Hot on the heels of the $400 Summer Rift sale, HTC is doing some of its own price slashing, bringing the complete Vive system down by $200 to a new permanently lowered price of $600.

VR’s momentum continues as the two leading PC-based headsets have now dropped significantly in price since the beginning of 2017. Oculus recently introduced a new headset and controller bundle and dropped the price to $500 (though it’s currently on sale a little while longer for $400 [Amazon]), and now HTC is fixing the Vive’s price point at a competitive $600.

HTC Vive on Amazon

In the Box

For $600 you’ll be getting the same tried and true Vive system including:

We expect that by now the majority of new Vive systems purchased will include the newer headset that weighs 15% less than the original, and comes with tweaked base stations.

– – — – –

Image courtesy Craig Albert

This price drop to $600 (formerly $800) brings the Vive into a significantly more competitive position against the Rift’s post-sale price of $500. The Vive’s key advantage is its out-of-the-box ‘room-scale’ tracking capability. The Rift can achieve a similar tracking range, but requires an additional Sensor to do so, and the need to connect the Sensors back to the host PC means the setup for room-scale can be more cumbersome. On the other hand, Vive’s Base Stations need only be plugged into a power outlet, potentially saving you from needing to run a cable across the room back to the PC.

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While the Vive makes room-scale relatively easy out of the box, if you’re looking for a similar level of comfort as the Rift, the Deluxe Audio Strap [Amazon] will run you an additional $100.

When it comes to VR content, you might be tempted by Rift’s impressive library of exclusive games, but it’s worth noting that you can play most of it on the Vive using an unofficial workaround called Revive (and conversely, the Rift is officially supported by SteamVR).

Helpful Info

Considering jumping on this deal? We’ve got a number of articles you may find useful to make your decision:

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Ben is the world's most senior professional analyst solely dedicated to the XR industry, having founded Road to VR in 2011—a year before the Oculus Kickstarter sparked a resurgence that led to the modern XR landscape. He has authored more than 3,000 articles chronicling the evolution of the XR industry over more than a decade. With that unique perspective, Ben has been consistently recognized as one of the most influential voices in XR, giving keynotes and joining panel and podcast discussions at key industry events. He is a self-described "journalist and analyst, not evangelist."
  • ShiftyInc

    Did they not say a month ago they would not lower the price anytime soon? Guess they started to get worried, seeing how well it is doing for the Rift and their $400 price.

    • Alorwin

      This is how you know HTC is full of shit, and utterly terrified.

    • Caven

      Yeah, as much as I like the Vive, a $300 price difference ($400 for the current Rift sale) would be pretty hard to justify, especially since that doesn’t even factor in the indispensable Deluxe Audio Strap. There’s no way they could expect people to pay that price difference these days. It made a lot more sense when the Vive wands were competing against an XBox controller, but the Vive in its current state isn’t $300-400 better than the Rift in its current state, and HTC undoubtedly knows that. If it hadn’t been for the aggressive price cuts on the Rift, I’m pretty sure HTC would have been happy to keep the Vive at $800.

    • NooYawker

      It’s insane to keep the same price when your only other competitor is half the price.

    • Entitled

      Complain that they didn’t lower the price. They lowered the price. Complain that they went back on their words. Smh

      • Guess you lack reading skills or were jus dying to say that.

        • Entitled

          Point out the obvious. Get attacked. What a nice person

  • Bartholomew

    Very good to see a permanent price cut (competition at work).
    So now in Europe:
    Oculus Rift + Touch + 3rd sensor + Robo Recall (€30) + Dead & Buried (€40) + Quill (€30) + Medium (€30) = €518
    HTC Vive + Deluxe Audio Strap + a couple of sh*tty indie = €819

    • impurekind

      And you actually get even more games and Apps free with the Rift, like Lucky’s Tale, Dear Angelica, Dragon Front, Echo Arena and Minecraft for example.

      • Ryan

        Some of those are cool. I’ve been playing them on ReVive, which works nicely.

      • NooYawker

        Two on your list is available for anyone who installs oculus software.

    • Andrew Jakobs

      huh? all the games you mention for the oculus come free with the combopackage..

      • Nisei

        The price he mentions is €449 for the Rift set + €69 for a third sensor. The game prices are just to show how much freebies you get.

