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ashecitism · Jul 21, 2015

There's a long Polygon article. Was brought up there.

http://www.polygon.com/features/2015/7/21/9009027/vive-wireless-controllers-hands-on

Currently the plan is to release a consumer version of the Vive by the end of the year.

"I don't know if we're necessarily going to hit retail for holiday, but we're still very committed to that," he said.

What that means is that the first retail Vives will be sold through HTC.com and HTCVR.com.

Gattis added that they've been having a lot of meetings with "excited" retailers ranging from big-box stores all the way down to niche retailers like GameStop.

"Everybody is excited about this: They see the potential for the market, the potential to sell the things around it," he said. "They see it as a great traffic driver to their stores.

"Retail will absolutely be a part of our strategy, but that would be closer to a first-quarter [2016] strategy."

some other parts

about getting over the space limit and the October event

Gattis added that he's already seen some interesting approaches to expanding the feel of that space, but said details on some of those software solutions are for a later discussion.

"As we get closer to October, when we we're planning to unveil a lot more information about our consumer [name], consumer controls and pricing, the specs, and the content lineup," he said, "we'll be in a much better position to give you more direction around that."

how and when this partnership came to be

About that time HTC CEO Cher Wang had a chance to go visit Valve's offices, which are about five minutes from HTC's.

"It was a casual chat to see how things were going, say hello, et cetera, and she got a chance to see this demo," he said. "It was really an aha moment, where she said this is the coolest thing ever, can we work with you on this."

Valve happened to be looking for a manufacturing partner at the time. While they had done some work with Oculus Rift, Valve was really still just confined to the software side of things, Gattis said.

"It was really that quick," he said. "This was about a year ago — last July time frame. And the decision was more or less made on the spot: Why not do this together?"

Both companies saw the partnership as the perfect fit: Valve creates great software and has a massive, impassioned community; HTC has great design, manufacturing and distribution capabilities.

So they decided to partner up to bring the Vive to market.

"Three or four months from then, we had our first iteration of the working development unit and then that ramped up to the point where we made our announcement at Mobile World Congress and GDC this past March," he said.

again about content, hoping for Valve stuff, and stores

Valve directly backing a virtual reality headset can't help but lead to some big questions, all of them centered around which games will be coming to the Vive — and if any of those titles will be exclusive to the VR headset.

"Our hope is to have some Valve stuff for the Vive," Gattis said. "Nothing has been committed to in terms of the product lineup yet.

"The games will be distributed from the Steam VR store, that is the storefront by which people will get the initial content."

That said, the Vive will run on an open platform, which means other storefronts could pop up over time.

when is VR hitting mainstream and HTC being committed to it

"I do believe that the three- to five-year time frame is when you're going to see prices come down and more and more entrants in the market, both from hardware and content point of view," he said. "The technology will start to branch out beyond gaming into entertainment, into some of these other vertical markets.

"Think about watching a sporting event where you're sitting on the field, or concert where you're on stage and can switch between that or being above stage and it's a fully immersive experience. I think that's where it starts to become a mainstream thing, where everyone has VR in some flavor."

Knowing that VR might take a bit to fully hit, Gattis said HTC is fully vested in the technology.

"We're in this category," he said. "We're very bullish on VR as a category.

rest at the link

Durante · Jul 21, 2015

As long as they ship one to Austria I'll be happy to order wherever they want me to.

Tell me the preorder is open at orderyourvivehereyouidiot.com and I'll be there.

mrklaw · Jul 21, 2015

Yeah, sounded like a soft launch for a while now.

UrbanRats · Jul 21, 2015

Durante said:
As long as they ship one to Austria I'll be happy to order wherever they want me to.

Tell me the preorder is open at orderyourvivehereyouidiot.com and I'll be there.

I have a feeling they'll be out of stock very soon, so it'll probably be a US launch.
Much like their "world" tour.

ashecitism · Jul 21, 2015

I really hope Valve will have stuff, come on.

UrbanRats said:
I have a feeling they'll be out of stock very soon, so it'll probably be a US launch.
Much like their "world" tour.

Seems likely, yeah.

