Virtual reality for the masses, almost: HTC Vive becomes slightly more affordable

HTC announced a $300 price reduction for the Vive across the globe, making the VR system more accessible to the mass market.

The Vive will now be available for $999, which still isn't cheap, but it is a bit better than the original $1,300 price tag.

All Vive purchases come with a free trial to the Viveport subscription, where consumers can choose up to 5 titles per month to experience.

Cher Wang, HTC chairwoman says, "Our goal at Vive has always been to offer the best and most advanced VR system and drive mass market adoption for VR across the globe.

"We're continuing to deliver on that commitment with this new price for Vive, 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.

Vive is the only product that offers room-scale VR out of a single box, and this version of Vive will be the unit in the market for the foreseeable future.

The base Vive package comes with everything you need for a quick room-scale VR set-up, including two base stations for accurate tracking, two motion controllers for immersive VR experiences and new connection cables.

According to a recent report from UBM, more developers are building experiences for Vive than, as well as this Vive was chosen as developers' top target when creating content.

With more than 3,600 titles available on Steam and Viveport and with new AAA content in the pipeline, HTC promises Vive will continue to be the platform of choice for developers and consumers alike.

The Viveport subscription allows consumers to choose from over 250 pieces of content, and that curated list is still expanding.

According to Steam statistics, HTC Vive maintains a 60% share of access to the platform for high-end VR headsets.

Over the past year, Vive has maintained its lead by more than 20%.

Dan O'Brien, HTC Vive general manager says, "We've rapidly diversified the Vive business so that when customers and businesses purchase Vive, they know they'll benefit from a wide base of support for years to come.

"From constant improvements to the core Vive hardware to the industry's first VR subscription service to investments in new technology for developers, Vive is at the forefront of the push to take VR to the mainstream.

VIVE is a virtual reality platform that built optimised for room-scale VR for true-to-life interactions.

Vive has created the strongest ecosystem for VR hardware and software, bringing VR to consumers, developers and enterprises alike.