HTC is running a Vive Pro 2 bundle deal right now in the US that includes the Vive Wireless Adapter, which when purchased separately costs $350.
The deal lasts from now until August 30th, bringing the full bundle price to $1,400. On its own, Vive Pro 2 costs $800, which doesn’t include controllers or tracking base stations (or Vive Wireless Adapter).
Besides a VR-ready PC, the bundle includes everything you need to go wireless: Vive Pro 2 headset, wand-style controllers, SteamVR 2.0 tracking base stations, Vive Wireless Adapter, and all of the bits and bobs in between, like cables, power adapters, mounting kits, etc.
Check out the headset’s specs below:
Vive Pro 2 Specs
Resolution
2,448 x 2,448 (6.0MP) per-eye, LCD (2x)
Refresh Rate
90Hz, 120Hz
Lenses
Dual-element Fresnel
Field-of-view
120° horizontal
Optical Adjustments
IPD, eye-relief
IPD Adjustment Range
57–72mm
Connectors
USB 3.0, DisplayPort 1.2, power
Cable Length
5m (breakout box)
Tracking
SteamVR Tracking 1.0 or 2.0 (external beacons)
On-board cameras
2x RGB
Input
Vive wand controllers, rechargable battery
Audio
On-ear headphones, USB-C audio output
Microphone
Dual microphone
Pass-through view
Yes
Granted, Vive Pro 2 still isn’t the most economical way to get into VR, although if you’re looking for a well-balanced PC VR headset with a better than average display, Vive Pro 2 is a pretty good choice.
Before you buy though, make sure to check out our full review of Vive Pro 2 where we stack it up next to Valve Index and HP Reverb G2, SteamVR headsets that most PC VR users look to first. In short, Vive Pro 2 doesn’t have the FOV of Index, or the clarity of Reverb G2, but it’s comfortable, includes a good slate of ergonomic adjustments, and has pretty great audio, albeit on-ear and not off-ear.
Still, it’s hard to argue with out-of-the-box wireless and the ability to readily bring either Vive or Tundra trackers into the mix—just the thing to launch your VRChat dance battles to the next level.
You can find the deal over on HTC’s website, which lasts from now until August 30th.
HTC is putting its flagship PC VR headset Vive Pro 2 on sale for a limited time, bringing the full kit to $1,299 and headset to $749.
The US and Canada-only deal is already available today, running until July 2nd.
Launched in mid-2021, the Vive Pro 2 Full Kit regularly sell for $1,399. It includes everything you need to jump into high-quality VR, including the Vive Pro 2 headset, two SteamVR 2.0 basestations, two wand-style controllers, and all of the cables and AC wallwarts you’ll need to run everything.
The Vive Pro 2 Headset has only been discounted by $50, as it’s regularly priced at $800. This deal should only appeal to users who already have SteamVR basestations (either 1.0 or 2.0) and controllers, since you need those things to play room-scale VR games. Oh, and an adequate computer too. Use this tool to see if your rig is VR-ready.
Photo by Road to VR
We didn’t dislike Vive Pro 2: in our deep-dive review we noted the headset offered good performance, although it probably didn’t warrant a class-leading price and “Pro” branding when compared to others. As Road to VR’s Ben Lang put it, Vive Pro 2 “doesn’t have a field-of-view that’s as large or larger than Index, nor does it have as great or greater clarity than Reverb G2.”
What it does offer is high resolution displays with no visible screen-door effect, or other artifacts like mura and chromatic aberration. It boasts good quality built-in headphones and an ergonomic strap that is nearly identical to the Vive Pro, so, good enough for long VR sessions for most.
Some oft overlooked icing on the cake: either purchase comes with a two-month free trial of Viveport Infinity, which lets you download a ton of great PC VR games for a monthly subscription. You can’t keep the games when the subscription period ends, but you can get through a ton of new and classic titles in that time that you’d otherwise have to buy.
If you’ve got an awesome PC and want to take your gaming to the next level then you’ll want to explore the world of virtual reality (VR). There are several headsets on the market, of which the HTC Vive Pro 2 is one of the very latest, having launched last year. Today, HTC Vive has announced a brand new promotion gifting you a free copy of After the Fall, one of the hottest co-op shooters to arrive in 2021.
