HTC announced the new accessories, the Vive Tracker and Deluxe Audio Strap, back at CES 2017 earlier this year but didn’t provide pricing or release date info more specific than Q2. At $100 for each accessory, the pricing falls in line with expectations.

The Vive Tracker will cost $100 and become available for order for developers on March 27th. The Deluxe Audio Strap will also be priced at $100 and will begin pre-orders on May 2nd.

vive-tracker-and-accessories-2

The Vive Tracker is a standalone tracking puck designed to attach to objects and accessories to turn them into VR peripherals. HTC committed to giving away 1,000 Vive Tracker units to developers to kickstart an ecosystem of peripherals and software that support the Tracker. For developers who didn’t get in on that initial batch (the company says they received 2,300 applications), the device will be available for order for $100 starting on March 27th through the official Vive website.

For general consumers however, the Vive Tracker won’t be available until later this year. That’s to give developers time to build devices and apps that work with the device, ahead of widespread availability, HTC says.

SEE ALSO
Hands-on: HTC's New Vive Tracker Makes VR More Immersive With Specialized Accessories

HTC plans to show new experiences using the Vive Tracker this week at GDC and MWC.

vive-deluxe-audio-strap-frontThe Vive Deluxe Audio Strap, a more robust head-mount with integrated headphones, will also be priced at $100 and be available for pre-order (for everyone) on May 2nd with a launch in June.

HTC says that all new purchases of the $1,200 Vive ‘Business Edition’ headset will get a free upgrade to the Deluxe Audio Strap. The Vive Business Edition is the same as the consumer headset but features enterprise-focused ordering, warranty, and support.

SEE ALSO
Vive Consumer and Business Headsets Will Become Increasingly Differentiated VR Systems, Vive President Says

Vive Financing

In a surprising move, HTC is also announcing a new Vive financing program aimed at getting the expensive hardware into user’s hands:

  • In North America:
    • 0% Financing for 6 months for a total monthly cost of $138.00 (plus tax and shipping)
    • 0% Financing for 12 months for a total monthly cost of $66.58 (plus tax and shipping)
    • 7.99% Financing for 24 months for a total monthly cost of $40.13 (plus tax and shipping)
  • In China:
    • 0% Financing for 3 months for a total monthly cost of ¥2,296 (tax and shipping included)
    • 0% Financing for 6 months for a total monthly cost of ¥1,148 (tax and shipping included)
    • 0% Financing for 12 months for a total monthly cost of ¥574 (tax and shipping included)
Newsletter graphic

This article may contain affiliate links. If you click an affiliate link and buy a product we may receive a small commission which helps support the publication. More information.


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."
  • Sam Illingworth

    Gonna need to see some reviews of those headphones, cos they look rubbish!

    • Fredrik Pettersen
      • Sam Illingworth

        Thanks. Well, he certainly seems to like it! Concentrates mostly on the comfort (which he says is greatly improved, that’s very appealing), doesn’t actually test the speaker though, other than saying they seem to block out external sound quite well, which I was worried they wouldn’t. Hmm. I think I still want to know how good they sound before I shell out £100 (thanks Brexit).

    • DougP

      Re: “cos they look rubbish”
      *Sound* is a MUCH better measure than *look* when it comes to headphones – wait for reviews on the audio qualify before assuming “rubbish”?

      • Sam Illingworth

        Umm, I think that’s exactly what I said I would do?

        • DougP

          The words you used were “look & rubbish”
          What’s the *rubbish* based on? Colour? Shape?
          Look – just pointing out that I don’t care what they look like if they sound good. And…they don’t look like rubbish to me, they look like headphones.
          Anyways – be interesting to find out how they sound.

          • Sam Illingworth

            I also used the words “Gonna need to see some reviews of those headphones, cos they”.

            They look rubbish because they don’t appear to have any padding or attempt at isolation. It looks like they’ll sit near your ear but not firmly against it (which would be uncomfortable without padding), meaning no isolation for you the user or for others about you, and possibly a loss of detail. In the video Fredrik Pettersen linked to the man says they cut down on the sound from around him quite well, which is promising, and goes some way to alleviating the fears I just explained, but I’ll still need to see a proper review of them.

