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HTC Vive US GM: We 'Met Our Targets' And Are 'Very Happy' With Sales

HTC Vive US GM: We 'Met Our Targets' And Are 'Very Happy' With Sales

One day the world will know how many VR headsets exist in the world like we do iPhones, game consoles, and move tickets. One day…maybe. As it stands, companies like HTC, Oculus, and even Google are being very tight-lipped about how many Vives, Rifts, and Daydream Views they’ve sold (respectively) and it’s making it very difficult to paint a solid picture of what the VR market actually looks like. Other than over one million PlayStation VR (PSVR) headsets and over five million Samsung Gear VR headsets, we really have no idea how many are out there, regardless of what analysts try to predict.

Nevertheless, most of the hardware manufacturers appear to be happy. In a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz, HTC’s GM of US Vive, Dan O’Brien, said as much:

“We actually met our targets, what we thought we would sell in terms of volumes. We don’t release our numbers publicly, but we’re actually very happy with it. We’ve also started to really penetrate the non-game space and the enterprise space, and all those use cases…In terms of our first year, 2016, it was really a kick-off year. 2017 is the ecosystem year where we turn our attention to partners to come work with us. That’s why we came out with the Tracker and opening up the ecosystem of things that could work with a tracked headset. We have Viveport, and having a store dedicated to non-game content, and the growth of things like subscription…We’re using a lot of different tactics to actually grow the industry.”

The rest of the interview at the link above talks about the VR industry as a whole, the role AAA developers will play, and what the landscape looks like as we head into the second half of 2017.

As it stands, Oculus recently earned a lot of goodwill in the court of public opinion by way of its massive price drop putting the Rift + Touch bundle at a mere $399. After the limited sale period it will only then be $499, which is actually right around the price it’d take to get the headset, tracking camera, and Move controllers for Sony’s PSVR. A new PS4 system to use their headset is still noticeably cheaper than a VR-ready PC, though.

Do you own an HTC Vive? Are you part of the sales that helped HTC hit their targets? Let us know what you think of O’Brien’s quote in the comments below!

Note: A previous version of this article misprinted Dan O’Brien’s title at HTC. It was updated on July 25th at 10:30AM.

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