In a move that’s sure to make PrioVR backers and would-be backers alike quite happy, YEI Technology has announced a big price drop for both the PrioVR Lite and PrioVR Pro systems. On top of that, they’re shaving four months off of the delivery date. Good news all around, I’d say.
To jog your memory: PrioVR is an affordable VR motion capture kit which aims to track your entire body in real time. The goal is to put your whole body into the virtual reality world, by mirroring your entire avatar 1:1. YEI Technology, who is raising funds for PrioVR on Kickstarter, hopes to put the system in the hands of gamers, and has been chasing costs down to do just that. Today’s announcement offers a significant price reduction for both versions of PrioVR, and brings them one step closer to realizing that goal.
PrioVR Lite, which comes with 11 sensor nodes, started at $450 for the early-bird tier, or $475 for the standard tier. The price for PrioVR Lite is being dropped by 23%, down to $349.
PrioVR Pro, which comes with 17 sensor nodes, started at $625 for the early bird, or $650 for the standard tier. The price is being dropped by 37%, down to $399.
YEI Technology says they’re also moving the release date up by four months, from September 2014 to May 2014.
In the press release announcing the pricing and schedule changes, YEI Technology explains how this is possible:
How are we able to do this? Well, when we initially priced these two systems, we based our costs off of our current manufacturing costs for our YEI 3-Space Sensor Family. We produce our YEI 3-Space Sensors in a multitude of case designs for compatibility across multiple industries. To bring the price down on the PrioVR system, we have adjusted the case design for high volume production. Because manufacturing is a large cost component, this has allowed us to decrease the overall cost of the PrioVR system.
Why are the systems going to be ready sooner? Our production plan was also based off of our current YEI 3-Space Sensors. By simplifying our prototype case design and cabling assembly process, we are able to greatly reduce both the manufacturing and assembly time it will take to produce the PrioVR systems. This enables us to bring up the release date to May 2014.
The PrioVR Kickstarter has raised over $42,000 of the $225,000 goal in the first week of their campaign.
See Also: PrioVR Q&A With Paul Yost, Chief of R&D at YEI Technology
