We could expect to see a lot of virtual reality headsets next year. The necessary technology is slowly becoming more accessible to create such content, so more companies could create devices to watch content in this new format. Sony is expected to introduce the PlayStation VR, Oculus has the Oculus Rift and Samsung has the Gear VR already on sale. We expected to see the HTC Vive to become available by this time of the year, but the company announced a couple of days ago that the launch of this device would be delayed until April 2016. Some people might have been disappointed for such delay, so now, the company is detailing a few reasons that led them to take such action.
The company is calling the HTC Vive “the most advanced VR system”, and it indeed includes some sensors to track additional movements that are nowhere to be found in some of its competitors. Apparently the reason behind delaying the launch of this product is because they “are committed to delivering the best possible product, the most vivid VR experience, and the most immersive content on the best content distribution platform in the world”, thus suggesting that they are still perfecting some aspects of the headset, and that they also firmly believe in the quality of their product once those perfections are manifested into a finalized consumer-ready model. They will launch the next version of their Developer Kit at the CES 2016, which will allow the creation of VR content to provide a solid experience thanks to the technological advancements included in this new version, so lack of such content might be another reason that the launch date of the HTC Vive got pushed a little later on.
HTC also mentioned that they will start taking pre-orders for this device in February 2016 and it would be delivered in April. The company seems confident enough about the quality and performance of this product, so they hope that once users get to try out this experience they would be getting one. There’s still no word on how much will it cost though, but since Valve is involved in this device, they could also be involved in pricing decision as they must surely want their Steam platform and its VR content to become very successful.