HTC’s VR content platform, Viveport, is opening its gates a little wider next week. The service will add support for Windows VR headsets on June 5th.
Viveport is a digital storefront similar to Steam or Oculus Home. Its most important feature, though, is a VR subscription service named Viveport Infinity. It allows members to download a wide range of VR games and experiences and use them as long as they’re members. Initially Viveport only supported HTC’s family of Vive VR headsets, but also added support for Oculus Rift devices not long ago. From June 5th, though, people with a Windows ‘Mixed Reality’ VR headset can join in on the fun.
Microsoft’s range of VR devices are made in partnership with other companies like Dell, Samsung and Asus. They offer inside-out tracking, requiring no external sensors to find your position in a virtual world. These devices might not be as popular as either the Rift or Vive, but they have found a home in the PC VR scene as a low-cost alternative to those headsets. We’re also excited about upcoming devices with improved specs, like HP’s 4K Reverb.
In fact, if you’re looking to get into PC VR for as low as cost as possible, you could do a lot worse than a cheap Windows VR headset and a Viveport Infinity subscription. The service includes some of VR’s best sleeper hits and experimental experiences. The service costs $12.99 a month. It will also be adding support for the Valve Index headset when it arrives next month.
HP today announced Reverb (formerly codenamed ‘Copper’) in March, the successor to the company’s first Windows VR headset. Reverb’s high-res displays raise the bar on pixel density among consumer VR headsets. Sporting a design that’s a significant departure from its first Windows VR headset, HP says that Reverb will launch on May 6th starting at $600.
Update (May 2nd, 2019): At the initial reveal in March, HP said it planned to launch its high-res Reverb headset in “late April”, but April has come and gone. The company’s website now indicates that Reverb will be released on May 6th. The article below has been updated with this information.
Original Article (March 19th, 2019), Updated: Reverb is HP’s second Windows VR headset. Though it will hook into the ‘Windows Mixed Reality’ platform at its core, it will also support SteamVR through an official plugin, just like other Windows VR headsets.
Image courtesy HP
Compared to HP’s first Windows VR headset, which has a 1,440 × 1,440 LCD display for each eye, Reverb bumps the displays up to 2,160 × 2,160, which is 2.25 times the total number of pixels. With the same 90Hz refresh rate and a similar field of view, the increase in resolution translates directly to greater pixel density, bringing a huge boost to sharpness and text legibility.
It’s an even bigger leap in resolution from the first generation of consumer VR headsets, like Rift and Vive, which use 1,080 × 1,200 displays per-eye, giving Reverb 3.6 times the total number of pixels in those headsets. The fidelity seen through Reverb’s lenses is further enhanced by the fact that the LCD display uses full RGB-stripe sub-pixels (which generally have a better fill-factor than OLED displays) which means less screen door effect than an OLED display of equal resolution.
Reverb will be the highest resolution headset in the ~100 degree consumer class when it launches on May 6th, followed behind by Samsung Odyssey and Vive Pro (both with a pair of 1,440 × 1,600 displays).
HP says that Reverb is primarily built for the enterprise sector, but they’re also making the headset openly available to consumers. The Reverb Consumer Edition and Pro Edition (let’s call them CE and PE) are identical in design and specs and both include controllers). The Reverb CE is priced at $600 and will have a washable fabric face cushion and one year consumer warranty, while the Reverb PE will be priced at $650 and come with a leather-style face cushion, an additional 0.6M cable (for use with VR backpack PCs), and one year commercial warranty that covers the headset in non-consumer settings.
Image courtesy HP
Reverb has new fresnel lenses which the company says will offer a wider field of view and a larger sweet spot than its predecessor. There’s no hardware IPD adjustment on Reverb; the nominal setting is 63mm, and software adjustments range from 55mm to 71mm, according to HP.
HP quotes the Reverb’s field of view at 114 degrees diagonally, but has somewhat confusingly told us that this isn’t the actual measurement, but instead represents what they believe is “indicative” of the headset’s field of view. From my hands-on with the headset, it feels in the same FOV class as the Rift, Vive, and PSVR, but maybe on the lower end of the group. I’ve reached out to the company for further clarification on their FOV figures.
Image courtesy HP
Aside from resolution, HP says that a major focus of Reverb is comfort. While the original HP Windows VR headset uses a ‘halo’ style headband and lacks integrated headphones, the Reverb has a decidedly more Rift-like look with an overhead strap, semi-rigid spring-loaded side straps, and compact headphones built in. The headphones are removable with a flat-head screwdriver, and a 3.5mm cable dangles from the back of the headset for easily connecting third-party headphones.
