With a flurry of new headsets hitting the market, news about the next consumer headset from one of VR’s leading players, HTC, has been notably absent. Though pricing and a release date for Vive Cosmos hasn’t been revealed in full just yet, the company recently indicated that it expects to launch in Q3.

HTC revealed Vive Cosmos back in January, but wasn’t ready to say much about it, let alone let anyone actually try it. It’s been five months since then, but the company still hasn’t revealed even basic info about the headset like resolution, field of view, weight, price, or release date. And while we know that the headset will be compatible with PCs, the company has also teased that it will be able to plug into a smartphone, but has yet to offer details on how that will work.

Back at the initial reveal in January, HTC said that it planned to first offer Vive Cosmos dev kits in “early 2019,” and that the finished headset would launch later in the year. To our knowledge, dev kits have yet to be made available.

SEE ALSO
HTC: Vive Cosmos is Not a Successor to the Original Vive

VR developer and blogger Antony “SkarredGhost” Vitillo recently visited HTC’s headquarters in Taipei, Taiwan and spoke to members of the company’s Vive team. Though he found they were still not ready to share any details about the headset, he was told that the current expected release date for Vive Cosmos is Q3, 2019.

Vitillo wrote that a spokesperson told him the company was a “bit on a different schedule than the one announced at CES.” That makes it somewhat unclear if HTC was talking about the release of the Cosmos dev kit or the finished headset, though we followed up with Vitillo who said he was specifically asking about the finished headset. We’ve also reached out to HTC for the latest info on their release plans for Cosmos.

During his visit, HTC also told Vitillo that Cosmos will have a wireless adapter, though it isn’t clear if that will be the existing Vive Wireless Adapter or some other solution.

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While Valve developed much of the technology behind the original Vive, the company partnered to bring it to market under HTC’s stewardship. Valve is now set to launch its very own VR headset, the Valve Index, which in many ways puts the companies in direct competition.

Photo by Road to VR

This is likely why HTC appears to be distancing itself from Valve. Cosmos is the first PC VR headset from HTC which won’t use Valve’s SteamVR Tracking technology, and while the headset will support SteamVR, it sounds like HTC plans to make its own Viveport storefront the default platform for the headset.

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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."
  • Simple O’Rourke

    Yah!! Another storefront!!

    • Arv

      There’s only ONE storefront as far as I’m concerned, the Oculus Store. The quality of games on Steam has been going steadily downhill since Valve stopped curating the games on it from 2012 onwards.

      • SPRUNT

        A curated storefront just means that you’re letting someone else decide what you have available. I’d rather have access to everything and decide for myself what is worthy of my money and time.

      • Bob

        There are three storefronts owned by three major corporations operating in the VR industry sector; Oculus store, Viveport and SteamVR.

        Sort of resembles the ongoing war between Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo.

        • Arv

          And only ONE of them is any good so far thanks to Facebook funding over half a billion dollars plus free headsets to developers to create high quality content.

          • Nick de Bruyker

            You have to ne kidding me, oculus/facebook facebook are the bad guys in this story, even losing a massive lawsuit for stealing data.

            Steam is the only VR store by a very large amount

          • Another Commenter

            Every time I fire up my rift, the stupid Oculus store is an impediment to me getting what I want. I wish I could get the rift working without having to plug into the Oculus Store at all. I go straight to SteamVR every time as it’s far more customization, has far more options, and is much more user-friendly. Nevertheless, the Oculus store is constantly over-riding and jutting into my experience with Steam. I find it to be very annoying and I really wish I could entirely disable it somehow.

          • Michael Wentworth-Bell

            Compared to oculus home, steam/SteamVR is not user friendly, especially now Rift S is available. SteamVR definitely has more customisations.

    • Andrew Jakobs

      uhh, Viveport has been around for a long time now..

  • Simple O’Rourke

    Q3 starts in about 5 weeks…doubt we see it this year.

    • dk

      well they don’t usually tease a headset for years like facebook

      • ShiftyInc

        mhh maybe that is the reason why their headsets are no longer selling as well, and are on the verge of going bankrupt yet again.