        • Andrew Jakobs

          ah you’re right, I see it now.. haha ;)

  • impurekind

    Great. Any price drop is more than welcome.

  • Shannon Parkes

    What the?
    The Australian price has only dropped $100 from $1399 to $1299.
    The new price of US$599 = AU$756.60 + 10% GST (goods and services tax) = ~$832 Australian dollars.
    Shipping on the Rift adds US$50… so even if it the Vive shipping isn’t on par, that still doesn’t account for the gap.
    Go the Australia tax, as usual. Feh!
    FYI, “Australia Tax” is a term commonly used here to describe disparity between Australian pricing and other regions.

    • Andrew Haughan

      Yeah, I really wanted to buy a Vive but could not justify the cost difference between US and AUS and then the Oculus sale happened and I could not pass up opportunity. The rift is doing very well at the moment and it’s roomscale is very good now and compares well for the majority of users so I can accept that for the price. I paid $683 AUD for the rift + extra sensor shipped. I highly recommend it. I do love both systems though and this is fantastic for the overal VR industry and I hope it helps to keep the sales momentum of headsets rolling on.

      • Shannon Parkes

        The Rift price drop has me wanting to pull the trigger on a PC upgrade I’ve been wanting to do for a long time. My desktop gets used as an audio workstation, which can be very CPU-bound, so I’ll go a 6 or 8 core.16 GB RAM minimum.. Then, I might as well get a new graphics card… and what’s the point in going to all of that effort if you aren’t going to get a Rift, eh? Down the rabbit hole we go!

    • NooYawker

      That’s the price you pay for being an island continent so far away.

      • Shannon Parkes

        Cruel, but true :)

    • Slaziar

      Check the price again, it’s now down to AU$999

      • Shannon Parkes

        Yeah, that was a happy find I stumbled across yesterday. Looks like the $1300 price tag was an interim price drop. Good news for everyone!

  • MW

    Sorry. Still too much (and only for US). Bye.

    • RFC_VR

      here in the UK its still at full price £759 at electrical retailers, although HTC Vive UK site has the discounted price..HTC might want to let the retailers know??

      • Meow Smith

        It should sort it self out, they are already dropping prices here at the bottom of the world in New Zealand.

  • CURTROCK

    This is great for VR in general. Competition is working for the consumers. Let the fanboy wars, RESUME! :)

    • Oscar

      Aaaand, in Sweden it costs $940… So fucking unfair :(

  • GreasyMullet

    Great step in the right direction but without the Deluxe Audio strap (DAS) at this price it is not competitive. The DAS is not an accessory but rather gear that fixes a poorly designed headset which out of the box feels like a prototype. The DAS gives the VIVE polish that it should have right out of the box like PSVR and RIF do today.

    SteamVR is my choice for VR but with the upcoming LG release this seems like too little to late.

    • Tyler Soward

      Yep – they’re on the right track with the price cut, but what they really should have done was make the deluxe audio strap a part of the $600 package

  • Icebeat

    Low build quality, horrible customer service, very unconformable, and shitty games = 600$ Good luck with that.

    • M Rob

      None of those things you listed are true.

    • NooYawker

      At least try to sound like you know what you’re talking about.

    • Suitch

      They are true, I have both, and all of the things he said are true. Good games require a Rift or ReVive and even then, the touch controllers are better until knuckles come out and even then the comfort difference is night and day.

      • Bryan Ischo

        Your opinion is not fact.

  • Mark Steelman

    Is there still a payment plan to spread the cost over multiple months?

  • DaKangaroo

    I said in my comment 2 months ago ( https://www.roadtovr.com/htc-explains-vive-price-cost-lowered-cut-discount/#comment-3367849793 ), on the article where O’Brien indicated they were maintaining a high price point because they felt they had a premium product in a market full of consumers only interested in a premium experience that any price drop indicates that that O’Brien feels something has changed or is about to change.

    A $200 price drop is significant and indicates O’Brien either knows or suspects something comparable or better to the HTC is coming soon or is already here. That could mean they suspect a competitor about to release a brilliant new headset, or that HTC is planning a Vive 2 and believes the HTC Vive has sold as many units can it can at it’s current price point.

