When revealing the HTC Vive Pro back in January, HTC left one salient piece of information out of the announcement: the price. After letting impression of the headset’s higher resolution, improved ergonomics, and other changes simmer for a few months, the company this week finally revealed the price: $800 for the headset alone (not including controllers or tracking base stations). For many of HTC’s most loyal fans, the price was far higher than anticipated.

In what seems like a case of poor messaging, this week’s announcement of the HTC Vive Pro price was received widely negatively among VR enthusiasts. The kicker, for many, is that the $800 pricetag is for the headset only, which doesn’t include controllers or the base stations needed to track it. HTC plans to make the full Vive Pro kit available later this year (including the controllers and base stations), and that’s expected to run somewhere around $1,000.

That means that the only target audience for the currently available $800 headset upgrade is those who already own a Vive headset… many of which are consumer early adopters, and many of whom bought into HTC’s VR ecosystem back when the original Vive itself launched at $800.

Despite HTC naming the headset the Vive Pro, their messaging has straddled the line between the consumer and commercial demographics. Even though the Vive Pro is probably a solid upgrade for VR arcades and enterprises which have a strong business case for buying the premium option, HTC seemed to too readily imply that the headset would be great for both commercial and consumer sectors alike—like how they’re proudly offering six months of their consumer-focused Viveport Subscription service to purchasers of the Vive Pro.

SEE ALSO
HTC Cuts Vive XR Elite Price in More Regions Ahead of New Headset Reveal

Hundreds of comments from VR enthusiasts flooded hangouts like the Vive and Oculus sections of Reddit; our own article on the topic has spawned 160 comments, while the video announcement on YouTube attracted more than 300 comments and has seven times more downvotes than upvotes (at the time of writing).

Some joked, some jeered, and some were (in a way) amazed at HTC’s decision. Here’s a few highly upvoted standouts we spotted, which give a sense of a slice of the community’s sentiment:

scotchy180 on r/Vive

This is an absolute f’in joke. I’m a guy who preorders the second these things go live. I buy the not-really-necessary stuff. I even bought 7 trackers! And I’m not even considering this thing at this price.

They have truly lost their minds.

JMWTech on r/Vive

Wait… It doesn’t come with the [base stations] or controllers at that price? WTF are they thinking.

bekris on r/Oculus

800 for ONLY the headset? That would be too much even for a true next gen headset let alone one that has the same specs as the Odyssey.

DOA for normal users.

J-Billions on Road to VR

Won’t be shelling out that kind of money. I will stick with the original Vive for now. Price point is a big disappointment for early adopters like myself. HTC might lose some of its base over this.

It seems like HTC could have greatly reduced, if not completely avoided, this reaction by more carefully positioning the Vive Pro as a product built specifically for professionals. By directing their messaging at professional use cases only, without intermingling consumer messaging, they could have simply left the door open for anyone from any demographic to buy the headset if the price suited them, while avoiding the sense that they priced a product out of reach of many fans who would like the upgrade and be happy to continue supporting HTC’s VR efforts.

We reached out to HTC for comment on the community’s reactions to the Vive Pro but the company declined to comment.

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Ben Lang
Ben is the world's most senior professional analyst solely dedicated to the XR industry, having founded Road to VR in 2011—a year before the Oculus Kickstarter sparked a resurgence that led to the modern XR landscape. He has authored more than 3,000 articles chronicling the evolution of the XR industry over more than a decade. With that unique perspective, Ben has been consistently recognized as one of the most influential voices in XR, giving keynotes and joining panel and podcast discussions at key industry events. He is a self-described "journalist and analyst, not evangelist."

  • I think a lot of people would have been ready to pay up to about $500. There were hints that the price would be high, but this was a shock. I can understand targeting the enterprise at this price point, but it’s just too high for the average consumer for what the upgrade represents. The fact that the Samsung has similar specs but comes with more at a much lower price just suggests profiteering.

    • Hans Haberschlachter

      Yes i think up to $500, €500 is correct, for most. As i know, an enterprise ist not worrying that much about the price-tag, agreed, but the mail / offer i got was clearly not targeted at an entpreise. The offer of 6 month free Viveport is although of no use for an average enterprise.

    • zengrath

      I was fully expecting to pay $800 to 1000 for Pro kit. Not $800 for only headset, then have to pay more money for 2 controllers, 2 lighthouses then total cost of Vive 1. I personally only wanted to jump into VR supporting Vive, as it’s most innovative, best experience, and most open platform of the bunch, but now with this news i’m extremely torn. HTC is already known for having horrible customer service, and this now just puts the nail in the coffin as far as having no idea what their customers are looking for. I guarantee all the people that made this move was execs who have no passion themselves for VR and shareholders only concerned about their profits and again lacking passion or understanding in making VR a thing. Very out of touch and disappointing. Guess i won’t be supporting VR anytime soon, see what happens in next few more years maybe???

    • SomeGuyorAnother

      I’ll admit, I’m a little curious on the justifications on the pricing. Resolution is the same as the Samsung Odyssey ($499) and probably the same screen if HTC went Samsung again. Of course, being Samsung makes their own screens would justify a lower price on their side, but their headset also includes the controllers.

      If we knew the costs of the sensors on the HMD or the headphones, might have a better idea if the $799 pricetag makes sense, but I doubt the headphones are $300 quality when compared to others. I’m concerned that for a mid-gen, partial product, intended for upgrading to, they set their profit margins too high for the sake of knowing they have a dedicated following.

      • Michael Davidson

        Samsung business units have to purchase products from other business units at the same price. They don’t get a “Samsung” discount.

  • Stefan Küppers

    The other thing on my mind is:
    For $800, wheres the eye tracking or even hand tracking. The 2 camera sollution doesnt seem to do anything “magical” else the pr departement would be all over it.
    So its comfort and resolution for a stellar price. That would work if they were apple and had a great eco system, strong software and excelent support. But they have none of that. IMHO if the price would $850 but included hand tracking on par or beating leapmotion or some other high end tec on top of the resolution update more people would be excited. As it is now it seems like a moneygrab. Naming it pro and having also a vive 1 corporate edition doesn’t help either.

    • FireAndTheVoid

      The cameras are primarily meant for better object detection in order to supplement the chaperone system, although, this hasn’t been implemented yet. Some devs have been able to implement basic hand-tracking. Unfortunately, the resolution of the cameras is too low to be used for augmented reality.

      https://uploadvr.com/htc-vive-pros-dual-cameras-used-object-detection/

      • Stefan Küppers

        Yep thats actually what I meant. A company charging a premium price should have this feature i.e. hand tracking/ chaperone up to perfection and not slap something on that some poor dev may or may not figure out.
        The leap motion seems like a solid system yet HTC decided not to use that but slap on 2 cameras they havent a compelling reason why they are there yet.