The Reverb headset weighs in at 500 grams (1.1 pounds), excluding the cable—just above the Rift and Vive’s ~470 grams.
Image courtesy HP
While the design overhaul seems like mostly a win for Reverb, it has come at the expense of the convenient flip-up visor functionality on HP’s first Windows VR headset.
Like all Windows VR headsets, Reverb makes use of inside-out tracking via on-board cameras. The cameras calculate the position of the headset by looking at the environment around the user, and also track the movements of controllers by looking at the glowing LEDs. In our experience, tracking performance is good with this system, but it’s not uncommon for controllers to get momentarily ‘lost’ when looking away from the controllers (because they may momentarily exit the camera’s field of view). Reverb uses the same Windows Mixed Reality controllers used by other Windows VR headsets.
HP says that Reverb’s inside-out tracking system is virtually unchanged from the original, with the same placement and resolution of tracking cameras. For that reason, we expect that tracking performance will be mostly unchanged from other Windows VR headsets.
While the first HP Windows VR headset uses HDMI and USB 3.0 plugs, the Reverb uses DisplayPort 1.3 and USB 3.0, and also includes integrated Bluetooth which means that the host PC doesn’t need its own Bluetooth connection.
Image courtesy HP
In the enterprise space, where the company expects the headset to be most appealing, HP says the Reverb is well suited for engineering product development, design reviews, architecture/engineering/construction reviews, location-based entertainment, and maintenance/repair/overhaul training. While the Reverb CE will be sold ‘as is’, HP is trying to define itself as a VR solutions company, and says it is ready and willing to work closely with enterprise customers to equip them with the hardware, software, and services to make VR a valuable part of their workflow.
HP is officially announcing the next-generation of its Windows VR headset line: the HP Reverb. The HP Reverb releases in April and costs $599 for the consumer edition and comes with two Windows VR controllers. The commercial edition of the headset costs and includes a longer warranty, a leather face cushion for quick wipe downs, and an optional short cable for use with backpack PCs. HP invited me to their Palo Alto, CA office a few weeks ago to try it out.
This PC VR headset has a 2160 x 2160 per eye resolution (making it a 4K headset at 4320 x 2160 combined) with dual 2.89″ LCD panels and Fresnel-Aspherical lenses. It’s got a 114-degree field of view and uses the same two-front-facing-cameras for tracking that you can find in other existing Windows VR devices.
Naturally, I have a lot of VR headsets. Just looking around my desk, nearby shelves, floor, and immediate surrounding area I count ten different VR HMDs across half as many platforms. And as someone that wears glasses all-day every day usually, comfort is a massively important feature. So far the PSVR, Oculus Go, and Oculus Rift have been my favorites from a comfort perspective — until now. I need to spend more time with it still to be sure, but the Reverb might beat them all.
HP today announced Reverb (formerly codenamed Copper), its new VR headset which aims to deliver enhanced resolution and comfort. With a more thoughtful design and pixel-packed displays, Reverb sets a new bar for Windows VR headsets.
Having jumped into the VR space back in 2017 with a handful of others under Microsoft’s watch, HP’s first VR headset was pretty much identical to the headsets which launched from Acer, Dell, and Lenovo.
With Reverb—which will succeed the company’s first VR headset—HP is driving the design much more directly, though it is still building atop the Windows Mixed Reality platform (and inside-out tracking technology).
To that end, the company officially announced Reverb today, which will be sold as a Consumer Edition ($600) and a Professional Edition ($650), and launch in late April.
HP’s first VR headset (left), Reverb (right) | Photo by Road to VR
I recently visited HP at their Palo Alto campus to check out the latest Reverb prototype for myself; this is an updated version compared to what I saw back in February.
Let’s skip right to the fun stuff: the displays. Reverb has a 2,160 × 2,160 resolution display per-eye, which is a big step up in resolution even from current class-leading headsets like the Vive Pro and Samsung Odyssey which tout 1,440 × 1,600 displays. We’re talking about twice as many pixels as those headsets.
And while twice the pixels in roughly the same field of view would typically mean about half the visible screen door effect (SDE), Reverb actually gets an extra boost in SDE reduction (compared to the aforementioned headsets) because it uses RGB-stripe sub-pixels which tend to have a much better fill factor (less space between pixels) than the OLED displays used in many other headsets. So not only are you getting a boost in fidelity and pixel density, but fill factor is also going up because of the change to RGB-stripe.
