Home / Peripheral / HTC Vive VR headset may debut 8th December, release on 15th

HTC Vive VR headset may debut 8th December, release on 15th

There are a handful of dates that fans of virtual reality are awaiting with bated breath. When will the Oculus CV1 pre-orders begin? When will it and the Touch Controllers arrive? And when will the HTC Vive go on sale? While we're still awaiting the first two dates to be revealed, one excited localisation manager for HTC looks to have dropped the date for the Vive's availability and possibly launch too, suggesting it could happen as soon as the 8th December.

While this is unconfirmed by anyone in an official capacity and therefore should be served with a side order of salt, this particular source did mention dates twice, making it more likely that he didn't just pull it from a hat. They both come from localisation manager for HTC products, Bartosz Żuk, who said during a recent game exhibition in Poland that the Vive would premier on the 8th December, which may mean it is officially unveiled in its commercial form rather than available to buy.

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That same localisation manager was then found talking up the HTC Vive in a video. While it is in Polish as you might expect, according to Redditor matey0, he once again says that the headset will debut on the 8th December.

Further evidence suggests that the hardware will begin shipping or at least be purchasable by the 15th. A list of HTC Vive compatible games was recently curated on Steam and two of them share a 15th December launch date. [yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nUzf7Xjg_Q']

Although none of this information is of the highest caliber, it is all starting to point to an early-mid December debut for the HTC Vive, which would put it several months ahead of the Oculus Rift CV1 release. While that is unlikely to give it the entire VR market, as Oculus' name in the game is so much more well known, it will give it a significant leg up if it launches hardware that's better than the developer kit we've seen so far.

KitGuru Says: The earlier release combined with the seemingly better 360 degree tracking of the HTC Vive is making a few people on forums and subreddits jump ship from Oculus' release hardware. If you're planning to get in on the ground floor with VR, which headset are you opting for?

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9 comments

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  2. I’m still waiting to see if the vive requires a large room to be properly usable or if you can sit at your desk like the rift. I really don’t/won’t have space to be walking around a room with my headset.

  3. Fuck you luciferian fool, go kill yourself! I mean look at this garbage, you’re a poor excuse of a human brainwashed fool.http://orig02.deviantart.net/40a9/f/2011/095/c/1/demon_highwayman3_by_spacemonkeysfx-d3d9zq3.jpg

  4. Who the hell are you ? and what the hell are you talking about ?

  5. I don’t want to be walking around at all to be honest.
    The whole point of games for me is to come home after a hard days work and relax at desk on pc or in lounge on recliner couch and play a game.
    I had the PS3 move controllers and fighting games/sports and they were fun for like 2 days then I was back to normal gaming.

  6. That’s exactly how I feel. It might be fun doing that at a trade show or amusement park but not in the comfort of your home where you want to relax after work for a few hours.

  7. One of Valve’s VR developers (IIRC, or it may have been an HTC rep) stated at a conference that the Vive works perfectly well as a seated experience, and he personally uses it as a seated experience more often than a walk-around one. Though he didn’t elaborate on any alternative lighthouse sensor arrangements for seated-only, i.e. can they clip to your monitor, rest on top of a desktop tower, or just go straight on your desk, etc. He was only talking about having your computer desk within the tracked area of a large VR space. I really can’t see any reason why Lighthouse wouldn’t have just as much flexibility as the Rift CV’s IR cameras, though. If anything, the Lighthouse base stations look like they will have a wider FOV.

  8. Ohh that’s good and certainly gives me a little hope for valves system, thankyou Heartcall

  9. To the best of my knowledge the type of PC one would need for good HTC Vive (or Oculus for that matter) performance is not yet readily available at a reasonable price at this time from major PC suppliers. If the headset is to be available in roughly one month, when are the appropriate and necessary PCs going to be available? Is one going to have to buy Alienware Area 51 at a price above $1.5K? It looks like a child’s toy. Where are all the $1K PCs with the right graphic cards, etc.? Is VR only going to be for gamer kids?