  • brubble

    As far as I can tell not one person on the internet is terribly impressed by this skeezy move. I think HTC let their arrogance get away on them here and now its biting them in the ass, serves them right. They sure as hell didnt do any consumer research and if they did, they surveyed a group of sycophants.

    I bet the folks over at Oculus are having a good chuckle.

    • Festus Clamrod

      And the folks over at Pimax are preparing to be the major Steam VR hardware supplier….

    • Raphael

      Check a few comments up.. nathan willard already placed his order.

  • Lucidfeuer

    As I always say, price does not matter: I wouldn’t buy it even at 500. However I would buy it at 800€+ if this was not a mediocre, horribly designed, unimportant and uninnovative iteration.

    • David Herrington

      Looking at price objectively then yes you are correct. If this thing could drive me to work in the morning and make me 20% more productive at my job then I’d be willing to pay $10,000 USD.
      But the reality is that this is just a mediocre upgrade for a premium price, and isn’t even a complete package. There is no way that this is worth $800 to most consumers.

      • Lucidfeuer

        Essentially we agree, but what I actually meant is: I wouldn’t pay 800$ even if it was a complete package. I don’t even know if I would consider it at higher than 600$ so much it’s about the mediocre upgrade, but also design and ergonomics to me.

    • johngrimoldy

      Price DOES matter. It’s an integral component to VALUE that you’re eluding to. But make no mistake, price is important.

      • Lucidfeuer

        Of course there’s a certain fork of prices that are reasonnable (or in HTC’s case, even realistic) to target. But price is a somewhat relative value within the scope of one’s budget, since it’s mainly indexed on perceived and intrinsequial value.

        People are ready to pay 800€ for a smartphone which is a small mobile device that only costs ~250€ a unit to produce all-in (with diluted marginal and operational costs), but it seems pushing it beyond 1000€ was (hopefully) the no-go limit. Yet they sell 20-30 millions of these.

        It took 2 years for PC VR headsets to reach a million…and they expect to sell a mediocre Vive Pro product at 800€…the problem is right at the start of it’s intrinsequial value before even being the perceived one or price.

        • johngrimoldy

          Can not compare to smartphones. Very VERY few outright buy a smartphone. Most do a 2 year contract, paying for the phone over 24 months. Nothing like a VR rig.

          The rest of your post is impossible to interpret. You use tortured prose. I get that you like the word “intrinsic”.

          • Lucidfeuer

            It’s a french word with no other equivalent though it exists as an adjective in english too. My “prose” is understandable enough by other people that the burden of understanding lies on you too unless you’re being insincere.

            But back to the point: yes I can absolutely compare VR headsets to smartphones, the same way I could compare laptop or TVs to smartphone and there’s absolutely no reason why not. The contract exemple is interesting though, it’s true it doesn’t exist for VR headsets, in fact as valid the comparision is, I never though about the overall mobile contract scheme.

          • johngrimoldy

            Post a link to an online French dictionary with a definition? ‘Didn’t think so.

            You can compare VR to Jell-O Pudding Pops for all I care. Just because you strenuously insist an equivalence does not make it so. I just don’t see how a bi-directional device with so many casual applications (the smartphone) is relatable to a VR rig, which is a consumption device that completely removes someone from the real world.

          • Lucidfeuer

            The key question is: what is VR exactly? At face value, in the most intrinsic (ok intrinsiquial doesn’t exist, it was an exaggerate accent of the term) terms?

            It’s a visual interface device. So…this is absolutely analogue to screens, which it will eventually absolutely replace as our main visual interface (except for animated posters and wallpapers). Is this it?

            No, VR is not just projecting visuals and that’s it, it’s also a combined interaction interface device: first it uses sensor and trackers, and like screen which have long been associated with buttons (on radar, then tv remote button, then consoles, which evolve into keyboard, then joystick, then mouse, and then the amalgamation of remote and controller with the wiimote…). In other words: VR without sensing, tracking and interacting, now with controller, and later with hands, doesn’t make sense, like smartphone without tactile screen don’t make sense.

            In fact modern VR emerged precisely from the invention of smartphone: a small high-density screen, with mobile sensors, and what a shame that Luckey stopped there. This is also why VR headset work with smartphone which are the most sold kind of headsets.

            So the fact that VR are under the form of “rigs” for now, because they’re still so unadvanced and archaïc, have to be tethered to a system, have cable which is an absolutely stupid non-sense for any body-attached device, and we’re still figuring out the fact that tracking should of course be done from the device and not outside….doesn’t mean that in it’s essence, VR is not comparable to a smartphone.

    • PK

      sure it’s overpriced, but for those of us who spend a lot of time developing for vr, it seems like a slightly better experience, which i would pay even a little more for as long as i can afford it. and as someone hyper sensitive to motion sickness (only in vr not IRL) having a substantial increase in pixel density will almost definitely make it possible for me to spend more time in it, and read smaller print, watch movies, maybe for some the increase is negligible but i’d pay twice this for better resolution. maybe i should consider the more affordable samsung device but i already have other vive gear so i’ll probably stick to this.

      • Lucidfeuer

        You buying decision making doesn’t make sense. If you’re looking for higher-pixel density and clearer image, then Samsung is the way to go. I don’t even understand why you would artifically pay twice for relative “better” resolution. You’re a developper and yet you seem to have an irrational willingness to give money that nobody asks you to even though there’s plenty of corporations who abuse it. Can I send you one of my bitcoin adress?

        • PK

          you really don’t get what i’m saying? what i meant was that the increase in resolution is so valuable that even if they charged more, i would still pay. because it means that i’ll be able to test stuff for longer each day. and it means i’ll be able to do things like read in vr without getting a headache, which for me is a big improvement. as for samsung, i’m under the impression that overall it’s an inferior device to the vive. and also, i still consider this amazing future tech so paying as much for it as others do on their phone, it doesn’t seem so bad.

          • Lucidfeuer

            Yes I don’t understand your irrational will and focus into wanting to pay artifically more for things that don’t cost to produce nor have mor value. Essentially you are saying you would pay 5000€ for a 4K if it was the only 4K available headset?