    • RFC_VR

      perhaps LG’s mystical SteamVR?

      • Andrew Jakobs

        Nah, the LG is the same as the other Microsoft Mixed Reality headsets, they are all based on the same referencemodel, with some small extra’s.
        And the reviews on those headsets aren’t really in yet (or really convincing to get those over the Rift or Vive).
        (ofcourse I could be wrong)
        And I think I’m wrong, as it’s a completely different headset than I was thinking of. But then again, there isn’t anything really concrete about the LG headset, no actual definite specs or a shippingdate.

        • RFC_VR

          LG is SteamVR based with external Lighthouse tracking basestations, and Viper concept (Valve) wands using Triad components

          Windows Mixed Reality (Acer,etc.) Use no external basestations, just two external cameras for machine vision “inside out tracking”. Currently no controllers seen apart from Microsoft reference model with tracking lights.

          Somewhat different?

          • Andrew Jakobs

            As you can see, I came to that conclusion already before you answered.

          • RFC_VR

            Thanks for your response, you are right about real lack of information on the LG, we just have the blocky looking prototype from months back.

            We can only live in hope that LG bring a refined SteamVR HMD to market, the rumours are development delays due to wireless integration, who knows?

    • ShiftyInc

      Or it’s just because the Rift is now selling a lot better then the Vive and they lowered the price to stay relevant?

    • Carl Galilee

      Or that they know they will never shift headsets at double the price of a rift.

      If they didn’t make this move they would kiss goodbye to a healthy market share. Customers will buy into Oculus and its harder to switch them across to your product further down the line.

      • DaKangaroo

        Agreed. HTC may believe they have a ‘premium product’, but premium products only outsell cheaper quality products when the increase in price is fair for the increase in quality. I won’t judge which headset is better, but even if the Vive can be considered better than the Rift, there’s no way it could be considered ‘Double your price’ better.

        It could really be simply the case that Oculus has forced HTC to drop their price to stay competitive.

    • Excuses excuses.

      No thinking way too muh into this. You sound like an HTC rep.

      • DaKangaroo

        Did you read what I wrote?

        I’m not making any excuses for anyone.

        I’m merely analysing HTC’s business decision, it’s what we do on this site remember?

        HTC stated their reason for the lack of price drop just 2 months ago. Assuming they were honest (big leap I know), based on their logic, they believe they either no longer have the premium product in the VR market or believe the VR market itself has changed.

        Note what I’m not saying:

        I’m not saying is that the Vive is a premium product. I’m only saying that HTC believes the Vive is a premium product.

        I’m not saying that this move isn’t just a desperate price drop to compete with the Rift. I said: “O’Brien either knows or suspects something comparable or better to the HTC is coming soon or is already here.”, which was a reference to other headsets, including the Rift, which O’Brien could now fear offers a comparable or superior experience to the Vive.

        I have no interest in any ‘console war’ type fighting, the VR industry needs all (well, most at least) industry players to succeed right now.

        So settle down Luigi, no need to get so defensive over pieces of plastic and circuits.

        • You settle down.

          I meant that you were over analyzing it.

          You getting all bent outta shape over what I said. Typed so many paragraphs.

          Take a chill pill. Don’t pop them blood vessels. You guys get all worked up so easily.

          :D

    • ZeePee

      Good point.

      And I suspect it would therefore be the LG VR headset.

      Revealed back in February, it was already on par with the Vive, with a a better headset design, and higher resolution.

      That was a prototype and they said there would be improvements even possibly a further increase in resolution. They are touting it as a next gen headset.

      Its also steam vr, so it’s absolutely direct competition and will be better than the vive, possibly launching this year.

      But I think it’s also clear that if they don’t lower the price they won’t last against the Rift undercutting it.

      • DaKangaroo

        Good call. That could be what they’re worried about.

      • Meow Smith

        Amen, right on point!.

    • Virtualdaydream

      My thoughts exactly, I think believe it of not it’s Primax 8k head set which also uses valves light houses

      • Meow Smith

        Nah, its more likely to be LG’s improved 1.1 version of the Vive over anything PiMax comes out with, ala grip controllers, better resolution and a better headstrap.

        Pi Max isn’t quite there when it comes to the quality level of the vive and rift software wise and hardware wise nor suport.