The promotion begins today (7th February) at participating retailers in Europe, the Middle East, and North America – Amazon, Scan and Overclockers in the UK – with Vive.com running the promotion starting this Wednesday, 9th February. If you’re in Australia you’ll find the After the Fall deal has already begun, with the offer also applicable on Vive Pro and Vive Cosmos headsets.
HTC Vive Pro 2 is the company’s high-end, tethered VR headset for consumers and enterprise customers. Available just as the headset – if you’re upgrading – for £719 GBP or £1,299 for the Full Kit, Vive Pro 2 boasts a 5K resolution display delivering 2448 × 2448 pixels per eye. There’s a 120-degree field of view (FoV), a 120Hz refresh rate; a manually adjusted inter-pupillary distance (IPD) from 57-70mm and built-in headphones for clear spatial sound.
With the Vive Pro 2 Full Kit, you also get the latest Vive controllers and Lighthouse Base Stations (2.0). As with any Vive Pro 2 headset purchase, you’ll get a free 2-month membership to Viveport Infinity, HTC’s hardware-agnostic store featuring a lot of the most up to date VR experiences.
Of course, if you’re going for this deal then you’ll be wanting to try After the Fallright away. The latest monster shooter from Vertigo Games, After the Fall is primarily a multiplayer experience where you go on Harvest Runs through a frozen Los Angeles, collecting vital resources to upgrade your weapons along the way.
Whilst the videogame does support single-player by way of bots, the runs allow up to four players to team up and try to survive the nightmarish Snowbreed. After the Fall features 32-player hubs to socialise in, and there’s also a 4v4 competitive multiplayer for something different.
For continued updates on all the latest VR deals, keep reading gmw3.
When it comes to virtual reality (VR) products from HTC Vive you’re spoilt for choice, whether you want a headset that’s got inside-out tracking or external sensors, or a system focused on business. No matter if you’re looking for your first headset or upgrading, today HTC Vive’s European store has a couple of tasty deals available.
The most eye-catching of the two being advertised is the one for the Vive Cosmos Elite. From now until 14th October 2021 if you purchase the headset for £899 GBP you’ll also get a free Vive Wireless Adaptor (worth £359.00). That’s quite the saving if you were previously thinking of purchasing both or maybe it makes the Vive Cosmos Elite a more tempting offer than others on the market.
Originally, the Vive Cosmos launched back in 2019 as the company’s first inside-out tracked headset to less than favourable reviews. The following year the Cosmos Elite came out, swapping the front plate for one compatible with SteamVR base stations, great for those who wished to upgrade from the original HTC Vive.
The Vive Cosmos Elite kit comes with the 1.0 base stations and latest Vive controllers. Specification wise it offers a combined resolution of 2880×1770 (1440×1700 per-eye) using an LCD display, 110 field of view (FoV), a hinged front to easily drop in and out of VR, built-in headphones and IPD adjustment.
The other deal is for the very latest Vive Pro 2 that launched earlier this year. Whilst nowhere near as good as the offer above, if you’re in the market for the new PC headset, pre-ordering the Vive Pro 2 full kit before 14th October 2021 will get you a £50 voucher off your next Vive.com purchase.
If you’ve been keeping up with HTC Vive news of late you’ll know that those offers end dates also coincide with an event the company is holding on the same day. Held via the Engage platform at 4 pm BST, all HTC Vive has revealed so far is a slogan “Go with the Flow”. Could there be a new piece of hardware incoming? We’ll have to wait and see. As details come in VRFocus will let you know.
The HTC Vive Pro 2 Full Kit will start shipping in October, the company today confirmed.
Pre-orders for the bundle are already live in the US and will launch in Europe, Middle East and Africa on September 23rd. The kit costs £1,299 in the UK and you can also pre-order from Vive.com, Amazon, Scan or Overclockers to get a £50 voucher at the respective store. The pre-order window closes October 14th, so expect units to ship in the second half of next month.