          • PK

            I don’t think it’s at all irrational. I can’t change the fact that they have a certain profit margin their aiming, definitely I hope that they lower the price before I order mine as I won’t have enough funds for a couple of months. But paying a few hundreds extra for the resolution is acceptable, for how much it’ll improve my life. If it’s not a noticeable improvement then I’d be upset. And no, as badly as I want 4K, I don’t have that kind of money.

          • Lucidfeuer

            But are you an investor or stockholder in this company? Or are you more concerned by already rich greedy useless leeches who are responsible for the whole economical and technological slow-down than about either your money or your passion for VR? In other terms how is their margin your concern?

            Have you ever looked into the price of components these devices have? A 4K samsung screen OEM unit is not that expensive for example.

          • PK

            but is the samsung device as good as a vive? sometimes even for marginal increases in quality you pay a lot more, the best tech isn’t a value. and at this stage in early vr development i need every bit of increased quality i can afford. when i say double the price, i would be upset to pay so much, but i would still do it because i could probably just not do anything else fun for a few months and make up the difference.

            but also i think htc together with vive have been steering the industry in more positive direction than facebook has. they’re not perfect but i believe supporting them is more beneficial to my long term efforts than supporting oculus. and samsung, well, i don’t have much of an opinion, if the reviews said it was just as good as the vive pro then i would save some cash.

          • Lucidfeuer

            If you’re a developer, I’d say not, the Samsung Odyssey is reported to have clunky tracking like other inside-out headsets, the Vive or Oculus are better for that.

            But for HTC, the problem is that they’re making all the wrong decision despite having, as a corporation (which actually makes their pricing decisions abusive but also beyond irresponsible in terms of marketing), the big budgets, means and teams, and rewarding them for that would actually hinder the progress of VR.

            Especially if it’s your first headset, the Pro won’t make a difference at that crazy price. Then choosing between the Vive and Oculus is to each their own, if you want a fixed room setting with a slightly clearer and larger image, I would go with the first Vive package which not only includes everything necessary but will also probably go down in price, which will let you save budget for anything else.

  • gothicvillas

    I bought Vive as one of the early adaptors and looked forward to upgrade. But 800 for headset only is a slap in the face. To me original Vive headset s fine… controls are the main culprit but this hasnt been addressed. If they added new controllers (knuckles?) in the package, then maybe (maybe) 800 would have been justifiable. Otherwise for the resolution bump only its a joke. Larger FOV would help to justify price hike as well. Honestly, this Vive Pro is a joke.. a very bad joke.

    • SomeGuyorAnother

      The Knuckles controllers are definitely what is needed for the Vive. This is the downside of HTC having to follow Valve’s guidelines on design, otherwise I feel they would have considered a basic, more ergonomic redesign of the standard controllers long ago.

      • FireAndTheVoid

        I don’t think they are obligated to follow Valve’s guidelines on controller design. Pimax is using Valve’s tracking system, but they are designing their own version of knuckles controllers.

    • LowRezSkyline

      The lack of knuckles upgraded controllers it the part that really surprised me. I thought HTC was more savvy than this. I’m pretty content with my current setup. The wireless module works great, the new improved strap is much better. Really my only complaint right now is the finickiness of the current controllers. They’re pretty touchy too, I’ve already had to replace one and I’m not sure what ‘killed it’.

      Right now the one I have had since punching my VIVE is starting to act up. I really don’t want to buy another one of this prone to dying on there one wands. They need to release the new controllers ASAP.

      • Paula

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      • Davos1234

        I took mine apart and a ribbon connection had come apart …..easy fix.

  • Hans Haberschlachter

    It would be interesting to know, if the HTC mails we got, are all the same, or if the VIVE Business Edition VR System owners got a different mail, with the offer of different extras?

    • ymo1965

      I subscribed to htc’s newsletter/email thing and got sweet F.A from them. Didn’t matter as there was more coverage over the web when the price was announced.

  • nathan willard

    I hope that the design is more comfortable and far more rugged than the original to cover the huge leap in price, I want to be able to sit down with Elite D. for longer stints with out my face hurting, my eyes bothered from poor resolution. I wish the headphones were over ears with 40mm drivers but I suppose they are better then the Deluxe audio headstrap.
    I placed my pre-order, and can not way for more steam VR HDM competition in the ring.

    • Raphael

      I’ve been playing Elite in VR for a year with Vive and never once had face hurting. Makes me wonder what dumb stuff some of you are doing. Perhaps quit over-tightening your strap. Replace the crap neoprene face pad with cool faux leather.

      • Graham J ⭐️

        Ya because everyone’s face is exactly the same!

        The Vive’s strap design is flawed. The only way to lift the headset off the cheeks is to tighten the top strap, but this also pulls it into the forehead. That doesn’t work well for all faces.

        • Raphael

          The elastic accounts for the differences in head size. You have it too tight. Some people think it needs to be adjusted so there’s absolutely no movement of the unit. Wrong.

          • Graham J ⭐️

            Keep believing you’re always right!

          • Raphael

            Thanks for the tip flappy. I will.

        • FireAndTheVoid

          If you haven’t gotten the Deluxe Audio Strap yet, I highly recommend it. I haven’t had any issues with comfort since switching to it.

      • nathan willard

        Sure because all faces are the same and one size fits all, why does your comment have to be an insult because your experience differs from mine. I must be doing dumb stuff, or maybe you are juvenile, and can’t hold a real conversation without making insulting and arrogant statements.

    • jj

      same as Raphael I haven’t had an issue once i got the DAS buut id suggest a windows MR headset if you want it for ED. This is mainly for the higher res and light weight of the headsets make longer use a ton better. But for games where you use controllers and room tracking i’d stick with vive of course.

  • Raphael

    They are at least predictable. We could have assumed the price would be higher than reasonably expected. You know that some developers are almost consistently out of touch with their audience (remember when codemasters brought VR to dirt and then took it away again?). HTC apparently believed home users would be “happy” because they dropped 100 from the first Vive (still 100 more than octopus rift).

    As a Vive user I hope piemax actually releases their pie thing this year and thus kill home sales of the vive to all but a small percentage of really dumb people.

    Perhaps HTC will re-shuffle their company again… separate the phone division and then rejoin it for christmas.

  • Drop

    So what? There’s no content for average user (enthusiast)for VR anyway.

    • jj

      What? theres tons of content, i’ve been playing carious games and experienes for two years now and still have tons of game hours to put into VR titles.

    • Krzysztof Kiersznicki

      Hahahaha…please leave….

    • Graham J ⭐️

      The $600 I’ve spent on Steam would tend to suggest otherwise.

    • Cristianfx

      what??