  • CURTROCK

    0% Financing! That is excellent. I hope Oculus does the same. This should make VR accessible to a whole new demographic. Bravo, HTC.

    • NooYawker

      They need to hook up with a company to push this deal, like Verizon, maybe Gamestop.

  • Great job Vive. Even if I think Tracker price should be $50…

    • Andrew Jakobs

      these are meant for development purposes, so the price it pretty normal.. But if it were for consumers than I agree, and even then I think $50 is a bit high.

  • Ian Shook

    Will the two wireless options that aren’t out yet (I forget the names) work okay with the new headstrap?

    • Caven

      I believe the TP-Cast version was confirmed to work. Not sure about the other.

  • NooYawker

    Can’t wait for the headstrap.

    • Mike

      Not shipping until June? Why? It’s basically just a piece of plastic with earphones attached. I was guessing the worst-case scenario would be shipping late march. But June? Makes no sense. I may have to get the rEvolve strap instead if it’s gonna ship first.

      • NooYawker

        It’s not so easy to get manufacturing up to speed. They have to have enough to fulfill orders, they have to make sure the first batch isn’t defective.. a lot goes into these things.
        There’s no way the revolve strap is going to get up and running and release before June. They’re were just showing off their product that still had duct tape on it.

  • DougP

    Re: “2 trackers” “mocap”

    I think that you’ll need 3x trackers for best full-body (IK) mocap.

    The most interesting results I’ve seen demonstrated were using 3x additional (back mounted 3rd) – think it’s IKinema.

    • Mike

      Sad that they’re so expensive – it’s unlikely that many people will buy more than one at the current price. Personally I’ll still buy 2 if it enables decent body-tracking, maybe 3 if it’s REALLY worth it, but at this price I doubt that more than a small minority of users will have even 2.

      • DougP

        Re: “so expensive”
        It’s all relative really.

        Peripherals –
        I mean, as the *primary* market these will be for “peripherals” – in which case you’ll most likely only NEED ONE. $99 & done!
        Use that SINGLE tracker for: gun/rifle, bat/golf club, sword, etc, etc… you’re saving a lot by only paying for the tracking component (more expensive+complex) ONCE.

        As for mo-cap –
        Sure, investing $300 isn’t chump change for most people.
        But … then again, how many people HAVE that level of mo-cap now? If they do – they’ve spent way more than that on it.
        I’m not thinking in terms of “gaming” full-body mo-cap, although undoubtedly we’re moving towards that (& it’ll be great!), but for like movie/media production.
        Being able to do mo-cap for your character animations with this level of precision body movement (even the interpreted IK type), $300 is *cheap* compared to the alternatives to capture this movement now.

        I get it… we all wish things were cheaper. But for the cost of components+production+packaging(+marketing)… they need to turn some profit to make this worthwhile.

        Lastly – mo-cap… for this specifically (area I’m also obviously interested in), where I think we’re gonna need at least 3x more (in addition to base hmd package) – would be nice to see these in a discount ($249?) package. Again – still dirt cheap compared to alternatives.
        Pricing will come down eventually as they’re able to ramp up volume/improve the tech(lower cost of production).

        • Jukka Muhonen

          if computer costs couple thousand and vive with controllers 799 then 300 is nothing if you throw immersion up 5x

          • DougP

            Heck, I’ve spent over $2200 on VR games/content since getting my Vive last April.
            Realizing that I’m probably in a minority here… but regardless, $300 in the grand scheme of things: hardware costs, software costs, and immersion *value*… ain’t a lot of money.

            I love the idea of feet/leg tracking, and really just great “full body presence” in games.
            Even tho’ I understand what is tracked very well, I’ve fallen victim when very immersed actually wanting to use my leg to kick something. ;)
            Outside of gaming & wanting perfect body-tracking (think Onward gamers crawling around on floor)….Once we have more people using VR for social interaction & collaboration – having a full-body avatar presented will require this additional type of tracking.