HTC Vive Pro 2 Full Kit Ships Next Month
The Vive Pro 2 Full Kit includes the headset itself, two Vive wand controllers and two of Valve’s 2.0 SteamVR Base Stations. There’s also two months of the company’s VR subscription service, Viveport Infinity, thrown in too. Previously the headset had only been sold as a base model with just the device itself.
As we calculated back in May, though, you can actually get the Vive Pro 2 on its own and then buy the base stations and a pair of Valve Index controllers for $1,375. Not only are you saving yourself a little money, but the Index Controllers (which HTC has confirmed are compatible with the headset) support advanced finger detection and have analog sticks too.
It’s definitely worth doing a little digging if you’re in the market for a full PC VR kit, then. We haven’t tried the Pro 2 for ourselves yet but its specs certainly impress on paper – with dual 2448×2448 LCD panels, more than 2.6x as many pixels as the original Vive Pro. Hopefully we’ll be able to bring you some full impressions sometime in the near future.
The new HTC Vive Pro 2 officially went on sale back in June but only for the headset, ideal for those looking to upgrade their existing HTC Vive system. Today, the HTC Vive Pro 2 Full Kit is now available to pre-order in the US, offering an all-in-one package for new customers, retailing at $1,399 USD.
While the headset by itself is $799 (£719 GBP), for that not inconsiderable sum of $1,399 customers will also get two Vive Controllers and two base stations for tracking the whole lot. It makes HTC Vive’s latest headset one of the most expensive PC VR solutions available to the general public, a full $400 more expensive than its nearest rival Valve Index – which is now two years old – and considerably more than the $600 HP Reverb G2 that launched in late 2020.
As you might expect from HTC Vive’s latest tethered model, the Vive Pro 2 comes packed with features such as a 5K resolution display delivering 2.5K to each eye; a 120Hz refresh rate, a 120-degree field of view (FoV) and buil-in headphones for clear spatial sound quality. Those specs also mean issues like the screendoor effect have been removed.
Additional extras see the inter-pupillary distance (IPD) still manually adjustable in fine increments, the quick-adjustable sizing dial at the back remains, whilst the design aims to provide comfort for longer gameplay sessions by ensuring the weight balance is more evenly distributed.
North American customers can pre-order the HTC Vive Pro 2 Full Kit now but those in Europe will have to wait a little while longer, pre-orders launch on 23rd September. The kit will begin shipping in October with pre-orders ending 14th October 2021 in EMEA.
As an added bonus for those in Europe, if you pre-order during the pre-launch window you’ll receive a £50 gift voucher to spend when purchasing a Vive Pro 2 kit from Vive.com, Amazon, Scan or Overclockers. The voucher is only useable at the retailer the kit is bought from.
For further updates on HTC Vive’s latest hardware, keep reading VRFocus.
Facebook’s Oculus Quest 2 now accounts for 31.07% of the VR headsets used on Steam.
That figure was revealed this weekend as Valve updated its monthly Steam Hardware Survey to account for errors published at the beginning of July. Quest 2 grew by 0.95% on the platform last month (May’s results here); users can access SteamVR content either by connecting the device to their PCs with a USB cable or via Facebook’s recently-launched AirLink wireless feature.
Headsets with close to or above 1% SteamVR market share
Meanwhile, HTC’s newly-released Vive Pro 2 made its debut on the platform with 0.08% of overall headset usage. That’s less growth than the 0.19% the Valve Index enjoyed, and even the 0.12% gain for the original HTC Vive. Then again, the Vive Pro 2 is an expensive proposition at $799 for the headset alone and $1,399 for the full kit with controllers and trackers.
In what seems likely to be another bug: Valve reports that 1.86% of Steam users used a VR headset in June, down significantly from Mays 2.31% and much lower than it’s been in some time. It’s possible that the excitement of E3 2021 drove more non-VR users to Steam than normal, but it seems far more likely that another fix is due. We’ll update this article if that’s the case.
Facebook headsets accounted for 60.24% of VR headsets used on Steam in June, with Valve at 16.7% and HTC at 15.2%. Broadly speaking then, it’s all hovering around pretty much the same numbers we’ve seen for the past few months.
With currently no major VR headsets on the horizon for the rest of the year, don’t expect to see a massive change in these results for the next few months.
