HTC and Google cancel wireless VR headset release in the US

HTC and Google have confirmed that the planned headset that the two companies were making based on HTC’s WorldSense technology has been cancelled.

The partnership between the two companies was to create a standalone HTC powered headset with the Daydream brand and bring this to satisfy a mid-core market. Announced in May, the headset would have been released at the end of this year. However, a HTC spokesperson told website TechCrunch that the project has now been cancelled.

“We still have a great relationship with Google, but will not be bringing a standalone device to the western markets on Daydream,” the spokesperson told TechCrunch, which Google’s Clay Bavor also confirmed in a tweet, saying they remain "great partners."

However, this is not the end of HTC’s approach to mid-core mobile VR, which Oculus is beginning to develop for as well with the Oculus Go headset. The new HTC Vive Focus will debut in China in early 2018 and follow for the rest of the world later in the year.

The headset, which is powered by Qualcomm’s positional tracking technology, is hoping to capitalise on its Smartphone dominance in the Chinese market. The Viveport content store has proved popular in the region thanks to mobile VR availability and it is hoped that the new headset will also prove successful. A success that HTC hopes will translate to Western audiences too.

“As the VR industry leader in China, it is our duty to help reduce market fragmentation and provide content developers with more ways to make money,” HTC Vive’s Alvin Wang Graylin said in a statement.