Amazon will soon begin selling VR apps on its massive digital marketplace through a new partnership with HTC.
While Steam generally functions as the Vive’s defacto app store, HTC runs its own VR app store called Viveport. The company’s partnership with Amazon will allow customers to buy Viveport apps directly on the Amazon marketplace.
Developers can opt-in to making their app available for sale through Amazon via the Viveport developer console, and customers will be able to make purchases starting in “a few weeks.”
“The new partnership supports Viveport’s mission to provide developers with the most avenues to monetize their content and reach new customers. In addition, consumers will have a new way to discover and purchase titles on Amazon. By linking their Viveport account, users will be able to purchased titles that will seamlessly be added to their Viveport library,” the company announced today.
Other details are thin at present, but this won’t be Amazon’s first rodeo for selling apps. The company began running its own Android app store in 2011 to capture revenue from Google’s Play app store and to reduce the company’s reliance on Google for its own ‘Fire’ tablets.
In this case Amazon isn’t creating its entire own VR app store, but rather acting as a distribution extension of Viveport. But the partnership with HTC affirms the company’s growing interest in VR. The move also reinforces the rift between HTC and Valve, where the two companies have competing VR app stores despite cooperating on the hardware front.