Three years after the original Vive Pro, HTC’s Vive Pro 2 is here. With a class-leading price, the “Pro” branded headset is clearly positioned to one-up its contemporaries. Unfortunately the headset’s performance doesn’t quite justify the Pro price.
Before we dive into the full review, here’s a recap of the headset’s specs:
Vive Pro 2 Specs
Resolution
2,448 x 2,448 (6.0MP) per-eye, LCD (2x)
Refresh Rate
90Hz, 120Hz
Lenses
Dual-element Fresnel
Field-of-view
120° horizontal
Optical Adjustments
IPD, eye-relief
IPD Adjustment Range
57–72mm
Connectors
USB 3.0, DisplayPort 1.2, power
Cable Length
5m (breakout box)
Tracking
SteamVR Tracking 1.0 or 2.0 (external beacons)
On-board cameras
2x RGB
Input
Vive wand controllers, rechargable battery
Audio
On-ear headphones, USB-C audio output
Microphone
Dual microphone
Pass-through view
Yes
HTC Vive Pro 2 Summary
Photo by Road to VR
As is tradition, our full review goes into significant depth, so we’ll start with a summary.
HTC’s Vive Pro 2 brings some serious specs that, on paper, make it look like the headset will deliver an unbeatable experience compared to its competitors. And that ought to be the goal to justify the steep asking price of $800 for the headset by itself or $1,400 full kit price. Here’s a quick look at how this stacks up to the headset’s two nearest competitors:
Vive Pro 2
Valve Index
Reverb G2
Headset Only
$800
$500
–
Full Kit
$1,400
$1,000
$600
With regards to fitting in with the competition and justifying its price, the key goal for Vive Pro 2 would be to offer customers the wide field of view of Valve Index with the clarity of Reverb G2—or at least one or the other. Unfortunately it doesn’t quite get there, and also has a few other oversights that belie the “Pro” branding.
While the resolution and field-of-view are good on paper, ultimately the headset doesn’t achieve either of those goals—it doesn’t have a field-of-view that’s as large or larger than Index, nor does it have as great or greater clarity than Reverb G2.
Photo by Road to VR
Part of the issue seems to be that the lenses can’t escape the historically tight sweet spot we find on HTC headsets. Even though the field-of-view is wider than the original Vive Pro, much of that added field-of-view gets blurry quickly. Rotate your eyes just a bit and text becomes difficult to read. Combined with the usual god-rays plus additional outer glare from the new dual-element lenses, and the headset’s tight sweet spot makes the view feel oddly cramped at times. This is furthered by a surprisingly small vertical field-of-view which makes feel like the top and bottom of the view has been cropped down.
Personal Measurements
Vive Pro 2
Vive Pro
Valve Index
Reverb G2
Horizontal FOV
102°
94°
106°
82°
Vertical FOV
78°
102°
106°
78°
The displays otherwise are fairly good, even if the lenses seem to limit their sharpness somewhat. The headset has no visible screen-door effect, and other artifacts like mura, chromatic aberration, and ghosting are very minimal.
Even if Vive Pro 2 doesn’t beat out Index and Reverb G2 in key areas like field-of-view and clarity, it could still be a great headset worthy of the “Pro” name (and price). Unfortunately it falls short of that in other areas too.
For one, the pass-through cameras on Vive Pro 2 are very low quality, as is the microphone. While the headphones themselves are quite good in audio quality, the off-ear approach is increasingly the more convenient and preferred way to do audio on a VR headset. While you could opt to remove the headset’s on-ear speakers in favor of your own audio solution, the bulky strap would make it hard to work with anything but earbuds.
Photo by Road to VR
With SteamVR Tracking built in, you can expect the same gold standard tracking accuracy, latency, and coverage that you’d find with other headsets with SteamVR Tracking, though you’ll have to put up with external beacons mounted somewhere in your room. Thankfully SteamVR Tracking also opens the door to some options, such as choosing if you want to use the old school Vive wand controllers or opting for something else like the Valve Index controllers. You can also use the headset with tracking pucks which are used to track other accessories or for adding more tracking points to yourself for full body tracking.