    • Andrew Jakobs

      HTC has said they won’t release a Vive 2 for at least another year..

      • Nisei

        HTC has said they won’t lower the price for the Vive anytime soon either…

        • DaKangaroo

          You both are correct and both make good points.

          • Peter Hansen

            It is plain and simple a response to the Rift price drop.

  • Daniel Lopes

    I think HTC doped the price because Valve is working on the Knuckles controllers and Base station 2. People should wait until Gen 2 produces are announced before purchasing something that wont be compatible with new hardware.

  • NooYawker

    With Christmas coming someone came to their senses.

  • Simon Vermette

    I bought an HTC Vive 4 months ago so I’m pretty mad about this price drops. But, on the other hand, I may finally be able to convince friends to buy a kit to play with them.

    • PrymeFactor

      And you couldn’t convince them to buy a $399 Rift + Touch?

      You let fanboyism get in the way of bringing more people into the VR fold…including more people to play with. Smh

    • Suitch

      Convince them to get the rift. I have both and they will be happier. To do otherwise is to put fanboyism ahead of true friendship.

      • Peter Hansen

        Says the fanboy. :D

        They definitely want to max the number of games they can play together. So…

    • AndyP

      I bought the Rift, touch controllers and 4 sensors at full price – ouch, but I’m still happy at the big price drop if it means success for VR (though I’d still appreciate a few store credits from oculus for being an early adopter – just saying!).

      • Peter Hansen

        Actually, the price drop does not mean success. Rather the opposite.

        But it might improve the situation.

    • Candy Cab

      You know how it goes, from a monetary standpoint there almost never a good time to buy current technologies that revolve around PC’s especially when it comes to game related hardware. Overall I think its a good problem to have vs things becoming stale. You just have to be happy with what you are buying.

  • Jean-Sebastien Perron

    Way more expensive than oculus and without proper headphones, without any modern vr controller (cheap psmove immitations) and include only shitty games. Only a fool would fall for this scam. Plus the helmet is way more heavy and the definition in the center of fov is low. Steam store is more expensive than the oculus one.

    • Caven

      Sure, one can make a case against the extra weight, controller ergonomics, and lack of integrated headphones, but you obviously have no idea what you’re talking about if you think PSMove controllers are somehow superior to Vive controllers. Having used both, tracking on Vive controllers is far more accurate, and the Lighthouse system offers a much larger tracking volume with 360-degree capability.

      As for games, it’s true that Oculus puts a lot of effort into exclusives and doesn’t have the shovelware that SteamVR has. However, there are still quite a few good games on SteamVR, unless your idea of shitty games includes games like Arizona Sunshine, Raw Data, Superhot VR, Star Trek: Bridge Crew, Elite Dangerous, and Project CARS.

      If you don’t like Vive and/or SteamVR, that’s fine. But there are enough legitimate points to criticize that you don’t need to make up bullshit to try to “prove” a point.

    • Andrew Jakobs

      Sorry, but Steam store is far from more expensive than the oculus store. I buy a lot of bundles through sites like indiegala or bundlestars which makes it very cheap, but even then, the price on regular steam is about the same as on oculus (and you can always try sites like kinguin).

  • Ombra Alberto

    This price battle, of Oculus and Vive, I like.

    Soon Microsoft and LG will join in this ballet.

    Great time for the growth of VR.

    • Armando Tavares

      The price battle isn’t between Oculus and Vive. They are just trying to hold tight for what is about to hit them: Microsoft.

      • In my opinion, Microsoft has never really had a track record for hardware except for the successful XBox but even that does not support VR because they think the market is still too young. They are a software company after all.

        If you follow Apple and their AR work you can see they are really ramping up interest. I think MS and Apple are competing with each other behind the scenes. The first to bring an OS that is VR/AR based will dominate the industry, that is a likely future. They do not care about Vive/Rift as competition, they only care that VR is adopted on mass. I think this is what MS are pushing for rather than competing with other headset manufacturers as that is counter productive for them as the OS provider.

        Typically MS will accept all external hardware under its OS with third party driver support and native VR support in later versions of windows. This is what we are seeing now with a slew of new cheap headsets coming to market. They are pushing VR for mass market which means bringing the price down.