That’s a long way to say that Reverb offers class-leading visual fidelity and text legibility. The screen door effect isn’t invisible, but it’s getting surprisingly close—at this point I can’t make out individual sub-pixels at all, and even truly spotting just one whole pixel (in a sea of identically colored pixels) is a difficult task. Crucially, HP is achieving this clarity and limited SDE without using a diffuser (as Samsung has done on the Odyssey+, which attempts to hide SDE at the cost of sharpness).
Photo by Road to VR
Resolution aside, the latest Reverb prototype that I got my head into did show a few subtle artifacts, though HP claims these will be cleared up by launch.
First, compared to the prior prototype I tried back in February, the little grey dots have been significantly reduced, but still manifest in what looks (to my eyes) like mura (inconsistencies in color/brightness between pixels).
Second, the latest prototype display shows some red ghosting, which is interesting because I don’t recall seeing this in any other headset (usually it’s just white or black ghosting). HP said this is because the current display has slower red decay than it should have, meaning that red pixels can’t change as quickly as other colored pixels.
Third, at the extreme top and bottom of the field of view it’s possible to see some reflections at the edges, caused by the display reflecting off the plastic inside the headset.
As mentioned, HP says these will all be cleared up by the time the headset ships, and the progress I saw with the headset from just a few weeks ago bodes well for them being able to deliver on that claim.
HTC announced back at GDC 2019 that Viveport, the company’s digital distribution platform for VR games, was going to support Windows VR headsets later this year. Now, the company has set the official date: June 5th, 2019.
Update (May 29th, 2019): HTC today announced that Viveport will be extending support to Windows VR headsets starting June 5th. This includes support across titles available through Viveport, and Viveport Infinity, the company’s Netflix-style subscription service.
The original article follows below:
Original Article (March 18th, 2019): The company first opened up Viveport to Oculus Rift in September 2018, having originally only supported the company’s two PC VR headsets at the time, the original Vive and Vive Pro.
Many VR games on Steam have native Windows VR support, although those that don’t can benefit from a Microsoft-built Steam plugin that allows Windows VR users to play games originally created for Vive & Rift only.
It’s uncertain at this point how HTC will go about supporting Windows VR headsets, be it through a similar ‘catch all’ plug-in or by simply allowing developers to add support on case-by-case basis. Steiber also didn’t mention when this will come, only saying that Windows VR support is set to come “later this year.”
This comes as a larger push by HTC to further proliferate the Viveport platform, which is set to launch their Netflix-style, unlimited download subscription service Viveport Infinity early next month.
A Microsoft representative said its line of Windows VR headsets has not performed to expectations.
Greg Sullivan, director of communications for Microsoft’s Mixed Reality arm, said in an interview with UploadVR: “Interestingly, the immersive VR headsets were pitched as consumer devices and I think did not meet, in general, the high expectations that were set for them there,” he said. “But what you’re seeing now is more and more commercial applications for those types of experiences.”
Sullivan didn’t share sales statistics. He did say that the wider VR industry had experienced the same kind of growing pains. “I think everybody got very excited about the prospects,” he said. “But we’re still seeing some of the realities.”
Microsoft partnered with the likes of Dell, Lenovo and Samsung to launch these devices in late 2017. They utilized inside-out tracking for VR that didn’t need external sensors. They also ran on the new Windows Mixed Reality platform and support SteamVR too. Around a year and a half on from launch, though, and these headsets are still a distant third to Rift and Vive in Steam’s monthly hardware survey reports. The Microsoft Store, meanwhile, has just 42 apps listed in its mixed reality section.
Sullivan reasoned that these headsets might find a new lease of life in the enterprise space. In our talk, he pointed toward the new HP VR headset that’s in the works as well as the numerous VR devices on the MWC show floor. “It happened with the original PC, it’s happened with cell phones and radios and microwave ovens and any number of technologies that were innovative but initially expensive, that found really strong return on investment and value in commercial scenarios and over time become consumer,” he added.
Despite the slow start, Sullivan insisted Microsoft remained committed to VR. From the sounds of it, though, most of its efforts will be centered around HoloLens 2 in the near future. “One of the things that we think is unique about our approach to this space is we don’t think about AR and VR as distinct categories, we think about them as two sides of the same coin,” Sullivan said. “They’re really two ends of the same continuum.”