Durante · Jul 21, 2015

Well, if it's US-only then one of you gus will just have to buy 2 and send me one

wanderingprostheyltite · Jul 21, 2015

Yeah its gonna be super limited with online orders this year. Bummer.

kittoo · Jul 21, 2015

Durante said:
Well, if it's US-only then one of you gus will just have to buy 2 and send me one

Same here

KingSnake · Jul 21, 2015

Durante said:
As long as they ship one to Austria I'll be happy to order wherever they want me to.

Tell me the preorder is open at orderyourvivehereyouidiot.com and I'll be there.

I fully second this.

Azure Dream · Jul 21, 2015

I know HTC can put out hardware in a hurry, but it feels like they're trying too hard to get this out fast, and I'm worried it may suffer for it in some yet-unknown way.

Spukc · Jul 21, 2015

i'll just wait when we have all the big players on the market. and who will support what.
There is not enough space on the market for all of them

cyberheater · Jul 21, 2015

Currently the plan is to release a consumer version of the Vive by the end of the year.

It doesn't fill me with confidence.

AllIsOneIsNone · Jul 21, 2015

When people learned the Vive was coming out first here it was all "rip Oculus". Now reality is setting in. Probably very little supported software until next year. Earlier release than Rift or not, I think the Rift is probably quite a bit more prepared for next year.

Maiden Voyage · Jul 21, 2015

I'm pretty excited for this. I'm hoping there are some announcements for titles. I really want to play the demos, but I also want a longer experience to delve into.

DouglasteR · Jul 21, 2015

November HTC, you have one job !!!!

The second the preorder become avaliable i´ll dig it.

ashecitism · Jul 21, 2015

cyberheater said:
It doesn't fill me with confidence.

Neither does this

"Our hope is to have some Valve stuff for the Vive," Gattis said. "Nothing has been committed to in terms of the product lineup yet.

Maximo · Jul 21, 2015

Man they really need to show off more content.

Train of Midnight · Jul 21, 2015

having a hard time keeping my drool in my mouth.

October here we come

LiquidMetal14 · Jul 21, 2015

Durante said:
As long as they ship one to Austria I'll be happy to order wherever they want me to.

Tell me the preorder is open at orderyourvivehereyouidiot.com and I'll be there.

Open your ~~mind~~ Vive!

I'll buy whatever as long as it's solid.

Nzyme32 · Jul 21, 2015

Pretty much exactly what I expected. I am still expecting a reasonable line up of content though for SteamVR, nothing as ridiculous as some have suggested, dreaming of their AAA gaming hopes, but rather just interesting games that sell the idea of the system well. I imagine a lot of the next year will be spent being quite coy about things for these VR companies as they keep their cards close to their chests

Durante · Jul 21, 2015

AllIsOneIsNone said:
When people learned the Vive was coming out first here it was all "rip Oculus". Now reality is setting in. Probably very little supported software until next year. Earlier release than Rift or not, I think the Rift is probably quite a bit more prepared for next year.

I don't need software, all I need is solid room-scale tracking for a headset and controllers and Unreal Engine 4

cyberheater · Jul 21, 2015

ashecitism said:
Neither does this

Yes. That doesn't sound good.

Durante said:
I don't need software, all I need is solid room-scale tracking for a headset and controllers and Unreal Engine 4

I do like sound of that.

Myggen · Jul 21, 2015

Yeah... I'm not sold on the software side of the Vive yet. They need to start talking about that.

viveks86 · Jul 21, 2015

Durante said:
As long as they ship one to Austria I'll be happy to order wherever they want me to.

Tell me the preorder is open at orderyourvivehereyouidiot.com and I'll be there.

Co-signed. I'm probably gonna get this even if no content is ready yet. Does that cooking game have online co-op? :/

PopcornMegaphone · Jul 21, 2015

My body is ready but I don't think the software is.

justgames7604 · Jul 21, 2015

Gonna wait and see where vr lands.

luffeN · Jul 21, 2015

Durante said:
As long as they ship one to Austria I'll be happy to order wherever they want me to.

Tell me the preorder is open at orderyourvivehereyouidiot.com and I'll be there.

+1 for Austria please.