  • Jean-Sebastien Perron

    It’s not just the price, there is no upgrade path to it either. Unless you get stuck with an old Vive that you won’t be able to sell without sensors and controllers. It’s a product that is impossible to buy unless you are ready to lose a lot more money to buy a complete Vive kit for spare parts.

    • NooYawker

      Did you really own a Vive and had a terrible customer service issue with them? Is that why you constantly post anti-Vive things? Because if that’s the case then I can understand.

      • jj

        No hes a troll, he does it only for the reactions. I doubt he’s ever even owned a vive.

        • Scuba830

          He may be a troll. But I’m not – they have absolutely horrible customer service. It took me months of calls and emails and got zero information. It took me posting on the HTC site to get a resolution. Guess they lost my headset because they sent me a new one. Happy ending but the process was painful.

        • NooYawker

          Yea, my optimistic side fooled again.

      • Chris Edwards

        I have never had bad customer support from Vive. I have never even had to contact them in the 1 year since I purchased my Vive.

    • Harry Cox

      Scraping the Jean-pool again

      • Jean-Sebastien Perron

        Harry Cuck

        • Harry Cox

          cuck? Owwwwchhhheeeee!

          • JJ

            dude he so burnt you.

    • JJ

      BTW its really obvious that you are also the owner of the fuyou2 account because both accounts have the same amount illiteracy and terrible information that you spam everyday here.

      Do you work for oculus and are secretly here to just spam anti HTC propaganda?

  • Paul Roberts

    I reckon HTC have started smoking the same stuff Apple have been for the past few years – only they don’t have a captured market to fall back on of 20 somethings and highly paid execs – neither group having a great concept of value! In my limited experience of tech marketing the key factor that drives someone’s purchase is if their friends have the product so I would have thought the thing they should be doing right now is gaining market share even if it is at a break even price – like what I presume Oculus are doing with their pricing!

    • Lucidfeuer

      The huge difference with Apple is they never reached a 10th of their successful conception in any of their products and don’t have the somewhat remaining legacy of it’s inventor to feed on.

      However they have in common to be completely lost in an irrational yet intricate governance reasonning that seem to be 100% calculated around spending, iterating and innovating the least possible in order to renumerate their fat pig investors the most, while in the process having completely lost any strategical vision whatsoever. Which is unfortunatly true of most corporations today.

      • Jistuce

        Inventor’s legacy? Did Steve Wozniak die?

        • Lucidfeuer

          I think you confuse the engineer and the conceptor, granted they worked hand in hands.

          • Jistuce

            I confuse nothing. Jobs was a salesman. His legacy is one of stellar marketing, both of the company’s products and of himself.

          • Lucidfeuer

            This are ridiculous non-facts. Steve Jobs was the conceptor and inventor, period, it’s a fact. Now we can discuss how good inventions the Mac, iPod, iTunes, iPhones, Macbook and so on were, but salesmanship was a highly minor aspect of Jobs jobs and strategy.

          • Jistuce

            No, he really wasn’t an inventor or “conceptor”.
            Thanks to the astronomical popularity of the company, it is well documented who did what on most of their projects, including the iPod(which was revolutionary primarily for how it was marketed) , the Apple I and II(pure Wozniak), the Newton(Jobs wasn’t even a part of Apple), the iPhone(and boy do people forget how limited that was), and so on.

            Most of the products he was actually involved with, he would properly be
            credited as “design consultant”(or possibly “saboteur” in some cases,
            such as the Apple III).
            Jobs was not a programmer or electrical engineer, or even designer. He created nothing. And when forgot his skill sets and got too involved in a project, it tended to come out deeply flawed.

            Telling someone “see what you can do with portable touchscreens” doesn’t make you the creator of the iPhone. It makes you are a high-level manager that gives your engineering teams broad discretion to do the job you hired them for.

          • Lucidfeuer

            That’s fake news and historical revisionnist. Lucky for us there are ALL bios and reports that talk about it, and the fact that Apple’s history is a coherent conception, except when he was fired, which is why he was hired back as a CEO (hum wonder why)…not counting anything since his departure from Apple which is oddly exactly when they stopped innovating and started making uninteresting and unimpressive crap products…hum…

            He’s no a programmer, engineer, not even a designer, in fact not even an entrepreneur nor a marketer, you’re right about that. He’s a conceptor, the Apple I/II, Store, Mac, iPod, iPhone, iTunes etc…COULDN’T have been made without him, and yet he took lots of inspiration and already pre-existing or conceived technologies, and didn’t do the engineering, the finance, the design, the development etc…well Apple exist specifically because of how specific this Steve Jobs’ talent was.

          • Jistuce

            What was the Newton if not innovative and impressive?
            Also, Apple’s first GOOD Star clone, the Macintosh II, was created after Jobs left. John Scully’s tenureehad very real problems, but a refusal to innovate wasn’t among them.

          • Lucidfeuer

            It’s a joke? A failed product from the failed era of Apple, factually, period. The reason? Innovating is not enough, or then relative, conception however is what is needed to make it right, Steve Jobs was that conceptor, and both the history of 80s and 2000s Jobs at Apple speak (the 90s failure, and the current constant stalling and slide-off too)

            I know it’s a little abstract, by definition, conception is abstract, but that’s what most great “inventors” have in common and why we consider them to be “rare”: because lazy uninterested superficial people just settle for calling them “geniuses” while other jealous them for this misused term, instead of deconstructing, analyzing then rationalising what they do in order to find or educate tons of others like them.

            There is nothing mysterious (at least to me, since I’ve followed and read lots about him since being a kid) what Jobs did and why it worked, as it should and would in any case: you can spend a lifetime specializing in one of the many executive or research/engineering and necessary job, waste time learning and working through meaningless and artifical marketing, communication, management, administration, financial etc… frames and matrices that create no value, or you can dedicate yourself to taking a step-back and sticking to the inherent meaning and sense of why we do this things and how it provides actual value to the world (in any domain, not just tech or products).

            This is what’s missing in VR.

          • Jistuce

            You know Jobs was ejected from Apple in the early 80s, right? And that the Macintosh didn’t become a system the company could actually sell in any reasonable volume until after he left and they fixed the problems he’d foisted on the platform?

            The Macintosh II was the first Mac that was actually desirable, and it spat on Jobs’ insistence that the Macintosh be a sealed, non-upgradable unit that only supported B&W graphics. Turned out that anyone buying a computer wanted the ability to upgrade it. And at the prices Macs went for, color displays were mandatory. Before Jobs’ departure, the MacII was being developed, but in secret to prevent him from shutting it down. It was the machine Apple needed, but not the machine Jobs wanted.