Microsoft’s partners are iterating on Windows VR on their own, though. Samsung last year launched the Odyssey +, an improved version of its first headset with a better display. But we wouldn’t expect any sort of official ‘wave 2’ of Windows headsets anytime soon.
“You’ll see us focus a lot on HoloLens 2 in the commercial space in the near-term,” Sullivan said. “But it is not divorced from and is, in fact, it’s relatively coupled to those investments.”
Now that Audica has officially launched on Oculus Quest and is available on PSVR and PC VR headsets, we thought it was the perfect time to revisit our review and update it for the current version of the game with a finalized score.
When Audica first hit Early Access it was early 2019 and Beat Saber fever was still in full sing. Beat Saber was absolutely the VR shot heard around the world and clearly Harmonix was listening closely.
To their credit, they have the most experience with crafting music games out of anyone on the planet. They’ve established their legacy as the music game creation game company with titles like Amplitude, Rock Band, and Dance Central to their credit, not to mention VR games like Rock Band VR, Singspace, Dance Central VR, and even Harmonix Music VR, so it’s no wonder they took note. Since then, Pistol Whip has burst onto the scene as another rhythm-based VR shooter, but that one is its own beat entirely.
Comparing Audica to Beat Saber is inevitable, but it has just as many differences as it does similarities. It definitely offers something distinct and different, but not necessarily better. The relatively unwieldy mechanics and lack of overall fluidity makes it harder to recommend than its main competitor’s dead simple pick-up-and-play approach — but let’s dig into the specifics more clearly.
The basic premise in Audica is that you shoot blue and orange nodes inside VR using motion controllers to the beat of the music. Instead of slicing boxes, punching orbs, or blocking objects, you shoot colorful targets. It’s just different enough to feel unique and challenging, obviously requiring a different type of hand-eye coordination than physically punching or swinging. And when you nail it and rack up a huge combo, it feels extremely satisfying.
Once you get in the zone Audica has a way of feeling almost more like a dance than anything else. You’re not only aiming at targets as boxes close in on the center, but also swinging your arms to swat down orbs trying to hit you and scanning the field with your head to locate the next target. The way the game engaged my head and forced me to move and look somewhere other than straight ahead was definitely an adjustment for games like this. We’ve yet to really see a rhythm music game in VR that takes full advantage of the 360 space, other than 360 levels in Beat Saber, but playing Audica on Quest definitely had me looking from left to right constantly.
When you watch footage of this game it’s a bit hard to tell the nuances of each movement, but there are actually a lot of different ways to shoot a target in Audica. There are basic shots with circle targets, diamond shaped shots that require holding the trigger to channel electricity, as well as dual combo shots, chain shots that require tracing a pattern while holding the trigger, as well as both vertical and horizontal shots. It’s a lot to digest.
Even though the tutorial throws everything at you quickly the actual difficulty stages are pretty diverse. In Audica you have entire new game mechanics to contend with depending on which setting you pick which really does help make it feel like a progression within the game rather than notes just moving more quickly.
As it turns out, gameplay is actually very similar to an obscure downloadable rhythm game you may not have heard of calledOsu which involves dragging your cursor through circles as they shrink and timing it as the outer circle hits the center. Or like in Elite Beat Agents for DS. Basically that, but in VR and with two guns.
I think my main issue with the core gameplay loop is that it doesn’t feel as fine-tuned as it should. For example, with modern VR headsets like the Rift S and Quest, the main two I’ve played this game on, it’s easier than I’d like to miss new targets because of the narrow field of view relative to my actual eyesight. Frequently on the second difficulty tier and above, new targets will appear outside of the headset’s vision. The only indication that a target is there is a faint aura that emanates just before it appears but if you’re turning your head or already looking at an existing target it’s way too easy to miss it. A headset with a wider field of view would help, but I only tried it on Quest and Rift S for this review. It becomes less of a music rhythm game and more of a “quick reflex reaction time” game.
However, the main thing Audica has going for it is a deep and varied selection of songs — especially if you factor in the DLC as well. When you buy the game you’ll immediately have access to over 30 tracks right off the bat ranging from EDM and electronic tracks, as is customary in this genre, but also with a few pop songs and even some metal via Dragonforce thrown in for good measure. They don’t all fit the gameplay that well as far as I’m concerned, but everyone vibes with music differently.
