With middling smartphone sales and a loss of a major portion of its smartphone IP and engineering team to Google last year, HTC appears to be full steam ahead with VR headsets as of late. Now, a trademark filing has surfaced that throws the name ‘Vive Cosmos’ into the mix, possibly pointing to the company’s next VR headset.

As first reported by Venture Beat, Dutch tech publication MobielKopen has uncovered a trademark filed with European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) that stakes a claim on the name ‘Vive Cosmos’.

While description of the device is fairly short, it’s clear HTC has their sights on another VR headset with the Vive Cosmos naming scheme.

Here’s a truncated description, taken from the EUIPO filing:

Head mounted display for computer simulated reality; computer hardware; computer simulated reality software; computer simulated reality game software; handheld controllers for use in computer simulated reality environment; optical devices, namely, eye pieces for head mounted displays…

It’s impossible to infer anything else at this point without direct confirmation from HTC, or at very least an FCC filing to seal the deal—the latter typically being one of the final steps towards productization—but that never stopped us from throwing some healthy conjecture your way.

A leak from Valve earlier this month revealed that the company is creating a new high field of view (FOV) headset, with images showing it in what appears to be a late stage prototype, or possible early developer kit. Valve worked closely with HTC to bring the original HTC Vive to market in early 2016, and it’s not out of the realm of possibility that a potential Vive Cosmos could be the result of a similar partnership. The Cosmos naming scheme certainly makes you think of something large and spatial, two things that the supposed high FOV Valve headset has in spades.

Unspecified Valve VR Headset, Image courtesy 2flock

On the flip side, Valve has also created hardware with the help of other manufacturers such as Flex Ltd. (previously Flextronics) and Foxconn to bring a number of devices to market under its own branding such as the Steam Controller, Steam Controller Wireless Receiver, and Steam Link—making the previous supposition a rash, albeit interesting stab at what’s next for VR’s second gen headsets.

SEE ALSO
HTC Announces 6DOF Controller Tracking Dev Kit for Vive Focus

With the HTC’s enterprise-focused 6DOF standalone Vive Focus headset hitting western shores earlier this month, and a new McLaren branded HTC Vive Pro now available to consumers as of last week, it’s at very least clear HTC is continuing its ongoing journey to put VR closer at the core of its business.

Where an HTC Vive Cosmos fits in the diverging spectrum of consumer, prosumer, enterprise-focused, standalone, or tethered PC headset, we just can’t say right now—but you can bet we’ll be keeping out eyes peeled.

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Well before the first modern XR products hit the market, Scott recognized the potential of the technology and set out to understand and document its growth. He has been professionally reporting on the space for nearly a decade as Editor at Road to VR, authoring more than 4,000 articles on the topic. Scott brings that seasoned insight to his reporting from major industry events across the globe.
  • Santiago Draco

    I’m expecting this to be HTCs wide FOV headset to compete with the likes of StarVR and Pimax. Low FoV is going to be pretty much dead soon as consumers demand wide FOV.

    • gothicvillas

      Knowing it’s HTC I can’t help but think it will be massively overpriced. My original Vive still have some legs but if the price is right I might as well :)

      • jj

        yeah i like the vive but there’s a LOT i dont like about htc now. if anyone comes close to them, who isn’t selling youre privacy(fb) ,then i’m jumping ship really fast.

        • Bryan Ischo

          I think almost every Vive owner shares your opinion. I know I do.

          • Trip

            +1 My next HMD will be whatever the next native SteamVR headset is that isn’t made by HTC. I’m hoping it will be a Valve product.

        • Str][ker

          This is exactly my position. I unfortunately had to buy another headset (so my wife an dI can play games together in VR) so I went and bought another Vive.
          Once a competing product comes to market (Hopefully Valve) I am buying that to replace my Vives. I will not buy hardware from Facebook and there’s nothing else out there to compete with the Vive yet.

          • Doctor Bambi

            Samsung Odyssey doesn’t count?

          • Str][ker

            Samsung Odyssey lacks the tracking offered by the lighthouses which the Vive has. I do a lot of gameplay where my hands are behind me etc and would be out of view of the Odyssey’s tracking abilities. I understand that there are hacks and ways to get this to work but I am not interested in going through that to try to make this work.
            I just want a solid, well-supported solution similar to the Vive (but without HTC’s involvement (which may have been evident when I said well-supported))

          • Baldrickk

            Can I ask what games/gameplay leads to hands behind you? Personally, I’m more concerned with poor tracking close to the face – archery games etc. With the recent sales, I might have been tempted if not for the close in tracking issues.