            Jobs was a MUCH better manager when he came back a decade later.

            He’d also mostly given up on his “fanless PC” fetish that killed the Apple III, and almost proved devastating to the Apple II. Not entirely, as the G4 Cube and Titanium Powerbooks can testify to.

            Unfortunately, a desire to pursue the high end of the market exclusively lost Scully’s Apple a lot of momentum once other companies started shipping GUIs for IBM-compatibles in the late 80s(to say nothing of the Amiga and ST with their luscious graphics and sound), and it felt like a deep betrayal of their existing Apple II user base as well(a user base that had made the Apple II the most popular home computer in America, in large part due to its stellar pricing for the feature set).

            The betrayal was felt even more deeply when they crippled the IIgs(AKA the computer everyone actually wanted) by forcing the release version to use a slower 65816 than they intended(the target speed would’ve been faster than the then-current Macintosh Plus, in color, and cheaper. Two out of three ain’t bad, though.). They then killed the IIgs because it was outselling the hopelessly undesirable Macintosh 512k and slightly less undesirable Macintosh Plus. Next year’s Macintosh II would bring the expandability, chromacity, and performance people expected from a high-end machine.

            The company’s attempts starting in 1990 to diversify and offer computers for lower market segments backfired, as they flooded the market with slight variants to cover every possible price point.

            Despite management at the time’s woes, they still managed to navigate a complete change of architecture(from 68000 to PowerPC) with few user-facing issues, which was no small feat. (Unfortunately, PowerPC was a bad bet and they had to do it AGAIN a decade later)

            And yes, the Newton was a failure. It was a victim of Apple management’s desire to announce an ambitious new project early, and their tendency to let scope creep run rampant. Repeated delays left people weary of it, and gave everyone else time to get into the market with something “close enough”(most notably the venerable Palm Pilot). But it was revolutionary nonetheless, and iOS and Android both owe huge debts to it.

  • JesperL

    Feels like greedy EA all over again.
    Prices that would be fair:
    Vive Pro HMD 400$
    2 x 2.0 Controllers 100$
    2 x 2.0 Bases 100$
    Vive Pro Wireless kit 200$

    • Harry Cox

      Agreed, shame it will never happen. Let’s hope Pimax isn’t a turd and tracks ok too

      • JesperL

        I never backed Pimax, because it simply sounds too good to be true.
        Don’t trust it!

        • Harry Cox

          Neither did I but I’m hoping someone can do it right. Unfortunately my gut tells me that the Pimax is going to be filled with issues. I hope I am wrong though. I just want someone to get it right, irrespective of brand.

        • David Herrington

          Not backing is fine if you don’t want to be an early adopter and general risk taker. But you can’t tell people not to invest in something that has been demo’ed by so many (real) people that have said it’s the real deal.

  • matt adamson

    I was ready to pre-order a couple of VIVE Pro’s for my VR Arcade but was told that the warranty does not cover commercial use. Hard to believe they are strictly targeting private users. Would love to know how the pre-orders are going

    • johngrimoldy

      HTC support is terrible anyway. Maybe that’s changed, but I have firsthand experience when the right screen on my Vive stopped working. I LOOOVE the product. I HATE the crappy support.

  • FireAndTheVoid

    I suspect that HTC knew that if they released the Vive Pro with controllers and lighthouses, the existing Vive owners who purchased the Pro would flood the market with Vive 1.0 systems. The used market would eat into their sales for the base Vive.

    • Graham J ⭐️

      Exactly. I, for one, won’t be giving in. I’ll sell my existing Vive as a set once a reasonable alternative is available.

    • Joe Banes

      The thing is, that if this is true it would have been OUTSTANDING for VR in general. I get wanting to make more money as a company. HTC has shareholders, etc, and they want a return on investments. However VR is too new to consider the bottom line only and ignore the ecosystem. Yes, used headsets would have cut into their new base price Vives, but it would have increased the number or Pro’s getting sold. I don’t know if it would have evened out, but I think HTC still would have seen a benefit from it. The VR ecosystem would also have benefitted from this because the cheaper used Vive’s would go to folks who still can’t afford to drop 500 bucks on a new system, but might bite for 300-350 or even 400. 100-200 isn’t much difference? It is to many folks. Some people scrimp and save to just get a couple hundred bucks of non-spoken for money. So with the new Vives, used Vives and pros, the ecosystem grows. Considering that HTC is not just selling the HMD, but also the idea of Viveport, they would have possibly seen a jump in subscriptions as well (maybe not considering the free nature of steam). The idea here is we have to drive the price down. I’m not even sure this is a benefit to businesses or VR arcades, even if they already have Vive kits. Odyssey supports Steam VR too and it’s much cheaper. Though hey, perhaps this will give the competition a chance to introduce something new and push Vive to do more than offer a modicum upgrade to their existing HMD. Yes, I know calling it a modicum upgrade is arguable, some may feel this is a major upgrade if it allows them to use VR when they could not before. I don’t know if it’s enough for that though.

      • FireAndTheVoid

        I completely agree. Cheap used Vives would have certainly brought more people into VR and might have encouraged PSVR owners to invest in the Vive brand. In the long run, I think the payoff would have been good for HTC. They might have gained more fans that would be willing to purchase the next generation of their headset.

        Oculus’ strategy has been to cut the price and sponsor exclusive AAA content in order to gain market share. In the short term they probably aren’t making much of a profit, but in the long run, their investment in a customer base will pay dividends. HTC should learn from their example.

        • Harris

          I was planning to relocate my original Vive to the office for client demos, etc. and treat myself to the new hotness at home. No wireless, no knuckles, no thanks.

    • mirak

      Many people buy new iPhone knowing they will be able to sell it easily when a newer one comes out.
      It can’t be bad to be successful on the second hand market.

    • SomeGuyorAnother

      I’d also guess that the Lighthouse 2.0 basestations and controllers aren’t ready for mass distribution ’til later this year, they just aim to garner additional profit through headset sales until then (and additional when Vive Pro early adopters have to seperately buy the new Lighthouses since that demographic will aim to buy top of the line for the sake of top of the line).

      • FireAndTheVoid

        Maybe the 2.0 lighthouses aren’t ready yet, but I don’t see why they couldn’t have the wands finished. They are already selling the Vive tracker pucks with 2.0 sensors in them (with 1.0 backwards compatibility).

        At the very least, they could have bundled 1.0 equipment with the Pro. The lighthouses and controllers cost significantly more to buy them individually than when they are bundled.