          • NooYawker

            $2200 just in games? Did you buy everything in the market? That’s dedication!

          • DougP

            hehe…yeah, I realized I had a serious *problem* there.
            So hungry for new/interesting VR titles, bought everything “new & shiny” that came along.

            However, I bought a LOT of EA titles, honestly hoping to bolster VR dev & encourage small studios/one-man-shows.

            But… after I downloaded my Steam game receipts & stuck ’em in a spreadsheet & saw that, I curbed my spending significantly! ;)
            I spent more in VR games in less than one year than I’d spent on non-VR games in the previous ~12 years.

          • NooYawker

            Sounds like your heart was in the right place :D

    • VRgameDevGirl

      Nah, I used just the 2 controllers and HMD and was able to do upper body mocap. For the animations I need I’ll just need 2. Check out this guy just using the 2 trackers https://youtu.be/XNNR_Ab15Bs. Looks insane!!!!!

      • DougP

        I see…more torso-mo. ;)

        If you haven’t check it out, the IKinema stuff is really cool:
        http://www.roadtovr.com/ikinema-project-orion-shows-impressive-motion-capture-just-6-htc-vive-trackers/

        Being able to use relatively affordable systems like this for full body mo-cap for characters/actors is really exciting.
        Impressed that they’re only $99 for the tech/capabilities you get.

      • Sky Castle

        I’ve read that the Vive can only track 2 controllers at once. So if you can only have one tracker and one controller at the same time or two trackers and no controllers.

        So I don’t know what kind of wizardry this guy is doing with them trackers but it is really impressive and I like the incredible fast advancement VR is going.

        I hope we find out more on exactly how the trackers will work or going to be used in gaming before release because I’m on the fence right now on whether I want to buy them.

        • VRgameDevGirl

          But a tracker is not a controller, it doesn’t have buttons. And I have seen others do this as well. I think what you read is regarding actual hand controllers.

  • DougP

    Outstanding news – great prices!

    Think they’re going to have a smash hit on their hands with both the headset & (more-so?) the trackers.

    • Mike

      $300 for basic body-tracking isn’t a great price. Should have been half that price.

      • DougP

        I wasn’t comment (here) on “basic body tracking”. I was commenting on the individual prices for these components.

        Think of it this way – $99 for the tracker is basically the majority of a *peripheral* (tracked object), whether that’s some gun/rifle controller which would be popular for many games, or say a sword or other peripheral object that could be used in games/experiences.

        The fantastic part about the $99 price is that you only need to buy ONE for ALL of your peripherals. This keeps the price down on the peripherals as the expensive components (electronics) & complex part is consolidated.
        A user can unscrew & mount a SINGLE tracker on their: gun/rifle, sword or heck baseball bat or gold club or whatever.

        $99 is cheap for that application & saves money on peripherals.

        Similarly the $99 for the delux audio strap is a very decent price. Particularly if the headphones are high enough quality.

        • Andrew Jakobs

          $100 is ok for development purposes, but for consumer? I think not, that’s way to steep.. Let’s take the Manus VR gloves, if this is just an addon to those, it’ll cost you $200 extra just to have ‘good’ tracking for both hands. In the end ofcourse those gloves and other peripherals will have their own embedded trackingchips, but still will add a lot to the price of those peripherals ..

          • DougP

            Just looking at controller prices, right now here in Canada, for comparison:
            Xbox controllers on Microsoft site range from $75 to $250 (elite)
            For a NON-motion tracked controller.
            $100 for a tracker which can be used in MULTIPLE controllers, as well greatly reducing the price of those controllers (very basic plastic & electronics (if ANY) for many peripherals.

            Nope, I disagree $100 seems cheap for motion tracked controllers.
            Or is Microsoft not able to sell those $70 to $250 non-motion tracked controllers?