Vive Pro (left), Vive Pro 2 (right) | Photo by Road to VR
From an ergonomic standpoint, Vive Pro 2 is exactly the same as the original Vive Pro, which means it’s a fairly comfortable headset with a pretty good set of ergonomic adjustments. Notably, the headset has a physical IPD adjustment which ranges from 57–72mm and an eye-relief adjustment, both of which allow the headset to adapt to a wider range of users. Two things I also would have preferred but aren’t included: springs in the headstrap which make it easier to put on and take off without adjusting the tightness each time, and a wider range of rotation for the display housing.
HTC Vive Pro 2 In-depth Review
Photo by Road to VR
Let’s first talk about the bread and butter of any VR headset: the visuals. With a whopping 2,448 x 2,448 per-eye resolution and a purported 120° horizontal field-of-view, Vive Pro 2 would seem to be perfectly positioned to bring the best of Valve Index and Reverb G2 into one headset. Unfortunately the reality is a little more blurry.
Clarity
Although the paper specs would suggest that Vive Pro 2 and Reverb G2 could have quite similar resolving power, a quick side-by-side with the headsets reveals Reverb G2 to have an obviously sharper image, even before running any objective tests. To some extent, this would be expected given that Reverb G2 packs its pixels a bit more densely into its smaller field-of-view; even so, while Vive Pro 2 is clearly sharper than Index or the original Vive Pro, it still seems less sharp than it ought to next to Reverb G2.
This is very likely a result of the optics, which is one of the biggest changes on Vive Pro 2 compared to the original Vive Pro. While both headsets use Fresnel lenses, Vive Pro 2 adopts the Valve Index approach of moving to a dual-element lens, apparently in an effort to expand the field-of-view. Users of Valve Index will know that the dual-element approach risks introducing additional glare around the outer edges of the lenses (on top of the usual Fresnel god-rays), and we see the same thing happening on Vive Pro 2, more or less to the same extent as Index.
This additional glare, combined with the classically weak edge-to-edge clarity of HTC lenses, creates a sweet spot that at times feels oppressively small. Rotate your eyes just a little bit and the world is blurry until you move your head to recenter your eyes.
This small sweet spot unfortunately detracts from Vive Pro 2’s improved field-of-view. While it is indeed wider than the original Vive Pro by a good margin, the edges become blurry which can give a sense of tunnel vision even when in your periphery.
Field-of-View
Speaking of field-of-view, Vive Pro 2’s theoretical 120° horizontal seems to be just that: theoretical. At least for my personal measurements, I found the Vive Pro 2 to have a notably smaller field of view than Valve Index:
Personal Measurements
Vive Pro 2
Vive Pro
Valve Index
Reverb G2
Horizontal FOV
102°
94°
106°
82°
Vertical FOV
78°
102°
106°
78°
Vive Pro 2 might indeed have a 120° horizontal field-of-view, but only if you could get your eyes close enough to the lenses. Although the headset has an eye-relief adjustment, it doesn’t seem to have the range of motion necessary to maximize the field-of-view, at least for my head. The eye-relief adjustment on Valve Index, on the other hand, makes it easier to squeeze the most out of the headset’s displays.
Photo by Road to VR
You’ll notice a surprisingly small vertical field-of-view on Vive Pro 2. From the shape of the lenses alone you might expect this to be the case; rather than being circular, the top and bottom of the lens are flat. When looking through the headset, it looks like your vertical view has been cropped down, which furthers that feeling of tunnel-vision that ultimately works against the headset’s field-of-view.
Displays
The Vive Pro 2 displays themselves seem quite good, even if their resolution is hampered by the optics. The headset uses an LCD display per-eye, which run up to 120Hz. Unfortunately the switch to LCD on Vive Pro 2 means losing out on the rich colors and deep contrast from the Vive Pro’s OLED display, but in return you’re getting much higher resolution, better pixel fill, and less ghosting.
Like Reverb G2, Vive Pro 2 essentially has no screen-door effect (the visibility of unlit spaces between pixels). The display density is simply too great to make out individual pixels.