        I’ve already seen a headset for sale on eBay from someone who purchased the Vive 1.0 system solely for the base stations/controllers and is trying to flip the headset. HTC profited from that person twice, because they had to purchase both the 1.0 and the Pro system.

        • SomeGuyorAnother

          Could you imagine the backlash if they bundled it with 1.0 parts? At least with the HMD they’re properly advertising it as an upgrade process; if they instead sold it with 1.0 parts, they’d be pummeled for bundling like this and releasing a full 2.0 set just months after.

          • FireAndTheVoid

            I’m one of the idiots who bought the Pro. If they were to offer the headset only for $800 and a headset + 1.0 lighthouses/controllers for $900, I would have paid the extra $100 and sold off my original Vive system.

          • SomeGuyorAnother

            Highly doubt it’d have been $100 given the price of replacements, but I would see it as easier for upgraders to resell their old equipment (selling the headset alone would only benefit replacement market for broken headsets). At the same time, I doubt HTC wants to encourage sales of the regular Vive to drop due to the resale market boosting.

            Personally, I’m hoping HTC does the smart thing and offers a Lighthouse 2.0 bundle for those who already have the Pro headset. The Lighthouse 2.0 base stations are suppose to be cheaper to make than 1.0, so ideally it wouldn’t be as bad as if you were buying the current gen hardware. Though, that’s just hope.

  • theonlyrealconan

    Nothing about the pro is commercial grade. Not the components, advancement from version one, or the license. Nothing. It is sales speak for trying to get a higher pricing.

    • Chris Edwards

      Really, I think a lot of people on this website are calling them out on it.

  • Rodgerroe

    This is what no competition looks like. Overpriced hardware with little improvement over the previous Vive.

    Can’t wait for the Pimax headset to shake things up.

    • Glenn Powell

      Get the Oculus Rift, its the most amazing headset on the market. I don’t care what anyone says. Touch controllers are intuitive, you barely notice the controllers and feel like your actual hands in VR. The games in the Oculus Store are put together well, and have active player base. Oculus is quick to respond to support tickets if needed, and listen to their base. Oculus also has already shipped its Santa Cruz headset to developers, their next gen headset that will be wireless with inside out tracking, with modified touch controllers with sensors in them. Currently, $399. gets you a Oculus headset, touch controllers, 2 sensors, and all you gotta do is spend another $60 for one more sensor to do full room-scale VR. I think its funny, Vive people talk shit on Oculus, don’t even know it does room-sale and has for over a year, and they act like you have to buy all the parts individually because you have to buy the one extra sensor, and brag on Vive, and now they really do gotta buy ALL their equipment separate on the pro LOL. Get Oculus, you won’t regret it, only thing I highly suggest with Oculus, is to mount your sensors, and pin the wires to the wall, so they don’t get bumped, do that and you will have 0 issues with it.

      • Chris Edwards

        soon to be obsolete, I would wait for a little bit.

  • impurekind

    But even if they say it’s just for professionals, we can all see it’s a fully viable consumer headset that’s basically just the current Vive with a few incremental improvements–it’s just way too expensive. These things need to be coming down in price, not going up in price, regardless of slapping “pro” labels on them.

    • jj

      Well I wouldn’t get your hopes up FB has been getting a lot of heat for terrible decisions lately.

      • Glenn Powell

        Facebook and Oculus are to different companies, yes they both have the same owners. Oculus is amazing, quick response to support tickets, amazing touch controllers that blow Vives controllers away, they are in touch with their base, the Oculus desktop App blows Steam desktop app away, and the new Oculus Home in Beta is similar to Steam Home but far better already even in beta. Oculus is the way to go my friend, stop listening to the HTC Vive Hype, its BS.

        • Chris Edwards

          LOL

    • zengrath

      Sorry i’m not supporting an evil horrible company like Facebook or thier practices of hurting VR community with their exclusive crap. So they are out of the question. Waiting for a more open product that can compete with HTC here as it looks like HTC is a failing company.

      • impurekind

        So far, I’ve seen no negative effects on Oculus and its products as a consequence of being owned by Facebook, and as a consumer of the Rift that is all I really care about in that regard. The Rift hardware, firmware, and software is pretty stellar all around.

        • SomeGuyorAnother

          So far, all I’ve seen is Facebook dump money into Oculus for R&D funding and games. Haven’t gotten any intrusive vibes that Facebook’s trying to weasle themselves into our personal lives as people fear they are. Even the Facebook label rarely pops up if ever.

          • Glenn Powell

            Oculus has been and is superior to Vive, I don’t care what anyone says, and Oculus and Facebook are different companies, even thought hey are owned by the same people. People shouldn’t hold that against Oculus, Oculus is an amazing product and really has nothing to do with FB, other than it will let you connect with your FB friends if you want to, its optional.

          • Chris Edwards

            LOL dream on. 15 foot x 15 foot play area. Obviously you have no idea what your talking about.

      • Glenn Powell

        A. Facebook and Oculus are different companies, yes owned by the same person.
        B. Oculus blows Vive away in many categories, the controllers have been far better for over a year, the touch controllers feel like your actual hands in VR. Oculus beta home, is already even in beta blowing away Steam Home. Oculus is fast to respond to support tickets. They are in touch with their base. Their games don’t die from lack of a player base like Steams do sometimes.
        C. Vive actually has far more game sthat are exclusive at this point, especially in the AAA category, look at Fallout4 VR. While they may not claim it as exclusive, its only for Vive and probably won’t change for a long time.
        D. The vive is all about following the hype, if you want the better experience, get Oculus.

  • It is a bit odd. people have been asking for two main things in a next gen headset.

    1. Wireless
    2. Better controllers that give finger presence.

    It is like HTC have purposefully avoided what their current Vive users have been asking for the last 12 months or more. Instead they refresh the headset with mostly tweaks of the same but using current components but then and slap an inflated price on it.

    Because some bright spark in their organisation wanted to charge a premium they came up with the “Prosumer” phrase. Which did not fool anybody who knows that HTC and Professionalism are at odds with each other if reports are to be believed. As this article states this was further muddied when they offered 6 months VivePort gaming subscription to a professional orientated headset O.o. >> WTF <<

    How can a company be so ignorant of its users? People have been speculating the price for ages so that should have given them a pretty good indicator of what the expected low to high range was. And that was from professionals and enthusiasts!

    Even the Youtube video looks awkward.

    HTC have shot themselves in the foot…again. Oculus will be laughing their heads off, Pimax are rubbing their hands together and all the other competitors are now quite relaxed.