          • Str][ker

            Well, I play Sparc where eI throw the ball around behind my back. Also, games where you need to swing a sword can result in your hands exiting the tracked area. Some shooter games with teleportation also wind up with my hands behind me. I may be shooting something in front of me while jumping backwards with a teleport (Raw Data). I suspect that people who have headsets with limited tracking, learn to adjust their gameplay accordingly. I’ve had my Vive for well over a year now so I’m set in my ways in terms of game play. I don’t want to have to make what I consider to be trade-offs in my gameplay enjoyment in order to get a different headset.
            Vive’s it for me so far but when (not if.. I’m hopeful on this one) Valve releases their own hardware, I am out of HTC land. The only thing which would give me pause, is wireless. It would be hard to go back to a tethered headset after the freedom of wireless.

          • spaceman1980

            You can put your hands behind your back with the Odyssey…

          • Str][ker

            I had read from other saying that when they put their hands behind their back, the tracking gets messed and what they were trying to do doesn’t work properly. This was mainly around swinging weapons. This was why I commented as I did.
            How does the Odyssey track your hand positioning when it’s out of sight of the tracking area from the HMD?

          • spaceman1980

            It uses the built in accelerometer in the controllers. It’s nowhere near as precise, but if your hands are there for less than about 3 seconds, it’s completely fine. Watch SweViver’s recent video on it. If you’re swinging your arms, it’s completely fine. Just don’t expect fine motor skills behind you back.

          • Wolfkolf

            Just got a Odyssey+ and loving it. I also have a Vive and love it. Though the screens in the Odyssey blow the Vive’s away.. The family is having a blast with multiplayer VR :D

          • Wolfkolf

            Even if the living room must be cleared of all furniture to play lmao

          • jj

            high visual aspect, low on wand tracking

          • jj

            but i still love it! just saying

  • Trip

    I really, really hope that the Valve VR HMD shown in the picture is not going to be another HTC product. Do we know if Knuckles are going to be a Valve product like steam link etc.?

    • Trip

      Between the ridiculous prices on Vive Pro, and the issues with Vive wands and the reportedly bad CS (I’m soon to find out for myself) I really want to get away from HTC but absolutely plan to stick with native SteamVR.

      • Master E

        Wouldn’t it be funny if Sony comes out with some cheaper next gen HMD and just knocks it out of the park? They are display makers by nature… I’d think they’d be able to put together a real nice gen 2 HMD given their first gen success.

        They did recently patent some wrist band finger tracker thingys which leads me to believe gen 2 is on its way perhaps after PS5.

        Regardless… here’s to VRs future and success for the big three! Long live VR.. used and love them all

        • mirak

          With what motion controls ?

      • Alpharius

        I’ve enjoyed the Samsung Odyssey+ immensely at 1/4th of the price of the Vive Pro.

    • kuhpunkt

      The Knuckles are a Valve product.

      • Trip

        That’s what I thought. Hopefully that means the leaked headset photos mean an HMD that will be a Valve product and not this HTC device. I will very, very happily give my money to Valve for a good HMD.

  • If the Valve HMD turns out to be this HTC Cosmos then cries of anguish will be heard across the cosmos.

    • Str][ker

      Ugh, I try not to think of that possibility. I REALLY hope that Valve is smart enough to have seen how bad HTC is with customer support (I’ve had to deal with this personally and it’s as bad as the majority of people say) and produces and sells it under their name.

    • Bob

      Valve HMD is definitely a reference model so it’s likely you’d see this technology in other company headsets as well that is provided HTC hasn’t agreed to an exclusive licensing deal with Valve.

  • Alpharius

    This is interesting. I hope it’s not HTC because they have already kind of priced themselves at enterprise level+ with the $1500 Pro (plus another $300 for the wireless adapter). This thing would be coming with built-in wireless, higher quality lenses for FOV, and Valve knuckles. If it is HTC, that would be a $2000 bundle. With Valve/Steam branding, we could probably get the same stuff for $1000.

  • 李昱霖

    Yeah let’s hope it’s not gonna be another HTC product. My vive died to my sweat 6 months ago, and thet didn’t give a shit about how bad their product is. They told me it’s gonna be a 350 U.S.dollars repair fee or you can have your broken Vive back. This company is a fucking vampire trying to suck out all your money with shitty CS. Once it’s confirm that it’s a Valve product I’m ready to get rid of my Vive.