As the Q4 2015 launch of the consumer version of the HTC Vive draws near, signups for the Vive Developer Edition have officially ended. Valve says that Vive development kits will continue to ship through the coming months.
See Also: HTC Vive and SteamVR Hands-on – A Stage of Constant Presence
The signup form for the HTC Vive Developer Edition has been closed and a simple message remains in its place:
New Sign-ups are now closed but we will continue to ship HTC Vive Developer Editions to new developers through summer and fall.
Thanks.
Signups for the hotly-demanded Vive Developer Edition began at the end of April, and while it seems that the dev kits are still being made, Valve and HTC have presumably allocated all the devices that are intended to be manufactured before launching the consumer version.
The Vive Developer Edition ships with the headset, two wireless controllers, and two Lighthouse basestations. Together the system enables a ‘room-scale’ VR gaming space powered by Valve’s SteamVR.
See Also: Closeup with the HTC Vive Developer Edition Headset for SteamVR
With just one month remaining before entering the Vive’s Q4 2015 target release window, the move to draw the line is understandable, but limited quantities leave the kit in high demand. For developers who signed up through the form but haven’t yet received a device, hope may not yet be lost.
Speaking with HTC, Road to VR has learned that some 400 Vive Developer Edition kits are out in the wild, and while initial batches of the device were small, the latest batches may number in the “hundreds”. According to Valve, developers with a kit on the way will get a confirmation email prior to shipping. So it remains possible that developers won’t see confirmation emails until the kit is actually going out the door, even if a kit has already been earmarked for them.
HTC tells us that selecting developers to receive Vive dev kits is a collaborative process between the two companies and that, early on, the process involved vetting candidates’ ability to produce launch content for the system. Now, however, HTC says that outlook is easing up a bit thanks to larger batches of kits coming in from manufacturing.
Although increasing batch numbers may mean less strigent focused on launch content when prioritizing kits, some number of new kits are going to backfill existing developers, whether to replace damaged kits or to bolster the number of kits per team, according to HTC.