    I just want Valve/Steam to release the Knuckles and make them compatible for "any" HMD out there, e.g. Pimax4K, WMR devices, Oculus DK2, CV1 etc. That would boost VR adoption on a much bigger scale.

  • DonMac

    Ridiculous, with HTC loosing market share to Oculus in the Steam figures, this is corporate suicide. With only around 25% of PC users in the Steam hardware survey meeting the new minimum specs and crypto-mining making upgrades unaffordable for many HTC cannot afford to alienate it’s current user base.
    IMHO this should have been branded as ‘Enterprise Pro’ and included the new trackers to allow arcades to expand their play areas, even then are HTC considering the sales volume of arcades vs home users?
    Given this backlash HTC are really going to have to produce something special for the consumer to regain trust and brand loyalty, especially if their competitors seize this opportunity.

    • FireAndTheVoid

      It doesn’t even look like it’s suitable for arcades. Look at matt adamson’s post below. HTC told him that the warranty does not cover commercial use.

      • DonMac

        Given that HTC added about £200 on to the cost of a standard Vive for the ‘Enterprise’ edition can we expect the same for the Enterprise Pro if / when it arrives?

    • AJ_74

      Why would arcades buy this when there’s good data to suggest that the average consumer doesn’t care about headset resolution? They’d be much better off investing in gen. 1 tech and upgrading when wireless headsets are ubiquitous and video card prices have stabilized.

    • Chris Edwards

      Freaking video cards are getting expensive thanks to Crypto mining. I could sell my 1070 that I bought a year ago right now for more than I paid for it.

  • Tim Suetens

    I’m glad I quit VR. I just afford these kinds of prices.

    • jj

      ??? if you quit vr then why are you even reading these posts, go do something else if you think its such a better option

      • Dan

        He just wants to feel appreciated man.

      • Alexisms

        Some people like to keep themselves informed on tech. I know crazy, right?

      • Tim Suetens

        Why the hostility, pal?

        I quit using VR as a consumer, that doesn’t mean I suddenly lost all interest in emerging technologies.

  • Sion12

    “It seems like HTC could have greatly reduced, if not completely avoided,
    this reaction by more carefully positioning the Vive Pro as a product
    built specifically for professionals.”

    The thing is Vive pro has nothing “professional” about it. not on the $800 headset itself anyway

  • Graham J ⭐️

    It seems like HTC could have greatly reduced, if not completely avoided,
    this reaction by more carefully positioning the Vive Pro as a product
    built specifically for professionals.

    Or better yet by pricing it reasonably.

    • FireAndTheVoid

      It HTC had priced it at $500, they would have stood a chance of having the community rally behind them instead of attack them. Or, they could have made it a complete system by including lighthouses/controllers and left the price at $800.

      • elev8d

        I think even at $600, consumers would say, OK they want to price this premium and will likely lower the price over time. At $800, especially after month’s of dancing around the price question and not being up front, I’d say most people are disappointed with HTC’s actions.

        • Chris Edwards

          I have to agree with you and feel that a $600 headset only pricing would have been more appropriate

    • SomeGuyorAnother

      Honestly, I’m not understanding the “built specifically for professionals” excuse. From what I’ve been hearing, the warranty doesn’t cover commercial use, so do they just mean professional gamers, which for VR…isn’t really much of a thing?

  • I speak from a slightly more unique perspective than most commenters; I
    don’t have a VR yet and have been very interested in getting the PRO. I
    made a very high estimate of what it might cost, and I settled on a high
    estimate of $1,500CAN for the entire package with taxes included.

    But
    on the official announcement; I was just as shocked as anyone else was
    that it was $800USD (Over 1,000$CAN) for JUST the headset alone.
    Not
    only is it expensive, but it feels extremely alienating and an annoyance
    for people without a full kit(like me) to have to wait for Vive PRO
    full kit later in the year- DESPITE THE FACT THAT THEY HAVE THE FULL
    WORKING KIT READY AT DEMONSTRATIONS. Plus; don’t really think im wrong
    when I say that I think HTC is hoping to cash in on people buying the
    headset and kit pieces separately(which is crazy expensive btw).

    The
    price is also further an insult when the customer service is so
    publicly bad. The most common customer service issue that pops up is
    that they keep your headset for way too long, then say your warranty is
    voided because of *Water damage* and try to charge you over 300bucks to
    fix it when the *water damage* is actually sweat due to the headsets
    design flaws. I feel like that says a lot about HTCs business practices.

    So
    why risk buying a headset for 800USD, then risk the chance of it
    breaking too early and having HTC attempt to fraud you for more money?
    Unless you buy the HTC vive from Amazon(which you should btw).

    As
    a person without a vive, my patience is wearing thin for the pro when
    its already so expensive and that for SOME REASON I have to wait longer
    than most people just to buy the COMPLETE actual product; when HTC vive
    has already shown that the full kit has already been tested and can be
    mass produced. They just want to milk money off of early buyers. It
    irritates me.

    • JChief

      Because unfortunately the VR experience is that good

  • Onyx Blue

    I do not have a problem with the price. Less than the cost of a new mobile phone for the most advanced VR in the world right now. Those that keep referencing Samsung Odessesy- have you not read reviews ? Poor optics, poor tracking, poor audio, washed out colours. Pimax is a god damn joke- a legless Chinese company with a brick- that is a design and ergonomic disaster. Same company that used to sell cheap dash cams on eBay!!

    The Vive Pro is not overpriced. Not in a world where people line up to pay $1599 for. IPhone.

    Despite the price- Vive Pros have SOLD OUT- instantly here in Australia- and similar situation across other countries. Re-evaluate how you are understanding VR. These products are being developed and priced within a similar framework as advancement in smartphones.

  • WyrdestGeek

    Community should keep up the pressure. I bet you anything, if sales don’t go well, Vive will drop the price in six – twelve months tops.

  • Mythos88

    I probably would have grudgingly bought the Vive Pro total package at that price, but that’s insane for headset only. Seems like a Hail Mary from a company in its death throes.

  • RockstarRepublic

    This is where LG comes in and steals their SteamVR market, or or the next wave of Mixed Reality headsets for that matter.

    HTC won’t be a major player in the future, they merely benefited from partnering with Valve early on. As usual, their business decisions are awful.

    • FireAndTheVoid

      I’m concerned that LG didn’t even bother to show-up to the GDC this year.

