The pre-order countdown for HTC Vive is over, but if you’re still on the fence on whether to get that shiny new VR headset, you’re still not too late to pick one up for May shipment.

What’s more, according to a tweet by HTC VR product specialist Shen Ye, the company processed over 15,000 pre-orders for the Vive yesterday within the first 10 minutes of going live.

Excluding regional taxes and shipping fees, that means the Vive generated HTC over $11M of revenue in only 10 minutes—a mammoth effort for a single product in their entire lineup, which generated $200M ($6.5B TWD) in total company revenue for December 2015. While HTC’s numbers are impressive from a financial standpoint—which can be detracted by the notion that the device has been heavily subsidized—the fact that over 15,000 people were poised to pre-order the $799 headset at the exact same moment says much about the growing global awareness of VR.

HTC-Vive-Headset-Consumer-Launch-Basestation-Controller-headset

VR fans new to the pre-order craze should note that Oculus Rift is currently queued out to July 2016, but at a $599 price tag. The missing piece here however is Oculus Touch, a natural input hand controller that is slated to arrive in Q3 2016 at a yet undefined price.

See Also: Including Controllers, Vive and Rift Could be Evenly Matched on Price

HTC Vive will be shipping with hand controllers for $799, making the two headsets relatively comparable in terms of technical ability once Touch comes later this year. The question of course is how long you’re willing to wait for the complete package, and how much money upfront you’re willing to part with.

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vive preorder

The first wave of Vive shipments are set to release starting April 5th, although HTC hasn’t specified chronologically where individual pre-orders fit in the provided ‘shipping in X-month’ window.

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Scott Hayden
Well before the first modern XR products hit the market, Scott recognized the potential of the technology and set out to understand and document its growth. He has been professionally reporting on the space for nearly a decade as Editor at Road to VR, authoring more than 4,000 articles on the topic. Scott brings that seasoned insight to his reporting from major industry events across the globe.
  • sudoshinji

    Even with the touch controller the two products are not comparable, one is room scale and one is sit down only.

    • Sky Castle

      Wrong. The Touch comes with a 2nd camera sensor for full 15×15 ft room scale. Same recommendation as the Vive.

      • BlackMage

        I do hope they don’t just keep increasing the requirements for USB ports with the additional devices. The Rift already uses quite a few by itself.

        • Foo

          I think adding a USB expansion card isn’t difficult on most desktop computers. It certainly is easier than matching the GPU requirements.

          • BlackMage

            Not saying it is hard to meet the requirements, just annoying.

        • Sky Castle

          Adding extra USB ports is easy and cheap, but I agree with you, the less USB requirement the better.

        • Jeremy Swanson

          One of the USB ports is for the Touch, per the Rift requirements app. I kind of assumed it would be for the extra camera, but I suppose it could be for a transceiver.

      • FloridaOJ

        Source? Palmer Luckey saying, on Twitter, that he casually setup a second camera is by no means confirmation that they are shipping an additional camera.

        • Sky Castle

          Sorry I’m too lazy to look up the source, but can also tell you that several developers from Hover Junkers and another I forget mentioned they recieved the Touch and will be making their room scaled games for the Oculus. So it can do it.

          • FloridaOJ

            You’re right. It “can” do it. There is still no existing source that states the Oculus Touch controllers will ship with an additional camera.

        • Rick

          Yeah lucky has said it many times in interviews at CES

          • FloridaOJ

            I stalk the internet for VR news. Haven’t seen this once from a real source. I’ve seen plenty of forum talk, nothing solid.

      • zzkkttrr

        15×15? Palmer said it’s much more than that even with a single camera. I forget the exact number, but it was something like 15×25

  • Sky Castle

    I tried to preorder the minute the site went live and it still took me 10 minutes to complete the order because of the sold out error. I hope I still made the first batch shipment.

    I had the same issues with the Oculus preorder. Took 15 minutes to complete the order from the time it went on sale and I got the April shipping, so it looks like I’ll be getting both HMDs around the same time. Not complaining though, but I’m so excited that the wait is unbearable.

    • Jean Thompson

      Same thing happened to me! When it said out of stock, I almost cried! Lol

  • Badelhas

    Too bad it’s not available in Portugal, otherwise I would go against my principles and pre-order a unit ;)

  • brandon9271

    So.. I guess HTC isn’t “in trouble” from the Rift launch after all. lol

  • Mateusz

    If we trust Oculus order numbers, then they have already sold north of 500.000 units. Makes me wonder what would happen if their headset was sold for $299 or $399 …

    Edit: I just realized that DK2 sold over 300.000 units so I’m not sure 15k is that impressive.

  • Trailmix

    I’m just glad VR isnt falling on its face like I predicted back in 2013

  • Tyrus Gail

    From other topic: HTC and RIFT started a war between fans because of profits! Intel-AMD, PC-MAC, COLA-PEPSI wars those are are skillfully designed strategies for morons to force them to advertise those products for free.

    People, please – don’t join this corporate designed madness… Internet is already full of imbeciles insulting each other because he like ‘Rift’ ‘ and I like ‘VIVE’… This is just.. sad.

    • Tristan Isaac

      And then there is PS VR xD

  • Falk

    Every headset ordered is good news! I just really hope the don’t burry themselves with an exclusiveness battle with regard to games.

    Having a rift on preorder I somehow feel that oculus should make a statement about their controller. Like for example a ballpark price? I’d really hope it will be 100$ but honestly I expect it to be 200$. Just that I don’t see the adoption rate really becoming big then.

  • Pierre Chamli

    Do you know if its possible to play like, GTA 5 or no mans sky/elite dangerous with HTC VIVE ? even though iknow it would be with keyboard and mouse.. i mostly want to know if i can play more normal pc games with that head gear. even if i wont be able to maby MOVE my head in game, Could i at least “SEE” the computer screen weiv From the VIVEs? <3

    • Rick

      You can create a virtual 50ft display and put games on it while you sit in space or a movie theater etc(virtual desktop). Elite dangerous supports VR native.

    • thecommonperson

      Elite Dangerous is one of the featured titles for the Vive, No Man’s Sky is coming to PC I don’t know if they’ll have a VR mode but there will be a virtual play room where you can have a virtual TV that’s gigantic. GTA 5 will not be VR unless a massive patch is made and I doubt that will happen.