Not long after announcing Viveport, HTC officially launched its new digital store for virtual reality (VR) apps. Naturally, the apps and games offered on the store are designed for the company’s HTC Vive headset which was released earlier this year. As a product, Viveport makes a lot of sense for the Taiwanese consumer electronics manufacturer. Namely, the VR industry is still far from maturing due to the fact that fully fledged VR headsets are expensive and that computers required to render VR games aren’t exactly cheap either. Because of that, HTC needs to invest in promoting the industry and attracting new customers. While Valve—the co-developer of the Vive—is definitely helping the company promote VR gaming through its mega-popular Steam platform, an exclusive VR store can only help in these efforts.
HTC is celebrating the launch of Viveport with a large two-day sale as it’s selling a handful of popular VR games for a single dollar. Unfortunately, not everyone will get to take advantage of that offer as Viveport still isn’t available worldwide. More specifically, the store has currently launched in around 30 countries so even if you’ve bought Vive, you might have to wait a few more weeks until you get to search for sales on the Viveport. Of course, using a VPN is always an option but note that services such as these usually prohibit this in their terms of use so you might risk the possibility of getting your account banned. Unfortunately, there’s currently no easy way to check whether that’s the case for Viveport as the platform’s terms of use page currently just redirects visitors back to the main page of the store.
Last but not least, HTC also introduced Viveport Premieres, a program of timed exclusives for the Viveport. In other words, certain upcoming VR games will first launch on Viveport before being available anywhere else. While this may be an inconvenience for people who aren’t interested in getting involved with another digital games retailer, it’s a proven method of promoting all kinds of gaming services and consoles. The first Viveport Premieres title will be a remake of theBlu, a popular underwater adventure made by Wevr Inc.