HTC is reportedly planning to offer new promotions and discounts as part of its Viveport subscription service, with the initial batch of freebies set to launch sometime this month. However, it remains unclear what these pieces of free content will be as the company has yet to determine how to work the freebies. According to a new report by Wareable, the Taiwanese consumer electronics company plans to add free content to Viveport every now and then, though that could also mean an increase in the subscription fee. The report indicates that HTC is likely to raise the Viveport subscription fee to $8.99 from $6.99. Additionally, the new price will reportedly be applied to new subscribers beginning on March 22. Fortunately for existing users, HTC is said to keep the cost of their subscription at the current price while taking advantage of the new Viveport freebies.
The HTC Viveport was launched in August 2016 as a way for HTC Vive headset users to get the most out of their virtual reality (VR) experience. The service is a sort of an app store where users can explore and choose from a wide variety of VR content. More to the point, Viveport is part of HTC’s efforts to grow its stake in the VR segment as the Taiwanese original equipment manufacturer has been struggling in the mobile device market. In June last year, HTC expanded the VR content available for users on the Viveport ecosystem by adding at least 75 games as part of an update to the service, essentially doubling its offering to consumers as that move brought the total number of VR games and apps for the Vive headset to over 150. Last September, as part of the first-anniversary celebration for the Viveport app store, HTC unveiled three new major updates to the service for the benefit of both the developers and consumers, including a higher revenue, the launch of the open beta testing of the Viveport Arcade Manager, and the launch of a new SDK to help developers create extensive previews of their VR apps.
HTC’s move to offer perks to Viveport subscribers is expected to further help boost the user base of HTC Vive. Rikard Steiber, president of Viveport, noted that 70 percent of users opted to keep their subscription even after the expiration of their trial period, according to the report.