      • Pete1261

        If LG is Smart, and looks at the Backlash that HTC is getting, then they should hurry up and bring out a headset along the lines of the Samsung Odyssey as a complette package for 600$ (Think 100$ is a fair Price for the 100% Tracking over the maybe 95% that the Odyssey has, and for the somewhat better, slimmer controllers than the Clunky MR Controllers). Think of the Sales they would make! I would buy one, and probably many disgruntled Vive users also. A normal Vive costs 499$. Add 100$ more and get a KOMPLETT(!) headset package that rivals a Vive Pro. That LG headset package would probably be sold out in a few hours. I was looking to get a Vive Pro, but not at their asking price. I can live a little longer with my normal Vive with Deluxe Audio Strap. I will wait and see what comes out in the next few months. Its not that their isn´t competition out there, and we will all be left without any VR… (Maybe I can try out a MR headset somewhere to see if the tracking and contollers are really not so good – the Odyssey does look good Specwise and a little clearer picture to read the controls in my flightsim would be good…). Sorry HTC,…

    • Glenn Powell

      Oculus Rift has been and still is the better VR experience, and overall company. Don’t follow the hype of the HTC Vive.

      • Chris Edwards

        You probably just can’t afford the extra $200 for the best VR system

  • Peter Laurent

    Does the Vive Pro even come with a commercial warranty? Far as I know only the Vive Business Edition offers that, so I’m not sure how the Vive Pro can be marketed toward commercial use at all

  • Oli Norwell

    I thought it was $800 all in, with trackers and controllers and a few bundled games. To discover it’s $800 for just the headset is alarming. I presumed the headset only upgrade would be a cheeky $499 or something, which first adopters might just have paid.

    • Caven

      Yeah, I still think $500 is too much for just the HMD, but I’d have been willing to pay it, albeit somewhat grudgingly. $800 is just too much, especially since I’d also have to give up on wireless capability for now.

  • Nelu Ungureanu

    i love VR, untethered is the future, pc dependent higher resolution/fow headsets will be considered premium gaming accessories in a couple of years.

  • For a $800 HMD, it better perform laser eye surgery.

  • Andres Velasco

    This will hurt HTC Image. Image is quite important.

  • Heliosurge

    I agree not a good time to release a headset targeting Professionals. Now as a suggestion to current Vive owners; if you have htc tracking pucks. It would be interesting to see if these could be used with other headsets that do not have steam tracking. But present a good upgrade.

  • CAPP360

    What a jip! I was truly excited for the Vive Pro, but at this price point consider me out.

    • polysix

      You got off light. Rift is still better. There’s more to VR than a (slightly) higher screen res. Nothing will beat Rift until true gen 2 (and that will prob be Rift 2 that does it). And yes I’ve had and sold Vive (and PSVR) I know what I’m talking about. Rift, ergonomics, controllers, software… all great. Vive? Not so much.

      • CAPP360

        Glad to hear it since at this price point as soon as gen 2 VR is available I will more than likely switch to rift now. HTC has done some pretty underhanded things with the Vive but this takes the cake. Shitting on early adopters was a terrible idea IMO.

      • Chris Edwards

        you obviously have never had the privilege to play on the Vive

  • brandon9271

    Now would be a great time for Oculus to announce a sub $500 CV2

  • Skippy76

    This is a real slap in the face!
    I was a strong promoter of the HTC Vive!
    Screw this! $1000CAD for a very minimal upgrade! What the hell are these greedy pricks smoking? I will be replacing my vive with a competitor the day it fies!
    Bye bye HTC!

  • zengrath

    i’m a huge believer in VR,, i can’t wait to see VR grow, i really want to contribute to VR by investing in the right product that i believe will help make VR grow, and now i’m feeling like i cannot do so. I will not support Oculus who pulls crap like game exclusivity, ,i will not jump into VR with a unsatisfactory sub par experience like cell phone VR or VR with horrible tracking or support a company who does not allow an open competitive VR market. HTC was only option i was willing to go with despite the fear of their horrific customer service i hear about all the time (i normally refuse to support any company who does not have adequate customer service, that is #1 most important aspect of most companies) and now HTC does this? says FU to all potential new supporters? Charging about $500 to buy all additional eq required to have Vive pro or buy Vive 1 to get a Vive pro? completely stupid and desperate move by HTC to try and save their company from further going down hill, and now they just made things worst. Let me guess, their stockholders threatened them to do this right? Why hell else would they do this?

  • oompah

    HTC VR tech is best
    but what good if u cant buy

  • Peter Hansen

    I’d suspect it’ll get cheaper in summer when they release the whole package incl. tracking 2.0 as a consumer product. This one’s targeting at business clearly.

  • theonlyrealconan

    Problem is, even if they “listen” to customers and drop the price, I doubt it would be more then $100 (hope I am wrong). And at $700, this is still way over priced and not worth an upgrade. It does not help that people that upgrade are stuck with a paperweight, since selling it would be hard without the tracking and controllers. (Or they could wait on buying the probably overpriced new tracking and controllers and selling Vive 1.0 complete, but by then there would be even less demand.

  • Nate Vander Plas

    Anyone else think that this article is a bit circular? A Road to VR article about comments on another Road to VR article? Next we’ll see an article about the comments on this article! But I do get that it’s a pretty hefty price for a minimal upgrade and people are upset.

  • Brandon Walter

    HTC should have offered the Vive Pro to existing customers for WAY less as a show of loyalty. I’ve been chomping at the bit to get this thing, but I’m priced out. Get a clue HTC. Listen to your customers. Offer current owners a deal.

  • For $800 they should have added eye tracking.

  • Toothlover

    Price it too high so that the poor consumer thinks it’s more valuable..

  • theonlyrealconan

    “Enthusiasts”, “prosumer”, and “commercial”. Stop feeding into their lies. Sites like this should know better. You did not label odyssey with this and it has the same specs. Besides the silly price, what makes it any of these?

  • Flyby Wire

    In Germany these $800 end up as 900€. Just for the display the Samsung already has. Which is not available in Germany. Duh.

  • Patrick McKee

    I rarely comment, but I will buy one lol, it’s just money.

    • Patrick McKee

      Oculus KS backer number 152 here, and oculus ebay seller lol, Vive will get my support.

    • Chris Edwards

      Aye, the one who dies with the most toys wins :-)

  • Chris Edwards

    I might have considered upgrading to the Vive Pro Headset if it were priced a little more reasonably like $599.95.

  • Simon Spencer

    HTC has made no secret that if you want to make stuff for the Vive, you’re going to pay a hefty pricetag for the opportunity. But I agree – the Pro’s pricing (and the inevitable cost of its “Business” edition) are seriously making me realise why so many start development using the Rift.