won’t be out until April 2016

HTC’s Vive VR headset won’t be out until April 2016

 

HTC has announced that they will now be releasing their HTC Vive headset in April 2016, a delay from their original release timeframe of holiday 2015 in “limited quantities”.

HTC say that they plan on giving early samples to developers and creators in order to build better relationships and partnerships both inside and outside the gaming industry and to refine the user experience. In the new year HTC will be making an additional 7000 Vive Headsets that will be made available to developers and will be making the headset commercially available in April 2016.  

 

      In an effort to clear up speculation and misinformation surrounding the launch of HTC Vive this month we are excited to give the community an update on the status of HTC Vive. We remain committed to delivering the HTC Vive to a broader group of content creators and partners, and remain focused on delivering the very best experience possible for a consumer release.

Since announcing the HTC Vive in March of this year we have focused on developing immersive content, refining both hardware design and user experience, and building relationships with new partners both inside and outside of the gaming industry. In collaboration with Valve, we have been distributing the HTC Vive Developer Kits to developers and content creators, and are continuing to work with many other innovative companies to create content that spans gaming, entertainment, medical, education and retail. This includes hosting a developer conference in Beijing on December 18th, launching the second generation of the HTC Vive Developer Kit at CES and engaging audiences at key events including The Sundance Film Festival, SXSW, GDC and MWC while expanding our demo tours.

We will be starting the new year by making an additional 7,000 units available to developers, followed by commercial availability in April 2016. We are incredibly excited about the future and look forward to sharing more information as we move forward towards launch.

  

  

Hopefully this delay will allow HTC to be able to produce enough units in order to meet demand on release, but I cannot hep but think that this delay will give the Oculus Rift a great opportunity snipe at HTC’s new release date. 

The Oculus Rift will be releasing to consumers in Q1 2016, but right now it is hard to tell which unit will be better in terms of price or usability. 

 

You can join the discussion on HTC’s Vive headset on the OC3D Forums.