Viveport Subscription, the monthly service that lets you play 5 games per month from a curated list, is getting a little more expensive this March. Starting March 22nd, Viveport Subscription will increase its monthly price from $7 to $9.
HTC is grandfathering in current Viveport Subscription members and also anyone who buys before March 22nd, allowing members to keep paying the old price “for at least the rest of 2018,” the company says in a recent press release. The price increase will take effect in the 60+ countries served by Viveport.
To sweeten the bitter pill somewhat, HTC is giving a free title to all current subscribers this month, and also special promotions and discounts to subscribers every month starting this month. The company additionally says Viveport “will continue to add value to Subscription through additional benefits and perks as the service grows.”
Viveport Subscription was first introduced back in April 2017, which initially included 50 titles to choose from. At the time of this writing, the subscription catalog has grown to over 375 titles, including games such as Knockout League (2017), Sairento VR Lite (2017), and Fantastic Contraption (2016). Check out the full list here.
“We are always looking to support the developer ecosystem and with the subscription increase, developers will now be earning an additional ~22% from their title in the Subscription catalog,” said Rikard Steiber, President of Viveport. “Our exclusive promotions on select titles will also give developers another avenue for marketing their games to our most engaged audience.”
HTC later clarified in a recent blogpost that the amount going to developers would increase by 28%, not 22% as previously stated.
Teasing out the meaning from Steiber’s statement somewhat, HTC plans on giving that 28% subscription price increase ($7 ÷ $9) directly to its developers not as an act of charity, but doing so to further incentivize developers of higher-quality games to publish to the service too. As the catalog grows in number, it also has to grow in quality to fend off the perception, founded in reality or otherwise, that it’s filled with mediocre games.
Update (02/19/18): HTC later clarified that developers would be receiving 28%, and not the previously quoted 22%. We’ve updated the headline and article to reflect this.