HTC Vive price drops to £599

HTC Vive has announced its first price drop for its virtual reality headset. Starting from today, the HTC Vive will now cost just 599 in the UK, and all new purchases will come with a free trial to its Viveport subscription service, which lets consumers experience up to five titles each month. Each headset will also come with free copies of popular VR titles, including Google Tilt Brush, Everest VR and Richie’s Plank Experience.

Over 3,600 titles are now available across Steam and Viveport, with Bethesda’s triple-A titles all yet to come before the end of the year. This includes the current Vive exclusive, Fallout 4 VR, as well as Doom VFR.

According to Steam stats, HTC Vive maintains a 60 per cent share of access to the Steam platform for high-end VR users, which is 20 per cent higher than the next most popular headset. It’s important to remember, though, that Oculus has its own dedicated store for the Oculus Rift, so these figures may not be an accurate reflection of Vive’s access share.

Our goal atVivehas always been to offer the best and most advanced VR system and drive mass market adoption for VR across the globe,” said Cher Wang, Chairwoman, HTC.

We’re continuing to deliver on that commitment with this new price forVive, making VR more accessible to a broader audience and driving the entire VR industry forward.Vive’s game-changing technology, best-in-class content and unmatched global partners are fulfilling the promise of VR like never before. With highly anticipated titles, and the upcoming launch of ViveTracker, there has never been a better time to embrace Vive, and enjoy the most immersive VR experience available.”

Paul Brown GM Europe of HTC Vive added:Since launching last year, we have been rapidly growing our ecosystem and expanding our retail footprint across Europe, to continue to reach new audiences with Vive.

"Reducing the price of Vive during a key purchasing season we believe will significantly boost VR adoption to bring in even more consumers and content creators to Vive. We’re focused on delivering both great value together with the best VR experience on the market and we’re excited to lead the way in bringing VR to the mainstream.”