In general use, the displays have almost no visible artifacts. I had to search carefully to find some minor ghosting against certain colors. Mura (the consistency of brightness and color from one pixel to the next) is similarly hard to spot and will probably go entirely unnoticed during normal use. Looking carefully against flat colors I could spot some faint splotchy mura, but it’s impact on the overall clarity is very minimal.
When it comes to visual performance, Vive Pro 2 is good, but it doesn’t feel “Pro”, given that it’s bested by Index in field-of-view and sweet spot, and by Reverb G2 in clarity, both of which are less expensive headsets.
Vive has updated its Pro VR headset with a new generation that comes with more comfort features and better specs. Here's how it compare to the original model.
In this second of a two-part feature in his latest Virtual Arena column, industry specialist Kevin Williams marks the six-year anniversary of HTC’s Vive platform in Commercial Entertainment. Concluding this look, we chart the influence of the Vive in the current LBE marketplace and the future developments for the road ahead.
TheHTC Vive headset had become the de facto VR platform for those looking to enter the LBE VR scene. The original designs of the early part of this phase of development leant themselves more towards one-off creations, aping the pop-up design roots of many of the start-up developers. But the amusement and attraction trade would turn their considerable experience towards making systems that would fit the needs of the entertainment facility operators and prove robust to survive in this unique market.
Growing the Market
A very popular deployment of pay-to-play VR has been LAI Games’ Virtual Rabbids: The Big Ride. The concept of riders experiencing a motion-seat VR experience was not new but was based on the marriage of a 4D virtual experience developed in 2015 by videogame publisher Ubisoft, incorporating their lovable Rabbids IP. The combination led to a successful platform, launched in 2017 that has seen over 500 units fielded internationally. The concept has seen many emulators and has proven to be one of the most prolific VR amusement systems in the market, with many more people having their first VR experience on the ride system.
Many amusement manufacturers have looked to deploy VR in a fieldable amusement suitable package, and we have seen shooting, and driving games deployed with VR hardware. On most occasions the headset of choice has been the HTC Vive, gaining a reputation as a reliable go-to platform for this kind of deployment. Companies like IGS having launched a combination of racing game, motion-driver-cockpit and VR effects experience, with the release of OVERTAKE VR. The machine marking a major point in the LBE VR scene, where amusement operators started to see VR experiences as a reliable revenue generator.
One of the leading developers in the VR attraction scene is HOLOGATE – the company is famous for its ‘HOLOGATE Arena’ that has proven to be one of the most successful fielded platforms in the sector, with over 400 units operational internationally. The company launched its first system in 2017 and utilized the HTC Vive – comprising a tethered enclosure for four players. The company has established a large library of content, supporting its platform with an infrastructure to support operators, and ensure player enjoyment. Adding VR escape gaming and competitive titles to the roster. Constantly building to grow their installed base with new releases, such as announcing Slugterra, now on its systems worldwide.
Designing near mini-attraction platforms utilizing VR have driven many operators and developers, also marrying these new systems to well-known IP broadening the appeal. This can be seen by another large installation of VR attractions, developed for the Urban Entertainment facility chain, Dave & Buster’s. Working with VRstudios, along with several manufacturers, they created a multi-player motion simulator system. First released as the Jurassic World VR Expedition, the system used a motion base, HTC Vive and controllers to play in the virtual recreation of the movie. The company would go on to install over 100 simulators across their chain of facilities with other experiences based on movie IP such as Men in Black, Terminator, and Star Trek Discovery.
Venturing into the Jurassic World in VR
The theme park sector has still been infatuated with the opportunity that immersive technology represents, though the limitations of the current VR hardware still present a difficult challenge to overcome. The deployment of more convenient head-mounted displays (HMD) has seen the development of new technology based on the Vive. Critically acclaimed The Twilight Saga: Midnight Ride, developed by Framestore, an attraction launched at Lionsgate Entertainment World in 2019, comprises a unique modular design of the HTC Vive headset for usage on large throughput attractions. The simple head strap and separate display unit ease cleaning and operation. Uniquely configured headsets only for LBE application, illustrating the influence of the sector.