Seanspeed · Jul 21, 2015

Durante said:
I don't need software

Fair enough man. I'm super jealous of those who will make great use of room scale VR, particularly in a developer situation. But in terms of general appeal, content is king. Always has been, always will be.

I'm not saying Vive wont have a good software lineup. They may well. But there's not a ton of confidence with that right now. Not a ton of confidence with Morpheus, either. And even Oculus are only so-so on the matter at the moment.

There's still time obviously. I know nobody has showed their full hand yet necessarily, if you want to see it like that, but content is what will make the difference between a breakout year for VR and a plodding year. VR isn't going anywhere. It's here to stay and will not 'die'. It's already changed the game for space, flight and racing sims, so there will be an eternal market for it right there, but as somebody who wants to see it go beyond a niche medium, I *really* want to see appealing launch lineups that accelerate things.

Phinor · Jul 21, 2015

luffeN said:
+1 for Austria please.

I have very little faith in anything VR related (retail product) being available in Europe this year or even first half of next year. I hope I remember this post come next summer when it turns out I was right... right?

Visualante2 · Jul 21, 2015

$500 €500 £500. Don't like it? Pre-order somewhere else.

Phinor said:
I have very little faith in anything VR related (retail product) being available in Europe this year or even first half of next year. I hope I remember this post come next summer when it turns out I was right... right?

Buy StarVR, Europe's premiere VR headset.

Nzyme32 · Jul 21, 2015

Myggen said:
Yeah... I'm not sold on the software side of the Vive yet. They need to start talking about that.

I don't know how anyone can be sold on it since they have announced pretty much nothing yet other than the demos, and even then those have been described as proof of concept. It's the same with Oculus too. They are all pretty quiet on their lineups in full preferring to wait to play their hand

YuShtink · Jul 21, 2015

I hate to sound like an Oculus fanboy but I've been saying this all along - The Vive's 2015 release is going to be a rushed one. It won't have a large amount of dedicated software, it won't be available in stores. It's basically going to be a polished dev kit release to the masses. Which is cool for content creators. Not so cool for the average consumer.

Astral/H3X · Jul 21, 2015

I would love if they had a sandbox game like Garrys Mod. I've never really gotten a chance to get into that, and I think VR would really give me the motivation to try it out.

Maiden Voyage · Jul 21, 2015

Phinor said:
I have very little faith in anything VR related (retail product) being available in Europe this year or even first half of next year. I hope I remember this post come next summer when it turns out I was right... right?

Do HTC products usually ship later in Europe? I'm not immediately familiar with their launch scheduling.

If there is a delayed launch, couldn't people pool together and help one another like others in the thread have mentioned?

Visualante2 · Jul 21, 2015

YuShtink said:
I hate to sound like an Oculus fanboy but I've been saying this all along - The Vive's 2015 release is going to be a rushed one. It won't have a large amount of dedicated software, it won't be available in stores. It's basically going to be a polished dev kit release to the masses. Which is cool for content creators. Not so cool for the average consumer.

Greenlight hardware to go with my Greenlight games. Rushed is emblematic of the Steam experience.

Maiden Voyage · Jul 21, 2015

YuShtink said:
I hate to sound like an Oculus fanboy but I've been saying this all along - The Vive's 2015 release is going to be a rushed one. It won't have a large amount of dedicated software, it won't be available in stores. It's basically going to be a polished dev kit release to the masses. Which is cool for content creators. Not so cool for the average consumer.

It's also not going to be release via retail at that time. I don't think the very first wave is aimed at the general consumer market. It sounds to me like they are targeting a very specific market that knows what they will be getting.

Nzyme32 · Jul 21, 2015

YuShtink said:
I hate to sound like an Oculus fanboy but I've been saying this all along - The Vive's 2015 release is going to be a rushed one. It won't have a large amount of dedicated software, it won't be available in stores. It's basically going to be a polished dev kit release to the masses. Which is cool for content creators. Not so cool for the average consumer.

Well it sounds fanboyish when we have no information for either headset other than a paltry showing of a lineup as they both play cat and mouse with each other. The final headset and even platform info is vague at best.

chuckddd · Jul 21, 2015

I'll buy as many as possible and ship them to all!