          • Andrew Jakobs

            It certainly isn’t cheap for consumer usage. You cannot just plug it onto anything you want, it also needs to be supported that way by the developer. You cannot expect a shooter to just click it on a bat and have it act like a bat without the developer doing anything for it.
            And let’s not forget, Sony makes the Move-controllers which are motion-tracked controllers which you could have picked up for less then 20 euro’s a while back (saw them laying for 15 euro’s 2 years ago, brand spanking new), now a twinpack is sold for 79 euro’s on a regular site which uses standard prices, and a single one new on amazon between 30-50 euro’s..

          • DougP

            Ok, so you’re a console gamer comparing this to that world.
            Different markets.

            Also…you’re wrong or misunderstand this product –
            “You cannot just plug it onto anything you want”
            That’s EXACTLY what you do with this thing. It’s NOT a stand-alone product – it’s taking the single most complex hardware & software for peripherals & turning it into a flexible single component which can be “plugged in to anything you want” – the peripherals that will be released for it.
            You can swap it between ANY of them.
            The software for *mapping* it to the peripherals is up to the people who sell the components.

          • Andrew Jakobs

            But that’s exactly what I said, the software needs to support the tracker as to what you stick it to. You cannot expect the software to just recognize you stick it to a gun and have it track it as a gun or stick it to your hand and have it track as your hand, the software needs to be written first to support the peripheral you’re gonna stick it to.

          • DougP

            “exactly that you said” –
            Is that it’s too expensive – THAT is the topic I replied about & was debating, but you’re now saying something different & changing the subject.

            “software needs to support” –
            Of course it does. Dude, I’m a software (& games) developer. I understand this stuff.
            My (completely secondary & nothing to do with original point of $100 being too much which you stated) point about the software was that it’s not that complex. That it came be fairly compartmentalized as a plugin. Guaranteed Valve’s working on supporting this such that a peripherals can be designed, coded for (which really is just mapping the object & textures – as the tracking device does all of the relative positioning) & then devs can choose (or not choose) to support it.

            Regardless… you’re changing the subject & arguing with someone who knows a LOT about software – I’ve been a games software dev since the 1980s.

        • 100$ is to expensive, ppl tend to look at only part of the market, but there are countries, where minimum wage is lower, and there are also full of potential customers. Why some company would limit their sales? Maybye it’s not the best market at this time, but it will be.

          • DougP

            Re: “Why some company would limit their sales?”

            That’s not the correct question here & not relevant.

            What matters are:
            1) What did this cost to produce & get to consumers ( R&D, parts, packaging, etc ) & how many do they expect to be able to sell … in order to re-coop costs & actually make money
            2) Who is their target demographic/likely to buy this & what is an appropriate price point (again, #1 is 1st priority )

            “limit their sales?”

            So would you suggest $5? I’m sure they could sell more…and promptly go bankrupt.
            $50? Well…all of your points still apply – “min wage is lower” / “people can’t afford”.

            It’s a balance of making enough money & price point which (enough!) people will purchase it at.
            We just disagree on that price point. I suspect that they did market research & looked at what people will spend on peripherals before setting the price.

            Lastly – all new tech comes out at a *premium* price…it drops over time with volume.
            It wouldn’t surprise me to see these eventually (maybe soon?) drop in price, if volume & market is there & production/R&D costs are re-coop’d.

          • 50$ It’s closer to my expectations than 5$, but I think you’re right, we just disagree at the price point.

          • DougP

            I get it… I mean once it’s cheaper more people will be able to buy it.
            I just think (obviously maybe wrong here) that there would be enough people willing to spend $100 to build the market & as company forecasts volume’s picking up (/sales projections) they’ll drop price accordingly.

            Even if it’s initially $100, it’ll drop soon enough.

            One *nice* thing about this approach to peripherals is that you only have to spend that $50-100 ONCE & then can use it with all peripherals ( examples: gun/rifle golf club/sword/whatever) & it will dramatically keep the cost of the peripherals down, as the complexe hardware&software is handled by the *tracker*.
            Will make buying more than one peripheral more common due to those cost savings.

            Anyhow…we shall see how it plays out.
            Right now I’d not spend $100, much less even $5 …hehe…without a peripherals/something to do with the tracker. ;)

  • Andrew Jakobs

    ok, for development purposes the $100 is good enough for one tracker, but if it for consumers than the $100 for one tracking pod is way WAY too much IMHO..