The unique VR tethered attraction experience
When discussing the influence of HTC’s VR efforts in commercial entertainment it is important not to just look at the HTC Vive. The company has also seen its Vive Focus deployed as a VR entertainment system. Companies such as Modal VR installed their PING videogame experience at venues back in 2018. And more recently developer Pillow’s Willow VR Studio and its highly active Exodus Burned has also utilized a Vive Focus headset approach. These standalone VR game platforms utilized the capabilities of the Focus and pointed towards an opportunity for free-roaming VR experiences that used lower performance VR hardware, so cutting the tether or removing the backpack PC. This development opening the door to the next generation of VR entertainment innovation.
HTC Vive Focus plays its part in LBE
Current Generation
Most recently the VR amusement platform has been refined to offer a self-service kiosk approach, with the deployment of tethered automatically retractable headsets. Leading the development of this approach has been VRsenal, who have launched their VR kiosks system, originally with Beat Saber Arcade. Underpinning the influence of strong IP, and VRsenal have worked with ILMxLAB and Nomadicto launch Lightsaber Dojo: A Star Wars VR Experience. Eagerly anticipated, offering the thrills of a fast pace game based on a popular brand.
The creation of more free-roaming VR experiences has captivated the latest investment into immersive entertainment. With the reopening of facilities and new investment has seen advanced developments building on the lessons learned. The opening of the heavily-publicised AREA15 location in Las Vegas has revealed one of their secret projects, with the launch of OZ Immersive – a multiple player platform developed by BackLight studios. The system based on the experience that the company has gathered in developing other Arena Scale attractions (such as ToyLand) and their line-up of VR escape games. The release of this first system is part of a rollout across other venues.
Virtual escape gaming shaping the future
While not everyone in the entertainment scene has the available space to install a hyper-reality experience on-site, there is a definite draw to have one of these platforms in the entertainment mix. With that in mind,Immersive Tech has revealed its plans to roll out its ‘UNCONTAINED’ VR platform. Housed in a shipping container, this allows a facility to install a VR experience within a matter of hours. The game platform being launched at the end of the year has already generated much excitement, utilizing a mix of Escape Room entertainment and immersive reality excitement. The company developing containers that house two play space for up to three players each, using wireless HTC Vive Pros.
Building the Next-Generation
Some observers would feel HTC stumble in trying to grow in the casual VR scene with its Cosmos series, launched back in 2019. A platform that was poorly defined, and badly constructed for what the then market expected, the system would even fall flat for consideration for commercial deployment. This impetus would see HTC redouble their investment into the space and focus on the core business elements that established the HTC Vive as such a pivotal system.
In redefining its future direction, HTC would reveal this year at ViveCon a new strategy in the space. Launching the HTC Vive Pro 2 that built on many of the successful elements of the original Vive hardware but offered greatly enhanced visual performance and an ability to include the latest immersive features such as facial tracking, wireless adapters and much more. A recognizable continuation of the Vive Pro series.
At the same time the company announced the launch of Vive Business, a dedicated division focused on the support of Enterprise users, with SDK support and the creation of an Independent Software Vendor (ISV) partnership program. During ViveCon HTC held several panel sessions covering the key areas of commercial support, including a session on LBE and Arts that saw an appearance by HOLOGATE, describing how they see the LBE VR landscape going forward.
One of the ISV partners that did not get coverage in the Western response to ViveCon, was the Chinese LBE VR facility developerImmersive World. With some 14-stores in the territory, the operation offers a free-roaming style entertainment experience and has worked alongside HTC, looking at an ISV to incorporate the new headset technology, and grow their facility business. This is an example of the LBE business that HTC continues to nurture and proves a profitable revenue stream.
In conclusion, HTC has proven itself against many of its naysayers. Where many felt that only consumer VR sales would establish the market, the adoption of supporting the growth of immersive entertainment in the Out-of-Home landscape has grown a vital market share. And introduced much innovation.
We look forward to seeing how the HTC Vive Pro 2 will fit into the updating and reinvestment in the commercial entertainment landscape. But also, we hope that the new Vive Focus 3 will take its place with the other standalone VR headsets looking at this market as a profitable vertical. Out-of-Home entertainment preparing for a new renaissance as the audiences return.