        • jj

          or not

        • dk

          nah it’s because of the price …the cosmos will most likely be 600-700 even though they r optimising the production cost :P

  • gothicvillas

    Do they have new controllers or they flog the same vive wands?

    • dk

      xD lol idk but they do have some nice decorations next to the headset in the pictures

      • gothicvillas

        oh lol you are right. I remember seeing it of course. Silly me :) “Tribal” designs haha. Im curious what they gonna charge for this.. im guessing this will work with Index controllers too.

        • Arv

          That’s right. HTC are abandoning Lighthouse tracking in favour of inside out tracking so old controllers won’t be compatible.

    • Arv

      New controllers. Old Vive and Vive Pro controllers won’t be compatible because HTC are abandoning Lighthouse tracking for the headset in favour of inside out tracking.

      This is the way that the VR hardware industry is heading, expect Pimax to do the same with the Pimax 3 and Valve too for the Index 2 in a few years.

      • Full_Name

        That’s why I’ll slowly move over to valve. I like the lighthouses – nothing will beat that accuracy. The cosmos looks to be worse than rift-s which in fairness looks to have decent inside out tracking.

        • Arv

          The worst thing with Valve is the blatant price gouging. The 2.0 base stations cost them $60 to make and they’re charging £139 each. I was considering switching to Valve until they announced the price of the thing.

          And if they end up doing what I SUSPECT they’re going to do and ditch Lighthouse tracking in favour of inside out tracking for their next headset, the Index 2, like everyone else appears to be doing you’re going to end up with some VERY expensive paperweights.

          I wouldn’t mind paying £920 for a Valve 2160p headset or a 1600p headset with a 150° FOV but releasing a 1600p headset with just a 20° FOV increase is just taking the piss imo.

          • jj

            the #1 rule of business financing is if you cant sell it for over 200% of cost to make it is not sustainable.

  • Immersive_Computing

    Qualcomm reference design given a HTC skin ;)

  • jj

    Soon theyll announce 5g wireless streaming vr games from pc to the cosmo and that will change everything.

    • ShiftyInc

      The price tag.

      • jj

        the wireless capabilities of what is basically cloud computing on even a local level. the price tag doesnt hold a flame to the possibilities this tech offers for now and in the near future.

    • bmichaelb

      They’ve actually been talking of wireless gaming via the cloud. I seriously hope they don’t go that route…because you’re dependent on your internet speed and reliability. Imagine wanting to play a game, but it’s during ‘peak usage hours’, and your bandwidth drops by 50%. Or, you’re in the middle of a game, and your provider decides to update your modem. Or…your local internet hub goes down.

      Other than that though…5G would only be good for certain games. Most would require higher bandwidth…it’s why the Vive WiGig adapter works on 60g.

      • jj

        They will go that route, its inevitable really. What we can achieve with cloud computer quickly dwarfs home computing and your reasons for it not working are for a minority of people and locations.

        cloud computed games are the future

        • bmichaelb

          Minority of the people?? If the WiGig adapter works on 60GHz due to the required bandwidth, what kind of download speed to you think will be necessary off the cloud? Not everyone can afford the top speed internet package, and not every city offers unlimited downloads. It won’t work for everyone. And as I said…internet providers, at least here in Vancouver, offer ‘up to’ a certain download speed. That means that if the local hub handles 100,000 customers in an area, then your actual speed depends on how many of those customers are actually connected at the same time you are. If only 10% connected…you’re going to get your full speed. But if there’s 80-90% connected…you’ll be lucky to get 50% of your download speed. That means if you want to play at full speed…play after midnight. Even Netflix buffers during peak hours sometimes, and I have the top package…600mbps. That’s too damn limiting.

          Add to that…the Valve Index does 120fps…that requires even more bandwidth than a 90fps headset.

          • jj

            these are all temporary problems, we will go over to cloud computer asap. its inevitable. all pcs will just be terminals for super computers and there will be off the grid pcs with their own power like we have now but those will get more specific and rare. its pretty obvious were starting to make that shift, just looks at how games are sold, all digital.

            also microsoft and sony just partnered to work our a cloud streaming tech service and both already have their own versions.

