One of the hottest products at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona was the HTC Vive which will go on sale in Australia shortly at what has been described as “a highly competitive” price.
According to Ben Hodgson Country Manager Australia for HTC the new Vive virtual reality headset will only be available online via the HTC website however it is expected to sell in retail stores in the second half of 2016.
HTC has officially announced pricing and pre-order availability overseas for its upcoming virtual reality headset but not Australia, however ChannelNews understands that the headset will be available for around $1,695
The HTC Vive will be opened up to pre-orders later today, February 29.
What’s more, the HTC Vive will ship with three virtual reality experiences on board.
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The first is Google’s Tilt Brush, a painting experience that takes place in 3D space. You can paint with stars, light, fire, and move through your creations as if they were real.
The second experience is Job Simulator: The 2050 Archives. It’s set in a futuristic world where robots have replaced human jobs, and you’re giving an old “job” a go.
Finally, there’s Fantastic Contraption, which involves building insane structures in fantastical locations.
A senior HTC representative says there’s no risk of VR causing an increase in the number of instances of gaming addiction.
Ryan Hoopingarner, Director of Product Marketing for HTC Vive, whether the issue – which already occurs infrequently with time-consuming games like World of Warcraft and Second Life – could worsen with an immersive platform like VR.
“I don’t think VR will make it worse,” says Hoopingarner. “People will always abuse something. There are drastic stories of pretty much any type of entertainment consumption out there.”
“But I don’t think [VR] is any more susceptible to that than any other medium of entertainment,” he said.
According to Hoopingarner, there’s a big focus in the industry towards bringing “social elements to VR”.
He says a number of VR games – including Fantastic Contraption and Tiltbrush – are good examples of how virtual reality isn’t necessarily solitary.
“When we first got Tiltbrush in the office, we started to do these office Pictionary contests, where one person is wearing the Vive and the people outside are trying to guess what the person is drawing,” he tells us, “And to be able to do that in 3D space, I think a lot of people are going to have a lot of fun with the different elements of that type of VR game.”
Hoopingarner tells us that he doesn’t think people will “hole out in their own little world”.
“I think gamers are starting to dispel their bad rap that they’ve had of living in the basement playing games all day,” he continues. “I’ve played games my entire life and that doesn’t describe me.”
