Oculus and HTC have already reduced the prices of their respective headsets, with the Oculus Rift now selling for $500 and HTC Vive for $600. While graphically-capable PCs are cheaper than ever thanks to new GPUs and software optimizations, you still need to pony up the cash for a min-spec system ($699 for an OEM-built machine). HTC hopes to address this in China with a new partnership between Dalian Television and Beijing Cyber Cloud to offer a set-top, cloud-based box—meaning you don’t need a traditional VR-ready rig to run VR games.
According to a report by Engadget, HTC will be trialing the new project in Dalian, China where it will offer access to games hosted on a digital marketplace separate from Viveport. While it only hosts “a few dozen” games, apps and a library of 360 videos at the moment, HTC says more content will be added over time, of course sourced from Viveport.
The service, which also includes is a 60 Mbps broadband connection, is positioning itself as a consumer streaming solution not unlike Spotify. Unlike Spotify however, HTC is also renting out the Vive alongside the set-top box, making for an all-in-one deal that gives newcomers everything they need to start experiencing virtual reality.
The set-top box and Vive bundle is reported to cost a one-time, refundable deposit of ¥3,000 yuan (~$455) including a monthly fee of around ¥500 yuan (~$76). Because the deposit is refundable in full, this essentially lets Dalian-based residents test out the headset at home before putting down the big bucks. The company also offers the choice to outright purchase a Vive with a one-year subscription to the service for ¥6,688 yuan (~$1,015). Considering the Vive’s unusually-high price in China, costing around $200 more than most other regional markets, the savings are apparent for customers still unsure about VR.
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HTC Vive China Regional President Alvin Wang Graylin admits however some latency is to be expected, saying it would be “ok for most non-twitch apps.” There’s no word if the service can provide what’s largely considered the minimum acceptable latency at 20ms motion-to-photon.
Yes, some minimal added latency, but ok for most non-twitch apps.
— Alvin Wang Graylin (汪丛青) (@AGraylin) September 15, 2017
This comes as a part of a larger trend by HTC to make Vive usership less financially daunting. The company already offers a game subscription service via Viveport that includes a collection of hundreds of games at $7 per month, and also maintains a similar subscription program (including headset) for location-based entertainment facilities like arcades or theme parks. Called Vive Arcace, this was also a ‘China-first’ program that latter went global.
One thing is for certain though: the success of a streaming service like this highly depends on a fast, near latency-free connection—something countries (including the US) have to address before taking the digital plunge.
