With well over 150 games already available, HTC has no shortage of content for the Vive. But the Taiwanese company has big plans to bring even more support to the platform in the near future.
HTC today hosted a press conference in Beijing, China, where it made two major announcements for the future of its platform and the VR industry in general. The first of these is the ‘Asia-Pacific Virtual Reality Industry Alliance’, or APVRA for short. This is an ecosystem that HTC itself is cultivating. Zhidx is reporting the company is bringing in partners such as Google with its Cardboard HMD, and developers like Ubisoft, Disney, Epic Games and Warner Brothers. Other areas such as TV channels are also covered. Intriguingly, both Oculus VR and PlayStation logos feature in an image but are greyed out, suggesting that their inclusion is pending. We’ve reached out to HTC for confirmation on the situation.
The second, perhaps more relevant announcement is Vive X, a developer accelerator platform that’s led by HTC with a $100 million investment fund and a number of services for those that apply. Based in three locations including Beijing, Taipei, and San Francisco, this new initiative will provide successful applications with access to expertise and mentorship from VR leaders, education in new VR tech, support services such as accounting and financing, and networking opportunities. Most importantly, HTC has courted venture capital companies to offer up investment in projects.
Applications to be a part of Vive X are open now and require filling out a lengthy form that includes asking after how many years of VR experience you have and your monthly burn rate in USD, among other things. There doesn’t appear to be a time frame for when the programme will get underway just yet.
During the conference, HTC also called out winners of a development competition held for the Vive and awarding AMD Radeon VR Ready cards for a host of experiences that we haven’t seen over here in the west. Between these three items, it’s clear to see that the company is determined to push through any skepticism VR might face in its early days by giving it the support it really needs.