          • bmichaelb

            We agree to disagree. Games may be sold digitally, but you shouldn’t need an internet connection just to play the damn thing.

    • Jacari Jones (AfricanOtaku)

      5G is related to radio frequencies. My router for example has 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz access points.

  • So will HTC then become the first of the big guys to use next gen resolution panels? Kopin said in their last conference call that BOE’s upcoming 2k * 2k OLED RGB stripe panels should be ready in Q3, so that at least seems to line up

    • Kyokushin

      First is HP Reverb.

    • bmichaelb

      If the panels aren’t ready until Q3, then that’s for the next project. They showcased the Cosmos already, so it would have panels already made, not panels still on the way.

      • James Cobalt

        They only showcased the form factor.

        • bmichaelb

          My mistake…I thought they had actual tester versions on hand at CES.

        • mirak

          They showcased the case.

  • JesuSaveSouls

    So I guess this isnt a standalone.But its smart to wait until later for a release.Letting the buzz and hype of the uest,s and index have their day.It is all good for every dev of hardware and software for vr.Jesus is my Lord and Savior !

  • Luke Finnigan

    I’ve ordered the index so I’m pretty much invested in that now. I just hope Valve make it wireless like Vive did. Surprised it’s not being sold with a wireless addon at launch… or is it a way to squeeze more money out of people in a few months

    • Andrew Jakobs

      Wireless is just again another couple of $100’s..

      • HybridEnergy

        and totally worth it.

        • Phyllis

          Start getting paid Up to $5021 by working with Travelers Cos. from home >>> https://trivialurl.com/YCamQr

        • CHRIS

          yup, cosmos, plus wireless, would be crazy! I already have a vive pro wireless and ordered an index.

    • bmichaelb

      The NDA gets lifted May 29th, so hopefully we’ll learn more after that. Computex is the day before, May 28th…the WiGig device for the Vive was first introduced at Computex 2017.

      • Luke Finnigan

        I’m not familiar with what you’re referring to in terms of the non disclosure agreement. What is the NDA on?

        • bmichaelb

          The Valve Index headset/bundle.

          • Luke Finnigan

            ahhh.. i didn’t know there was one. I assumed because we had the specs and it was available for order that any information we weren’t being told was by choice

          • bmichaelb

            As far as I know, dev kits have already been sent out, and at least 1 pic’s been tweeted of someone using the headset. They just can’t release their reviews yet. Also, Valve didn’t have an actual official release yet, at least not with a press release.

  • M0rph3u5

    its a bit late now, isn’t it? Valve and oculus have already taken over. What would this headset offer differently? definitely not a more competitive price than oculus and Valve’s headsets. It was tbh on my list in light of higher resolution and physical IPD, but I think Valve crushed all other headset with their specs and reasonable price (only compared to HTC), Rift S is just so rubbish for a 1.5/2 gen VR.

    • Arcticu Kitsu

      It offers another option. You’re looking too deeply into this….Think about those who don’t have a VR yet for various reasons that they’ll also consider purchasing this.

      • M0rph3u5

        You’re probably right, the thing that I didn’t mention that this one be unique in achieving what the quest didn’t achieve and that’s being both stand alone as well as untethered. The price though, really need to be competitive with all the competition out there.

    • Andrew Jakobs

      We know nothing about the headset, so it might even suprise us with better displays and lenses (not that I really think they will)..

      • M0rph3u5

        I did have Vive Cosmos on my wishlist along with Rift S, Valve index and Vive pro. Valve pretty much owned all the headsets imh when they bundled their new pretty much HTC Vive PRO “plus” with their epic long awaited controllers. My next option would’ve been Vive Pro with Valve knuckles. I don’t really care about resolution that much at this stage with the lack of apps adn support or even a GPU that can run them smoothly, never mind the insideout tracking that would wihtout anydoubt would not only inferior to light house tracking but more than likely to Rift S tracking (just by looking at the cameras allocation on both headsets). As for the light tracking, I ‘ve had it with PSVR .. its garbage!

