Earlier this month, HTC quietly opened their first Vive flagship store in Shenzhen, China.
The company’s first official Vive Store conducted a soft open on October 1st, located at the Consumer Electronics Exchange/Exhibition Center (CEEC) in Shenzhen.
The store sells all of the company’s latest products, including HTC Vive Pro, HTC Vive Focus, and a number of HTC’s latest U-series smartphones; a service center is also available in-store.
For potential customers and lookie-loos alike, the Vive Store also includes a few dedicated VR arcade areas where users can experience the Vive Pro for extended periods on a pay-to-play basis.
A single, 15-minute experience with Vive Pro can be purchased for ¥59 CNY ($8.50 USD), or a group of sessions, bringing each experience down to ¥36 CNY ($5.20 USD) per 15-minute period. Experiences include Beat Saber, Arizona Sunshine, and McLaren’s F-1 VR simulator to name a few.
Customers can also demo the Vive Focus headset for free, and demo certain ‘viewing’ experiences on Vive Pro free of charge as well.
There’s currently no word on when or if the company plans to expand their dedicated storefronts outside of Shenzhen, which has acted as a sort of high-tech testing grounds in the past for the company’s VR arcade efforts that eventually saw the company open hundreds of Vive VR Cafes across the country.