        • Armando Tavares

          When I mentioned ‘Microsoft’ I was pointing out Microsoft’s’ + Partners joint venture into VR.

          I agree MS couldn’t care less about VR devices but Acer/Asus/HP/Lenovo/Dell/3Glasses sure will.

  • AndyP

    Now we just need the big immersive blockbuster games to boost sales (like Skyrim, Doom, Fallout 4, HL2), which are coming soon. It’s exciting times for VR, and by Christmas it’s going to feel like, well Christmas!

  • Nisei

    It may come with room scale tracking but you still need to add $100 for the deluxe audio strap to level it to the Rift.
    I don’t care for roomscale VR (as long as I live in this house) so for me the Vive is still $200 more expensive.

    • Room scale is great if you have the space, and surprisingly I found that you need quite a big space too as you end up moving around much more than you imagine you would. My mate clears his living room for the Vive, it’s a 13 foot by 14 foot room. He then has to keep a close eye on whoever is playing to make sure that they don’t whack their hand into his computer, TV, chairs etc piled up at the edges of the room. That and the cable you have to be half aware of bring you out of the immersive experience every 30 seconds or so. Saying that, room scale is a feature I loved but who wants to clear a space every time they just want to play a quick game of something? It is more of a party feature to those with the average house full of stuff.

      So, the Vive has room scale as its one? strength over the Rift. On the other hand the RIft bundle deal + buy an extra sensor (so you end up with 3) for room scale is what? £458. that comes with the decent touch controllers, built in headphones and a decent games bundle. It can also play Oculus store titles AND steam games without any software hacks. Or you can pay £141 more and get a Vive? I fail to see how the Vive is an option?

      • Peter Hansen

        The Rift sensors just suck. The headset is ok, although not so comfortable on my head, but ok. But those sensors…

        – Outside-in tracking, so there is stitching of camera data (and where there is stitching, there are artifacts; they got reduced, but you can’t eliminate them completely; similar to drift with solely IMU based mocap)
        – You need at least three of them to effectively avoid any controller occlusion (price, places to put them)
        – They all have to be connected to the PC (cable extensions, cables through the room)
        – USB connection of 3 sensors is not straight forward (Oculus recommends 2x 3.0 and 1x 1.0 to avoid controller bandwidth issues)
        – They don’t come with wall mounts but with little stands (places to put them, moving them deteriorates tracking quality, tracking space has to be calibrated frequently)

        I really don’t like those.

        • Justos

          “`tracking space has to be calibrated frequently“`

          I haven’t had to adjust mine in a few months, this was only true when they were in the middle of fixing it 100% for roomscale.

          Your other points are just pointing out what the base stations are better at, so it sounds like your basing this 100% on that. The oculus sensors are cheap and do a fantastic job, its really not a big deal after the first setup. Not sure why people see plugging in a few USB as such a problem. Though i never had issues with them.

          • Peter Hansen

            If i say the rift sensors suck, then yes, this reflects my usage experience. And as I have a Rift and a Vive, this judgement partly reflects (the result of) a comparison, of course. But then…

            … the stitching is nothing the base stations are better at. The approach is fundamentally different, making any kind of stitching completely unnecessary. (Btw., as I have pointed out above, there is no 100% solution for stitching. Stitching is an approximation process.)

            Same applies to the data/USB connection thing (two of my points). As the base stations provide environmental markers/properties that get exploited by the tracking system, there is simply no data connection between them and anything else (so far at least; soon the lighthouse lasers will convey data, too, but that is a completely different story).

            Granted, the number of ‘sensors’ (the base stations are no sensors, however, see above) maybe is something you could say the Vive system is ‘better at’, because 2 in this sense is better than 3. And yes, they are a little more expensive if purchased separately. But there is no need to. They are included, and there is no benefit to buying additional ones.

            And regarding you not calibrating your Rift’s tracking space: then you are lucky to be able to leave them in place, I guess. Not everyone’s luck, I am afraid.

  • NooYawker

    What? No Call of the Starseed??

    • benz145

      The bundled games have shuffled around a few times since launch.

  • iThinkMyCatIsAFlea

    Don’t support Oculus.

    The founder of Oculus, Palmer Luckey, supports the alt-right.