        • bmichaelb

          Vave Index is Valve’s response to HTC’s Vive Pro, at $400 cheaper for the bundle, or $300 cheaper for just the headset. I’d rather have the Index than the Vive Pro. Specs are better. As for the inside-out racking interfering with the lighthouses…lighthouses work with infrared light…the Cosmos uses white LEDs. The lighthouses send a grid infrared light in the play area, that gets picked up by sensors in both the headset and the controllers. Rift uses infrared LEDs in the controllers, that get picked up by the external infrared sensors. The WMRs use white LEDs that get picked up by the cameras. They won’t interfere with one another…except maybe using Rift CV1 with the Knuckles…the lighthouses ‘might’ interfere with the infrared cameras.

        • Reanimator

          My brother just got the Rift S and told me not to bother. He says it’s uncomfortable and not enough resolution difference to be worth it

          • M0rph3u5

            Thats because of the halo strap which the PSVR also uses, its really bad for keeping the sweet spot especially if your IPD is out within the “standard” or “average” range.

    • KOSTANTINOS KOD

      The big change for vr controllers is called hands butt hands dont worth money atm. Lighthouses are good but dont worth the space and the cost vs 4 -5 cameras. If theres a good led type screen on the cosmos with a real 120 fov i will buy it, i prefer a non washed up vr and clearness vs blurriness ftw.

      • M0rph3u5

        If you want a premium VR experience then the Index have all the answers. I am not quite sure what You’re referring to by “non washed up VR and clearness”, if its the Index, then I think you probably got it wrong, since the Index LCD display offers 50% more sub-pixels than in an equivalent OLED display (each pixel has three subpixels instead of just two) and the pixel persistence is the lowest to date in any VR HMD (0.33 ms) thuis reducing movement blur. As for the controllers, everyone knows that lighthouses tracking is the best out there.

    • bmichaelb

      The Cosmos apparently will connect to a smartphone as well as a PC. It also has the cameras on the sides, which was a blindspot for WMR headsets. As for ‘rip off’ controllers…they’re actually a combination of Rift and WMR controllers. The shape is Touch v2, but the LEDs are white like WMR, not infrared like the Rift.

    • HybridEnergy

      Wireless

      • M0rph3u5

        That is actually a good point, but doesn’t do it for me and for alot of VR enthusiasts who prioritize quality to simplicity and comfort. Besides, I am pretty sure that Valve, who are behind the best VR tracking out there and best VR controllers, will come up with a wireless adaptor at some point ;)

  • Full_Name

    Well, definitely sticking with valve from now on.. ordered the index controllers and lighthouses. Will use with my wireless Vive Pro, until next valve headset comes out (not enough difference to justify buying the incoming index headset, especially without wireless)

    • M0rph3u5

      That was exactly the combo/setup that what I would’ve gone for if Valve didn’t announce their own HMD, and you are right, about not upgrading Vive Pro to Valve HMD as its not necessarily an upgrade. At least you could go wireless instead (if you haven’t already done that yet). To me it was cheaper to get the full Valve Index kit. Hope we enjoy the next gen controllers ;)

      • Full_Name

        Yes, my Pro is wireless :)

  • KOSTANTINOS KOD

    They need one more camera under the headset and i dont get why they dint utilise the space on the halo for the side cameras. It looks great, lots of crapy headset’s upcoming ,it wont be hard to top them.

  • Dr Blowhole

    Making viveport the default option sucks bigtime, its bloatware

  • oompah

    Yes vr headset should be on wifi

  • HybridEnergy

    “During his visit, HTC also told Vitillo that Cosmos will have a wireless adapter”

    BOOM! winner.

    • Etailer

      Maybe, if it’s a mobile processor it will have to compete with the Oculus Quest at half the price.

  • Trenix

    If it’s better than the Rift S with a reasonable price, might buy.

    • jj

      the price wont be reasonable

      • Trenix

        HTC has some real competition now, they need competitive prices or they’re done for.

        • Sion12

          I have a feeling HTC want to be Apple of VR headset, so i am not so sure

  • Woooha! I am on Road To VR again!

    • Immersive_Computing

      Your making a habit of it Tony!!