Made in partnership with Valve and its SteamVR system, the HTC Vive is 1 of 3 major virtual reality (VR) head-mounted displays (HMDs) on the horizon right now and is also promising to be the first to arrive. The kit is set to launch in a limited fashion towards the end of this year before a full rollout takes place later in 2016. It’s possible to see the device out at events across the globe already, however, a tour stops that HTC itself notes have been ‘blowing minds’ for those that have tried it.
HTC America President Jason Mackenzie said as much during a virtual event for the reveal of the company’s brand new smartphone, the HTC One A9. “I gotta tell you, our next-level experience is blowing minds of consumers and media alike,” he said at the beginning of the show. “We’ve been taking this experience out to show consumers directly. This is real, it’s not fake, it’s not powerpoint,” the president then introduced a short clip of reactions to the experience, seemingly recorded at PAX Prime in Seattle, Washington in August 2015.
Both HTC and Valve have previously said that this event wouldn’t host any news for the HTC Vive and, sure enough, no major announcements were made today. A reveal of the consumer version is expected to take place at some point in October though it’s anyone’s guess as to if that’s still the case. The kit is the first VR HMD to use Valve’s Room Scale user-tracking solution, allowing players to walk around an area of up to 15 feet by 15 feet and have those movements replicated within the given experience.
VRFocus will continue to follow the HTC Vive closely, reporting back with any further updates on its progress.
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