If you add in the DLC, which is reasonably priced at $2 per track or $19.99 for the whole 2019 Season Pass, you get even more variety with artists like Ariana Grande, Billie Eilish, Imagine Dragons, Post Malone, Fall Out Boy, and more. Having that much to pick from is really, really nice and new track releases happen very consistently.
Another issue is that the key action you’re performing (quickly aiming at and shooting targets) doesn’t feel natural. Usually when you shoot a gun in real life or in other VR games you’re holding it up, arms steady, and taking aim carefully or at least with some stability. On the contrary in Audica your arms are swimming through the air, almost like you’re in a ballet, as you swat away objects and quickly take aim at new targets just as they appear. However, this does foster a need to memorize the song patterns and it becomes a much more skillful game, which will appeal to hardcore players. The skill ceiling feels enormous here.
The pure physicality of hitting things though, the cornerstone of what makes so many VR rhythm games addictive, is all but missing. Pointing and pulling a trigger just isn’t as satisfying as the impact of slashing or punching. Even other shooting games like Pistol Whip manage to be more visceral because of the dodging and active nature. In Audica, you basically just stand still. In this way, it feels like something is missing.
There’s a Campaign mode which splits the tracks up into different thematic categories you progress through, but the bulk of your time will likely be spent in Solo play mastering the various difficulty levels. There’s a Group Play mode as well that’s designed for passing the headset, which works great on Quest especially if paired with Chromecast streaming for parties. There are also leaderboards, naturally.
One very unique feature Audica has going for it is the ability to craft your own beat maps for songs directly inside the app itself, which is really unique and fun. However, it does not have anywhere near the same level of custom beat map modding support that Beat Saber does. If you don’t like the songs included in Audica, you should skip it entirely instead of expecting the community to mod in songs you want.
I hate to have made so many comparisons to Beat Saber in this review, but especially on the PC side of things where the active modding community is providing Beat Saber with a near infinite number of songs and so much more, it’s hard not to. For a lot of people the question is: Why should I buy Audica if I already have Beat Saber? And that answer is gonna be very different for most everyone.
Audica VR Review Final Verdict:
As it stands Audica is definitely something different, for better and for worse. The gameplay mechanics are enough to make it stand out, especially if you dedicate the time to really dig into it, but in a crowded VR rhythm game market the circumstances surrounding how and why it’s different aren’t always in its favor. If you’re a big fan of VR rhythm games, make no doubt: there is plenty to sink your teeth into and you’re gonna have fun, but if you’re picky about finding your flow in a game or already enamored with Beat Saber, there may not be enough to pull you in
Audica is available now on Steam for PC VR headsets, Oculus Home for Rift, PSN for PSVR and Oculus Quest at a price point of $29.99 on all platforms. This review is primarily based on the Oculus Quest version of Audica, but we’ve played it on PC via Rift and Rift S as well.
Editor’s Note: The first version of this review was published in March, 2019, when the PC Early Access version of Audica released. As of today, February 4th, 2020, the review has been updated and rewritten to account for the launch version of the game.
Until now this cross-platform support has been limited to the HTC Vive. The latest update adds official support for Windows MR headsets too. The documentation includes details of how the Oculus Touch APIs relate to the Windows MR controllers.
What This Does And Doesn’t Mean
Like with the HTC Vive support this has no direct user facing consequences. Oculus Store games still can only have Oculus API support ticked in Unity. This change won’t make Windows MR work there. What this does do however is lower the technical barriers to building for Rift first and supporting Windows MR later, or wanting to release on both.
A developer of a game in Unity for the Oculus Rift can now add Windows MR support without having to integrate the separate SteamVR Plugin. Instead of having to manage the separate Oculus & SteamVR integrations they can stick with one. We should of course note the SteamVR Plugin can also be used to support both headsets, but this can’t be used for Oculus Store builds. Ultimately, this means developers building for SteamVR first and then planning to submit to the Oculus Store eventually would have to use the Oculus Integration anyway.
Windows MR is nearing 10% market share in the Steam Hardare survey. Hopefully the combination of that shift and this update prompts more developers to add support for Windows MR.
The March Steam Hardware Survey results continue a recent trend. The Oculus Rift once again widened the gap with its main competitor, the HTC Vive.