Through ebay, of course. Good luck with your bids!

metareferential · Jul 21, 2015

If it's US-only I'll fly to the US.

luffeN · Jul 21, 2015

Phinor said:
I have very little faith in anything VR related (retail product) being available in Europe this year or even first half of next year. I hope I remember this post come next summer when it turns out I was right... right?

Maybe you can jinx it by looking at this post day by day

jediyoshi · Jul 21, 2015

YuShtink said:
I hate to sound like an Oculus fanboy but I've been saying this all along - The Vive's 2015 release is going to be a rushed one. It won't have a large amount of dedicated software, it won't be available in stores. It's basically going to be a polished dev kit release to the masses. Which is cool for content creators. Not so cool for the average consumer.

Conflating a number of disparate issues here. The hardware is the actual important part and I'm not sure impressions are going to be doing a good job of dissuading people at this point.

Seanspeed · Jul 21, 2015

Nzyme32 said:
Well it sounds fanboyish when we have no information for either headset other than a paltry showing of a lineup as they both play cat and mouse with each other. The final headset and even platform info is vague at best.

Eh, Oculus haven't shown us everything, but they have definitely shown some unique IP's they're readying for launch like Lucky's Tale, Eve Valkyrie, Edge of Nowhere and Robinson: The Journey. Things that aren't just tech demos, but are confirmed, full fledged games.

Hasney · Jul 21, 2015

If I can grab it in the UK, I will. I like how it works better than Oculus and the whole exclusive game thing isn't going to win me over if they're not titles I would be looking forward to. Plus, it's PC. Other VR support will probably be hacked into their ’exclusivies'.

Would be awesome if they showed off L4D3 on it though...

Seanspeed · Jul 21, 2015

Hasney said:
Would be awesome if they showed off L4D3 on it though...

Probably one of the last franchises that would see VR support(fast paced FPS).

If Valve include VR support for one of their franchises, it's almost certainly going to be DOTA 2 first. I think that may be their killer title they announce. I know it wont excite many of us here, but DOTA 2 is huge elsewhere.

Nzyme32 · Jul 21, 2015

Seanspeed said:
Eh, Oculus haven't shown us everything, but they have definitely shown some unique IP's they're readying for launch like Lucky's Tale, Eve Valkyrie, Edge of Nowhere and Robinson: The Journey. Things that aren't just tech demos, but are confirmed, full fledged games.

My point is that is a paltry showing and we know they have other things on the way. Sure Valve have shown pretty much nothing other than the demos and maybe a leak via the SteamVR folder, but again paltry, and not an actual final lineup or representation of it in terms of both games and other content. I'd rather wait till they both give a much more concrete outlook on their platforms than be dismissive or supportive of either

Dynomutt · Jul 21, 2015

I can see them testing the waters. Should it not sell as anticipated they can reduce quantity. This seems to be a really apprehensive approach.

Hasney · Jul 21, 2015

Seanspeed said:
Probably one of the last franchises that would see VR support(fast paced FPS).

If Valve include VR support for one of their franchises, it's almost certainly going to be DOTA 2 first. I think that may be their killer title they announce. I know it wont excite many of us here, but DOTA 2 is huge elsewhere.

Oh I know it'd be a gimmick and not work great, but man, a couple of single player runs of that would be a blast. Hell, TF2 has Oculus support.

kinggroin · Jul 21, 2015

Not excited for any of the PC devices yet. Its all dreams until I have it in my hands (on my head) and playing software made for it.

Morpheus has the leg up at the moment imo, and even that is eh.

We shall see what all three have in store early next year - when VR really kicks into gear I feel.

The Elite · Jul 21, 2015

This smells like a U.S. only launch.

YuShtink · Jul 21, 2015

Nzyme32 said:
Well it sounds fanboyish when we have no information for either headset other than a paltry showing of a lineup as they both play cat and mouse with each other. The final headset and even platform info is vague at best.

It might not be a ton but Oculus has shown a lot more than HTC/Valve, including full games we've seen in development for multiple years now. And that's for a device releasing 3-4 months later.

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