Viveport Subscription, the monthly service that lets you play 5 games per month from a curated list, is getting a little more expensive this March. Starting March 22nd, Viveport Subscription will increase its monthly price from $7 to $9.

HTC is grandfathering in current Viveport Subscription members and also anyone who buys before March 22nd, allowing members to keep paying the old price “for at least the rest of 2018,” the company says in a recent press release. The price increase will take effect in the 60+ countries served by Viveport.

To sweeten the bitter pill somewhat, HTC is giving a free title to all current subscribers this month, and also special promotions and discounts to subscribers every month starting this month. The company additionally says Viveport “will continue to add value to Subscription through additional benefits and perks as the service grows.”

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Viveport Subscription was first introduced back in April 2017, which initially included 50 titles to choose from. At the time of this writing, the subscription catalog has grown to over 375 titles, including games such as Knockout League (2017), Sairento VR Lite (2017), and Fantastic Contraption (2016). Check out the full list here.

“We are always looking to support the developer ecosystem and with the subscription increase, developers will now be earning an additional ~22% from their title in the Subscription catalog,” said Rikard Steiber, President of Viveport. “Our exclusive promotions on select titles will also give developers another avenue for marketing their games to our most engaged audience.”

HTC later clarified in a recent blogpost that the amount going to developers would increase by 28%, not 22% as previously stated.

Teasing out the meaning from Steiber’s statement somewhat, HTC plans on giving that 28% subscription price increase ($7 ÷ $9) directly to its developers not as an act of charity, but doing so to further incentivize developers of higher-quality games to publish to the service too. As the catalog grows in number, it also has to grow in quality to fend off the perception, founded in reality or otherwise, that it’s filled with mediocre games.

Update (02/19/18): HTC later clarified that developers would be receiving 28%, and not the previously quoted 22%. We’ve updated the headline and article to reflect this.

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Scott Hayden
Well before the first modern XR products hit the market, Scott recognized the potential of the technology and set out to understand and document its growth. He has been professionally reporting on the space for nearly a decade as Editor at Road to VR, authoring more than 4,000 articles on the topic. Scott brings that seasoned insight to his reporting from major industry events across the globe.
  • Andrew Jakobs

    It’s already to expensive..

  • Nana

    The selection of games is dogshit already for almost $100 a year. It’s great they want to give more money to developers so they can entice future developers but goddam at the state it’s at right now it is not worth outside of a couple months of usage.

  • Miganarchine Migandi

    I could never see the point, It’s mostly shovel ware, I would like to see more serious games we can sink our teeth in, The new interface is well done but the Asians do not seem capable of making a triple A title with a great story.

    • johngrimoldy

      I agree for the most part. It *is* mostly crapware. However, if you have the time to sort thru the manure, there are a few titles that *may* be worth it. I had signed up months ago and got Fantastic Contraption and a few others. I’ve long since let my subscription lapse.

      One frustrating thing on the Vive, the titles stay listed in my Vive Dashboard like unremovable fucking barnacles.

  • Lucidfeuer

    They should stick to software and hardware development. Both Vive and Oculus are mediocre at platform commerce/marketing starting with the prices.

  • Brian

    It’s actually a 28.6% increase ($2 / $7), so it looks like HTC is taking some of the increase for themselves. Divide change by initial to determine percent change.

    • Loretta

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  • theonlyrealconan

    “founded in reality or otherwise”

    Oh, it is reality. Don’t really see many saying it is not, either.

  • The raise of the price seems an indicator that things are going better…