Last month Rift had a 3.81% lead over both Vive and the enhanced Vive Pro. In February, though, that gap grew to a sizable 7.07%. Rift holds 48.21% of total SteamVR headset usage (up from 47.03%). The base Vive meanwhile is down from 40.62% to 39.36%. It’s the first time we’ve seen HTC’s headset dip below the 40% milestone. Vive Pro also shrank dramatically from 2.6% to 1.82%. Add the two together and HTC takes 41.18% of the total share.
As with last month, it looks like small jumps for Microsoft’s Windows VR headsets are to thank. Now at 9.96% (up from 8.94%), the headsets are painstakingly close to surpassing 10% of the share. No doubt scattered sales and the high-end Samsung Odyssey+ headset continued to push those figures.
As always, we’ll note that these figures are not a definitive means of tracking the actual VR market share. The Hardware Survey is optional and requires users to have their headsets actually plugged in to count. Neither Oculus nor HTC has shared official sales figures for their respective headsets.
Still, we’re expecting to see some big shifts for the survey pretty soon. Vive is set to launch the Vive Pro Eye in the next few months. It’s an enterprise-level headset so it probably won’t have a huge effect. But HTC’s Vive Cosmos, its next consumer-level device, is also due to release this year. Finally, we’re hoping for the announcement of the Oculus Rift S and Valve’s own SteamVR device at GDC later this month. It’s going to be a busy few weeks.
The latest data from Valve’s Steam Survey shows the Rift and Windows VR headsets continuing growth streaks in their share of monthly-connected headsets on Steam, snatching share mostly from the Vive and Vive Pro.
Each month Valve collects info from Steam users to determine some baseline statistics about what kind of hardware and software is used by the platform’s population, and to see how things are changing over time; that includes which VR headsets are connected to users’ computers. Participation in the survey is optional, and headsets aren’t counted if they aren’t powered on and recognized by the user’s PC at the moment that the data is collected. Data is captured over the course of the month which tells us how many unique headsets were connected to users’ PCs over that time period; we call the resulting figure ‘monthly-connected headsets’ for clarity.
Compared to January’s record-setting movements, monthly-connected headsets on the platform fell slightly in February, from 0.91% of the total Steam population to 0.89%. This discrepancy could be related to January being three days longer than February, but it’s tough to say with certainty without exactly how Valve calculates the figures behind the scenes.
In terms of the market share among different headsets on the platform, the Rift and Windows VR headsets came out ahead in February.
Image courtesy Valve
The Rift saw its third month of continuous growth, reaching 48.21% (+1.18%) which is just below its all-time high of 48.92% set back in March 2018. The Rift was likely helped in recent weeks by its price reduction to $350 which happened back in January.
Windows VR headsets are now on their tenth month of continuous growth, reaching 9.96% (+1.02%) share of headsets on the platform, which is also the new all-time high for the headsets. Windows VR headsets seem to be continuously discounted, including some big sales on the Samsung Odyssey last month, which likely contributed to the ongoing growth.
Those gains came primarily at the expense of the Vive and Vive Pro. The Vive dropped to 39.36% (-1.26%) share, while the Vive Pro dropped to 1.82% (-0.78%). When looking at the share of the two headsets together, HTC’s overall share of headsets on Steam has been steadily decreasing, down to 41.18% in February from 45.38% a year prior.
The Vive headsets don’t go on sale as often as other headsets; during the 2018 holiday shopping season HTC didn’t offer any official discounts on the original Vive, and presently the headset’s $500 MSRP is $150 more than its most direct competitor, the Rift. The Vive Pro, meanwhile, is positioned in a price class of its own (compared to other consumer headsets), with an $800 asking price for the headset alone, or $1,100 for the ‘starter kit’ (which includes the tracking beacons and controllers needed to use the headset).
Beyond the price differences, HTC also has a new PC headset on the way, the Vive Cosmos, which was announced in January. The looming presence of a new headset set to launch in “early 2019” may be suppressing sales of the Vive and Vive Pro in recent weeks, and could have knock-on effects for the usage of current Vive headsets on Steam. HTC has also continued to aggressively expand its Viveport platform, which itself directly competes Steam; if HTC succeeds in attracting users to Viveport, it would likely be directly contributing to a reduced market share of Vive headsets on Steam.
Taken together, the above means that reductions in the share of the Vive and Vive Pro on Steam aren’t unexpected, but things are likely to come to a head when HTC launches Vive Cosmos. While technically SteamVR compatible, Cosmos will likely feature Viveport as the primary content platform and the ‘Vive Reality System’ as the headset’s operating environment out of the box, leaving SteamVR as a secondary option.
