Valve hasn’t yet made the full-on VR epic we’re hoping to see from the studio, but it has released a new version of the HTC Vive that’s themed around one of its most popular titles.
Over the weekend a special edition of the popular VR headset was discovered on the site for The Internationals, an annual championship for DOTA 2 that takes place in Seattle, Washington. There isn’t much to get excited about; the standard headset is still very much the same black plastic shell you’re used to. What you do get is a new headstrap, lovingly modeled below. It’s bright red and features the DOTA 2 and International branding on the back so that everyone can see your fandom from behind.
Other than that, the position-tracked controllers and lighthouse units are both exactly the same. It’s not the most exciting of updates, but then it does retain the $800 price tag (which is technically a dollar more if you want to get picky). Presumably the kit will also be on sale at the championships themselves, the finals for which are taking place next month at the Key Arena. Last year, Valve debuted a new DOTA 2-themed VR experience for the event, which we’d love to see get a full release at this year’s show. A spectator mode has also been teased for VR.
This isn’t the first new edition of the Vive we’ve seen since the kit’s April 2016 release; the company has also produced a Business Edition of the device which, again, is largely similar to the original version. None of these new editions boast any kind of improvements over the original, though we’re hoping to see a revised version of the Vive later down the line. As it stands the kit is something of a technological marvel, but it could certainly do with some upgrades to form factor and other areas.
What other special edition Vives could we see? Head-crab headset, anyone? That would certainly sell a few more units.