    The founder of Oculus, Palmer Luckey, gave $100,000 to Trump’s inauguration.

    Don’t support those that support the alt-right.

    Don’t support Oculus.

    • Andrew Jakobs

      oh god, not him again… You know what? because of your irritating, annoying crap everytime Oculus is even mentioned, I’ve decided I’m gonna buy the Oculus Rift.. I was waiting, but because of you I’ve decided I’m just gonna replace my DK2.
      Thanx for being annoying and stupid.

    • Peter Hansen

      Palmer Luckey is not part of the company anymore. So by buying a rift you don’t support him in any major way. And his political convictions don’t retroactively make this a bad product. So there is absolutely no point to what you are saying.

    • Justos

      Wow I never thought about it like that before.

      I’m going to buy a second rift for my partner! Yay us!

  • Tygeray

    I’ll buy when they trow in the audio headset :)

  • Armando Tavares

    The ongoing price drop war between RIFT and VIVE has nothing to do with any of those two companies. It’s amazing how oblivious you guys are.

    Come on. All together now: THANK YOU Microsoft!!

    All the price drops when Microsoft+partners VR is just months away ISN’T a coincidence, but still it may not be enough. I still feel RIFT and VIVE will get blown out of the water and become a niche thing for diehards and fan boys.

    The price point is 400$. Sony got it right and MS realized it.

    The cash cow RIFT/VIVE been milking is about to change hands.

    • Andrew Jakobs

      You’re forgetting the price point of $400 is only for a headset with no tracked motion controllers. And at the moment the reviews that are available on the ACER for example isn’t that great compared to the vive/rift.

      • Miqa

        And only UWP-apps if I understand it correctly. Which means no Oculus home and no SteamVR = no content.

        • Armando Tavares

          Content may be ported. If the user base is big enough, companies will want the extra business and put in the extra hours to port RIFT/VIVE apps to MS Mixed VR.

          I don’t understand why you assume there will be zero content outside the RIFT/VIVE closed universe.

          • Miqa

            You are of course correct. It’s more nuanced than a yes or no.

            However, out of the gate it still seems that there will be a shortage of content.

          • Meow Smith

            a acer rep said a few months ago “10% of our customers are going to be gamers” = unless they make course corrections between now and release I wouldn’t be the slightest surprised if it were lacking in that area.

        • Andrew Jakobs

          Count on valve to support those headsets in SteamVR, it’s for their own benefits of selling more content through steam.

          • Miqa

            I can’t find the source. But where I got this from, Valve stated that that would not work thanks to it relying on UWP.

            Let’s hope that is not the case, but it’s what I read.

        • Armando Tavares
          • Miqa

            Saw that, great news!

      • Armando Tavares

        I may be wrong here but being worse then (whatever) may not be that important.

    • Peter Hansen

      You can’t be serious. The MS-powered headsets are not at all in the same ball park quality-wise.

      • Armando Tavares

        Will that really matter? The real question is: Will MS-powered headsets be ‘good enough’ to get the average Joe his daily fix of VR? If the answer is ‘Yes’, RIFT and VIVE will be in trouble and further price drops may come in the near future.

        • Peter Hansen

          Well, VR at home (currently) is a pure luxury product – unlike TV, which for many also is a means for news reception (where ‘I can see and hear good enough’ makes far more sense). So I think, some of the ‘average joes’ (is this a little disrespectful?) and ‘janes’ out there will notice that it can even get better, and they will want to experience that. Some don’t, of course.

          I think the VR market will be big enough for different price segments in not so many years. Then we’ll have the Vive 2 with 2k displays, wireless transmission, and 2/3 the weight. That will be my next major purchase in the VR sector, I guess.

          It might also be that the MS ‘holographic’ (here: VR) platform will play a much bigger role in the business area, like for individual workplace headsets, where you might not want to pay 600 bucks per office worker, but rather half of it. Because in this use case VR is not about maximizing experience, but about solving a particular problem well enough, i.e. achieving a good cost-benefit ratio.

  • I wonder if the Rift will keep the current $400 sale price now that the Vive has dropped in price too!

  • Peter Hansen

    No HDMI cable included?

  • beestee

    Probably clearing inventory before announcing a new premium bundle with deluxe audio, knuckles and new base stations.