    • DougP

      Disagree completely – people routinely pay $75 to $100 for fancy coloured NON-motion tracked xbox controllers.
      $250 for their elite/highend controller.

      $99 gives you a multi-purpose tracking puck which can be used on all of your peripherals (un-screw & swap).
      The major “value add” to this approach is that it greatly reduces (to a fraction most likely!) the cost of the peripherals.

      Example scenario –
      Somebody wants a motion tracked (shooter games) gun/rifle, then (sports) a baseball bat & golf club, then a sword. ALL of those peripherals will cost a fraction of what they would if the electronics of the tracker puck had to be integrated. So you can buy those relatively cheap & just swap the tracker depending upon the game.
      $99 for a swappable motion control is cheap.

      Peripherals/uses –
      Other examples – people spend many hundreds of dollars on HOTAS controllers & steering wheels.
      As well those trackers can be strapped onto your feet/body for more full-body capture (legs or full body with IK).

      Re: “$100 for one tracking pod is way WAY too much”
      “WAY too much” ? No way. What could possibly lead you to believe these would be *less* than traditional console/PC gaming controllers?

      Go google xbox controllers or basically ANY PC gaming peripherals & see what people spend.

      Sure, everyone wants everything for free…but this is cutting edge technology & seems very appropriate to price at $99. Particularly as it’s *swappable* & does double duty by dramatically lowering the cost of all of the peripherals you’ll use it on.

      • Andrew Jakobs

        That’s all nice and such, but you forget one thing, every game has to support it with the specifics for that game, you can’s just click it on everything you want and it will be tracked correctly..
        As I said, at the moment it’s specificly for developers and enthousiasts..

        • DougP

          You said:
          “consumers than the $100 for one tracking pod is way WAY too much IMHO..”

          I disagreed with that.

          Of course games will have to support it. Don’t get your point there…that has nothing to do with whether the price (your OP) is right or not.
          Also, Valve will most likely be working on standardizing as much impossible things such that it’s easy to “drop in” various controllers for input, such that the it’s an add-on.
          So it doesn’t matter if there are 4x different type of gun accessories (peripherals), if the dev wants to support it they just build the model – the tracking is handled automatically & the game just accounts for where the bullet/projectile comes out of.
          Regardless, that has nothing to do you your OP about price, so I don’t know why you’re getting upvoted for changing the subject/argument.

    • Nigerian Wizard

      Agreed. It’s pretty outrageous considering that many applications require multiple ones. $50 sounds reasonable but I don’t know if they will get the price that low after these developer versions.

  • J.C.

    I’m not sure what they plan on doing with these trackers. Maybe they’ll be useful in non-gaming apps, but in general, people don’t buy peripherals. Games will have to work with the original controllers or suffer a HUGE loss of market, and then their peripheral loses a lot of traction.

    For arcade uses, it’s a different story. For personal, non-gaming use (someone mentioned IK mocap), it’d be fine. Also, I may be dead wrong. Maybe VR is what makes weird shaped peripherals actually useful enough to bother purchasing.

    • Cl

      They can be optional like steering wheels are for racing games. Buy one tracker and you can place it in a variety of peripherals. Id get one. It will actually make the object you put the tracker in less expensive since they dont need to embed trackers into it.

    • I think Vive will start shipping a few of them with every HTC Vive unit, when the prices will go down. It’s looks like those are pretty cheap to manufacture.

  • Guest

    Legacy devices by Polhemus cost about $150 each, and are much smaller, not subject to obscurement, and tested by time. HTC Give will need 10x improvement to compete.

  • Totally Magical Unicorn

    A new, actually comfortable head strap is a must buy for me. I’ll be picking up a tracker as well, but hope to see some bundle deals, so it’s cheaper to pick up two or three trackers at once.

  • Joan Villora Jofré

    $ 119.9 out of North America. Too expensive for a single Tracker. And You will need three for a full body tracking. Did not they have much cheaper sensors now?