Valve's VR Headset Will Have "Limited" Release in 2015

Published: August 29, 2015 1:24 AM /

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Vive

Valve confirmed its launch plan for its upcoming virtual reality headset, the HTC Vive. Valve stated the first Vive units will be available "later this year," to the public, however, only a "limited quantity" of them will be commercially available. The bigger product launch for Vive will be sometime in the first quarter of 2016. Pricing for the HTC Vive has not been announced.

The HTC Vive is a virtual reality device made to compete with the Oculus Rift and Project Morpheus. Steam created the VR device in a partnership with HTC, a Taiwanese manufacturer of Android and Windows smartphones. According to Steam's official page on the HTC Vive, the VR device is "a full-featured, 360° room-scale VR experience." The developer kit for the HTC Vive, which was made available in early 2015, contained "a headset, two single-handed controllers, and a system that tracks them all in the same absolute space."

The two single-handed controllers are a sort of split up version of the new Steam Controller. These two devices are made to work as controllers specifically for VR interaction and are made to be tracked with "extreme precision." The HTC Vive also works with" dual base stations." These are built with the users movement in mind and are simply placed in opposite corners of the room to track the users body. The HTC Vive can also track the user as they move about the room, tracking "multiple devices with sub-millimeter precision in just milliseconds."

Are you interested in buying the HTC Vive by Steam? Do you think virtual reality will take off and be the next big thing in gaming, or just a phase like 3D was for movies? What game do you think would be most interesting to play in first person with a VR headset? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

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